Leighton Moss

Marsh tit

I thought it more than high time I had a visit to Leighton Moss and, for once, the trains behaved impeccably in both directions. It had started to rain when I arrived at Silverdale Station and seeing as I haven't yet replaced my flat cap I bought a cheap baseball cap in the RSPB shop to stop the raindrops tapping on my bald spot. Almost at once the clouds parted and it was a bright, sunny day thereafter.

There was a small, and very well-behaved, school party in the Hideout so I didn't get my eye in on the bird feeders. It hardly needed doing anyway as most of the birds on the pathways seem to have emerged from post-breeding moult and skulk.

The black-headed gulls dominated the pool at Lilian's Hide. A few were sitting on nests, there were no full-sized juveniles about. There were also a few loafing mallards and gadwalls and a couple of tufties and about forty coots. A couple of marsh harriers — a male and a female — drifted over the reeds and a few swifts wafted around on high.

I walked down through the reedbeds to the Tim Jackson Hide, accompanied by the songs of wrens, blackcaps, chiffchaffs and sedge warblers. Along the way a marsh tit broke off from demolishing a piece of moss on a tree trunk to come and see if I had any bird seed (I hadn't, and was made to feel very guilty about it). 

Crossing over the little bridge over the main drain I managed to see a water rail swimming across the ditch before it disappeared into the reeds. I hear water rails all over the place and every so often catch tantalising glimpses of them, Leighton Moss is the only place I get to get a good look at them on a regular basis. I hadn't gone far when I heard the first reed warbler of the day and a pair of emperor dragonflies powered by, my first of the year and their identities confirmed by my bumping into a couple of common hawkers which looked positively dainty in comparison.

Spot the red deer hind
(Her ears are just right of centre)

The view from Tim Jackson Hide was fairly quiet with a few gadwall and mallards taking it easy and a pair of coots with a very young family. A red deer hind sat in the tall grass not fifty yards away, all but invisible save for the twitching of her ears. The main action was with the dragonflies: common blue damselflies zipped around the tops of the grasses while broad-bodied chasers chased each other around the pools. 

Baby coot

I wandered round to the Griesdale Hide with more reed warblers and some reed buntings singing in the background. I could hear the tapping pennies calls of bearded tits not far into the reeds and had just found where at least one of them was calling from when a hobby shot past at head height and over towards the hide. Everything went quiet after that. I saw the hobby again about five minutes later as it rose on the thermals and went soaring high over in the direction of the causeway. A willow warbler by the hide was still making a point of staying low in the bushes when I got there.

A pair of great black-backs and their youngster are occupying the osprey platform

I didn't stop long in the Griesdale Hide, it seemed a shame to intrude on so many very loud conversations. I stayed long enough to see that the greater black-backs that have commandeered the osprey platform have a youngster, that the greylags didn't seem to, and that the mute swans had a couple of cygnets. A chap with more camouflage gear than the Eighth Army barged in amidst great fanfare and regaled the assembled with loud tales of his recent birdwatching successes. I made a discreet exit. Outside another pair of harriers were floating over the reeds and a buzzard was soaring high overhead.

I'm baffled by this small damselfly

I was congratulating myself on my being able to identify all the damsels and dragons flying about the reedbeds when I spotted an oddity amongst the blue-tailed damsels flitting about a stream. It was slightly smaller and looked even more fragile and I haven't been able to make the identification at all. I does one good to be reminded not to get too cocky once in a while.

The common toadlets scrabbling across the path were a bit easier to identify.

Toadlet

Walking back I bumped into my second mixed tit flock of the Autumn as it bumped into a family of blackcaps fossicking about in the hawthorns. For a good five minutes there was a confusion of blue tits, long-tailed tits, marsh tits, great tits and juvenile blackcaps and each time I thought one group or another had moved on some or all came back for another go. Once they'd finally gone I had to wait a minute or so for a sunbathing blackbird to budge up a bit so I could get past.

Juvenile long-tailed tit

Juvenile blackcap

Blackbird

I was ready for a cup of tea and while I was having it I noticed that the noisy parties were drifting over to the causeway so I decided to give it a miss. I only had ten minutes to wait for the train straight through to Manchester so I took that. I had an old man's explorer ticket and the afternoon was still young so I should have moved on to someplace else but I couldn't find any useful train connections and I really couldn't be bothered faffing round anywhere for the best part of an hour so I called it a day. I'd had a couple of hours' exercise and there'd been plenty to see, there was no point in being greedy.

