Home thoughts

I was woken at six by the cat leaping on me from a great height and lucky it was too, I got to hear the blackcap and a garden warbler singing in the garden at the same time. The key difference was in the length of the song: the blackcap had a beginning and an end and the length of the middle didn't vary by much, the garden warbler started but didn't seem sure how to finish and the song seemed to peter out as the bird eventually ran out of breath. The garden warbler also had two distinct starting points: a blackcap-like warble which seemed to be its preferred option and a whitethroat-like rattle which it used every third or fourth go. Both starts ran almost seamlessly into an identical bubble and scratch warble which ran on and eventually faded out. Nice to hear a garden warbler in April and be able to confidently identify it immediately.

There are times when I curse the sycamores on the railway embankment but they do provide a rich crop of aphids for the spadgers, busily collecting food for hungry mouths. The first of the youngsters will be arriving at the feeders soon. They're nearly always accompanied by one of the senior males until they're old enough to go about in gangs.

• Blackbird 1
• Blackcap 1
• Collared Dove 1
• Dunnock 1
• Garden Warbler 1
• Great Tit 1
• House Sparrow 12
• Jackdaw 1
• Robin 1
• Woodpigeon 3

Cackling

Richardson's cackling goose (left) and Canada goose

I decided on a short walk today. I had been thinking about going over to Southport on a wild goose chase but I'd seen reports of a Richardson's cackling goose on Lowercroft Reservoir in Bury so I got a tram and a bus over to Lowercroft Road and walked down. 

I hadn't got far when I got into conversation about little egrets with a lady and her very bouncy collie. As we were talking my first three swifts of the year flew over.

I passed through the gate into a field of cows by the reservoir and had a scan round. Lots of Canada geese about but nothing unusual. Mind you, I wasn't sure what I was looking for, it's not a species I've seen before, not even in bird collections. Every goose that looked like it might be smaller than the others I looked at twice. Then I looked in the field next to me.

A Richardson's cackling goose is not a scaled-down Canada goose, it's more like a lesser white-fronted goose in Canada goose colours. It was feeding in a field with a couple of Canada geese and the difference between them was an eye-opener.

Richard's cackling goose (left) and Canada goose

Richard's cackling goose

Richard's cackling goose (centre) and Canada geese

Richard's cackling goose (front) and Canada goose

A lifer for me. I "only" need to see red-breasted goose and lesser white-fronted goose in the wild for the full set from the British List.

Crosby

Female wheatear

I'm still playing catch-up with site visits so I decided today I'd have a wander round Crosby Marina and stare wistfully though the fence at Seaforth Nature Reserve, with the possibility of moving on to look over the fence at Lunt Meadows (it's currently closed but you can see some of the pools by the path by Roughley's Wood).

Crosby Marine Lake

It was a cool, blustery sort of day, just right for a walk by the Irish Sea. It was high tide so there were lots of herring gulls loafing on the grass by the marine lake. This time of year most of the waders have started to move on and what is still about will be roosting in the nature reserve away from dogs and people. The pied wagtails foraging in the grass were accompanied by half a dozen wheatears. A couple of skylarks sang and the clump of sea buckthorn near the dunes was occupied by a flock of house sparrows.

Second calendar year and adult herring gulls

It's a bit early for little gulls or black terns to be visiting on passage, though one little gull was reported earlier this week so I kept an optimistic eye out for one. A cloud of swallows and sand martins suggested there'll be rich pickings of insects waiting for them when they do turn up.

Little egrets

Out on the lake five little egrets lurked on the banks and a few black-headed gulls and lesser black-backs floated on the water. There were a couple of dark shapes far out in the water which took me a while to identify. The all-dark bird made me think common scoter but it was only when the light caught the pale cheeks of the other that I realised I was looking at a pair.

Crosby beach

The sea was fairly quiet of birds, just a few herring gulls and lesser black-backs with the odd subadult great black-back passing by and cormorants skimming over the water. I was hoping for terns by now. Ah well.

Looking through the fence at Seaforth Nature Reserve the most obvious birds were the shelducks either grazing on the grass or sitting on the banks of the pools with the only two Canada geese I saw on this visit and a lone black swan. Lots more herring gulls were loafing on the banks with a few cormorants and lesser black-backs. The only waders I could see were half a dozen black-tailed godwits and a pair of oystercatchers. A dark-looking duck asleep over by the hides remained a mystery: it was too big to be a female tufty but I couldn't see it well enough to tell if it was a female scaup. At that distance and with its head tucked into its back feathers it might just have been a particularly dark mallard with a bit of the farmyard in its background.

