Merseyside

Redshanks and turnstone, Leasowe

I had a day at the seaside. I'd decided that I needed to get baffled by waders for a few hours and headed off over to the Wirral for a walk between Leasowe and Hoylake.

Walking down towards Leasowe Lighthouse, Kerr's Field was very quiet by its standards, just a few magpies, goldfinches and woodpigeons. A moment's excitement was a female sparrowhawk being seen on its way by a flock of swallows. Aside from a lone chiffchaff calling from the trees by the houses I didn't bump into a warbler all day.

Leasowe Common

I walked past the lighthouse and onto the common. Small flocks of goldfinches, linnets and greenfinches twittered in the thistles in the fields and family parties of blue tits and great tits called to each other in the willows around the pond.

It was near low tide when I got to the sea front. A couple of dozen little egrets stood preening on the sands, a couple more hunted in the small pools near the embankment. 

Little egret, Leasowe

There were plenty of waders about. The curlews and oystercatchers were quite far out, beyond the large groups of lesser black-backs and herring gulls loafing on the higher sandbars.  Close to the embankment small flocks of redshanks congregated at the edges of pools to feed and preen. It was good to be able to add the couple of turnstones amongst them to the year list.

Redshanks, Leasowe

A dozen little egrets were feeding round the pool by the groyne halfway to Meols. A flock of a couple of dozen starlings kept coming and going between the common and the groyne, I couldn't spot any reason why they weren't settling to feed on one or the other.

Little egret, Meols

Walking past the groyne there was a subtle shift in the birdlife. I've seen this before but can't explain it. This time, all of a sudden there were lots of black-headed gulls instead of just odd ones and twos. The groups of redshanks were smaller and the curlews and oystercatchers were closer to hand. 

Greenshank, redshanks and black-headed gulls, Meols

There were a few small, young-looking curlews about; a couple of times a possible whimbrel turned out to be a curlew when it raised its head from the mud. I puzzled over a pale grey wader that seemed a lot shorter than the surrounding redshanks until it stepped out of the puddle and became a perfectly obvious greenshank. Some of the redshanks were accompanied by small flocks of dunlins. Some of these looked tiny as they skittered about between the redshanks' legs but then turned out to be the same size as black-bellied individuals that could only be dunlins. Scanning small waders in the mid distance over an expanse of mud at the start of the return migration is a good antidote to getting cocky about your birdwatching.

Meols beach

There were sand yacht races going on on the sands at Hoylake so I called it quits once I got to the lifeboat station and got the train at Manor Road. 

I'd bought an all-areas Merseytravel Saveaway so I headed up to Southport to see if the spoonbills that had been reported on the marine lake were still about. No joy, though I did get the opportunity to be completely confused by some juvenile little egrets with particularly striking pale green-grey legs. It took a couple of minutes for me to remember that's how you tell them apart from the non-breeding adults.

A good day's birdwatching and a few useful refreshers, I haven't really been doing much with waders this year and I'm definitely a bit stale.

Mersey Valley

Heron, by Chorlton Golf Course

I got the bus over to Merseybank and had an afternoon walk from Chorlton Water Park back to Stretford.

Chorlton Water Park

Chorlton Water Park was fairly quiet of people (by its standards). A couple of squadrons of Canada geese patrolled the lake, studiously ignored by fifty-odd coots, a couple of dozen mallards and a couple of families of mute swans with fully grown cygnets. The cygnets were almost the noisiest birds there, the crown going to a pair of almost fully grown great crested grebes that were very insistent that they should still be being fed by their parents. 

The small birds in the trees were frustrating even by July standards: contact calls from deep cover, dark shapes flitting through the undergrowth and great tits singing filthy songs from lamp standards (I might be making that last one up for dramatic effect).

I had a wander round Barlow Tip for quarter of an hour, thrusting my way through the rain-battered thistles like the cat through the bedroom curtains. It was a dead waste of time, all that effort for a couple of woodpigeons and a carrion crow.