Martin Mere

Brown hare, Red Cat Lane

The day started with a garden full of young birds, mostly spadgers. I don't know what the attraction was on the living room window sill but half a dozen sparrows and a wren were vying for it.

Spadglings

The train journey into Manchester was a nightmare and the one to Burscough Bridge was only marginally better, a consequence of a broken-down train at Oxford Road Station.

It had been pouring down in Manchester but was only dark and muggy at Burscough Bridge. The weather seemed to provoke the skylarks and corn buntings down Red Cat Lane into song. Rounding the bend before Curlew Lane the heavens opened and that set the stall for the next couple of hours. There must have been a hundred or more hirundines feeding over the barns by the corner of Curlew Lane, mostly house martins with a dozen swallows and a handful of sand martins. As the weather closed in they were joined by a dozen swifts. A sparrowhawk shot by and into the garden of the farmhouse, chased by a couple of dozen house martins 

Juvenile black-headed gulls, Martin Mere

The black-headed gulls were the main feature on the mere: there were hundreds of them and they easily outnumbered everything else by ten to one. A handful were still sitting on nests, most of the juveniles were in flying condition in a bewildering array of brown and white motley. Juvenile black-headed gulls always seem very wader like compared to the adults and any other species of gull I've seen. Half-grown youngsters in particular have a hunchbacked look similar to a ruff and I had to look twice a few times. As I was coming into Martin Mere a chap stopped me and told me where to find a Mediterranean gull nest but I was damned if I could find it in all the hubbub.

Shelduckling, Martin Mere

I was surprised to see a young shelduck feeding on its own in front of the hide, particularly as I couldn't see any adults anywhere. About five minutes after a massive pour down the adults emerged from behind an island on the far side of the mere with two less adventurous ducklings in tow.

From the Discovery Hide 

There were just a handful of lapwings about the mere and just a couple of oystercatchers (most of them were in the stork enclosure by the entrance). I had no luck finding any other waders, I had been hoping to bump into a green sandpiper here 

I bumped into my first mixed tit flock of Autumn by the path by the duckery: two dozen long-tailed tits, a dozen blue tits, some great tits and a couple of chaffinches. How fast the seasons roll. I spent a while looking for tawny owls in the ivy-covered trees but unlike me they had the sense to find deep shelter from the rain.

The Kingfisher Hide 

There were more young shelducks on the pools at the Ron Barker Hide. One family of very young ducklings were dabbling by the water's edge near some young avocets and it was quite unnerving how similar they looked at first glance. I expect the disruptive colouration is doing the same job for both.

Whenever the rain stopped a couple of marsh harriers rose from the reeds, once the showers got heavy again they dropped back down. The teal dabbling in the shallows weren't best impressed by them.

I saw but didn't hear a sedge warbler and heard but couldn't see a Cetti's warbler from the hide. The same bird might have been singing from the brambles near the Kingfisher Hide.

Juvenile black-headed gulls, Martin Mere

Juvenile black-headed gull, Martin Mere

I walked back and had a look over the mere from the screens where the Swan Link Hide used to be, taking advantage of ten minutes' bright sunshine. From the furthest screen I could see the nesting Mediterranean gull on the raft on the mere. It was largely hidden by black-headed gulls, just its head showing above the crowd. I went back to the first screen and tried again now I knew where it was: just the top of its head could be seen behind some vegetation. The vegetation completely obscured the bird from where I had been looking in the Discovery Hide (I went back and checked).

Corn bunting, Tarlscough Lane

Red-legged partridges, Tarlscough Lane

I checked the time and the trains and concluded there was no point in heading for New Lane so I walked back to Burscough Bridge. It was clouding over again but I had good hopes of beating the rain, though rain would have been better walking than the heavy mug turned out to be.