Male wheatear

It looked like I'd missed the passage of yellow wagtails though there were plenty of wheatears about.

The question of whether or not to nip over to Lunt Meadows was answered for me by the cancellation of the bus. It's an hourly service so I knocked the idea on the head.

I maxed out the value of my day saver tickets by going home via Southport and Clitheroe.

Mosses

Spotted redshank, Little Woolden Moss

I'd been wondering why I've been aching so much after the past few days' walks, particularly in my shins and knees, so I had a look at my boots. The soles were OK, there's still some tread on them. Then I had a look inside. Anyway, to cut a long story short I thought I'd best ignore my aches and pains and see if the new gel insoles made any difference.

Irlam Moss

I got the train to Irlam then set off up Astley Road just as the rain stopped. The hedgerows were even busier with finches and sparrows than last time and the fields by the side of the road were littered with blackbirds and pheasants. The first swallow and yellowhammer of the day were perched on overhead wires where Astley Road and Roscoe Road converge and the usual kestrel was back hovering over its favourite field.

The field by the motorway hosted a large flock of woodpigeons and a pair of stock doves. This became a theme for the afternoon, every flock of woodpigeons had a pair of stock doves by its side.

The field of turf just over the motorway, which is generally barren of birds, held two pairs of lapwings and a flock of two dozen woodpigeons.

By Four Lanes End

When I got to Four Lanes End I spent a while scanning the field that held the wheatears and yellow wagtails last week. The light was a lot flatter so I should have a better chance of seeing what was about. Again, all the action was going on at the other end of the field. The lapwings were easy enough to identify, it took a while to be confident that they were accompanied by a small flock of skylarks (the skylarks helped a lot with the identification by occasionally leaping up and having a bit of a sing). Eventually I found the only yellow wagtail on the field behind one of the ploughed ridges, my first female of the year.

Willow warblers and chaffinches singing by the entrance of Little Woolden Moss came as no surprise but the grasshopper warbler reeling its song from the long grass at the field margin did. 

Little Woolden Moss

I'd been hearing a curlew calling, for once it was the first bird I saw on the open pools. A couple of pairs of lapwings and the usual flock of black-headed gulls were fairly conspicuous, the Canada geese were heard but not seen until one poked its head above one of the bunds.

Curlew, Little Woolden Moss

A wader lurked at the base of one of the bunds. Superficially it looked like a redshank but was darker and overall not right. It moved from behind a clod of earth and I could see that its legs were nearer black than red and the bill was long and thin. A spotted redshank. I watched it as it moved into the water and started feeding in a surprisingly phalarope-like way. A redshank flew over onto the pool just to show how different the birds were.

Spotted redshank, Little Woolden Moss

I headed off towards the path to Moss Road. Another yellow wagtail flew over, this time a male. It turned out I wasn't catching the local Channel wagtail this time, either. Plenty more lapwings and skylarks though.

The field across the way from the first farmhouse had recently been stripped of turf. The bare earth and trimmed bits of turf proved popular with flocks of house sparrows and linnets as well as a few pied wagtails and lapwings.

The Glaze Brook was a bit quiet this time, just a pair of mute swans and a heron.

I walked down to Cowley Common Road for the bus and thence home.

Sandbach

Ruddy shelduck, Sandbach Flash

I wanted a bit of an explore so today I decided to go to a site that's new to me and bobbed over for a nosy round Sandbach Flash to see if the weekend's ruddy shelduck was still about.

Trent & Mersey Canal

Leaving the station I headed down Moston Road and over the railway bridge and to Hall Lane. The trees along the roadside held singing blackcaps and chiffchaffs, as I got to the canal a couple of willow warblers joined in. Just past the last of the factories the road passes over a small brook leading to Watchlane Flash. A whitethroat flew into the bushes by the brook and started singing. I could scan the flash from here and from a couple of field gates further up the lane. There wasn't much on the water save a couple of Canada geese, a mallard and a great crested grebe.

Sandbach Flash from Clay Lane

I turned into Clay Lane to Sandbach Flash, which turned out to be a small collection of pools and scrapes, most of which can be seen from the lane though there's a short path (about thirty yards) roughly parallel to the lane running from the bridge by the car parking space.

Male blackcap

The trees by the path were thick with blackcaps. They were so busy feeding and fighting they didn't much care who was near. The blackbirds weren't much more fussed either. 

Blackbirds

Shelduck

I'd seen lesser black-backs flying around as I approached the flash. A couple of dozen of them were loafing on a spit with a few black-headed gulls and herring gulls. Shelducks were dotted around in pairs, ditto mallard except for the duck with six ducklings in tow. I scanned round, looking for the ruddy shelduck or perhaps a wader or two, with no luck at all.

