Southport

Teal, Marshside

It was boding well for a sunny afternoon so I decided to have a wander round Marshside and Crossens to see if I make any better a fist at goose watching than I do at gullwatching. 

I set off at lunchtime, thinking the Monday lunchtime train to Wigan would be less packed than the mid-morning one has been and found that yes it was but I was still standing all the way. No matter, the train to Southport was good and there were lots of woodpigeons, kestrels and buzzards along the way. A contender for the last house martin of the Summer was hawking high over Burscough Bridge Station.

I just missed the 44 to Marshside so I got the 47 to Crossens and walked down Marine Drive. Crossens Inner Marsh was fairly quiet, it was still dry but there was enough water in the sluices for a few teal and a few dozen each of Canada geese and pink-footed geese were grazing on the grass.

Pink-footed geese, Crossens Marsh

Crossens Outer Marsh was a lot busier with hundreds of pink-footed geese and dozens of Canada geese. A couple of orange-legged pink-footed geese made me look twice (there's a few on the marsh every Winter and in some lights some of the pink-legged pink-feet take on a rich salmon colour). There were a few dark young birds that weren't fully grown that made me stop and think for a minute, Pink-feet are small geese so usually you'd be looking for something bigger like a bean goose or a white front, finding anything smaller puts you off your stride a bit, Amidst all these signs of Winter a migrant hawker patrolled the bits of hawthorn hedge by the path.

I crossed the road to have a look at the geese feeding at the boundary between Crossens Inner Marsh and Marshside. On the Crossens side they were mostly pink-feet, on Marshside they were almost exclusively Canada geese and greylags. A stonechat popped up out of the gorse bushes and bobbed up and down along the boundary fence.

Merlin, Marshside

I walked down towards the Sandgrounders Hide. Along the way I glanced over the road and thought to myself that it would soon be the season for seeing birds of prey perched on the fence along the salt marsh. On a whim I had a quick look with my binoculars and was rewarded by a merlin sitting on a fencepost.

Merlin, Marshside

There were a lot more teal in the sluices and shallow pools on the inner marsh, together with a couple of dozen mallards and a few lapwings. And the first little egret of the day. I watched a skylark rise and fly over the  road and a pair of snipe flew back over and off towards Polly's Pool where fifty-odd black-tailed godwits were feeding. 

Redshanks, Marshside

The pool by Sandgrounders was a lot quieter than last time, just one godwit with half a dozen redshanks and a cormorant on the muddy island. A couple of dabchicks whinnied at each other mid-water. A dozen shovelers dozed on the far bank.

Little egret, Marshside

There were yet more teal on the pool in front of Sandgrounders. I looked in vain for any cattle egrets with the grazing herd but found the second (and last) little egret of the day. At one point the egret waded into deeper water and stood hunched and low like a cat after a mouse. Whatever it was hoping for didn't materialise as after a couple of minutes it stalked off and went back to catching shrimps in the shallows. There were a lot of ruffs feeding in the wet long grass with lapwings and godwits, most of them big males and all of them now ruffless.

Walking back to the road I bumped into another couple of migrant hawkers as they patrolled the hedgerow.

Spindle berries, by Nels Hide

There was water back on Junction Pool. Not a lot, just enough for a dozen teal to dabble in there. There was a pair of gadwall in the ditch leading to Nel's Hide, they were very thin on the ground today and there were no tufties, all the water was too shallow for them. I didn't recognise the landscape at Nel's at all. I had hoped that some waders might be taking advantage of the slightly higher water but there wasn't anything to be seen today.

From Nel's Hide

I walked down to Hesketh Road, keeping an eye on the state of the clouds rolling in. Somewhere in the Irish Sea was copping for a lot of rain but we weren't getting any of it. A kestrel hovered far out over the marsh. As I was watching it I noticed a carrion crow mobbing something or other on the ground. It turned out to be another merlin which settled on a post and studiously ignored the crow until it got bored and flew off to bother some magpies. A flock of greenfinches feeding on rose hips was good to see.

A distant merlin with a yet more distant Blackpool

I had a sit down at the corner of Hesketh Road to have a drink. And in the hopes that somewhere amongst all those Billy moo cows in the long grass there'd be a cattle egret or two. No joy there but a dozen swallows flying low overhead kept me happy. The pool over by the Hesketh Road platform was just a muddy puddle with four magpies fussing about on it.

I walked over to Hesketh Park for the bus to the station and managed to get the train home with a few minutes to stare. I spent most of the journey with my nose pressed against the window hoping to see an owl quartering the twilit fields. No luck today but if you don't look you don't get.

Orb weaver webs in gorse, Marshside