The donkey and horses at Brandeth Barn had emerged from their shelter but were facing stuff competition for grazing from a couple of dozen rabbits. The corn bunting that had been singing on the telegraph wires by the potato store was back and sang for the camera and a pair of red-legged partridges zigzagged for non-existent cover on a cleared turf field. At the corner of Curlew Lane the house martins were busy chasing off a kestrel that had tried hovering over the rough edges of the barn yard. I accidentally startled a hare that was sitting dead centre in the turf field behind the barn.

As I came to the bend in the road a bird of prey flew in hard from across the fields at treetop height. At first I thought it was a marsh harrier, all long wings and with a pale head. I started to have my doubts as it approached: it had a white belly, and a pale underwing. Was it a buzzard? There was a dark carpal patch on the underwing alright but it wasn't a clean block, it sort of smeared and spread towards the body. And what sort of buzzard has wings and tail like that. And a white crown to its head? While all this internal dialogue was going on it didn't occur to me to get the camera out and take some photos of a passing osprey. By the time I recovered my wits it was off and over past the fields beyond and probably halfway to Rufford. I think it was a subadult, or else an adult in heavy moult, as it looked more brown and white than white and brown.

A day full of lousy weather and excellent birdwatching.

Stalybridge

Robin, Besom Lane

I'd been waiting for the lunchtime delivery of a new pair of boots so I had to postpone the planned excursion. Having received them I thought I should go for a walk so we can get to know each other. I've pretty much neglected the Eastern half of Greater Manchester this month so I thought I'd have that explore of Stalybridge Country Park.

I got the train to Stalybridge and the 348 to Millbrook. The entrance to the park is just back down the road at the sharp corner. There wasn't a lot about: a couple of chiffchaffs and blackcaps sang in the trees, swallows, pigeons and jackdaws flew overhead, a mallard and a couple of moorhens shared a small pond.

Stalybridge Country Park 

I'd been told of a path that runs across the top of a water drain up to the end of the park at Brushes Road. I found it and followed it through the woodland. As I'd expect this time of year it was fairly quiet, more chiffchaffs and blackcaps, a few blackbirds and wrens singing, young robins, blue tits and long-tailed tits rustling in the undergrowth. In the middle of the wood I was surprised to find a stand of common spotted orchids in amongst the ferns.

Common spotted orchid
Stalybridge Country Park

Once I got to Brushes Road it seemed silly not to go the couple of hundred yards to Walkerswood Reservoir to see what was about. The answer, on the water at least, was just a few black-headed gulls and a lesser black-back. The margins were a different matter. A willow warbler and a song thrush sang from the conifers on the far bank while chiffchaffs, blackbirds and blackcaps sang from the alders and birches by Brushes Road. The hillside by the road is more open, woodpigeons and blackbirds fed on the grass or sat in bushes while a male kestrel hovered overhead.

Walkerswood Reservoir 

I got to the top of Walkerswood Reservoir and decided I wouldn't go up any further as I'd only intended to have a quick toddle round the country park. A flurry of activity in the Rhododendrons up the road caught my eye so I went to investigate and found a family of great tits bouncing round in there.  Further along there were some starlings and wrens, it took me a few minutes to find the young coal tit rummaging around in some bilberries and I only got a fleeting glimpse of the buzzard I could hear calling over the hillside.

Walkerswood Reservoir 

I decided this was really as far as I was going and turned back. At the bottom of Walkerswood Reservoir I decided to leave Brushes Road and take the path that becomes Besom Lane. The fields were jam-packed with jackdaws, there were handfuls of woodpigeons and pheasants about and a few swallows hawked overhead.

Pheasant, Besom Lane

I got down to the bottom of Besom Lane with ten minutes to wait for the next bus back. I didn't see a lot of variety of birds but it was a good couple of hours' birdwatching.

Hodbarrow

Sandwich tern, Hodbarrow

I looked out of the window at the teeming rain and thought: "Ah well, the garden needs it." Actually, the garden needs a machete. One of the young great tits is tagging along with the "silver team" house sparrows, which is a long-established strategy in my garden. One of the blue tits follows along at a longer distance, arriving at the feeders about five minutes after the sparrows have moved on to rummaging round the roses for aphids. There's a couple of new young dunnocks kicking about, too, and the starlings I've been hearing in neighbours' eaves are now begging for food in the treetops.

