Lazy day

Kent's Bank

The weather looked like misbehaving so I postponed the adventure I've been postponing all week. I decided instead to get an old man's explorer ticket and go up to Cumbria, which I haven't visited this past couple of months. The plan was that if it was only mizzly I'd see what was on offer from a walk round Cavendish Dock in Barrow, if it was raining properly I'd go up as far as Ulverston to check out the Kent and Leven estuaries on the train then come back for a wander round Leighton Moss. Looking at the absolutely filthy weather when we reached Lancaster I decided to stay on the train and go up the Cumbrian coast. It worked out that if I got to Whitehaven I'd only have a short wait for the train back to Lancaster.

The lousy weather meant the birdwatching through the window was a bit sparse: even most of the woodpigeons were staying undercover. The tide was incoming but low as we left Lancaster and there wasn't a lot on the coastal pools, though a great white egret showed well. A paperchase of little egrets littered the salt marshes of Morecambe Bay. There was a lot of monochrome birdwatching: carrion crows, jackdaws, rooks or black-headed gulls herring gulls and little egrets. It came as a relief when the train spooked some curlews just outside Grange over Sands. Every so often there'd be a field full of white patches as flocks of gulls gritted their beaks and sat out the weather, every one of them facing into the wind, and herds of sheep hunched miserably with their faces away from the wind.

The Leven was still low when we passed over it. There were a lot of black-headed gulls and eiders loafing on the mud banks and cormorants drying their wings by the track.

The weather was filthy at Barrow, confirming my intention to keep nice and dry on the train. We started passing fields of Herdwick sheep that didn't seem to notice the weather was a tad inclement. The wind and tide pushed the water high up the streams past Kirkby-in-Furness and flocks of black-headed gulls hunkered down on the marsh with the crows and jackdaws. Oddly, as we crossed the Duddon proper it was still quite low.

Braystones 

High tide on the Irish Sea coast was wild and woolly and not for the first time I wondered how — or if! — those waterside houses at Braystones and Nethertown get home insurance. At Ravenglass even the eiders took shelter behind the spit on the river by the station.

We arrived at Whitehaven and I got out and stretched my legs. The weather was exactly how I remember Whitehaven but there was more colour, it was mostly grey and brown last time I visited. About five minutes before the train to Lancaster arrived the wind blew out the rain. It was like some transformation scene: literally one minute it was sheeting down and cold, the next it was a warm sunny day.

Whitehaven 

The transformation worked its magic on the bird life. All of a sudden there were robins and blackbirds in the bushes and goldfinches and greenfinches flying overhead. The trip back down couldn't have been much more different to the trip up to Whitehaven. The sunshine brought out the birds and they seemed keen to make up for lost time, here and there (particularly on the River Esk just before Ravenglass) I had trouble picking out the runners and riders in the crowd scenes. There were large flocks of rooks, jackdaws and black-headed gulls most of the way to Carnforth.

There were hunting buzzards and kestrels along the line between Whitehaven and St Bees. There's a bit of a wait at St Bees while the drivers exchange tokens for the single track North, I spent the time watching red admirals feeding on the potted plants. There were more later on when we called at Silecroft.

The river Esk was heaving with birds. There were hundreds of black-headed gulls and many dozens of greylag geese. I was so bewildered by both that I can't tell you how many cormorants, mallards or herring gulls there were. I nearly missed pairs of teal and lesser black-backs and definitely missed who knows how many others.

Whitebeck

I was astonished to see three swallows chasing each other round a telegraph pole at Bootle Station.

The osprey nest at Green Road looks bigger than last year but showed no signs of recent occupation.

Green Road 

The ducks on the Leven as we passed over it included mallards, eiders, wigeon and a lone redhead goosander and there was a hundred or more pink-footed geese on the marsh. 

Morecambe Bay's salt marshes still had their little egrets and curlews and now the visibility was better I could see the lapwings in the fields. The Kent was still high and fifty-odd redshanks huddled on the rocks by the rail viaduct. Fifty or more black-tailed godwits graced the reedbed pools the other side of the line to Leighton Moss' coastal hides.

The weather had turned so nicely I contemplated having a late walk round Cavendish Dock or Leighton Moss but decided against as the train connections are a lot iffy that time of day. No rail journey through Lancaster would be complete without a complete meltdown on the West Coast Mainline. So we had one.

Bridgewater Canal

Juvenile heron, Worsley

I shelved all of today's plans because I didn't feel up to any of them. I needed some exercise, though, so I decided to do the walk down the Bridgewater Canal from Worsley to Boothstown I've been meaning to do all year. It's not so much a walk as a long potter.

