Merseyside

Willow warbler, Roughley's Wood

I thought I'd take advantage of the good weather to do a bit of catching up with places, using a combination of an old man's explorer ticket and an all areas Saveaway.

It was a morning for seeing sparrowhawks being harassed by swifts. A male soared over Humphrey Park while I was waiting for my train into Manchester, much to the displeasure of the pair of swifts that had been feeding overhead. It had something sparrow-sized in its talons but didn't seem in any kind of hurry to take it anywhere. As the Liverpool train approached Irlam another sparrowhawk was being chased by swifts over Liverpool Road.

Herring gulls, Crosby Marine Lake

I started off a Crosby Marine Lake, which was predictably busy but not silly so, though both I and the gulls could have done without the charmless nerk buzzing the boating pond with a drone. Nearly all the gulls were herring gulls, showing a bewildering array of moults and plumages. The few lesser black-backs were either adults or third-Summer birds. There were more tufted ducks than usual on the pond, which was nice. The pair of black swans I've seen on Seaforth Nature Reserve had moved over here today. House martins buzzed overhead, a pied wagtail had a hungry youngster in tow, and skylarks and reed buntings were singing.

Black swans, Crosby Marine Lake

I had a wander along the fence line of Seaforth Nature Reserve. There were plenty of linnets and goldfinches in the bushes while shelducks, Canada geese and a pair of baby rabbits grazed on the grass. The nesting common terns were noisily conspicuous, a few Sandwich terns with them were a lot quieter.

Just a couple each of whitethroats and chiffchaffs in the little nature reserve by the yachting club. 

I got the 133 bus over to Lunt Meadows. We were a few minutes early as we got onto Long Lane so the driver pulled into the side of the road to mark time. Which gave us both the opportunity to catch sight of my first hobby of the day as it flew low overhead towards Homer Green.

I got off the bus at Lunt and walked down into Roughley's Wood where I was greeted by a singing willow warbler. Further in there were singing chiffchaffs and blackcaps, and a very boisterous family of great tits.

I walked down the path to Lunt Meadows to the accompaniment of whitethroats and wrens singing in the hawthorns. The path is closed further than the corner hide, presumably because they're still sorting out the damage after the Winter flooding.

Lesser black-backs, herring gulls, black-headed gulls, mallard and lapwing, Lunt Meadows

The field by the hide was full of greylag and Canada geese goslings being shepherded by a handful of adults. Out on the water there were more geese together with loafing herring gulls, lesser black-backs and black-headed gulls.

I was watching a buzzard being mobbed by black-headed gulls and lapwings when a couple stopped by for a chat. As we were watching the buzzard a smaller bird pulled away and came our way. It turned out to be a hobby, possibly the same bird I saw earlier. As we were watching the hobby another falcon approached and was chased off. At first I thought it might be another, smaller, hobby but as it took evasive action the light caught the bright brown of its tail and identified it as a kestrel.

Walking back to the bus stop a Cetti's warbler burst into song from the scrubby reeds by the little brook.

From there the plan was to get the bus into Kirkby then get the Wigan train, possibly stopping off for a nosy round Orrell Water Park. As it was, we got bogged down by traffic in Maghull and when it became inevitable I'd miss the Wigan train I jumped ship at Maghull North Station. I went home via Preston, Todmorden and Manchester, just to get the full value of the ticket.