Juvenile dunnock, Stretford

The weather set fair for Cumbria so I took a chance, got myself an old man's explorer ticket and headed off for Millom. The trains behaved themselves and I arrived in bright sunshine late lunchtime after a very pleasant journey.

I was surprised by how dry the marsh was as we passed the Eric Morecambe and Allen hides by Leighton Moss. The nesting great black-backs are sitting on a grassy knoll in a patch of cracked mud. Still, it would be a brave animal that tried anything much with them. The tide was coming in strong so there wasn't a lot on the Kent at Arnside, though plenty of pied wagtails and swifts on the salt marsh on the approach to Grange. The Leven was high, too, with just a few eiders and black-headed gulls loafing on the banks. There were a lot more black-headed gulls on the sandbars on the Duddon between Kirkby and Foxfield. Three common sandpipers flying up a creek by Kirkby in Furness was a nice surprise, I only ever see one or two at a time.

Walking down Maingate Road to Hodbarrow there were a few swallows twitting about overhead while a couple of chiffchaffs and blackcaps sang fitfully in the trees. There were more of the same when I got to Hodbarrow.

Little egrets, Hodbarrow

A quick look at this end of the lagoon found a lot of black-headed gulls, herring gulls and lesser black-backs, a few mallards and a tree full of little egrets. Closer inspection of the tree yielded half a dozen cormorants in the treetop and a juvenile grey heron trying to fit in with the crowd.

Mine tower, Hodbarrow 

The sunny weather had brought out the dragonflies, mostly common blue damselflies with at least two azure damselflies with the blue U under their wings, a few broad-bodied chasers and a delicate green and gold ghost of a female emerald damsel (yes, I had to look it up). There were a few butterflies about, mostly ringlets with a few small tortoiseshells.

While I was being distracted by insects a couple of whitethroats started singing in the horse bushes and young wrens and robins could be heard squealing in the depths of the hawthorns.

Sandwich tern, Hodbarrow

I'd been hearing terns for a while, as I approached the sea wall I saw the first common terns and Sandwich terns. My walk down to the hide was accompanied by their calls and odd birds zooming low over from the Duddon Estuary to their nests, not many of them much higher than head height. An eider duck storming past at chest height was a tad intimidating.

I was hoping to bump into some little terns, it wasn't long before I saw my first. I don't know if there's much more than a dozen pairs here but they were zipping around so much it felt like a crowd of them. I gave up trying to get any photos of them as they flew by; it was hard enough with the much larger and relatively slower Sandwich terns, I failed entirely with the little terns and got lots of empty scenery photos. So I gave up and just went with the ride, which was exhilarating and frustrating in equal measure.

Eiders, Hodbarrow

There wasn't much out on the water: the eiders, Canada geese and greylags hugged the sides of the shingle bank. A pair of red-breasted mergansers didn't stray far from the shore either. I forget that drake red-breasted mergansers have an eclipse plumage.

Little terns, Hodbarrow

Little tern, Hodbarrow

I had a scan round from the hide. Most of the action, and the noise, came from the black-headed gulls and their mostly full-grown youngsters. They look to have had a good year of it. Some of the Sandwich terns looked to be still sitting on nests, some of the young common terns were flying and chasing their parents for food. I think a couple of the little terns were on nests, it's hard to be sure but I think I saw a couple of small youngsters with one of them. I'm impressed by how well the little terns disappear into a background of sun-drenched white shingle.

Black-headed gulls, Hodbarrow

Black-headed gulls, Hodbarrow

Pairs of oystercatchers had half-sized young which they noisily protected from any passing gulls and crows. Even juvenile black-headed gulls got chased off if they wandered too close by. I almost missed the lapwings, shelducks, great crested grebes and a common gull in the melee.

Duddon Estuary, Hodbarrow 

I had a potter back and got the train back to Barrow. It looks like the osprey nest at Green Road isn't in use this year.

I had the best part of an hour to wait for the train to Lancaster but decided I couldn't be bothered going for a wander round. Highlights of the journey back included a lot of little egrets on the Leven Estuary, roe deer in a field between Arnside and Silverdale, and a red deer stag feeding in the reeds in the pools on the landward side of the track by the coastal pools at Leighton Moss.