I got the 33 bus into Worsley, it terminates at the old court house and it's just a hop and a step (well, a dozen irregular stone steps) down to the canal towpath and headed out of town. A crowd of pigeons lingered round the motorway bridges and a grey wagtail flew down the canal towards the court house.

This length of the canal is thin on waterbirds due to its being opaquely rust brown due to the iron from the coal workings that feed it. Nevertheless a juvenile heron was working the other bank, not with any notable success. There were plenty of woodland birds making furtive noises in the undergrowth — this stretch of the canal runs between Botany Bay Wood and RHS Worsley so there are plenty enough trees to go round. Of course, hearing them is one thing and seeing them another. The jays and magpies were easy enough, as were the flocks of woodpigeons in the elder bushes and hawthorns, the great tits, blue tits and chiffchaffs less so and it took me ages to find the great spotted woodpecker calling from an alder on the opposite bank. Woodpigeons and crows flew over Botany Bay Wood and a buzzard soared low over the treetops and headed towards Winton.

Bridgewater Canal, Worsley 

Bridgewater Canal, Boothstown 

The canal starts to clear on the approach to the Bridgewater Marina in Boothstown, with occasional bits of water weed and the even more occasional moorhen. There was a definite autumnal touch to the weather despite the small tortoiseshell fluttering between the barges. The first eel I've seen in ages that wasn't in some bird's beak broke the water near the bank then snaked off into muddy depths. Another buzzard soared low somewhere over near the scout camp South of the canal.

I decided to carry on and see how far I'd get. More jays, woodpigeons and magpies flew to and fro between the trees, a few dozen jackdaws noisily foraged in a stubble field and a steady trickle of black-headed gulls flew down the canal. 

I'd just passed the bridge for Vicar's Hall Lane when I bumped into a sizeable mixed tit flock in the hedgerow, mostly long-tailed tits and blue tits with a couple of noisy great tits and chiffchaffs fossicking round in the background.

Whitehead Hall Meadow 

Approaching Astley I decided I wasn't going to be carrying much further, let alone getting into Leigh. I'd only walked four miles but it felt further, possibly because I'd started out feeling tired. I took the opportunity to have a wander round Whitehead Hall Meadow, a small nature reserve in Lower Green. It's an old coal spoil tip that was levelled out and left to go wild so there is a mixture of woodland and meadow with a pond — sadly, mostly dry after the hot Summer — in the middle. There's a nice half hour's half walk to be had here, probably longer in Spring when there's fewer leaves and more songsters, and also more chance of catching sight of a willow tit or two. Walking into Lower Green I noticed a crowd of red admirals gamely feeding on the last remaining flowers on a buddleia.

Whitehead Hall Meadow 

I decided to call it quits when I got into Higher Green (my knees had taken objection to the steep humpback bridge over the canal) and got the 129 back into Boothstown and thence home. I'll have to make a point of doing the walk from Higher Green to Leigh some other day so that I've joined the two ends together (the Bridgewater Canal becomes the Leeds and Liverpool Canal at St Helens Road in the town centre). The birdwatching along the canal's steady if unspectacular, though you never know your luck if you keep looking, and the walking's good.

Fly agaric, Whitehead Hall Meadow 

Elton Reservoir

Black-headed gulls, coots, mallards and mute swan

I decided to have another go at that walk round Elton Reservoir I didn't do the other week. I got the tram to Bury and the 471 to Bolton Road and walked down to the reservoir.

The feeders in the car park have been fully refreshed and replenished and a horde of blue tits, great tits and chaffinches bullied a couple of squirrels off the peanut feeders. Goldfinches, long-tailed tits and a chiffchaff joined the titmice while a flock of house sparrows made raiding sorties from the hawthorn bushes.

Great crested grebes and tufted duck

The reservoir's still low but was very busy with birds. About a hundred black-headed gulls loafed near the sailing club while a few dozen lesser black-backs and herring gulls bobbed around mid-water. There were dozens of coots, mallards and teal and a dozen great crested grebes and a flock of fifty or so Canada geese cruised up and down the reservoir. There were only a couple of cygnets with the mute swans today, the others have probably moved on before they were moved on.

Elton Reservoir 

The electricity pylons were lined with starlings, the grass was littered with magpies and the trees and bushes in the creek were absolutely heaving with small birds. A mixed tit flock included a couple of dozen long-tailed tits, a dozen blue tits, eight or nine great tits and a couple each of chiffchaffs and chaffinches as hangers-on. I couldn't work out whether the rather noisy juvenile willow warbler was on its own or with the crowd. A small flock of goldfinches twittering round the treetops had a linnet in tow with them.

