Southport

Merlin, Marshside

Any trip out that begins and nearly ends in a goldcrest can't be all bad. One was with a couple of great tits in one of the trees by the platform at Humphrey Park as I set off. Another was in a conifer in somebody's front garden  just as I was approaching Meols Cop Station for the train home in the twilight.

While I was waiting for the Southport train at Wigan there was a kerfuffle over by the bus station involving a few jackdaws, a couple of carrion crows and a pair of ravens. This ended with the ravens in hot pursuit of one of the jackdaws as they scattered the Wallgate pigeons in all directions.

The train ride was fairly quiet, no big flocks of geese or gulls beside the line today.

Arriving in Southport I wandered down to the Marine Lake for a nosy. There was the usual herd of mute swans and a big raft of coots out on the water. Somebody over on the Promenade was feeding the mallards and about fifty herring gulls.

I walked down to the top of Marine Drive and had a look out over the marsh. The tide was out so there were a hundred or more shelducks out on the mud, just the one curlew and a line of cormorants at the water line. Most of the small birds were starlings, there were a few meadow pipits out in the marram grass.

Pink-footed geese, Southport

I had a look for twites by the sailing club with no success. I struck luckier a bit later while I was walking down Marine Drive when two flew over and disappeared into the long grass. As usual there were family parties of pink-footed geese quietly feeding in the grass, barely visible unless you looked closely. A few dozen black-headed gulls divided their time between scavenging round the car park and mudlarking on the marsh. I almost dismissed a passing first-Winter Mediterranean gull as a common gull until I noticed its chunky black bill and very pale grey mantle. I'd told myself I wasn't looking at gulls today and came close to coming a cropper as a consequence.

Shoveler, teal, lapwings and black-tailed godwits, Marshside

At the corner of Hesketh Road I had a scan round over the marsh. There were hundreds of wigeon grazing on the drier ground and similar numbers of teal dabbling in the ditches. There were nearly a hundred lapwings and a couple of dozen black-tailed godwits dozing with their feet wet. Over on the pool by the Hesketh Road platform there were a dozen each of tufted ducks and shovelers, a few pintails and a couple of dabchicks and a few mallards loafed on the bank. A couple of scaup had been reported in the morning but I could see no sign of them.

Herring gulls (back) and common gull, Marshside

Moving on down to Nel's Hide and the Halfway Lookout there were more wigeons, lapwings and godwits and a small flock of greylags grazed on the far bank. Most of the gulls were herring gulls and black-headed gulls with just the one common gull. A couple of ruff were a hard-won prize for scanning through the godwits. The glossy ibis seems to have moved on. There were plenty more shovelers on the Junction Pool.

A short stay at Sandgrounders brought more teal, shovelers and mallards. The white shapes with the cattle were all little egrets. 

Wigeon, Marshside

I walked down towards Crossens, keeping a keen eye out on the outer marsh for any raptors. I'd hoped for a harrier but had to settle for "only" a female merlin perched on one of the fenceposts and a male peregrine sparring with a couple of carrion crows before heading off towards the river.

Lapwings and golden plover, Crossens

I reached Crossens just as a cloud of lapwings and golden plovers rose from the inner marsh. The crows that had had a run-in with the peregrine had decided to mob a buzzard that had been minding its own business sitting on the fence and when it decided to fly off it spooked the waders. They eventually settled back down, joining the hundreds of wigeons and teal that had completely ignored the drama. A male stonechat watched me on my way. I bumped into a pair of stonechats a bit further along after I'd crossed the road.

Stonechat, Crossens

The long grass on the outer marsh was full of skylarks, meadow pipits and linnets. Every so often I'd see one or two flying about. I'd crossed the road for a closer look when all the waders out there — a couple of hundred lapwings, perhaps the same number of golden plovers and a couple of dozen redshanks — rose up in a panicky cloud. The small birds joined them and I scanned round trying in vain to see what had set them off. It was obviously a raptor of some kind, they wouldn't react like that to a ground-borne threat, but what it was I could not see. It might have been the merlin but that's just a guess. I may have missed out on more than a couple of scaup.

The light was fading as the sun settled into the thick clouds on the horizon so I had hopes of seeing a short-eared owl out on the marsh, at least two have been seen regularly lately. I wasn't having any luck and I was getting a bit irritated by a couple of cars budging me out of the way so they could park in the wildfowlers' pull-up so their drivers could set up their telescopes so I sloped off before I said anything regrettable about people who buy expensive waxed jackets so they can sit in their cars birdwatching.

Crossens Outer Marsh

I took the path that leads over to Banks. It was getting a bit late to have a proper look over Banks Marsh so I confined myself to a quick scan round the fields by the cut.

At Crossens I got the 40 bus through Churchtown, getting off at the top of Norwood Avenue and walking down to Meols Cop for the train home. Pressing my nose against the train window and staring out into the gloom added a family of whooper swans to the day's tally just before Bescar Lane.