By far the biggest surprise came as the train was starting to get its steam up after crossing the Leven Estuary. There's a pool just here which I now know is called Holker Park. I keep an eye out for it because there's usually some waterfowl on it. Today there were a few mallards and a black-necked grebe on its own out in the middle of the pool. It looked like an adult in moult: the neck and head were black and the light caught a couple of golden plumes like straws stuck behind its ears. It was a fleeting but excellent view of the bird and the icing on the cake of a good day's birdwatching.

Chelford: Lapwing Hall Pool and Acre Nook Quarry

Sketch map: Chelford Station to Lapwing Hall Pool and Acre Nook Quarry

Lapwing Hall Pool and Acre Nook Quarry are sites that you see every so often in bird alerts and reports and wonder where they are. As it happens, they're a couple of the more easily-accessible sites in Cheshire away from the main towns, about twenty minutes' walk from Chelford Station (a bit longer if, like me, you're dawdling to see what's in the fields and trees along the way).

Chelford's on the Crewe — Manchester Piccadilly line just south of Alderley Edge and trains stop roughly once an hour (you'll need to check times beforehand to make sure you don't hit one of the gaps). Once you've left the station head East along the main road out of town, past the parish hall and you get to a petrol station at the junction between the A537 (the Knutsford to Macclesfield road) and the A535 (the Alderley Edge to Holmes Chapel road). Head down the Holmes Chapel Road. There's a pavement most of the way down this stretch, though it's a bit thin on the bridge by the church, and it's an easy walk. The pavement stops at Congleton Lane but there's a very wide (about ten yards) grass verge between here and Lapwing Lane so you'll be OK walking down here.

Holmes Chapel Road 

For your first visit I'd suggest you go down Lapwing Lane to get your bearings. You could overshoot the area if you walk down Congleton Lane, it's impossible to do so on Lapwing Lane as it's a cul-de-sac. As you walk down you'll see the usual suspects in the fields and gardens, not all the sparrows are house sparrows. One of the small quarry pools can be seen through the trees near the beginning of the lane, it's worth checking out just in case.

Lapwing Hall Pool

About halfway down the lane, after the bend in the road, there's a kissing gate into the field containing Lapwing Hall Pool. The path around the Northern edge of the pool is a nice easy walk, getting a little muddy in a couple of places but not atrociously so. You never get a close view of the pool: the bank's quite high, some parts are planted with trees and some areas are fenced off as nature reserves. Even so, you'll be able to see nearly all the pool from one angle or another.

Smew (left) and goosanders, Lapwing Hall Pool

Generally speaking the birdlife is pretty much what you'd expect from any modestly-sized lake: plenty of wildfowl, especially in Winter with flocks of wigeon and goosanders. Smew seem to be annual Winter visitors here, usually single redheads. Black-necked grebes visit on passage. 

At the end of this path you'll meet the path that runs between Lapwing Lane and Congleton Lane through a patch of woodland called The Mosses. It's a nice walk and it lets you add a few woodland birds to the visit list. Turn right and walk down and you'll soon get to Lapwing Lane. Turn left and follow the lane to the end and you'll get to a gate that overlooks Acre Nook Quarry.

The Mosses

Acre Nook Quarry has been flooded and forms an elongated stocking of a pool with a series of sandbars and islands forming a sort of garter. You can see roughly half of the pool from here. There are quite a few lanes and footpaths coming off Lapwing Lane and Congleton Lane and you can see other bits and pieces of the pool from some of them.

Again, most of the attraction is the wildfowl, the shallows and islands attracting shelducks as well as passing wagtails, terns and waders. In Winter there are pink-footed geese on the local fields, this year they were joined by a couple of Russian white-fronted geese. Last year a Slavonian grebe lingered for a few days on passage when we were in local lockdown and I couldn't visit, last Winter a couple of ring-necked ducks hung around for a while.

There's another local hotspot: Mere Farm Quarry, just to the North of the petrol station. I haven't visited that yet so I don't know how easy or hard it is to get around. It hosted a great northern diver for a while last Winter, it also seems to attract a lot of storm-blown seabirds stopping for a brief rest.

Etherow Country Park

Grey wagtail

The plan was that seeing as today was going to be a lot less scorchio I'd bob over to Etherow Country Park, have a quick look to see if any dippers were on the river then have a wander through Keg Wood to see if any pied flycatchers had overshot the Goyt Valley and landed in here and see if any dragonflies were on the pool.

