Southport

Fighting sheldrakes, Crossens Inner Marsh

I was due a wander round Marshside and Crossens so I got the train to Southport for a lunchtime walk. The first of the visit's many small flocks of starlings and spadgers greeting me as I got off the bus on Marshside Road and a dozen house martins wheeled around the rooftops on the corner of Elswick Road.

Starlings, Marshside

The general picture was pretty much the same as on my last visit except that the grass was longer and better for hiding greylags and lapwings and there were a lot more Canada goslings about.

Most of the small brown birds flitting about in the ditch by the road were house sparrows and goldfinches, with a couple of very vocal sedge warblers singing in the tall grass and a rather shy whitethroat chakking from the hawthorns on the corner.

It was thin gruel on Junction Pool with half a dozen avocets outnumbering the mallards and tufties.

Little egret, Marshside

There was more to see at Nels Hide with more mallards, tufties and avocets, a couple of dozen large gulls — equal numbers of lesser black-backs and herring gulls — loafing on the far bank, a few little egrets shrimping in the shallows, and a dozen dunlins bustling around the feet of fifty dozing black-tailed godwits. 

Black-tailed godwits and dunlins, Marshside

Avocet, Marshside

It was relatively quiet at Sandgrounders, which is to say that the crowd scenes were less crowded now the breeding season's in full tilt as most of the ducks that were around were busy in the small creeks and pools elsewhere on the reserve. The usual lapwings, oystercatchers and redshanks were out there, just the one little ringed plover on the scrape today, and a couple of golden plovers not fully in their breeding plumage slept in the middle of a small flock of godwits.

Little ringed plover, Marshside

I'd caught sight of a distant great white egret from the hide but couldn't pick it up as I walked down the path to Crossens. There was a pleasing abundance of little egrets, which made me wonder if I'd make a mistake but none of them had a yellow beak and if one had it wouldn't have been a little egret. Luckily, possibly the same great white egret flew low over Crossens Inner Marsh later on.

Little egrets, Crossens Inner Marsh

Comfrey, Crossens Inner Marsh

Crossens Outer Marsh was very quiet today with all the birds of Winter gone and leaving the fields to skylarks, meadow pipits and carrion crows. A buzzard flew low overhead and a raven flew across the distant saltmarsh.

Crossens Inner Marsh was considerably busier. A lot of the lapwings, avocets and Canada geese were sitting on nests, Canada geese and greylags had goslings, and there were mostly small parties of mallard ducklings (one mallard had a dozen very dark young ducklings to supervise). There seemed to be a lot of gadwall about, mostly pairs of birds dabbling about the vegetation round the little muddy islands. A male garganey was on one of the little pools by the bund at the back.

Garganey (top) and gadwall, Crossens Inner Marsh

There were small groups of shelducks dotted about both Marshside and Crossens Marsh. There was also a group of a dozen that kept flying about Crossens Inner Marsh. It was actually eleven sheldrakes chasing one young-looking shelduck. Every so often scuffles would break out amongst the suitors while the unenthusiastic duck made a break for it.

Sheldrakes, Crossens Inner Marsh

Sheldrakes courting a female shelduck, Crossens Inner Marsh

Shelduck saying: "Nothing doing." Crossens Inner Marsh

I'd stretched a lunchtime stroll over three hours so I decided it was time to make tracks. Getting home involved one cancelled train and two late-runners. Every day's a rerun and the laughter's always canned.