The walk along the river was more productive. Overhead, woodpigeons commuted between golf courses. Goldfinches, blue tits and great tits called and occasionally showed themselves in the hedgerow by Barlow Tip. Out on the river a male grey wagtail foraged near the electricity substation and a very downy youngster fossicked round near the sluice by the golf course.  Half a dozen mallard loafed and bathed along the far bank, keeping eyes and ears open for any dogs passing too close for comfort. I scanned through the larch trees for finches or titmice and found a heron.

Ring-necked parakeet, Jackson's Boat

At Jackson's Boat I spent a few minutes trying in vain to see where a couple of chaffinches were calling from by the tram bridge and in the process found a family of blackcaps feeding in a hawthorn bush. The ring-necked parakeets were phenomenally noisy and frustratingly well-camouflaged in the trees. When they're flying about they're outrageously colourful but as soon as they land in the canopy they blend in surprisingly well.

Jackson's Boat

I walked through Sale Ees, which was very quiet. Sale Water Park was busier, almost entirely with coots, mute swans and black-headed gulls. The Canada geese all seemed to be on Broad Ees Dole with a dozen herons and a couple of moorhens.

Broad Ees Dole

Stretford Ees wasn't a right lot busier than Barlow Tip or Sale Ees. I'd been wondering where all the hirundines and swifts were, it was the sort of weather where you'd expect them to be buzzing the waterways en masse and aside from a swallow that flew upriver from Jackson's Boat there'd been none. It turned out they were busy hawking low over the trees in the cemetery. A disturbing thought for a gloomy Friday.

Mooching round

Juvenile house sparrow

The pale spadger made a couple of appearances in the garden today, so I finally managed to get a good photo of it. The spadgers were mob-handed today, the two families coincided and emptied both the sunflower seed feeders.

Spadgers

• Blackbird 1
• Blue Tit 1
• Collared Dove 2
• Feral Pigeon 1
• Great tit 2
• House Sparrow 24
• Woodpigeon 1

I had a lunch date in Rochdale so I had a late morning wander to see what was about in the town centre. Lots of pigeons but no sign of any of the Town Hall peregrines. And nothing on the river until we got to the bus station where a grey wagtail suddenly shot past and under the bridge.

I had planned on having a post-lunch wander round Watergrove Reservoir. I had a twenty minute wait for the bus and watching the weather worsen it occurred to me that I wouldn't have much fun at it and decided to postpone it. I'm hoping that we get some weather in the comfortable zone between scorchio and dreich sometime soon.

Home thoughts

Rainy day

I'm not averse to going out birdwatching in the rain, though this time of year it adds to the frustration of small bird watching by adding myriads of rain-battered bouncing leaves to the visual confusion. I do get windy about thunderstorms so I don't go out in them. Given the choice between any part of the natural landscape and me I reckon the lightning would pick on me every time. So for the second day running me and the cat are staring forlornly out of the window at the weather. Last week the excuse was that it was too hot and I was on my own. I need to get my act together and get out a bit more.

This is one of the occasions where you really feel the difference between relying on public transport and having a car. The simple difference in logistical costs is conspicuous (compare the petrol and parking costs of the five and a bit hour round trip driving from Manchester to Bempton Cliffs with the eight and a bit hours minimum and sixty-two pounds cheapest of doing it by rail). If I were running a car then yes of course I'd have gone to Bempton to try and see the albatross and Cemlyn for the elegant tern and I've had haunted Malltraeth for the Pacific golden plover, and any number of rarities over the years. So it's probably as well for the world's environment that I don't.

Less conspicuous is the difference between getting to a parked car at or near a site and getting to shelter if you're walking. Or getting to the nearest town if you're driving or walking. A rule of thumb is that five minutes' driving is one hour's walking.

Anyway…

The spadgers are back in force though I only had the briefest glimpse of the ghostly youngster. The coal tits are back from wherever they were nesting by the station, I haven't seen any youngsters. And a new young blackbird has turned up, attracted by the noise of the spadgers on the feeders.

• Blackbird 2
• Blue Tit 2
• Coal Tit 1
• Collared Dove 2
• Goldfinch 2
• Great Tit 1
• House Sparrow 18
• Jackdaw 2
• Magpie 2
• Woodpigeon 2

Spadger

Pale juvenile house sparrow

Every time I start to think I imagined the very pale young sparrow it pops up again. I finally managed to get some photos.

