Leighton Moss

Red deer calf

I had an afternoon at Leighton Moss, the weather was looking iffy so I thought it a good idea to be within easy distance of a hide or three. It actually brightened up North of Preston so I had a good couple of hours' wander.

As the train approached Silverdale I had a look at the pools by the coastal hides. There were a couple of hundred waders, most were lapwings and redshanks but there was a crowd I couldn't identify as we passed by.

On the short walk round the corner from the station to Leighton Moss I was accompanied by a singing robin, a calling nuthatch and a charm of goldfinches. A family of long-tailed tits and a pair of mallards saw me into the visitor centre. I had a look at the feeders to get my eye in and was rewarded by great tits, blue tits, coal tits, chaffinches and a couple of marsh tits. And some more mallards. And a pheasant.

As I walked down to Lilian's Hide a couple of migrant hawkers buzzed by and into the reedbeds. A Cetti's warbler sang deep in the reeds nearby.

Black-tailed godwits

Black-tailed godwits, knot, teal and shoveler

Black-tailed godwits, teal and shovelers

Lilian's Hide was fairly busy and I tried not to think too hard about my being the only one in there with a mask on. There were numerous compensations out in on the pool. I'd watched half a dozen wigeon fly in but it took me a while to spot them amongst the rafts of gadwall and shovelers. The mallards and teal congregated by the bank near the hide. A male pintail was asleep deep amongst the mallards. A couple of dozen black-tailed godwits fussed about on the little island in front of the hide, most of the adults in their Winter greys, the juveniles in various stages of moult but keeping most of the scaly look on their wings. A smaller bird bustled out of the crowd, a knot in full Winter rig. Amidst all these hints of Winter another migrant hawker whizzed by and a common hawker buzzed the godwits for a couple of minutes before zipping off into the willows.

Heron

A lot of birdwatching time is spent wondering: "What the Hell is that?"
Case in point: teal dabbling in water milfoil. 

Mallards, shovelers and pintail

Juvenile black-tailed godwit

I walked down into the reedbeds. It was fairly quiet save for a couple of robins, a great spotted woodpecker and a jay screaming from the trees by the field. I wasn't far into the reedbeds when I heard a water rail squealing like a stuck pig by the path but I'm damned if I could actually see it.

Watching the watchers

The highlight at the Tim Jackson Hide was a calf red deer which was feeding on the grass just in front of the hide. Every so often it would stop and have a look at the watchers in the hide. The water levels were nearly back to normal, giving a group of mallards enough water to dabble in.

Red deer calf

Walking round to the Griesdale Hide blue tits and wrens fossicked and called in the willows and reeds. I could hear a group of at least three bearded tits but they were too deep in the reeds to see them.

At the Griesdale Hide

There were a few dozen each of mallards and teal loafing at the water's edge at the Griesdale Hide. A couple of dozen more teal kept being flushed from the pools beyond the bund on the far side. I couldn't see any airborne culprit, it may have been a fox or stoat making passing mischief. A single greylag on the bund was wholly unmoved. A handful of juvenile godwits foraged on the bank by the dozing teals, prompting some of them to dabble tentatively before going back to sleep. The only raptor of the day was a buzzard soaring very high over the trees atop the hill. Another calf red deer wandered across the bund and disappeared into the reeds.

Red deer calf

Walking back through the reeds I spent a few minutes watching a migrant hawker quartering a patch of cut reeds munching its way through the local midge population.

There were a few blue tits and wrens in the willow scrub. A pair of marsh tits came along to check me out. They stayed long enough to sneeze at me while I got my camera and bobbed off into the undergrowth the moment I got them into focus. With the willow tits I saw the other day in mind I noticed that the marsh tits' flanks weren't so extensively brown and it was more a tawny yellow-brown than a rich russet. I wouldn't use the difference as a key ID feature, and it might not be obvious on a marsh/willow tit on its own in an unfamiliar context but it's something to bear in mind.

I got the Carlisle train as far as Ulverston so I could have a look over the Kent and Leven estuaries. There were a hundred or so black-headed gulls at Arnside, together with dozens of redshanks and a few cormorants. There were a few little egrets on the salt marsh on the way into Grange over Sands and more black-headed gulls and redshanks on the beach. The water levels were back to normal on the salt marsh between Cark and the Leven but there were only a couple of woodpigeons to show by it. There were a lot more black-headed gulls on the Leven, together with more redshanks and a small flock of red-head goosanders. A couple of herons and curlews loafed on the breakwater rocks by the railway line.

I had ten minutes' wait at Ulverston for the Manchester train. A mixed tit flock and a charm of goldfinches flew in to roost in the conifers by the platform. 

I sat on the inland side of the train on the way back over the Leven. There were more black-headed gulls and some lesser black-backs, a dozen little egrets and single juveniles of red-breasted merganser and tufted duck. 

Kent Estuary, Arnside

I took the opportunity of switching to the seaward side of the train at Kent's Bank so I could check out the coastal pools at Leighton Moss. There were still plenty of redshanks and lapwings and a flock of greylags grazed on the embankment.

A nice afternoon's excursion.