Pennington Flash

The end of the Horrocks spit
Herring gulls, black-headed gulls, great black-backed gulls, lapwings and Canada geese

I thought I'd go over for a late afternoon walk round Pennington Flash, partly because the weather had improved but I didn't fancy the Sunday crowds on the Mersey Valley, partly to have the first look at the evening gull roost of the year.

I forgot that on Sundays there's a switch and it's the 132 Wigan bus that leaves the Trafford Centre at ten to the hour and the 126 to Leigh leaves at quarter past. Consequently, I was a bit later than planned arriving at Pennington Flash. Which worked out fine because it meant I was sat on a bus when the only shower of the afternoon passed over.

Pennington Flash

Arriving at Pennington Flash the great tits, blue tits and robins were busy foraging in the woods. A few woodpigeons and magpies flitted overhead and the first small flocks of jackdaws were heading to roost.

There were no coots or mallards on the brook, they were all with the Canada geese and mute swans mugging passersby for bird food. It didn't take long for me to spot the car park oystercatcher hiding in a bunch of moorhens. The ice cream van and the sausage butty van provided a reassuring note of normality in difficult times.

Pennington Flash

The wind had picked up a bit and was blowing in cold over the flash. A couple of hundred coots littered the water close to the shore with a few small rafts of tufted ducks. A small group of goldeneyes, eight or nine of them, were bobbing up and down mid-water with a few great crested grebes. 

There were a lot of gulls. Between those on the car park, the couple of big rafts over near the far bank and the crowds flying in there were more than a thousand black-headed gulls. Further out, towards the sailing club, there was a raft of large gulls, perhaps a couple of hundred herring gulls and a few dozen lesser black-backs. There were more lesser black-backs with the black-headed gulls and about fifty great black-backs in a raft opposite the Horrocks Hide and a few more, very noisy, first-Winter herring gulls at the end of the spit. I scanned through them all as best I could, just in case, but the only oddities were a couple of very dark common gulls with almost full brown hoods and a remarkably pale first-Winter great black-back that had me scratching my head until I realised how big it was compared to a couple of nearby cormorants.

The water was still high so there wasn't much of the spit to be seen, just enough space for half a dozen woodpigeons and a couple of dozen lapwings.

Mute swans and mallards

It was getting late so there wasn't a lot in the hedgerow by the path to the Tom Edmondson Hide. There was quite a lot more to be seen looking through the hedge on to Pengy's Pool with a few dozen each of coot and tufties and pairs of gadwall and shovelers. A Mediterranean gull flew over with a pack of black-headed gulls, I would have missed it had it not called.

Heron, from the Tom Edmondson Hide

The herons were coming in to roost at the Tom Edmondson Hide, a couple of them disturbing the teals in the reeds as they came in.

From Ramsdales Hide

It was locking up time at Ramsdales Hide so I had a look round from the screens. There were a few teal dozing by the banks under the trees and a few tufties and great crested grebes were preening by the bight.

I wandered back to have a last look at the flash. Yet more gulls were coming in, mostly black-headed with a few lesser black-backs and herring gulls and a touch of drama as a squadron of great black-backs powered in through the crowds.

I decided not to linger, Sunday bus timetables being as they are. As it was I needn't have rushed, I ended up walking back into Leigh to make sure if getting my last bus home.

I took the shortcut home through my local patch