Pale juvenile house sparrow

Face-on the bird is almost white. Sadly, it wouldn't let me get a photo of its back, it dived out of view into the roses and I didn't see it come out again.

Hills — things to do with a single ticket

From Gibb Lane, Mellor looking towards St.Thomas' Church

The weather looked like it wasn't sure what it was doing so I decided to do a bit of exploring. I had a free single journey on Northern trains to use up with not a lot of prospect of getting another to turn it into a return journey (these days I'm mostly either using my Greater Manchester travel card or an over 55s' North West Explorer ticket to get about and both of these are excluded from the delay compensation scheme). The problem with a free single ticket is that the cost getting back is often not much less (or sometimes more) than buying a return in the first place. So I had a think and a nosey round on Google Maps and decided that I'd go out to Glossop, get the X57 bus through the Snake Pass to Sheffield then see how the spirit bade me, the idea being to come back on the single ticket.

The trip out on the train to Glossop was pleasant enough, as always. The sun came out while I was waiting for the bus and the journey over to Sheffield afforded excellent views of the scenery. 

Birdwatching from a bus is always more difficult than birdwatching from a train. Even so I was struck by how few birds I was seeing as we went through the Peak District. We soon left behind the swifts and swallows hawking over the lower hills and it was a long time before I saw the next bird, a lone carrion crow sitting on a fence post. A kestrel hovered over a field near Ladybower Reservoir. I like to think there were hordes of meadow pipits and linnets hiding in the undergrowth that I would have seen had I been walking, though that may be wishful thinking.

As we passed through Rivelin and entered the outskirts of Sheffield I was struck even more forcibly by the lack of birdlife. Passing through streets like these at this time of day West of the Pennines I'd at least be seeing jackdaws, woodpigeons and a few carrion crows and/or collared doves. Here nothing. A couple of lesser black-backs at Weston Park came as a relief and a dozen pigeons at Sheffield Station made up numbers.

I had considered moving on to see if the pectoral sandpiper was still about at Adwick Washlands but I'd just missed the train to Bolton on Dearne. None of the other available options over the next hour particularly inspired me, particularly once I'd looked at the price of tickets. A trip out to Bempton to try and catch the albatross was just about logistically feasible so long as it made itself available for viewing within a forty minute window and I didn't mind paying the gross domestic product of a small emergent nation to get out there. So I got the stopping train back through the Hope Valley without any further detours.

Oddly enough, once we'd left South Yorkshire and were back into Derbyshire the fields started to have crows and rooks and jackdaws and woodpigeons sat on telegraph wires. I have no explanation for this that doesn't leave me open to accusations of Lancastrian bias.

On a whim I got off at Marple Station and got the bus from there to Mellor, something I've kept meaning to do as a detour after a wander round Etherow Country Park and either lacked the time or energy to get round to. Mellor turned out to be a village that's pretty much becoming a suburb of Marple. A wander round gave me all the usual park and hedgerow suspects, with the greenfinches and goldfinches being particularly conspicuous. I walked down Gibb Lane which gave nice views over to the city centre with its blue haze of traffic pollution. A quick look at the map showed it was a forty minute or so walk down to Strines Station, giving me plenty of time for the train back to Manchester. I gave up after half a mile: the lane's not much wider than a Transit van and it was busier than the main street with the cars coming along in threes and fours not singly. So I wandered back, had a poke round for a bit and got the bus to Stockport.

One of those inconsequential mooching about days which is no bad thing on a sunny day.

Etherow Country Park

Drake mandarin duck in eclipse plumage

The morning started with thirty-odd spadgers in the garden with a couple of blue tits and one of the great tits. Me and the cat went back to bed and left them to it for an hour. 

I decided to get a bit of exercise with a teatime walk round Etherow Country Park, the idea being that it might be a bit quieter as people would be going home for their teas. What I hadn't anticipated was a music festival going on in the field behind the weir. Ah well.

Fifty-odd black-headed gulls hung around the car park with the pigeons and Canada geese. Optimistic as ever I checked to make sure there wasn't anything more exotic amongst them.

