Leighton Moss

Male marsh harrier

I had a few hours' wander round Leighton Moss while the weather was behaving itself and the pollen count was high at home. (The reeds at Leighton Moss aren't in flower yet.)

As the train pulled into Silverdale I had a quick scan round the coastal pools. There was still a hundred or more black-headed gulls about the Allen Pool. There were a dozen or so avocets on the pools by the Eric Morecambe Hide, together with a few shelduck and a couple of great black-backs. No sign of any egrets at all, nor any spoonbills though they have been reported lately.

Leighton Moss reedbeds

Leighton Moss was busy but not intolerably so once you got out into the reedbeds. Well nigh everything along the paths was covered in a thick dusting of willow seeds. Including, I suspect, some of the visitors.

Most of the small birds were being self-effacing, probably starting the post-breeding moult, but the chiffchaffs, willow warblers and reed warblers were still in full song and there were young robins and blue tits in the willows by the path.

Female marsh harrier being mobbed by black-headed gulls

A male marsh harrier flew over the reeds as I walked over to the Tim Jackson Hide. The pool in front of the hide was fairly quiet — a mute swan, a couple of coots and a handful of gadwall. None of these were remotely perturbed when the marsh harrier made a return call before floating off towards the coastal pools. I'd seen a few common blue damselflies on the path to the hide, there were a few more hawking low over the pools but by far the most numerous Odonata were the broad-bodied chasers that were chasing each other round the margins.

Blue-tailed damselfly

I noticed a couple of blue-tailed damselflies in the reeds on the way to the Griesdale Hide.

From Griesdale Hide

Over at the Griesdale Hide the nesting black-headed gulls and lapwings were much exorcised by a female marsh harrier that made repeated forays over the colony. A family of mute swans emerged from the reeds by the bund. Half a dozen shelducks, a few tufties and a pair of pochard loafed on the bund. A buzzard soared very high above the hillside but only a couple of passing carrion crows took any notice.

Pochard

As I walked back through the reedbeds I kept an eye out overhead on the off-chance an osprey may pass by. The closest I got was a sparrowhawk which was seen on its way by a combination of angry black-headed gulls and a flock of swallows. On the way to Lilian's Hide I bumped into a treecreeper as it silently crept up one of the drowned willows.

Juvenile black-headed gull

There were still a few black-headed gulls looking like they were still sitting on nests by Lilian's Hide. Half a dozen well-grown juveniles suggested they were running late. The black-headed gulls monopolised all the islands and water margins, whenever any of the gadwalls or coots got too close they got a proper scolding. 

I decided to call it quits after three hours' wander and got the train home the long way via Liverpool to maximize the value of my old man's explorer ticket. (I was tempted to stay on the train on to Crewe but I had to stop off at Urmston to do a shop so the cat wouldn't sneer at my having a chippy tea two days running.)