Leighton Moss

Black-headed gull chick begging for food

Still feeling the effects of hay fever and yesterday's vampire attack I thought I'd go up to Leighton Moss and have this year's first proper sit-down look out from the coastal hides. 

The tidings bode well as the train slowed down for Silverdale Station. On the pools furthest away from the Eric Morecambe Hide were dozens of lapwings and black-headed gulls, a few avocets and a black swan. No sign of any egrets or spoonbills but on the pool by the railway embankment there was a coal black wader that could only have been a spotted redshank.

The view walking down New Road

The walk down to the hides from the station was punctuated by noisy black-headed gulls and twittering swallows flying overhead and blackcaps and chiffchaffs singing in the trees. I remember when I first did this walk you could barely hear anything for the lorries coming and going from the quarry. The song of a Cetti's warbler heralded my arrival at the Allen Hide 

Avocets, black-headed gulls and an oystercatcher

On the Allen pool it was evident that the black-headed gulls had had a very good breeding season, perhaps to the exclusion of anything else. Many of the youngsters were full-grown and capable of flying after their parents if food wasn't forthcoming. Some of the younger gulls still had that plover-like look to them. A couple of pairs of avocets looked as if they might be making a late attempt at nesting. By all accounts they've had a very bad breeding season.

Lapwing

From the Eric Morecambe Hide most everything was in silhouette so I didn't rate my chances of picking up the spotted redshank from a distance. I wasn't wrong, though there were plenty enough common redshanks to be getting on with.

Great black-back chicks

The appearance of three unaccompanied goslings from behind a mound on an island puzzled me until they turned round and I saw their beaks. I always forget what an enormous bird is a great black-back. Their parents were loafing on small islands within easy reach if danger threatened. 

Lapwings

I spent a while looking round, enjoying the lapwings and avocets in the sunshine and the racket made by the black-headed gulls. The glare and the heat haze was challenging to say the least so after one long scan round in the hopes of an egret or two (nope) I called it quits and set off back towards Leighton Moss.

On the walk down the path to the road I had a reed warbler singing from the ditch to my left while a sedge warbler sang from the reedbed to my right. Birds make their own rules up.

Male marsh harrier

As I walked down the road a male marsh harrier rose up from the reedbeds over towards the Griesdale Hide, floated overhead then returned whence it came, to the fury of the black-headed gulls there.

English stonecrop growing on the level crossing

Just after the level crossing I was distracted by the noise of a sparrowhawk being mobbed by swallows and house martins.

I had an hour at Leighton Moss (I would have been longer but I noticed the next train had been cancelled). It was a warm, sunny day so I wasn't surprised it was busy. I was surprised that the paths beyond the sky tower were very quiet and the hides empty.

There were plenty of black-headed gulls about, many with young to feed. Reed buntings, reed warblers and chiffchaffs sang in the reedbeds while the willow warblers were silent. There wasn't much doing from the hides, most of the ducks were sleeping undercover and even the gulls were too warm for much beside loafing. Until a female marsh harrier got too close, whereupon they rose up like a noisy cloud and sank, like a deflated balloon, once she'd passed by.

While the birds were dozing the dragonflies were being very active. Black-tailed skimmers were busy courting and mating, common blue damselflies were zipping round all over the shop and I was buzzed by a couple of emperor dragonflies, I don't remember seeing them here before.

No joy bumping into any marsh tits on the way back to the visitor centre but I did notice a treecreeper taking food back to its nest.

From the Eric Morecambe Hide

A nice day out to distract from hayfever and the bites and stings of yesterday.