Lazy day: Lancashire and Cumbria

The Irish Sea at Netherton

It was one of those days where you open the curtains to a giddy orgy of dunnocks in the blackcurrant bushes and a couple of goldcrests fidgeting round in the rowan tree.

I took this as a prod to get out and about but I really had no idea where I was going. I've a couple of ideas for long-range days out that I keep toying with but they require an earlier start to the day than I managed today. It was damp and mizzly out so I didn't fancy anywhere local. So I set off heading North with my old man's day ranger, with half a mind to wander round the Fylde Coast and half wondering if I shouldn't have a prod round Hodbarrow. The weather looked worse at Preston but the forecast looked slightly less bad further North so I stayed on the Barrow train and changed there for the Carlisle train up to Millom. As we crept up the Duddon Estuary the sun came out for a moment, which bode well until I noticed it was also pouring down.

All of which is a dead long-winded way of saying I had a bone idle day today sat on my backside doing birdwatching by train up to St. Bees and back again.

There weren't so many woodpigeons on Chat Moss as last time I passed by on the train and the rooks on the fields between Glazebury and Twiss Green were notable by their absence. 

There wasn't much on the pools by the coastal hides at Leighton Moss, just a handful of black-headed gulls, a little egret and a few shelduck.

Looking over the Kent to Arnside

The salt marshes from the Kent to the Leven were littered with little egrets. It's good to see the water levels back up and mallards dozing in the pools. A grazing flock of pink-footed geese was a nice surprise.

As we crossed the Leven the train disturbed a flock of at least a hundred wigeon. There were similar numbers of black-headed gulls loafing on one of the mud banks with half a dozen cormorants. A few curlews and redshanks made up the numbers.

The clouds of herring gulls over Barrow in Furness was what you'd hope for in a seaside ship-building town. I'm often surprised how few of them there are here. Just outside the station you can usually see a few geese on the embankment to Lower Omansgill Reservoir but today there were just a couple of black-headed gulls. A bit further on, before the Park South junction, a flock of common gulls in a field was a sign I was North of Morecambe Bay.

Approaching Kirkby-in-Furness

Traveling up the Duddon Estuary the scenery was moodily picturesque with opaque grey clouds rolling down the hills towards the opaque grey river. There were easily a couple of hundred wigeon on the stretch approaching Kirkby-in-Furness, I suspect there were a hell of a lot more hidden behind some of the high banks.

Amidst all the gloomy greys and olive greens a small flock of yellowhammers in the brambles at Foxfield Station made a nice splash of colour.

I felt a tinge of guilt not getting off at Millom for a walk down to Hodbarrow but looking out of the window I was grateful for the shelter of the train.

As we approached Silecroft I was surprised to see a whooper swan standing all alone by a big puddle in a field. 

A single lapwing on the river by Sellafield Station was a bit of an oddity. The flock of black-headed gulls at the mouth of the river was much more predictable. As the train left the station then stopped by the signal box (I think they have to exchange tokens) a flash of red turned out to be a male stonechat hawking for midges from the wire fence by the track. There was a pair of stonechats here on the way back.

A pair of buzzards sat in the trees by the nuclear power station just after Drigg.

Between Braystones and Netherton

The seaside between Braystones and Netherton was dotted with groups of black-headed gulls and herring gulls. A big, relatively dark, herring gull with a streaky head and a lot of white on its wing tips was my first Scandinavian argentatus bird of the Winter.

I got off at St Bees. I'd chosen this station because there's a five minute connection with the train back and they have to wait for each other to clear the line so in theory at least it's impossible to miss the connection. The other option would have been to go up to Maryport but the whole of the journey back after Workington would have been in the dark.

Just by Drigg on the way back we passed a male sparrowhawk perched on a railside wire. I wondered if it was using it as a vantage point for ambushing anything spooked by a passing train.

Now the birches have shed their leaves the osprey's nest just after Green Road is strikingly obvious and I can't think how I ever missed it. I bet I can't find it next year when it's occupied.

Looking upstream on the River Leven from the viaduct

The train disturbed another big flock of wigeon that were sitting on the mud by the viaduct as we went over the Leven. There were more ducks upstream but they were unidentifiable in the gloom.

The train from St. Bees terminates at Lancaster, just missing a connection with Northern's Manchester Airport train. I didn't fancy sitting round Lancaster for an hour so I got off at Arnside and waited an hour for the airport train from Barrow. I was heavily influenced by the chippy being within sight of the station and there being plenty of seats overlooking the river. 

Looking up the Kent Estuary at Arnside Station

There are worse things in life than sitting by an estuary in the dark, eating a bag of chips while trying to identify waders by call alone. The curlews, oystercatchers and redshanks were easy enough, the black-tailed godwits took a moment or two to twig. There were two calls that foxed me: a fluting call with a bit more heft than a blackwit, and a light, short peep quite unlike a redshank's.

A surprisingly productive trip out with more than fifty species ticked off. The list is predictably weighted towards the large and obvious but it gives a hint of the wealth of birdlife there is out there waiting to be found.