Southport

Little egret, Marshside

I thought I'd go out for a wander round Marshside and Crossens to get some sea air so I set out mid-morning to avoid the crowds. I'd forgotten the train timetable changes which mean there's now a fifty minute wait at Oxford Road and no connection that lets you catch the Manchester Victoria to Southport train at Salford Crescent. Usually there's a workaround involving getting the Barrow train and changing at Wigan but that was cancelled today. Ah well, part of the game.

Canada goose gosling starting to get the head pattern, Marshside

Walking down Marshside Road I noticed that the Canada goslings were getting big and many were starting to get their head patterns. One of these stuck out like a sore thumb because the rest of the family it was with were about a week younger.

The lapwings, and a couple of pairs of redshanks, had young hiding in the wet grass. Most of the redshanks were spending their time making noisy territorial flights over the road. A couple of sedge warblers sang from the ditch on the right-hand side of the road.

Lapwing and redshanks, Marshside

I had a look over the Junction Pool for the garganey which had been reported yesterday. No joy but I did find a male wigeon that had decided to linger.

I walked down to Nel's Hide. More redshanks, all too low and fast to photograph. Only a couple of skylarks, and just the one meadow pipit, singing which suggests the rest had busy mouths to feed.

Mallard duckling, Marshside

The pools in front of Nel's Hide were busy with mallard ducklings of various sizes, ranging from tiny to nearly full grown. A couple of shovelers dabbled over on the far side and a pair of gadwall passed by close to the hide. Two buzzards were sitting on fence posts by the road over towards Hesketh Road.

A very typical view of a glossy ibis, Marshside

A glossy ibis had been reported over the past few days but hadn't been seen today. Still, it was worth keeping an eye out just in case. I was about to leave when I had one last scan round. A dark shape emerged from behind a distant bush. At that distance it could have been anything though it looked a bit too brown to be a crow. After a few minutes it finally raised its head from the grass and promptly tucked its beak into its back feathers for a quick snooze.

Lapwing bullying a dunlin, Marshside

I wandered back and had a look round from the Sandgrounders Hide. The black-headed gull colony seems a lot smaller this year and there weren't many still on nests. There were a few avocet chicks about, largely unattended as their parents were spending all their time attacking greylag geese (avocets seem to have a particular aversion to greylags). A lone dunlin was having a miserable time of it: every time it settled down for a sleep it would be harassed by one of the lapwings.

Marshside

There were a few little egrets peppered around the marsh, nothing like the Winter congregations or post-breeding dispersal. It's a bit early in the year yet for cattle egrets but I still looked twice at every white shape near a cow.

I walked down towards Crossens. There seemed to be more avocets on the small pools on Marshside Outer Marsh than there had been on the Inner Marsh. The pools on the Inner Marsh had pairs of shelduck, mallard and tufted duck with a few gadwall and shovelers and a male pintail. A couple of whitethroats sang from the hawthorn bushes and a reed warbler sang from somewhere in a stand of great willow herbs and reeds.

Crossens Inner Marsh

Crossens Outer Marsh was very quiet, the cattle accompanied by a few shelduck and a couple of little egrets. Inner Marsh was busier, mostly with families of Canada geese and greylags. Lapwings and redshanks noisily patrolled their territories, adult avocets mainly fed in groups leaving little silver grey youngsters to fend for themselves as best could by small pools. There were a lot more black-headed gulls here than on Marshside but they were loafing rather than nesting. A male stonechat flitted about amongst the gorse bushes by the roadside.

Thence back home via a cancelled train at Southport and a jam-packed half a train home from Oxford Road.