Pennington Flash

Heron

Thought I'd best have a visit to Pennington Flash before the Women's Euro football kicks off at the Sports Village next door.

The walk down from St. Helens Road was very quiet, just a couple of woodpigeons, a few blackbirds and a wren, not untypical for a July lunchtime. There was nothing at the bridge over the brook save a small shoal of young roaches in the water. A family of six mistle thrushes were feeding on the golf course.

There was a crowd of Canada geese, black-headed gulls, coots and mallards on the car park. There wasn't a lot on the water: a great crested grebe and a distant raft of lesser black-backs. The Egyptian geese are back but I couldn't find them either at the car park or over on the sailing club side of the flash.

Black-headed gulls

Mallards and black-headed gulls loafed on the spit at the Horrocks Hide. A couple of pairs of oystercatchers fed on the grass and lapwings picked round the shingles.

From the Horrocks Hide 

I walked round to the Tom Edmondson Hide, relieved to hear a few chiffchaffs and blackcaps. There were a few mallards on the pool opposite the hide and the reed warbler managed ten seconds of song. For the first time in years I didn't hear a Cetti's warbler here today.

From the Tom Edmondson Hide 

There were a few coots and ducks on the pool at the Tom Edmondson Hide. We're at that time of year when three-quarters grown mallards are striking out on their own and mingling with juvenile gadwalls, which makes for an identification challenge. Every so often one might show pity on the observer and flex its wings and let you see whether the speculum is violet blue or chestnut brown and white. Most of the youngsters on the pool were mallards, a handful of gadwalls loafed and preened Inthe reeds. A juvenile dabchick sat preening in the middle of the pool. There were no herons loafing by the pool but a couple flew low overhead. There was a lot of rustling in the undergrowth by the hide, most of which turned out to be reed buntings or blue tits, a couple of wrens and reed warblers poked their heads out of the brambles a couple of times.

From Ramsdales Hide 

The inlet by Ramsdales was busy with Canada geese, joined by a couple of greylags. There were a couple of young moorhens with their parents and another mooren sat on its nest. No sign of any little ringed plovers but the lapwings were half-hidden in the long grass so they could have been lurking somewhere. Looking out onto the bight a dozen great crested grebes dozed by the shore.

The woodland birds stirred from their lunchtime slumber as I walked to the canal and then round to the Teal Hide. Blackcaps, chiffchaffs and song thrushes sang from the willows, whitethroats from the undergrowth. Just before I arrived at the hide I bumped into my first robin of the month(!) A bullfinch calling in the willows by the hide brought my attention to a flock of long-tailed tits, I never did find the bullfinch.

Oystercatcher

It occurred to me that I haven't any decent photos of common teal in eclipse plumage. I still haven't.

The pool at the Teal Hide was noisy with black-headed gulls, including half a dozen youngsters. They were actually outnumbered by gadwall but they were more self-effacing. The youngsters loafed on the pool, the adults kept close to the reeds so they could run for cover if need be (they've moulted most of their flight feathers at the moment). A handful of tufted ducks and a dozen coots made up the numbers.

Chaffinch

At first glance the Bunting Hide was very quiet with just half a dozen squirrels on the feeders and a mallard and her young ducklings feeding from the scraps dropped by the squirrels. A couple of stock doves flew in, and stayed in despite protestations by the squirrels. Somehow, I don't know how, the stock doves bullied the squirrels off the ground feeders. Once they'd gone the feeding station was suddenly filled with dunnocks, chaffinches, blue tits and great tits.

I had another unsuccessful scan round for Egyptian geese while I ate my ice cream then made my way home.

From the Teal Hide