Lazy day

The view from the train just after Drigg

It had been a vile start to the day but the weather forecast hinted that the further North you went the more chance of it brightening up in the afternoon so I got myself an old man's explorer ticket and headed North.

I had a vague idea of perhaps getting an hour in at Hodbarrow but looking at the afternoon train connections I couldn't get anything to work. The trains to Carlisle from Barrow set off just before the trains from Lancaster arrive, because of course they would. So there was fifty-odd minutes lost even before I started worrying about getting back home bearing in mind both the big gaps in Northern's schedule between Lancaster and Preston and the potential for cancellations due to lack of train staff. In the end I settled on a sightseeing trip by rail up as far as Seascale where I could wait the ten minutes for the train back and, connections willing, get back home just before ten. This allowed a few lightning sketches of the birdlife of three estuaries and the coastal pools at Leighton Moss and passed through miles of very agreeable scenery.

The train from Manchester to Barrow whizzes through most of Lancashire, sitting in Preston Station for twenty minutes at half time while the train sucks a slice of orange. Consequently, nearly all the birdwatching from the train is limited to corvids, gulls and pigeons. I only pick up the mallards in a trackside covey between Barnacre and Bilsborrow because years of accidentally catching sight of one has taught me they may be there. Similarly the swallows round the farms near Bilsborrow and Scorton and that moorhen on the pond just after we've gone through Newsham. Things picked up as the train started to wend its way more slowly beyond Carnforth.

It was low tide so there weren't many waders on the coastal pools at Leighton Moss and all but the avocets too distant to identify. Small groups of shelducks dabbled in the shallow pools, family groups of greylags grazed the banks and the black-headed gull colony was heaving as usual.

Going over the Kent at Arnside there were a few black-headed gulls and oystercatchers on the mud banks. Over on the other side there were more oystercatchers and shelducks on the salt marsh before Grange.

Approaching the Leven Estuary from Cark there wasn't a lot on the saltmarsh: the usual carrion crows and woodpigeons, a wheatear was a surprise. The most striking thing on the estuary were the groups of a dozen or more eiders loafing on the mud banks.

Barrow Park

The sun had come out at Ulverston and I had a while to kill at Barrow so I went on a short walk. There wasn't enough time for a stroll round Cavendish Dock, and from the train there didn't look to be a lot on the water anyway, so I took a turn around Barrow Park. It's a nicely laid-out traditional municipal park and a very pleasant walk. Jackdaws were everywhere, blackbirds and robins sang from every shrubbery and were joined by a song thrush and a garden warbler down by the bandstand. A few dozen herring gulls and lesser black-backs occupied the lake while families of greylags and Canada geese grazed the lawns.

Looking over the Duddon Estuary as we passed Askam Golf Club

I got the Carlisle train and we were very soon dawdling our way around the Duddon Estuary. More gulls, corvids, woodpigeons and blackbirds with the occasional pheasant, yellowhammer or flock of starlings in the fields. Passing over the river near Lady Hall there was another bunch of eiders loafing on the bank. As we left Millom and turned into the Irish Sea coast my first roe deer of the day bounced from the trackside and went running off towards Haverigg.

There were more oystercatchers and gulls on the river Esk near Ravensglass, together with redshanks, herons and reed buntings. (It really is a slow train along this stretch.)

I changed at Seascale, having eight minutes to walk round and change platforms. A wise move as the next train South after this one was cancelled. I sat facing inland on the way back to try and see what I'd missed on the way up.

There were flocks of herring gulls and black-headed gulls on the Esk above Ravensglass. All the way back home there were flocks of rooks and jackdaws, mostly less than a dozen a flock but some of the fields in North Lancashire had fifty or more birds in them. The osprey's nest at Green Road looked like there had been some refurbishment but I couldn't see any osprey about.

Crossing the Leven there were yet more eiders on the inland mud banks, together with more shelducks and a couple of teal. The last roe deer of the day stared at the train from a field a mile or so further on. There hadn't been many little egrets about, it seems they were all on the muddy inlets at Arnside.

There seemed to be a lot of herons in the fields between Arnside and Silverdale. Silverdale Station was unusually quiet. There were more black-headed gulls on the inland pools across the line from the Allen and Eric Morecambe hides together with a flock of fifty-odd black-tailed godwits.

All in all a very idle way of seeing fifty-two species of birds in a day. I'll have to have a rather more active weekend.