Mosses

Skylark mobbing a kestrel, Mosslands Farm

The feeders had been filled up, the wind had died down considerably and the birds were still hiding in the garden. I know they're around, the bird food's being scoffed, they're just being cagey about emerging from the bushes. Over on the school playing field a couple of common gulls and a few herring gulls joined the three dozen black-headed gulls.

It had been a sunny morning and boded to be more of the same so I had an afternoon wander around the Salford Mosses.

Astley Road

I took a singing goldcrest in the conifers by Irlam Station to be a good omen. As it happened, Irlam was fairly quiet again and I was a couple of hundred yards down Astley Road before I bumped into the first mixed tit flock and that was blue tits, chaffinches and robins. There were no flocks of woodpigeons or pigeons on the fields. The weather was a bit odd: everywhere I looked it was bright and sunny and there were but a few clouds on the horizon but Astley Road itself was in shade due to one big black cloud that covered the sun most of the way down.

First-Winter kestrel, Irlam Moss

The first of many kestrels I'd be seeing today was a youngster sitting a hawthorn near to the Jack Russell's gate. (The Jack Russell made sure I moved on down the road.) The hedgerows further on were full of blackbirds and chaffinches feeding on hawthorn berries. The usual adult pair of kestrels were hunting in the fields either side of the road.

Male kestrel, Irlam Moss

A couple of mistle thrushes were chasing each other in the trees at the junction with Roscoe Road. I stopped to watch them and found more thrushes in the canopy: a couple more mistle thrushes and a couple of redwings. A big van drove down Roscoe Road, flushing these and another four mistle thrushes out of the trees and off over the fields. A couple of song thrushes stayed behind. I suspect the local crowds of thrushes are being supplemented by Winter visitors.

Astley Road

Over the motorway and down to Four Lanes End was even quieter though there was a flock of pied wagtails feeding on one of the turf fields that had been flooded. I was checking them out when we got ten minutes of heavy rain. Once that had been and gone and done the wind picked up, moved the cloud quickly on and it became a very pleasant Autumn afternoon.

Over-mature female common darter, Four Lanes End

Ruddy darter, Four Lanes End

At Four Lanes End I turned and walked down to Little Woolden Moss, tiptoeing past dragonflies along the way as they basked in the sunshine on the path. Most were ruddy darters but there were a few common darters in the mix to stop me getting cocky about identifying them.

Little Woolden Moss

A mixed tit flock, a couple of robins and a small flock of linnets were busy in the trees at the entrance to Little Woolden Moss. Any hopes this was a portent of a bumper bird bonanza on the reserve were misplaced: the usual family of crows were knocking about and a meadow pipit flew overhead. The only wader of the day was a snipe I accidentally flushed that had been feeding in the hares-tail grasses by the path.

Toadstool, Little Woolden Moss
These were abundant by the path on the stretches where the peat had been top-dressed with wood chippings.

Some of the brambles are colouring spectacularly

On the other hand there were lots of dragonflies, mostly ruddy darters and common darters, with a few black darters. Some of the common darters looked very small and a couple of times I wondered if I was finally going to see a white-faced darter but they were very out of season and all common darters. Something to look forward to next year.

I'd decided to take the path through Mosslands Farm to Moss Lane and then get the bus home from Fowley Common. There was a flock of eighteen carrion crows (I double-checked to make sure they weren't rooks) feeding on the far side of the field of barley stubble but otherwise it all looked very quiet.

Which just goes to show how wrong you can be.

There's a covey of partridges in there somewhere

I'd got as far as the bit where the path turns at right angles and runs along the ridge between the stubble field and a field of earthed-up potatoes when a covey of grey partridges rose up from the dead thistles on the margin and disappeared into the deep furrows. The last I saw of them were half a dozen sandy grey shapes plummeting into the shadows, their orange outer tail feathers shining in the sunlight. Try as I might I couldn't find them again. The furrows were a good couple of feet deep and partridges know how to use them for cover.

Kestrel Mosslands Farm

I carried on walking down when there was a sudden commotion over near the crows and a lot of skylark alarm calls. A dark, brown shape shot low across the field margin, scattering a cloud of skylarks, meadow pipits, linnets and starlings. A small falcon landed on the "public footpath" sign at the edge of the field. And turned out to be a kestrel doing a very good impersonation of a merlin. Just to make sure I knew it was a kestrel it flew over my head and hovered over the stubble field. Most of the small birds had settled back down to feed but the skylarks were still very angry and persisted in mobbing the kestrel and putting it off its hover.

I don't know which toadstool this is. There were plenty of them in the grass by the potato field on Mosslands Farm. The translucent caps seemed to be sticky. Altogether a bit sinister.

I turned at the signpost and followed the path down towards the farmhouses. I was still a bit puzzled by what I'd seen. I know merlins can hover given a stiff breeze, it was a windy day, was I really sure that was a kestrel when it looked classic merlin when it flew in. The kestrel did me a favour by flying over and sitting on one of the tractor sheds so I could get a better look at it.

Kestrel, Mosslands Farm

The hedges by the farmhouses were full of spadgers getting ready to roost and blackbirds and mistle thrushes guzzling hawthorn berries.

