Southport

Black-tailed godwits, Marshside

The promise was a bright, sunny day so I set out for a walk from Southport to Crossens, the aim being to find snow buntings and twite between the pleasure beach and the sailing club then see what was around at Marshside and Crossens Marsh.

The ride to Southport was fine, with a buzzard on Astley Moss, plenty of woodpigeons and gulls, and lots of mallards and teal in the gutters between Bescar Lane and Meols Cop.

It was the advertised bright, sunny day at Southport and the stiff breeze blowing in from the Irish Sea was as bitter as Hell. Which actually wasn't so bad once I was walking along the Marine Drive but was hard work walking up to the Marine Lake.

Herring gulls, Southport Marine Lake

The usual mallards, coots and mute swans accompanying the black-headed gulls and herring gulls on the lake. It took me a while to find the dabchicks and tufted ducks. I had no luck finding the common scoter that had just been reported but a pair of gadwall was a nice find.

Record shot: the sea at Southport

It was high tide and the sea was lapping the walkway by the pleasure beach (I've never seen this before). There were a few pied wagtails and a couple of carrion crows rummaging in the debris thrown up by the sea when I arrived. I walked down a bit and four snow buntings flew up from some stranded seaweed and landed a little ahead. I tried to get a photo of them but it just made them nervous so I left them alone. I've not seen snow buntings this flighty before but then I've never seen more than two at a time except in passing (just outside Colwyn Bay Station on the train).

Pied wagtail, Southport

I walked back and headed off under the pier and had a nosy round the sailing club. No twites to be seen but I added a couple of oystercatchers to the year list. (The great thing about this time of year is that 'most everything is a year tick.)

I crossed over to the walkway on the other side of the Marine Drive and had a look at the marsh. Plenty of black-headed and herring gulls about, a couple of pied wagtails on the concrete wall and a few redshanks paddling in the damp grass. The first of very many skylarks and meadow pipits seen today flew in and landed in the higher marsh, just out of the water. I'd gone about a hundred yards when three twites flew over from the car park and disappeared into the marsh. I'm hoping there's more than three about and the rest were hidden in the wet grass.

Shelduck, Southport

Pink-footed geese, Southport

It was only when I approached the roundabout by the golf course that I met the first pink-footed geese, a few small family groups grazing near the road. A commotion halfway out in the marsh caught my eye. A cloud of pipits, skylarks and starlings erupted from the tall grasses as a female merlin made a couple of low passes. She swung high and swooped back in again in a last, unsuccessful, effort then stormed off further up the marsh, her progress marked by skylarks and pipits and the sounds of pink-feet annoyed by the disturbance. A few little egrets jumped out of the way then went back to feeding in the puddles.

Passing Hesketh Road I was a bit disoriented as I looked over the road: the water on Marshside was very high, covering nearly all the marsh between Hesketh Road and Nel's Hide. There weren't many ducks on it but there were a hundred or so gulls dotted around, mostly black-headed, and a couple of groups of a dozen herring gulls loafing on the banks opposite the hide.

Looking out from Nel's I could see a few hundred lapwings on the far bank by the golf course. Over towards Marshside Road, where the ground's higher, there were flocks of wigeon and black-tailed godwits. A couple of great black-backs flew in but didn't settle.

Junction Pool

Junction Pool was huge and covered in shovelers, pintails and mallards. More wigeons dabbled at the edges and godwits fed in the wet grass.

Shovelers, pintails and wigeon, Junction Pool

As I crossed Marshside Road there was an eruption of black-tailed godwits, lapwings and golden plovers. It didn't take long to discover the culprit: a male peregrine flying through at rooftop height. It crossed the road, a cloud of godwits and wigeons came over my side.

Black-tailed godwits, Marshside

The pool by Sandgrounders was twice its usual size, the little islands nearly inundated. The only birds on the water were a couple of dabchicks and a tufted duck, there were a few dozen wigeon on the banks.

Wigeon, Marshside

Greylags and lapwings, Marshside

Wigeons, Marshside

Teal, Marshside
The drakes were doing a lot of head-bobbing displays

Looking out from Sandgrounders there were hundreds of grazing wigeon and dabbling teal. There were small family groups of greylags out on the field and more black-headed gulls over on Polly's Pool.

Golden plovers, Crossens Inner Marsh

Golden plovers and lapwings, Crossens Outer Marsh

There were more than a thousand each of lapwings and golden plovers on Crossens Inner Marsh together with a few hundred each of wigeon and black-tailed godwits. They were put to flight by another peregrine, a browner bird than the one I saw earlier. Most of them settled back down once the danger had passed but a couple of hundred lapwings, and perhaps more golden plovers, crossed over onto Crossens Outer to join the small flocks on there.

Crossens Outer Marsh

The pink-feet on Crossens Outer Marsh were keeping to the long grass. Out on the grazed area the only geese were nearly a hundred Canada geese about quarter of a mile out. "If the Todd's Canada goose is on Crossens today I've a fat chance of finding it in that lot," I said to myself. Damn me there it was, a big, dumpy goose with a pipe cleaner neck out in the front of the crowd. I tried to get some pictures but between the light, the distance and the wind all I got was a lot of camera shake.

The last drama of the afternoon was a couple of redshanks taking exception to a passing kestrel.

I got the bus into Southport and the train back to Salford Crescent, getting the V1 bus to make the connection to my train home to make sure of getting it.

Crossens Inner Marsh