I arrived at Etherow Country Park to a heavy sky and high humidity. There were plenty of black-headed gulls on the boating lake with the Canada geese, coots and mallards. The gulls were competing with a white farmyard goose to see who could make the most noise. There were a couple of oddly pale young Canada geese with the flock, both having ghostly beige backs and wings but one having a normal black and white head, the other having a smoky grey head and neck. I don't know if these are leucistic birds or Canada x domestic greylag.

Canada goose (or Canada x greylag hybrid)

Most of the small birds were being very quiet, as is usual this time of the year when most of the adults are catching their breath and having a post-breeding moult. The blackbirds and blackcaps made sure it didn't get too quiet.

Mandarin duck

All the mandarins are in eclipse now and most of them lurking in the wooded bits of the river away from people and dogs.

Mandarin duck

Mandarin duck

No dippers on the river today, I had to make do with the grey wagtails that have been nesting under the canal overflow and have raised a couple of youngsters.

Grey wagtail

I had a very brief wander round Keg Wood. Frankly, the humidity beat me on the first dip and rise. There were a few blackcaps and chiffchaffs tempting me further but I know when I'm licked.

Juvenile robin

I wandered back slowly, stopping to watch a robin feeding one of its youngsters and catching sight of a jay flying through the treetops to the disgust of a flock of goldfinches.

Not my finest hour and a half but I got a bit of exercise and just missed the rain on the way home.

Mersey Valley

Canada geese and farmyard greylag, Chorlton Water Park

There was another bumper bundle of gulls on the school playing field this morning, with half a dozen black-headed gulls with the forty-odd lesser black-backs.

I thought I'd give the antihistamines a workout so I got the 25 bus to Chorlton Park and walked down to Hardy Farm. 

Ringlet, Hardy Farm

We're approaching that bit of Summer where all the photographs will be dragonflies, butterflies and landscapes. Hardy Farm wasn't quiet: there were jackdaws, woodpigeons, whitethroats, wrens and song thrushes aplenty but the challenge was seeing them. At least the flyover greenfinches and goldfinches give you a fighting chance and the swifts were a constant presence. The warm weather had brought the meadow browns and ringlets out to flutter in the grass. The ringlets would be a recurring feature the length of the walk along the Mersey between Jackson's Boat and Chorlton Water Park.

Jackson's Boat 

Talking of Jackson's Boat, the bridge has been repaired so we're back to business as usual along this stretch of the river.

Blackcaps and chiffchaffs sang in the trees either side of the tram viaduct. I'm losing my ear for garden warblers, I suspect I'm usually identifying them all as blackcaps now. One singing from bushes in the golf course across the river was sufficiently different for me to stop and listen closely and realise what it was.

There was a grey wagtail and a mallard in the river at Jackson's Boat and they proved to be the only birds on the water as I walked upstream. A cormorant flew low over but didn't land and half a dozen sand martins hawked low over the river below the river bank 

Common blue damselfly (female), Barlow Tip

Blue-tailed damselfly, Barlow Tip

There were more chiffchaffs, blackcaps, song thrushes and whitethroats on Barlow Tip and they proved as difficult to see as the families of great tits, blue tits and robins rummaging about in the bushes. There was an abundance of damselflies, the only ones I could identify were the common blue damsels and the blue-tailed damsels.

Chorlton Water Park was phenomenally busy with nearly every inch of open space covered in sunbathers and quite a few people frolicking in the water. There wasn't much about besides Canada geese and coots, even the parakeets stuck to chunnering in the treetops.

Kenworthy Woods 

Kenworthy Woods was considerably quieter: I saw three people in total. It was noisy with birds, a constant soundscape of blackbirds, song thrushes and woodpigeons with backing vocals from chiffchaffs, blackcaps and wrens and occasional riffs from magpies that were otherwise busy eating cherries. 

I walked through the woods and got the 101 to Hough End and got the 25 back home.

I've been worrying about our local swift population, there's only a couple of days when I've seen so much as a handful of them. I was walking down the road later on, getting on for sunset, and was pleased to see fourteen of them hawking over the rooftops. Fingers crossed for them.