Drake mandarin

The mandarin ducks, like the mallards, are in full eclipse plumage at the moment. The only clue you get that you're looking at a drake is the slightly browner plumage and a red bill, though a couple were already showing a flash of orange as the "sail" feathers were starting to come through.

Dipper

The grey wagtails on the river have had a successful year, the youngsters were flitting about so much between the river and the weir I couldn't be sure if there were two or three of them. I was trying to work out if a wagtail landing on a rock in the river was one of the ones I'd just been watching on the weir when a dipper popped up and started foraging round a couple of big blocks. It went round the back of one of the blocks and disappeared. All I saw of it after that was the occasional splash of water as it bobbed up for a breath of air before immediately going back to feed on the river bed. 

Mandarin ducks

I got to Keg Wood and decided against spending an hour wandering round: between the humidity and the music festival I didn't feel it would have been much fun.

Etherow Country Park canal

More of the same on the walk back down to the car park with the addition of a cormorant in the dead tree on the island in the lake and a Canada x greylag cross amongst the Canada geese on the little canal by the garden centre.

Cormorant

I got the buses back. Walking home a family of seven swifts screeched their way round the rooftops. Enjoy them while we can.

Home thoughts

The garden feeling the heat a bit still

The weather having cooled down a little the spadgers have descended on the garden mob-handed, at one point there were a couple of dozen of them milling about. I had wondered if they were being shy because the cat's been sleeping out in the sun all week but the way they completely ignored her as she dozed a couple of yards away from the bird bath suggests not. The goldfinches are less sanguine so I've made sure the feeders at the other side of the garden are topped up.

I keep hoping to see the very pale youngster I saw the other week, if it's visiting I keep missing it. I saw it, or one very like it, near the station earlier in the week, its head and underparts being a very milky coffee colour and its back and wings sandy with pale brown (what we used to call "camel") streaks.

It occurs to me that yet again I have no idea what happened in the end with the crow's nest at the corner of the road. Every Spring a noisy drama becomes a quiet mystery. I suspect the rooks had it in the end, a couple of young rooks appeared on the school field a couple of weeks before any of the rooks started coming back in from the established rookeries.

There was a notable passage of lesser black-backs this evening. I'm guessing the roost on Salford Quays is building up again.

Scorchio

I'm either wallowing in a bout of hypochondria or suffering the aftereffects of prolonged heat and dehydration of the train ride home the other day, either way I'm shattered and hiding from the sun. The birds in the garden seem similarly inclined, most everything is staying undercover. 

The sparrows come out to the feeders in groups of two or three so it's hard to know how many of them there are in total. The great tits still seem to be hanging round with one of the spadger flocks, the adult blue tits have reappeared, as has one of the adult robins. 

The rowan tree's light on berries this year so there's not a lot of blackbird activity in there. The pair that usually hang round the garden have been joined by a couple of immature birds.

Over on the school playing field the woodpigeons are out in force and the rooks are back, though the jackdaws seem to be spending their time elsewhere. They'll not be going far, they're still flying about and making a noise throughout the day. The turn of the seasons is signalled by the return of the evening flocks of black-headed gulls, just a couple of dozen or so, getting a last meal in before going off to roost.

Hodbarrow

Little terns

Another boiling hot day being forecast I decided to go to the seaside and got myself an old man's explorer card for a trip out to Hodbarrow. The train journey to Millom was nice and straightforward, a simple ten-minute change at Barrow. 

On the approach to Silverdale the coastal pools were relatively quiet, half the black-headed gulls have moved on but there were still plenty of lapwings about. It was approaching low tide so even if there weren't crowds playing in the sand at Arnside there wouldn't have been much about. The marshes at Carnforth, Grange and by the River Leven were bone dry, the mud cracked and hard. There were a few carrion crows and woodpigeons about and by the Leven there was an adult female kestrel and a couple of juveniles sitting on the telegraph wires. There were lots of black-headed gulls on the Leven Estuary but all the eiders had moved on.

Hodbarrow

I walked down to Hodbarrow from Millom Station grateful for a brisk cooling breeze coming in from the sea. Along the path from the car park there were occasional small bird noises, usually from chiffchaffs or great tits. The whitethroats and wrens seemed to be too hot and busy to be bothered chiding me on my way.

