Southport

Bath time for twites, Southport Marine Lake

I decided on a day out to Southport, the train would be quiet off-peak — especially in this weather! — and I'd walk from the station to Marshside. The plan was to see if any twite were around by the marine lake then I'd have a quick nosy round Marshside then back home. The plan was. As it happened I miraculously kept out of the worst of the rain and persuaded myself to walk on down to Crossens.

As I was standing at Humphrey Park Station a couple of skeins of pink-footed geese flew over, a hint of Winter as if the weather wasn't dropping a big enough hint to be getting on with. I wanted to stay in bed. One can only envy them as they move on to the equatorial warmth of Norfolk and the North Sea coast.

There were more Wintery scenes on the rail journey with herds of whooper swans feeding on flooded fields between New Lane and Bescar Lane. So I was already prepared psychologically for arriving in Southport as a strong wind blew in from the sea.

I started off by having a look over the marine lake from the Marine Way Bridge as Silcock's Fun Palace played a selection of Roy Orbison records over the tannoy. A herd of mute swans was the first thing to catch my eye, with a few dozen Canada geese on one of the jetties and a dozen dabchicks peppered around the lake.

I walked down to the Marine Drive just by the pier. It was high tide and the timeline was littered with redshanks and black-headed gulls. A little egret was feeding on the salt marsh, as I watched it I realised there were a couple of dozen pink-footed geese feeding in the long grass. It's a peculiar thing about pink-feet, in dull weather they blend into the dead salt marsh grasses and are tricky to see but as soon as bright sunlight hits them they stand out like new pins. When the sun finally came out it turned out there were hundreds of geese feeding along the salt marsh along Marine Parade.

I crossed back over the road and walked down the little path to the sailing club. There in the club car park, splashing away like a bunch of kids, was a flock of thirty three twites all having a bath in a puddle. I'm fond of twites, they're brown and streaky and quite a lot unspectacular to look at but they're as tough as old boots and have a lot of character about themselves.

Twites, Southport Marine Lake

Twites, Southport Marine Lake

Having added twite to my year list I crossed back over the road and walked down Marine Drive. The sun came out for a while and lit up the geese a treat. It always surprises me how close they feed to the path without making a great fuss when anyone walks or jogs by. The shelduck shuffle away the moment they notice anyone within fifty yards of them, as do the curlews.

Pink-footed goose, Southport

Pink-footed geese, Southport

Shelduck, Southport

First stop on reaching Marshside was Nel's Hide in the rain. As I sat down I noticed a bit of commotion over the far side of the pool as a carrion crow tried to steal a meal away from a great black-back and a jackdaw chased a hare down the bund at the back. The main part of the pool was empty save for a couple of great black-backs drifting around like battle cruisers. There were a lot of ducks in the flooded sedges, mostly pintails and teal with small groups of shoveler and gadwall scattered about. There were plenty of lapwings on the grass over on the far side and further out, towards Marshside Road, there was a huge flock of four or five hundred black-tailed godwits and a few dozen redshanks. A few ruff were flying about but seemed restless.

Pintail, teal and wigeon, Marshside

Adult and third-Winter great black-backs, Marshside

Spindle berries, Nels Hide, Marshside

The spindle bush by Nel's Hide brought a cheerful bit of colour to the day. Walking down the path to the halfway screen I got a much better look at one of the ruffs. The variability of plumage in this species can be baffling: when I first saw the bird I could only see the white face and pinkish-grey line down the side of its neck and I wondered what on earth I was looking at.

Ruff, Marshside

As I came to Marshside Road all the waders and teal over in front of the Sandgrounders Hide were spooked and suddenly rose and wheeled round in the air in a panic. I looked around for the cause, thinking it would be a merlin or possibly a peregrine. It was actually a bloke on a quad bike moving the cattle into the bit of wet pasture nearer the houses.

I had a quick nosy over the salt marsh from the "raptor viewpoint" by the sand works. Lots of mallard, pink-feet and black-headed gulls but no sign of any raptors. The plan was to call it quits at this point but the sun came out again and I thought I shouldn't waste it given we'll be back in lockdown at the end of the week. So I set off for Crossens.

The Southern ends of Crossens Inner and Outer marshes were very quiet. A hundred yards past the boundary fence things picked up on the inner marsh with wigeon, teal and mallard in the ditches and pools and large flocks of lapwings and starlings on the grass. There were a couple of small flocks of golden plover, about forty birds in each. 

Golden plovers, Crossens Inner Marsh

Crossens Outer Marsh was quiet right up to the wildfowlers'pull-in where there was a large flock of lapwings in the flooded grass and a flock of about eighty wigeons sharing a pool with a dozen shelduck. As I was looking at this a few hundred pink-feet came in from over Banks way. Four waves of the birds came over the river and onto the field, half of them going to sleep almost as soon as they landed.

It's a bit boggling checking out all the birds in big flocks like this but it's worth the effort as you've something like a one in three chance of something different joining the flock. I find it easier to spot the odd man out when they're in flight, the differences in structure and aren't confused by birds standing on bumps and hollows on the ground and it's easier to pick out differences in colour. (I'm embarrassed by how often it takes me ages to spot barnacle geese "hiding" in flocks of pink-feet.) Similar with waders, which is how I'd picked up the ruff from Nel's Hide. I'd like to say that patience paid off and I found something unusual today but they were all pink-feet.

On the train home I had my facemask pressed against the window as I stared out into the gloaming in the hopes of seeing an owl or two hunting over the fields of the West Lancashire Plain. There were a lot of cock pheasants but no owls. Consolation came as the train approached the junction at Lostock Station and woke up a buzzard that had been roosting on a fence post by the line.

I'm not sure what I'm doing tomorrow. Part of me wants to have one last hurrah before lockdown but I'll probably just have a walk somewhere within Greater Manchester limits.