Linnets, Moss Road

Linnets, Moss Road

As I joined Moss Lane a large flock of linnets flew in and perched on the telegraph lines.

Glaze Brook was in full spate after the rains of the past few days so there was no chance of any wagtails or kingfishers. A flock of redwings was feeding on the hawthorns along the bank a way upstream.

A nice autumnal walk with plenty to keep me on my toes.

Moss Lane

Moss Lane

West Kirby

Redshanks

It was quiet in the garden: all the birds were staying undercover, making the occasional furtive sortie to the feeders then diving straight back into the bushes. It was a different story over on the school playing field where forty black-headed gulls were joined by three herring gulls, at least one lesser black-back and a common gull, together with the usual crowd of woodpigeons, rooks and jackdaws.

I decided to have the afternoon stroll on the Wirral I didn't have the other day. The train journey across to West Kirby was uneventful, though I notice there's engineering works going on just outside Birkenhead North so the mallards and coots won't be swimming on the side line anymore. I can't help thinking that's a pity.

West Kirby Marine Lake

I'd timed my arrival at West Kirby to coincide with the tide coming in, the hope being to see plenty of waders  (or as many as is possible at the seaside in half term) and possibly some brent geese as they've started to arrive on the Dee Estuary.

Little Eye from the Marine Lake

Shelducks and curlews

I did a turn around the marine lake as that gives the best views of the estuary as the tide comes in. Already there were lines of cormorants and oystercatchers clustering about the tideline over by Middle Eye and Hilbre, with flocks of redshank and shelducks and a few dozen curlews slightly further in. Gulls, mostly herring and black-headed gulls with a few lesser black-backs, loafed on the sand bars while they may and a couple of great black-backs stood aloof from the crowds. A little egret gave up on fishing in the pools and flew off into the salt marsh.

West Kirby Marine Lake

A bunch of windsurfers were taking advantage of the conditions so there wasn't a lot of birds out on the lake, just a few black-headed gulls and herring gulls and a couple of cormorants. The mussel beds in the lake are evidently still productive judging by the number of herring gulls dropping mussels onto the concrete path to crack them open.

Redshanks, turnstones and a dunlin

Redshanks and turnstones

Redshanks and turnstones

The wind was blowing a hooley and the rigging at the yacht club was singing in the breeze as I turned onto South Parade. The rocks by the little viewing point were littered with redshanks and turnstones, together with a single dunlin. 

Redshanks and turnstones

As I walked along, keeping an eye on the gulls and cormorants just in case there was anything different I heard something different. The nasal squeak of a Mediterranean gull somewhere in amongst a group of black-headed gulls fussing about mid-water. It took a couple of minutes to find it, a second Winter bird judging by the black on its primaries. It flew closer so I got my camera out and it sailed quickly over on the breeze and behind the houses on the other side of the street. Still, it's nice to see one. A couple of common gulls on the jetty made up the set.

Hilbre Island

I headed off towards Red Rocks, mostly accompanied by friendly dogs, friendly dig walkers and a flock of meadow pipits. Four little egrets fed in the salt marsh while a flock of starlings decided they didn't like the idea of landing while a male kestrel was hovering about. A flock of linnets were flushed by a dog walker and they disappeared into the long grass by the reed bed.

Meadow pipit

Out on the estuary more cormorants and gulls were coming in. There were two solid black lines at the water line: fifty or more cormorants and a couple of hundred oystercatchers. No brent geese for me today, though.

As I approached Red Rocks a black-headed gull decided to harass what I'd been assuming we're a couple of carrion crows but which actually were the resident pair of ravens.

Walking towards Red Rocks

At this point the light was starting to fail, a combination of it's getting towards teatime and an incoming rain storm, so I decided to call it an afternoon and toddled off for the train from Hoylake. It had been a good afternoon's stroll blessed by some magical late October light.

Red Rocks looking less red in the afternoon light

Oldham

Wood duck

I was in Oldham so I thought I'd wander down to Alexandra Park to have a look at the wood duck that turned up there last week.

It's probably an escape, it's always been a popular species in collections and proven vagrancy in the UK is minimal. Having said that, wild wood ducks have turned up in Iceland and the Azores so it could happen in the UK. And there's currently a snow goose in Merseyside and a ringed duck in Lancashire, and that female ring-necked duck lingered in a much smaller lake in Manchester's Alexandra Park earlier this year, so why not a wild wood duck here? But the likelihood of escape is so high it has to be default position until comprehensively proven otherwise. 

So it's not going on my year list.

But it's a bonny bird anyway.

Wood duck

Wood duck

Wood duck

Wood duck

Wood duck

Wood duck

Wood duck and mallards

And it's a very nice park, even if it is a traipse away from any bus stops.

Alexandra Park

Alexandra Park

Alexandra Park

By the side of the Mersey and Merseyside

Snow goose and pink-footed geese, Hightown

I woke up too late for the planned adventure so I thought I'd head over to Merseyside for a potter. I had a half-formed plan about having a wander round the Wirral then perhaps moving on up the Sefton Coast but as I was approaching Hunt's Cross it occurred to me that it had been a couple of years since I visited Hale so that became the first port of call.