A herd of mute swans included a dozen well-grown cygnets and it was difficult to identify which of the Canada geese or greylags were youngsters. A couple of young eiders loafed at the edge of the shingle beach and four juvenile red-breasted mergansers slept on the water nearby.

Sandwich terns

The black-headed gulls' breeding season was nearly over with only a couple of dozen full-grown youngsters left and perhaps fifty adults lingering on. The terns were still feeding young. Most of the Sandwich terns feeding on the wing with youngsters noisily chasing them before being fed. 

Common tern

The common terns and little terns nearly always fed their youngsters on the ground though a couple of little terns required a minute or two's getting slightly airborne before a reward was offered. I was amazed by the size of the sand eels some of the little terns were carrying, they were as big as their heads.

Little terns

A family of ringed plovers foraged on the shingle, a stray adult plover came to close and was chased off by one of the parents in full "I am twice as big as you!" display posture with wings arched up, tail spread and body feathers fluffed up to the max. I can't remember how long ago it was I last saw this aggression display, it wasn't this century.

Ringed plover

The tide was slowly turning out on the Duddon Estuary. I spent a while scanning the waders feeding on the sands. It was hard work but worth it: amongst the oystercatchers, redshanks and dunlin were a dozen curlews, a single whimbrel quite far out and a greenshank I only noticed when a black-headed gull spooked it into flight. There were a few godwit-like birds a bit further out but identification was impossible.

Duddon Estuary, Hodbarrow

The trip back to Barrow was pleasant, the views were splendid in the high-contrast sunshine. I didn't see the osprey on the dead trees just outside Green Road, it was flying off towards the river. Not being distracted by the osprey this time I spotted where the nest was. I couldn't see if anyone was in.

I broke the journey from Barrow to Lancaster. The plan had been to have nearly an hour's wander round the causeway at Leighton Moss but the train was late in so I did as best could with forty minutes. It was quite late so the small birds were settling down. Three great black-backs passed overhead and were loudly barracked by another one on the pool (I didn't get to see if they had young on the island opposite the hide).

I got the train to Lancaster where a couple of hours of fun with broken-down trains brought the day to a close. It had been an excellent day out regardless.

Sandwich tern

Hollingworth Lake and Orrell Water Park

Heron, Hollingworth Lake

Plans A to C were knocked out of the water by a train cancellation so I decided to have my first visit to Hollingworth Lake this year. I'm not sure why I haven't got round to it until now. The visit also gave me the chance to see how risky travel may be now we're into the Oaf Johnson's "Freedom Day." As it turned out it was business as usual for masks on trains and buses (and there were more mask wearers than usual in central Manchester!) Fingers crossed this will continue to be the norm.

Hollingworth Lake

I walked down to Hollingworth Lake from Smithybridge Station. Another hot day but there was a bit of cloud and enough of a cooling breeze to make it more bearable than the weekend. Even so, I decided to walk round the lake anticlockwise so's to take advantage of as much shade and shadow as possible. It wasn't very busy, which made for a nice walk.

It was fairly quiet birdwise due to the heat and time of year. A chiffchaff and a blackcap sang but most of the rest of the small birds quietly got on with their business. Out on the lake mallards and Canada geese clustered round the Lakeside bank and a couple of juvenile goosanders swam in mid-water. 

Roe deer, Hollingworth Lake

A quick nosey from the hide, which was busy, added a family of coots to the tally. A browsing roe deer was over on the far side of the pool, I got better views from the path further along. A few steps further on a pair of very noisy grey wagtail fledglings were flitting about the undergrowth demanding food from their mother. The father was a few yards away with another pair of hungry mouths.

Black-headed gulls, herring gulls and lesser black-backs, Hollingworth Lake

Walking along the road I scanned the big flock of loafing gulls and the forty-odd lapwings for anything unusual, without success. 

By Rakewood Road

I'd toyed with the idea of getting the bus to Wardle and having a walk round Watergrove but the heat decided against it. I got the Littleborough bus and got off at the station. The first train was the one for Kirkby so on a whim I decided to have an undemanding toddle round Orrell Water Park.

