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.