Ribble

Russian white-fronted goose and pink-footed goose, Banks Marsh

The long-staying red-crested pochard at Longton Brickcroft was the 100th tick on the year list. I'd bobbed in for a nosy on my way to a wild goose chase on the Ribble Estuary, which is going through one of its purple patches at the moment with six species of goose recorded this weekend.

Red-crested pochard, Longton Brickcroft

I'd got myself an old man's explorer ticket up to Preston then got the No.2 to Longton. The red-crested pochard is still wary of people but isn't above diving under the mallards to pick up any sunken food once people's backs are turned. The gadwall and tufted ducks were harder to find, over by the reeds on the other side of the pond. The mixed tit flocks included nuthatches, goldcrests and treecreepers (no coal tits today). There was a lot of chasing each other about and I noticed a pair of great tits were inspecting on of the bird boxes. The crashing and cooing in the hedgerow by the gate was the amorous antics of a pair of woodpigeons threatening to wreck the foundations of the nest they were building.

Nuthatch, Longton Brickcroft

Black-headed gulls and coot, Longton Brickcroft

Mallard, Longton Brickcroft

Goldeneye, Longton Brickcroft

Blackbird, Longton Brickcroft

There were a couple of male goldeneyes with the redhead goosander on the top pool, together with a dozen each of mallard and tufties, fifty-odd black-headed gulls and a shoveler.

Longton Brickcroft Middle Pond

I didn't have long to wait for the next Southport bus  As we were passing through Much Hooton a dozen mallards flew down across the road and walked up somebody's front drive. I have no idea what that was about.

Four whoopers watched the bus go by as we approached Hundred End and the fields were covered with shelducks.

I got off the bus at Banks Marsh and walked down towards Old Hall Farm. The stubble fields were busy with skylarks, meadow pipits, pied wagtails and linnets. Not for the first time I was amazed how quickly and effectively a flock of forty-something skylarks can rise, fly up a few yards and vanish not twenty yards from where I was watching. They have a genius for finding cover that the pied wagtails just couldn't be bothered even trying.

Skylarks, Banks Marsh

A couple of buzzards soared high above the copse to the North of the road and a female kestrel was sitting on the telegraph line by the old gamekeeper's lodge.

Mystery geese, Banks Marsh

A couple of geese on their own at the other end of a big field of cabbages had me puzzled. They were definitely not pink-footed geese and didn't look chunky enough to be greylags but I couldn't be sure they were white-fronted geese no matter how I tried. (About half an hour later I got a better look at them from the other side and confirmed they were a pair of Russian white-fronts.)

Russian white-fronted geese, Banks Marsh

I climbed up onto the bund overlooking the salt marsh, upsetting a bunch of pied wagtails and a little egret as I did so. I don't like walking along big bunds like this because my skylining may frighten the birds but there's no alternative if you're birding the marshes between Hesketh Outer and Crossens.

Banks Marsh

More shelducks, more little egrets, hundreds of wigeon and teal. Small skeins of pink-feet flew over and a flock of lapwings headed downstream. The first few hundred yards of the walk was to a soundtrack of wigeon whistles, the contented chuckling of shelduck and an occasional burst of calls from meadow pipits and skylarks deep in the grass on the banks. There were a few curlews out on the far marsh and every large pool had its redshank.

Half a dozen reed buntings skittered about the fence by a pond, accompanied by a small flock of meadow pipits and a few linnets. A small dark object flashed by, landed on a tall reed seedhead and I added my first stonechat to the year list.

Pink-footed geese

I started encountering family parties of pink-feet grazing on the marsh. Every so often I'd stop and scan them and they'd stop and glare at me until I started walking on. Just before the gate and stile at the halfway mark of the path a larger goose sat on the grass amongst the pink-feet. I've never seen a Russian white-front this close before.

Russian white-fronted goose and pink-footed geese, Banks Marsh

Russian white-fronted goose and pink-footed geese, Banks Marsh

Russian white-fronted goose and pink-footed geese, Banks Marsh

Crossens Outer Marsh was littered with lapwings spaced out as if on a grid. Here and there there would be a flock of starlings, some linnets or the occasional golden plovers. A couple of barnacle geese were lurking amongst the pink-feet. A crowd of a few dozen Canada geese loomed dark in the far distance.

Barnacle goose and pink-footed geese, Crossens Marsh

I thought about walking down to Marshside to see if the cackling goose reported yesterday was out on the salt marsh again (it hadn't been seen today). Or I could get the bus to Formby and have a walk out to try to catch up with the snow goose that had spent the day flitting between Plex Moss and Downholland Moss. After negotiating the third wobbly stile on the bund on the way into Banks my knee suggested we call it a day. It had been a good three hours' birdwatching on the marsh and it seemed a shame to do anything to take the gloss off it. There was ten minutes to wait for the X2 back to Preston so I took the hint and called it a day.

A four goose day and the year list up to 104 and a couple of very agreeable walks in mild Winter weather can't be all bad.

Banks Marsh