A flock of sand martins had passed high overhead by the sailing club. A handful of swallows passed low over the creek, hardly stopping to feed. It's getting to the time of year when I start wondering if I'll be seeing the last of them. Not just them: will the common hawkers and red admirals skittering about in the creek be the last dragonflies and butterflies of the year?

A passing birdwatcher tipped me off to look for three black-tailed godwits on the shore and that a common sandpiper had been doing the rounds. I didn't have a lot of hope of seeing them along this stretch as a couple of dogs had been frolicking in the water but it was useful to bear in mind for later.

The dogs hadn't long moved on before the teal moved in and started dabbling at the water's edge. They weren't in crowds but looking round I reckon there must have been a hundred of them dotted round the reservoir. I checked out the teals and the tufted ducks and the raft of large gulls but couldn't find anything that shouldn't have been there.

Withins Reservoir 

I had a quick shufti at Withins Reservoir. The fields were full of Canada geese, woodpigeons and jackdaws but the reservoir itself was quiet with just a cormorant and a tufted duck swimming about.

It's that time of year when juvenile great crested grebes in the middle of reservoirs make you look twice

I returned to Elton Reservoir and walked along the South bank, scanning Northern shore to see if I'd missed anything hidden by trees and bushes. I spotted the three godwits quite quickly but took a long time making sure of the identification as they were fairly distant and dozing with their beaks tucked into their back feathers. I scanned in vain for any other waders, there weren't even any lapwings about. Three male pied wagtails chasing each other round the water line were rather easier to identify.

As I approached the sailing club a cloud of house martins descended and started feeding above the reservoir.

Another visit to Elton Reservoir, another urgent 'phone call, the place must be jinxed. Luckily this time it wasn't anything important in the end.

Mersey Valley

Sparrowhawk, Barton Clough

I had a lunchtime wander round the local patch while the weather was okay. There was still a fair wind keeping the clouds moving such that one minute it would be bright sunshine the next utterly overcast but it was fine for walking in.

The park was remarkably quiet: a couple of woodpigeons and a couple of magpies on the grass and a robin in the trees. I had hoped the usual mistle thrushes might be about, I've not seen them for a couple of months, alas it was not to be.

Sparrowhawk, Barton Clough

The old cornfields were a bit quiet at first. The reason was obvious: a young male sparrowhawk was sitting in plain sight on the fence. He set a flock of goldfinches into a panic when he took off and flew over towards the trees behind the school. A couple of dozen woodpigeons had taken cover in the bushes by the old freight line, as much for the greedy consumption of berries as refuge from the sparrowhawk. A jay flew overhead and the usual magpies flitted between the trees, a lot quieter than usual perhaps keeping the sparrowhawk in mind.

Juvenile woodpigeons, Barton Clough
All the adults were under cover.

I got the 23 bus over to Southern Cemetery and walked down to Chorlton Water Park. A flock of sparrows were busy on the feeders in the car park with a couple of collared doves picking up scraps. A few great tits and dunnocks flitted about in the hedgerows and a ring-necked parakeet screeched about the treetops.

Chorlton Water Park 

The lake was reassuringly busy with birds. Sixty-odd pigeons picked at the grass with a dozen Canada geese. There were more Canada geese on the lake with rather a lot of mallards and coots and a couple of dozen black-headed gulls. I spotted half a dozen gadwalls in the crowd which prompted me to hunt out any tufted ducks (there being coots and gadwalls about) and eventually found a couple of pairs over near the far bank. Over at the other end of the lake by Barlow Tip a great crested grebe was feeding a noisy and well-nigh full grown youngster.

Tufted ducks, Chorlton Water Park

Barlow Tip didn't have a great variety of birds about — woodpigeons, robins, wrens and great tits — but there were plenty of them.

There was only a juvenile cormorant on the river as I walked down to Jackson's Boat but there was plenty flying about, most of it woodpigeons and magpies. A flock of Canada geese flew low over the river then over to Sale Water Park. A jay headed in the same direction but was probably after the acorns along the path to Sale Ees. A buzzard soaring overhead was buzzed half-heartedly by a carrion crow and they quickly went their separate ways.

Ring-necked parakeets, Jackson's Boat

At Jackson's Boat eighteen ring-necked parakeets screeched around the treetops either side of the river before disappearing noisily into the sycamores by the children's play area.

It was raining lightly so I decided to head for cover in the woods on Chorlton Ees. It was picturesque but hard work: there was more than enough cover to hide the robins, woodpigeons and titmice I kept hearing along the paths.

