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