I walked down the lane a bit to make sure I hadn't missed any of the site. (The first time I visited Marshside I stood at the corner of Hesketh Road and almost stopped there, thinking that was all of it.) As it is, all the flash that's available for public view can be seen from Clay Lane.

Common and ruddy shelduck

I wandered back for a second look. I'd seen a few shelducks fly in so thought it worth a go. I scanned round for a ruddy shelduck with no luck and was on the point of giving up when I wondered what the gingery brown bird was amongst a group of shelducks. Missing birds hiding in plain sight dead centre of the picture is getting to be a bad habit with me. A nice-looking bird. I think it was a male judging by the limited about of white on its face and the suggestion of a black neck ring.

I walked back to the station along the canal, which was a pleasant stroll on a sunny Spring day with a light cool breeze.

Home thoughts

Partially leucistic woodpigeon

The spadgers are busy in the garden, which is great news for the roses. The tailless collared dove has a nearly full set of tail feathers now and is loudly advertising his availability for amorous adventures.The woodpigeons are busy, too: I suspect they're nest-building in the conifer at the bottom of the garden and there's been a lot of billing and cooing going on. The partially leucistic individual is a bit Billy No Mates but he's still game, much to the disgust of the partners of the birds he tries to woo. He really is an odd patchwork quilt of a bird.

• Blackbird 2
• Blackcap 1
• Collared Dove 2
• Dunnock 1
• Goldfinch 1
• Great Tit 1
• House Sparrow 14
• Jackdaw 2
• Robin 1
• Woodpigeon 3

Pennington Flash

Mute swan

I had an afternoon's wander round Pennington Flash as I wanted an easy stroll and the flash is a more manageable space than most of the others on a bright Spring Saturday. For a change I turned left at the meadow and took the paths that go through the wooded area on the south side of the flash before going through the car park and over for a look at Ramsdales.

Goat willow

The trees were busy with titmice and full of singing warblers, mostly chiffchaffs and blackcaps with a few willow tits near the flash and a couple of whitethroats in the more open areas. I have a nagging feeling I may have missed a garden warbler in all this brouhaha. 

Pennington Flash

The sailing club had their boats out on the water so there wasn't much about out there aside from a few mallards and a raft of a couple of dozen lesser black-backs. More mallards lurked by the banks along with a bunch of coots, Canada geese and mute swans. While I was scanning the water from the south bank a reed warbler started singing from the small patch of reeds and brambles by my side. As I was trying to see where it was singing from a Cetti's warbler jumped up from the brambles, made a sparrow-like note of surprise at seeing me and hopped over to the undergrowth over to my left. I'd spent a minute or so watching it to make sure I'd seen a Cetti's and not a sparrow when the reed warbler reminded me it was there.

The car park was, predictably, busy but things soon quietened down once I passed by the play area. The spit by the Horrocks Hide was fairly quiet. A few lapwings and oystercatchers loafed by the bight and a couple of cormorants joined the herring gulls at the end of the spit. Nearly all the black-headed gulls were back at the car park having an easy time of it. It's still a little early to be hoping for swifts but I was surprised to be seeing no hirundines, especially after the swarm of sand martins on my last visit. A pair of stock doves fed in the grassy areas on the spit and a little ringed plover flew in for a couple of minutes then flew off for points unknown.

Pennington Flash

Walking down the path to the Tom Edmondson Hide there was a pair of mute swans nesting on one of the pools in the reeds. There were half a dozen gadwall on the pool across the way from the hide but only a couple of sunbathing herons were visible on the pool in front of the hide. A sedge warbler started singing to my left as I was looking at the gadwall and I took the opportunity to get my ear in. The song's similar to that of the reed warbler but it has more scratchy notes and a tendency to hare off into jerky sidetracks before returning to the main theme. A reed warbler struck up to my right and for a long confusing minute I tried to process the stereo effect. Every so often the rolling cadences would coincide and then the sedge warbler would go into a scratchy stretch or the reed warbler would roll on a roll and they'd go their separate ways.

Ramsdales

The water was quite low at Ramsdales. A few Canada geese and gadwall loafed about and a couple of mallard swam by but there was no sign of any teal or shoveler, nor of the garganey that's been reported here this week. A couple of dozen great crested grebes congregated in the bight well away from the sailing club. I could hear two singing Cetti's warblers: one in the usual place on the corner, one behind me from somewhere near the pond.

Pennington Flash

It was a nice couple of hours' wander round and I had a couple of pleasant chats with people, including a couple on their first visit who were pleased to find out they'd seen their first gadwall and reed warblers.