Chorlton Ees 

The rain became steady so I decided against walking across the fields on Turn Moss then on home and instead opted for the cover of the trees on Ivy Green, walking on into Chorlton for the bus home. The mixed tit flocks were very busy on the stretch along Chorlton Brook, the great tits tending to favour working their way through the now rather tatty stretches of Himalayan balsam while the blue tits, long-tailed tits and the couple of goldcrests accompanying them kept to the willows by the path. A coal tit was repeatedly heard but not seen from the depths of the sycamores on the other side of the brook. 

The prize of the day, oddly enough, was a song thrush feeding by Chorlton Brook, the first for the month. It's been a dry September for thrushes and I can't see any particular reason for it. Still, it would be boring if it was predictable.

Northwich

Water rail, Neumann's Flash 

I was in a dithery sort of mood this morning so I decided on a trip out to Northwich for a bit of a wander. I've not been for a while and it's an uncomplicated journey.

I walked up Old Warrington Road to the Northwich Woods. For once there were no finches in the trees along the road. I noticed there were a few mallards and a teal on the brook as I crossed the bridge.

Ashton's Flash 

Ashton's Flash was bone dry, the pools replaced by scrubby grass haunted by carrion crows. The birch scrub and grass along the path along the bund between Ashton's Flash and Neumann's Flash was littered with fungi, some the size of a plate. I think they were all boletus of one sort or another including a clump of bruised crimson mushrooms that I think were blushing boletes.

Boletus mushroom 

Neumann's Flash 

Neumann's Flash was wetter and busier though the water was low and there were stretches of dried cracked mud. The crowd of black-headed gulls and lapwings loafing on a mud bank were very conspicuous, the teals dabbling on the water line less so. There was at least one juvenile garganey amongst them, one of a group in the company of the only Canada goose on the flash by a mud bank across the way.

I had a nosy round from the hide on the spit. I could see a few lesser black-backs and a couple of herring gulls amongst the black-headed gulls and a couple of dunlin, still with Summer black bellies, on the shore behind them. Over on the shore on the right-hand side there were some more teals with a couple of dozen loafing wigeons and two pairs of shovelers. A family of moorhens fussed about in front of the hide, the juveniles all full grown, and a dabchick fed an arm's length from the bank. A lady was in the hide when I arrived, she told me that a couple of water rails had been feeding with the moorhens just before I arrived. "And there's one of them now!" At which point I discovered I hadn't put the memory card back in my camera (again! this is getting to be a bad habit). Luckily it was close enough for me to photograph with my 'phone, and it might have been too close for my big lens to focus on anyway.

Water rail, Neumann's Flash 

I walked round the flash towards Dairy House Meadows. There was a brisk wind shaking the trees, most of the small bird noises being the squeaks and groans of willows and poplars. Those bird sounds I could pick up were difficult to pin down in the wind. The robins were easy enough most of the time but I struggled with a mixed tit flock that I knew was in a clump of blackthorn but couldn't get at all.

Dairy House Meadows 

Dairy House Meadows was picturesque but very quiet of birds save a chiffchaff in the trees. A few woodpigeons and a couple of stock doves flew overhead and a buzzard floated low overhead and over to the fields by Marston Lane.

I crossed over the canal into Marbury Country Park. The woods were phenomenally quiet, it was ages before I even saw a woodpigeon. A nuthatch took pity on me and called from the treetops. The thud of falling acorns competed with the rustlings of leaves and twigs to make it difficult to pick up any bird calls. I wished I'd brought my cap when it started raining. I wished I had a steel helmet when the conkers and crab apples started dropping 

Marbury Country Park 

The Canada geese on Budworth Mere were feeding on the grass on the far bank with a few coots. Fifty-odd black-headed gulls loafed on the water margin in front of them, a few more were flying about and squabbling over spaces on buoys. Scanning round I found half a dozen great crested grebes, most of them full-grown juveniles, a few tufted ducks and a couple of dabchicks. A dozen mallards and a family of mute swans completed the roll call.

I had more luck walking back through the woods, the mixed tit flocks were making themselves very visible, great tits and blue tits bouncing round in the undergrowth and a family of long-tailed tits calling from a yew tree. There was a lot of to-ing and fro-ing amongst the robins, obviously establishing Winter territories. 

