Leighton Moss

Male marsh harrier

It was pouring with rain at home but the weather forecast looked considerably better up North so I got an old man's explorer ticket and headed for Leighton Moss.

As we pulled into Silverdale the coastal pools were littered with white: black-headed gulls, avocets and shelducks. The banks were littered with greylag geese.

It was a cool and cloudy lunchtime and there wasn't much birdlife at the "Hideout" save a couple of dozen mallards and two rather tetchy blue tits. This set the tone for much of the walk: the residents were generally rather busy and a bit frazzled, leaving the newcomers to do all the showing off.

Black-headed gulls with chicks

Lilian's Hide was quiet with numbers of birds but the nesting black-headed gulls made up for it in noise. A few of the nests had young chicks struggling from under their parents. Otherwise there were a few tufties, coots and greylags.

At first glance the walk down the path to the reedbeds was busier with people than birds. Most of the small bird sounds were the wind in the willows though a chiffchaff and a song thrush provided some vocals. Nuthatches, wrens, great tits and blue tits were about but difficult to see, a pair of goldcrests showed well but were impossible to photograph.

Reedbeds, Leighton Moss

I lost count of the number of reed warblers that were singing in the reed beds. There was a handful of sedge warblers, I was lucky as the first "acro" warbler I bumped into today was a sedge warbler singing at the corner of the path opposite the seat. Just a minute before that I'd heard a whitethroat singing from the hedge to the field near the railway line. The half dozen Cetti's warblers were a bit more reticent, only really getting into song after they'd finished their lunch break. I didn't find any other warblers until I walked over to the causeway later on: a blackcap was feeding in a hawthorn bush by the golf club and a willow warbler was singing in the trees by the boardwalk.

Reed buntings and blue tits flitted about in the reeds and the first of what became a crowd of swifts flew in overhead.

Lesser black-backs nesting on the osprey platform

For once the most conspicuous ducks on the Tim Jackson and Griesdale Hides were gadwalls, primarily because there were so many of them about they couldn't all hide. A few shovelers were uncharacteristically inconspicuous, lurking in the reeds or disappearing into distant channels. I couldn't see any lapwing chicks about but the adults were making damned sure no carrion crows or marsh harriers were lingering about and I can't imagine they'd be doing that as a favour to the families of coots on the pools. A male marsh harrier flew in very low, was harried by the lapwings and a passing crow and headed off towards the reedbeds opposite the coastal pools.

The osprey platform that was erected by Griesdale Hide is currently occupied by a pair of lesser black-backs. The camera's set up and working so they'll be screen stars back in the cafe.

Swift

Walking back, more swifts flew in with a few swallows joining them. I'd reached the little ditch over the main drain when the first sand martins flew over. They seemed to be following the light showers that blew in, made themselves known for half a minute and blew out again.

Marsh marigold

I walked over to the boardwalk to the causeway. The weather had picked up enough for a large white and a few orange tips to be fluttering about along the sides of the path. A bullfinch sang in the trees with the willow warbler (I tend to forget that bullfinches can sing beyond the usual wistful squeak).

A moorhen with her chicks and a water rail squealing its way through the reeds and between some willow roots were additions to the day's tally. A couple of marsh harriers rode the thermals overhead, possibly the same male as before and a rather tatty juvenile bird with a lot of its secondary flight feathers missing.

Pochard preening

The first thing I noticed from the Causeway Hide was half a dozen pochards dozing and preening immediately in front of the hide. There were a few mallards and tufties about, too, but most of the birds on the water were coots or greylags. The waves of swifts that had been passing over became a crowd scene with at least a hundred feeding low over the pool. A similar number of sand martins flew in with half a dozen house martins tagging along to add to the confusion.

Nesting great black-back

The great black-backs are nesting on the island again, the vegetation on the island providing excellent cover for both nest and parent. Another adult, probably the mate of the nesting bird, flew in for a wash and a preen while a second-year bird kept its distance and didn't land.

Great black-back, probably the mate of the one on the nest

I'd heard a bittern booming a few times but couldn't see it. It's fiendishly difficult to judge these things but I think it was calling from the reeds between the causeway and the Lower Hide that you can't actually see from that hide because of the bend.

Causeway pool

I did think about going down to the Lower Hide but I noticed a couple of noisy groups I'd tried and failed to avoid were heading that way so I decided to give it a miss. I checked the train times: I had time for a cup of tea before the last direct train back to Manchester. It seemed a waste of an old man's explorer ticket to go straight back but I didn't fancy messing about with that huge empty space in the timetable and getting back home very late. I'll go up to Hodbarrow again later this month.

Leighton Moss