Pennington Flash

Stretford

Peregrine, Wharfside

After a couple of days' not doing much except drink too much tea and pretend to do a bit of work in the garden I was struggling to be bothered today. For the third night running I saw in the dawn chorus. The blackbirds and robins sing with the dawn but the song thrush is a late riser and only starts singing at half six. As I started to doze off I thought I heard the cat crying in the garden, which would have been a good trick as she was fast asleep on my foot; it turned out to be a pair of lesser black-backs calling to each other as they passed high overhead. The spadgers were a bit quiet today, unless I was too dozy to pick them up. It's getting harder to see what's about in the garden: all the roses are in full leaf and the leaves on both the rowan and the sycamores on the embankment are at half furl. The spadgers and blue tits are very busy foraging for greenfly, some days I'll only see them when they've called into the feeders for a pit stop or they've come in close to debug the roses and boysenberries.

• Blackbird 2
• Blackcap 1
• Collared Dove 2
• Dunnock 1
• Great Tit 2
• House Sparrow 8
• Jackdaw 2
• Robin 1
• Song Thrush 1
• Woodpigeon 4
• Wren 1

Goldfinch, Barton Clough

I dragged myself out for a wander round the local patch, which was fairly quiet all round. There was just the one pair of blackcaps, feeding amongst the maple flowers by the path, and only the one chiffchaff singing from the back of Lostock Park. It might be a week or so early for whitethroats here but I don't hold much hope for there being more than a couple of pairs this year after someone cleared some of the bramble patches last Winter. On the other hand, goldfinch numbers were looking good, with at least five pairs kicking about.

Lesser black-backs, Salford Docks

I wandered down to Wharfside to see what was on Salford Docks. A couple of chiffchaffs sang at each other from the bushes opposite the Imperial War Museum. Out on the water there were just two black-headed gulls, a huge change from a few weeks ago, and a raft of a couple of dozen lesser black-backs with a couple of herring gulls. The usual herd of mute swans was playing to the gallery over in the Ontario Basin.

Peregrine, Wharfside

I was waiting for the bus home when a peregrine falcon flew over, circled and shot off to scare the pigeons at White City.

Peregrine, Wharfside

Leighton Moss

Male marsh harrier

I wanted a lazy day so I got an old man's rail ticket and went for an amble round Leighton Moss. The hides are still closed but the long paths into the reedbeds are now open so I thought it would be an hour or two's gentle exercise.

(The journey to Silverdale was an object lesson in never taking the results of a search as gospel. The National Rail website would have you take the train I took but then get off at Wigan Northwestern for a West Coast train to Lancaster to then get the Barrow in Furness train I caught by staying on the first train and getting off at Lancaster. Even though we came in late we still had a couple of minutes for the connection. If the proposed journey looks odd, break your search down into legs and see what the connection times look like. Google Maps' suggestions can be quite eccentric, too.)

As the train slows in its approach to Silverdale it gives good views of the coastal pools at Leighton Moss. The wigeon have all moved on, the shelducks and little egrets now being accompanied by avocets and black-headed gulls. A great white egret was fishing by the Allen Hide, I'm almost disappointed when I don't see one on this stretch from the train. It wasn't so very long ago it was a life tick for me.

I spent a while checking out the birds coming to the feeders by the picnic area. Partly to get my eye in, partly in the hope of seeing a marsh tit early on in the visit. As it happened, I bumped into the first one an hour and a half later as I was coming back from the reedbed hides. These days I see willow tits quite often, at least once a month, so I've become used to how they look and move and it strikes me that if you can forget how similar they are in plumage they're quite different birds. The jizz of a marsh tit is "typical titmouse" while willow tits are more hunched and chunky and less acrobatic. You don't usually get that from photos or pictures. This marsh tit's plumage looked very fresh and it had the pale wing panel commonly cited as a willow tit ID feature (I've also seen willow tits with almost plain wings, which shows how difficult ID by plumage alone is with this species pair). Of course, for all my being cocky about it here I'd not be so confident if I bumped into one or other in an unfamiliar location and it kept its mouth shut.

Leighton Moss

Walking down to the reedbed hides I kept seeing marsh harriers flying over the reeds but whereas my problem on Saturday was they were flying too high for a good photo today they were flying too low and the foliage kept getting in the way. 

Chiffchaff

A Cetti's warbler added to my portfolio of "There was a warbler here a moment ago" photos, adding insult to injury by posing like a robin on a tree stump when I put my camera away. I wonder if it'll be long before they'll join the list of small Leighton Moss passerines that mug passers-by for food in Winter. For such skulking birds they're quite fearless in the presence of people. There were both willow warblers and chiffchaffs foraging in the trees lining the path up to the bend so it was a good opportunity to revise their ID features.

