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.