Orrell Water Park

Both chiffchaffs and a willow warbler were calling from the trees by the car park when I got to Orrell Water Park. Young families of coots made noises in the reeds and mallards loafed on the banks. The first dragonflies of the day were a couple of emperors and a bunch of blue-tailed damselflies. I spent some time watching a perch try to snatch damselflies and a shoal of minnows steer away from the perch.

There were no birds on the lower pond and the heat was obviously getting to the carp in there.

Take-off. Robin, Orrell Water Park
If you ever wonder why robins go into post-moult hiding in July this is a clue.

A wander round Greenslate Water Meadows provided a bit of shade. The feeders were busy, mostly with greenfinches, robins and blue tits. The young robins were starting to get their orange feathers and their parents were looking the worse for wear, with moulting progress ranging from downright tatty to well-nigh bald.

Skipool Creek

Skipool Creek

I fancied doing some seawatching on the Fylde but couldn't make the train connections work so I had a look to see if I could find anywhere interesting in walking distance from one of the stations on the Blackpool North line. I noticed that Skipool Creek isn't far from Poulton-le-Fylde Station. I've seen reports from there that suggest it's worth a wander so I got an old man's explorer ticket and headed off for an afternoon stroll.

It was a dead straightforward walk: turn right out of the station, straight down, over the roadworks for the bypass and first left down Wyre Road and all of a sudden there you are. I had a nosey round, walking down to the bottom of the road, down the track past the yacht club and back.

Skipool Creek

It was high tide so the water was up to the banks of both the river and the creek. A few mallards were dabbling around the boats moored in the creek. Further out, where the creek meets the river a dozen lapwings were almost invisible in the long grass (I thought there was only a couple of them there until they all rose up and flew across the river about quarter of an hour after I passed them). A ringed plover and a couple of dunlin sat on a tiny bit of mud by the bank. The same dunlins, I think, flew down river when I was looking out from the yacht club.

River Wyre

Over on the other side of the river there were a couple of wider patches of mud. On one a couple of dozen black-headed gulls loafed with a couple of oystercatchers and a greenshank. A couple of redshanks flew over, landed briefly then moved on downstream. A dozen lesser black-backs and half a dozen herring gulls loafed on the other, wider, patch of mud.

Little egrets

I spent a while enjoying the scenery and scanning over the river. Over opposite the yacht club car park seventeen little egrets sat in the reeds waiting for the tide to turn. As I retraced my steps I noticed the greenshank fly off upriver. As I watched it on its way it was joined by a couple of green sandpipers. They soon disappeared out of view behind the bank of the creek.

All in all a very nice introduction to the place and another site well worth a repeat visit.

Mosses again

Twelve Yards Road

Another day of indecision so I got the 100 from the Trafford Centre and had a wander over Chat Moss, passing a peregrine falcon sitting in the roof of the Beyond building along the way.

Cutnook Lane

I got off the bus at Cutnook Lane and walked over the motorway bridge. There were plenty of small birds in the trees and hedgerows but only the goldfinches and blackbirds were making any noise. A few woodpigeons fed on the paddocks with the horses while a flock of swallows hawked low over the turf fields. A crocodile of infant schoolkids marched in unruly order out of the fishery, that looked like a smashing school trip and it shows how little traffic there is down this lane.

Twelve Yards Road was, if anything, even quieter. There were plenty of woodpigeons in the fields, mostly hidden by herbage. Every so often a dozen or so would rise unexpectedly from the crops and settle on a fence further down. A single lapwing flew overhead. Pied wagtails and meadow pipits foraged in the ploughed fields but were hard to see unless they flew up onto a ridge. Two or three tree sparrows called loudly from the thick hedge by the track leading to one of the farms. Every so often I'd see them fly out of one bush only to disappear completely into the foliage of another. The whitethroats were just as bad but tended to lurk in the ditches beneath the hawthorn hedges along the road. This time of year is hard work for small bird spotting.