There were five or six reed warblers singing in the reeds, though I only managed to see the rear end of one of them.

The view from beside the Griesdale Hide

The views of the pools were very restricted but just enough to see a few sleeping pochard, a couple of drake teal and a pair of shovelers dabbling by the reeds. A couple of little egrets flew over.

On the way back the Sky Tower was empty so I went up for a look over Lilian's Hide and a general overview. The black-headed gulls I'd been hearing are nesting again on the raft. It didn't look like there were many ducks about — a few mallard, a couple of male pochard and a pair of tufties — then a marsh harrier flew low over and an assortment shot out of the reeds and onto the water, including a few more tufties, a handful of shoveler and a pair of teal.

The harrier was a male and he spent five minutes doing some low level sky-dancing before moving on towards the reedbed hides. For once I managed to get some decent photos.

Male marsh harrier

Male marsh harrier

Male marsh harrier

Male marsh harrier

Mosses

Hare's tail grass, Little Woolden Moss

Seeing as it was a nice, sunny Spring day, and seeing as I hadn't been able to decide on a firm plan of action for the day I had a wander over the Salford mosses in the hopes of bumping into a yellow wagtail.

Irlam Moss

As usual, the hedgerows of Astley Road were chock full of a motley collection of finches, spadgers and titmice. Though the usual hordes of woodpigeons roamed the land the flock of pigeons which was a feature of Winter visits was nowhere to be seen. It was good to see and hear so many greenfinches, hopefully their populations are recovering. A heron fishing in one of the ditches was unexpected.

It wasn't until I turned the corner at Four Lanes End and started walking towards Little Woolden Moss that I saw my first yellow wagtail of the year, out at the far side of the ploughed field. Distance, heat haze and the glare of the sun made it hard work but eventually I spotted five male wagtails. There was something else, too, with a pale head but I lost it as it disappeared into a furrow. Scanning round I noticed that the white shape I'd assumed was light shining from a bit of broken glass was moving. And another one. And another. There were lots of something else with pale heads. I was fifty yards down the lane before the angle with the sun let me confirm that there were eight wheatears in the field with the wagtails.

Yellow wagtail, Irlam Moss

I was greeted at Little Woolden Moss by a willow warbler and a whitethroat. On the open moss lapwings were busy with display flights, a flock of black-headed gulls were fussing over one of the pools and the usual gang of carrion crows lurked at the far margins. It took a while to pick up most of the birds on the bunds. A lone Canada goose was obvious enough but the redshanks and meadow pipits had to be located by call. Luckily, once I'd pinned down the redshanks I spotted a little ringed plover running along the base of the same bund. Just in front of this the silhouette of a small female duck baffled me until she swam into the shadows and I felt confident enough to confirm she was a teal. A male yellow wagtail flew in and foraged on one of the bunds, a little further back I could pick out a couple of pied wagtails feeding at the edge of a pool. I retraced my steps (I'd decided to walk over to Glazebury) and got as far as the old hide site when I spotted another wagtail, this time a male white wagtail. 

Linnet, Little Woolden Moss

I walked round to the path leading to Moss Lane and thence to Glazebury. So far I hadn't seen any raptors. Looking over the fields to the North I could just see two buzzards soaring high somewhere over Astley way. I hadn't gone far when a couple of yellow wagtails flew over. The barley was starting to show through in the fields and pairs of lapwings were busy staking their territories.

A lot of noise coming from somewhere near Barton Aerodrome heralded a Eurofighter which spent five minutes banking and rolling over Irlam and Cadishead, possibly to quell the natives' independence movements. The noise disturbed a few pheasants and a buzzard which rose up from New Moss Lane.

I'd hoped to see more yellow wagtails by the polytunnels. No luck but there were some fine pied wagtails and a couple of flocks of linnets. The first and only kestrel of the day flew over as I reached the first farmhouse.

The hedgerows along Moss Lane were busy with finches and spadgers and every third tree seemed to have a pair of blue tits attacking its greenfly population.

Glaze Brook

A mallard flew over as I approached Glaze Brook. Looking North from the bridge half a dozen tufted ducks dozed on the bank and a couple of drake teal sat on the water at the bend. Behind them a female teal was accompanied by twelve ducklings.

Looking South from the bridge I found a male grey wagtail. I hadn't quite got the full set of wagtails — a Channel wagtail had been reported from Little Woolden Moss — but it wasn't bad going.