Pennington Flash

Shoveler

It was one of those "If you don't like the weather now you're not going to like it when the weather changes in ten minutes' time" sort of days where if you're going for a walk you want to be within five minutes' walk of shelter. After refilling all the feeders in the back garden I decided to have a lunchtime walk around Pennington Flash.

The rain was steady but light as I walked in from St Helens Road, a flock of great tits and blue tits bouncing round in the undergrowth of the little fenced-off car park while a couple of jays collected acorns up above.

Pennington Brook

There was plenty of evidence of storm damage, with bits of debris littering the path and unexpected gaps in the trees. The brook by the bridge was almost lapping the path.

It was business back to normal on the car park with the usual crowd of Canada geese, mallards, mute swans and black-headed gulls hustling for food from passers-by. Even the car park oystercatcher (now in his fourth year of occupation) will come up and try his luck.

Out on the water there were hundreds of coots and black-headed gulls, dozens of tufted ducks and a dozen pochards. Further out there was a large raft of lesser black-backs and herring gulls over near the sailing club and a couple of dozen great crested grebes were dotted about. A juvenile great northern diver had been reported overnight and was still lingering at daybreak but had been reported missing and hour before I arrived so it was more in hope than expectation that I had a scan round for it and I wasn't surprised that the only large birds on the water were geese, cormorants and great black-backs.

Neither the sausage bap van nor the ice cream van were on today, unusual even in December.

The end of the Horrocks Spit
Lapwings, cormorants, a pair of carrion crows and a great black-back

The water was very high so the spit at the Horrocks Hide was a couple of small islands littered with lapwings and cormorants. The water was too deep for most dabbling ducks, a couple of mallards loafed by the hide and a pair of shovelers drifted over towards the bight. There were a few more tufties and half a dozen goldeneyes hunted in the channel at the end of the spit. The peace was shattered by the arrival of a group of elderly maskless birders noisily intent on finding the diver so I moved on.

Song thrush

The path to the Tom Edmondson Hide was busy with robins, song thrushes and blackbirds. 

Teal

Teal

Teal

Teal, including two first-Winter drakes

There was a few dozen teal, mostly drakes, on the pools at the Tom Edmondson Hide. There was a lot of head-bobbing going on in groups clustering round the few ducks that were around. A couple of small drakes caught my eye, first-Winter birds with the adult badges of office of full head plumage and buff undertail tacked onto otherwise juvenile plumage.

There were a couple of pairs of shovelers and loose groups of drakes busily having a wash and brush-up.

From the Tom Edmondson Hide

The sun came out and we were treated to a rainbow. Within minutes it was pouring down again. I waited for it to ease off before moving on.

The usual Cetti's warbler sang from the drowned brambles by the path to Ramsdales. I heard the flock of fifty-odd siskins in the larches long before I actually saw them start to move over to join a flock of goldfinches in the alders.

The sun came out properly as I wandered down to Ramsdales. I spent a few minutes finding pairs of bullfinches and wrens in the hawthorns and watching a buzzard float by at treetop height.

From Ramsdales

The scrape at Ramsdales was entirely underwater. There wasn't much other than a pair of mallards and a couple of tufties.

Walking past the Tom Edmondson Hide

I walked back down and round to Pengy's Hide where gadwalls, shovellers and coots were dotted about in small groups.

The Bunting Hide was busy so I spent a few minutes at the corner of the rough path watching titmice commuting between the woodland and the hide feeding station. Most were blue tits but a couple of willow tits showed well.

Goosander

I moved on to the Teal Hide, passing a couple of flocks of long-tailed tits along the way. A dozen goosanders were loafing and preening on the pool in the company of more shovelers, teals and gadwall.

Goosanders

The chap I was sharing the hide with was new to the game and this was his first visit here so I confirmed his ID of the goosanders and told him where to have a fighting chance of bumping into willow tits and Cetti's warblers. I unsuccessfully tried to find him a willow tit at the Bunting Hide. There were plenty of blue tits, great tits and coal tits, bullfinches aplenty, a crowd of chaffinches feeding on the few bits of ground that wasn't underwater and one of the long-tailed tit flocks made an appearance but no willow tit. I concluded I was putting the jinx on him so I wished him luck and bade him farewell. I hope he got one.

Pennington Flash

As I walked back the clouds gathered and it was pouring down again as I walked through the car park. Still, it had been a good few hours' birdwatching.