At Hunt's Cross I'd just missed the bus to Speke. There'd been a nasty road traffic accident at the junction by the bus stop so I decided that between the twenty minute wait and the diversion round that junction it was quicker to walk into Speke for the bus to Hale. (It was, too.) While I was waiting for the bus a couple of dozen house sparrows commuted between the garden hedges and a flock of starlings bounced around the rooftops.

Hale

I got the 82a bus for the ten minute ride to Hale (and was reminded that the Merseytravel day savers don't go that far, it's been so long I'd forgotten). Getting off at the village green I walked down Church Road and on to the lighthouse. There were plenty of black-headed gulls and woodpigeons flying overhead. There was a flock of fifty-odd black-headed gulls in the ploughed field by the lighthouse. Try as I might I couldn't turn any of them into a Sabine's gull. There were also a few lesser black-backs and some hefty looking herring gulls.

River Mersey, Hale

I'd had a chat with a lady who was having her morning constitutional. She explained how the paths along the Mersey either side of the lighthouse loop round and back into the village. Bearing that in mind I decided to walk downriver then take the path through the woods and into the park.

Small groups of mallards hugged the riverbank along this stretch. They were accompanied by a few curlews and redshanks, both of which were heard more often than they were seen. A couple of cormorants floated about mid-water, the river was too high for any shelducks or waders to be on the mud. A flock of a couple of dozen tufted ducks flew in but didn't settle and were off again within minutes.

Mallards

I spent a while scanning the ploughed field. As well as the black-headed gulls there was a flock of nearly fifty starlings, a similar number of woodpigeons, a very flighty mixed flock of linnets and goldfinches, and at least a dozen skylarks, not a bad haul. There were considerably more woodpigeons scattered about in the long grass between the path and the riverbank and a frisky red setter ignored its owner long enough to flush five pheasants from a small reedbed. 

As I approached the small brook that meets the river here a pair of ravens croaked their way downstream and a carrion crow which had been proudly being cock of the North on an old fencepost quietly slipped down to the ground until they'd passed over. I've noticed this before: carrion crows are pretty much fearless with everything except ravens.

I turned onto the path to the park, passing through a thin strip of woodland perhaps five trees deep either side.  Plenty of robins and wrens and a mixed tit flock made up mostly of blue tits. A firecrest had been reported hereabouts over the weekend so I kept a lookout for it. Not with any great hope of finding it, mind, firecrests are one of those birds like coal tits, treecreepers and yellow-browed warblers that you bump into rather than actively find. It didn't take long to conclude that the bouncing leaves and branches were due to robins, titmice and falling acorns. Still, don't look don't see.

Harlequin ladybird

There were blackbirds, jays and magpies aplenty in the park but the most remarkable thing was a swarm of harlequin ladybirds. Most were red or reddish with twenty-something spots but there were plenty of black two-spots and a few yellow ones with a dozen spots. I decided to move on before I got involved in an Ordeal By Trousers.

I got the buses back to Hunt's Cross and decided to have another go at the snow goose. It had moved down as far as Lunt by Saturday but seemed to be moving back North as it was on Altcar Moss yesterday and had been reported again at Hightown this morning. So I stayed on the train up to Hightown.

Pink-footed geese, Hightown

At Hightown I crossed the bridge and headed out of town along Alt Road. A handful of overflying pink-feet suggested I was heading in the right direction. 

Pheasants, Hightown

The stubble field at the junction with North End Road was thick with birds. At the corner nearest me two pheasants were squaring off, egged on by a dozen very excited jackdaws. More jackdaws were feeding with a flock of rooks on the far side of the field. The fight crowd noticed me, the jackdaws flying off to join the others, the pheasants walking slowly away pretending nothing had been going on. The jackdaws disturbed a pile of other birds that had been feeding in the stubble including some hen pheasants, a couple of reed buntings, some chaffinches and a red-legged partridge.

Snow goose and pink-footed geese, Hightown
(Even without seeing the head and bill the small size, black primaries and fleshy pink legs distinguish it from a white domestic goose)

Snow goose and pink-footed geese, Hightown

I carried on up North End Road and noticed that in the next field there were seventy-odd pink-feet feeding in the grass on the far side. I had a scan round of them but I wouldn't be lucky enough to find the snow goose in the first flock I bumped into. I'd taken three more steps down the road when I reached a gap in the hedge and there in the corner opposite me was the snow goose in among a group of pink-feet. It was having a snooze with its head in its back feathers but soon woke up and had a bit of a graze with the other geese. I had another scan round, just in case I'd missed anything else but really I was just being greedy but I couldn't help it, there's something special about wild geese late on an Autumn afternoon.

By North End Road, Hightown

More pink-feet flew over on my walk back, together with flocks of mallards and jays with throat pouches full of acorns.

Pink-footed geese, Hightown

I got the train to Southport thence the train back to Manchester. I had my nose pressed against the window looking for owls in the twilight but had to give up by the time we reached Burscough Bridge when it got too dark.