Little Woolden Moss

Little Woolden Moss was quieter than last time with fewer meadow pipits and pied wagtails and no yellow wagtails or reed buntings. A couple of the meadow pipits were collecting food for nestlings. A couple of kestrels flew low over before turning their attentions to the barley fields. A hobby caught a couple of dragonflies high over the other side of the reserve before flying off towards Glazebury.

I was conscious that I'd not seen any dragonflies on Chat Moss and just a couple of common darters so far on Little Woolden Moss. This changed drastically when I walked round onto the path towards Glazebury: the dragonflies were all hunting in the hedges and ditches on this side. Some more common darters, four-spotted chasers and a couple of emperors were joined by my first ruddy darters and black darters of the year.

I walked slowly along the path to the farm, hoping for a singing quail or another nice view of the Channel wagtail. This time there were no surprises, no yellow wagtails of any flavour and only a few meadow pipits.

A very pleasant but very quiet walk down Moss Lane into Glazebury and the bus into Leigh and then home.

Pennington Flash

Great crested grebes collecting nest material

I was all set for another indolent day at home so I dragged myself out for a late afternoon walk round Pennington Flash in the rain.

I've never known the place so quiet: just me, a man with a sad-looking dog and a bloke pushing a three year old on a swing. Even the ice cream vans weren't there. Luckily, possibly consequently, plenty of birds were about. It was one of those afternoons where you wish the pandemic was over so the hides could be opened.

Walking towards Pennington Brook

Walking in from St Helens Road the rain dampened the spirits of most of the birds in the trees. A couple of song thrushes and a blackcap sang, the rest quietly got on with their business. There was neither sight nor sound of the jays this time. Great tits, blue tits, wrens and robins were around but very hard to get to see.

There wasn't a single bird on Pennington Brook, which is very unusual.

Black-headed gull

The usual suspects were on the car park, doing strangely natural things in the absence of people armed with duck food. A herd of thirty-odd Canada geese grazed on the grass between the trees, the goslings being in that peculiar stage where they look like three-quarter sized versions of the adults. The mallards loafed and dabbled by the banks of the flash while the herd of mute swans grazed further out in the water. 

A hundred and something coots were scattered in rafts across the open water accompanied by a handful of tufted ducks. A few black-headed gulls were about, most seemed to be on the other side of the flash by the sailing club. There were also the first big rafts of large gulls, perhaps fifty-odd blesser black-backs in total. There were dozens of swifts hawking low both over the water and the car park but, strangely, no hirundines. 

An Egyptian goose came to see what I was, didn't much like the look of me and strolled quickly away. I couldn't see if the other two that are usually with it were about.

Juvenile mistle thrush

There were a dozen mistle thrushes on the golf course by the car park, nearly all juveniles in their mildew-and-rust plumage. A few more chased each other round the kiddies' playground. While I was watching a couple skittering round in a willow tree I noticed a couple of tree creepers quietly working their way up the branches.

The vegetation made it almost impossible to see anything on the spit in front of the Horrocks Hide save a few mallards and black-headed gulls. Looking out over the flash I was trying to work out what a dark shape was on the water when I noticed a dark tern on one of the buoys. It turned out to be a common tern, the dark being down to a combination of murky light and the bird sitting low against the buoy. Coming back to the dark shape it eventually drifted in a bit closer and gave side-on views enough for me to identify it as a common scoter. It definitely wasn't an adult male but I couldn't see it well enough to be sure if it was a female or a young male (if pressed I'd be inclined to the latter). There seems to be another passage of scoters on the go, every other reservoir seems to have reported some today.

The pool in front of the Tom Edmondson Hide was full of loafing mallards. Across the path a pair of coots were feeding their second brood and a pair of great crested grebes were collecting nest materials. A sedge warbler and a reed warbler sang briefly and the usual Cetti's warbler gave a burst of song from its bramble patch.

There were forty-odd lapwings at Ramsdales in the company of a dozen or so mallards. A single drake teal in its spotted dick eclipse plumage was barged by a caravanserai of noisy mallard ducklings while it tried to doze on the bank nearest the hide.

Pennington Brook

I made my way back to St Helens Road. Plenty of more of the same along the way. I felt better for the walk even with damp feet where the stitching to my boots had finally given up the game.