Marbury Country Park 

I took the path that leads out to the edge of the wood and follows the field margin. Having ten acres of field to choose from and more sense than I do the cattle were all feeding in one corner behind a couple of bushes and out of the wind. Common hawkers and a couple of common darters patrolled the bushes along the path. A flock of jackdaws and a couple of carrion crows were mobbing something over the trees to my left. I thought it was another buzzard and I thought wrong, it was a pair of ravens. Having escorted the ravens safely out of their territory the jackdaws returned amid noisy victory celebrations so one of the ravens came back just to make a point.

I crossed back over the canal and walked down Forge Brook. There were more great tits, robins and nuthatches and a couple of calling chiffchaffs. They were joined by chaffinches as I passed Neumann's Flash and a couple of jays called noisily by the car park by Witton Brook.

Ashton's Flash 

By now the rain was falling steadily so I called it a day and walked back to the station. I'd had over three hours' exercise and I had half an hour to spare waiting for the train. It was a wise decision: soon after I'd arrived at the station and under cover the heavens opened!

Etherow Country Park

Mandarin duck

I was in a dawdly sort of mood so I dragged myself over to Etherow Country Park to have a look at the mandarin ducks. Much to my surprise I couldn't find any, at least not until I got to the weir where a couple were pottering about with the white goose that was there last time I came to visit. There were plenty of mallards and black-headed gulls about, the three Muscovy ducks were back but relatively few coots and moorhens, perhaps because it was a busy Saturday afternoon.

River Etherow 

I had hoped that a dearth of mandarins might be balanced out by an overabundance of dippers on the river but not only weren't there any of them the usual grey wagtails were nowhere to be seen either.The feeders in the garden by the weir had been replenished and was busy with blue tits, great tits and nuthatches.

Keg Wood 

I had a wander round Keg Wood, which turned out to be very quiet. Ernocroft Wood was busier, full of the songs of robins and calls of great tits while a couple of carrion crows bounced around the treetops and a heron flew down towards the river.

The walk back to the bus stop in Compstall was much the same though I noticed another couple of pairs of mandarins at the top of the canal and three new Muscovy ducks near the visitor centre, two all black and one sandy brown (a cross between one of the mullards and a Muscovy?).

An oddly quiet visit here for this time of year.

Merseyside bumper bundle

Wheatear, Leasowe

After a bad night's sleep I postponed the planned adventure and had a trip out to the Wirral to see if I could pick up any passage migration.

I got the train to Moreton and walked down to Kerr's Field. The fields were quiet, just a few magpies and woodpigeons, but the surrounding trees and hedgerows were busy with robins, goldfinches and chiffchaffs. Birds lined the telegraph wires between the lighthouse and the fishery, alternating between flocks of swallows and family parties of collared doves. There were more chiffchaffs in the trees on Leasowe Common, together with a couple of mixed tit flocks, one of which included a couple of goldcrests. A flock of blackbirds were busy devouring the berries on the whitebeam bushes and didn't much care for my passing by.

Walking towards Meols

I walked down to Meols along the revetment. The tide was fast ebbing so most of the birds were already fairly distant. The hundreds of oystercatchers were very noisy, the gulls less so. The nearest gulls were mostly black-headed, the white drifts in the mid-distance mostly herring  and lesser black-backs, there were a couple of great black-backs with the herring gulls in the distance. Little egrets kept drifting by, a dozen of them congregated on a mud bank near the revetment and were joined by a grey heron. Between them the heron and egrets added a lot of croaks, grunts and barks to the soundscape as they squabbled between themselves. Try as I might I couldn't see why this particular patch of mud was so attractive.

Heron, little egrets and black-headed gull, Leasowe

Heron, little egrets and black-headed gulls, Leasowe

Heron, little egrets and black-headed gulls, Leasowe

At first sight there was just a lesser black-back on the groyne. All the waders were out on the beach but it was worth checking it out just in case. A couple of linnets popped up from the rocks then flew over onto the field inland. I lingered awhile and found a couple of wheatears — a male and a female — and three juvenile pied wagtails with a fine Winter male.

Pied wagtail, Leasowe

Wheatear, Leasowe

The usual transformation scene occurred as I crossed the groyne and suddenly the beach was full of redshanks and black-headed gulls with turnstones and a wheatear scrambling in the seaweed at the base of the revetment. By Meols Parade there were more herring gulls loafing on the beach, the further along I went the more loafing groups of gulls there were. I was halfway along the parade when I found a group of half a dozen common gulls  loafing in a patch of sea plantain.

Redshank, Meols

Wheatear, Meols

Approaching the lifeboat station there's more vegetation on the beach with little patches of marram grass with the plantains and samphires. A few pied wagtails and meadow pipits were foraging near to the seawall but I kept hearing something else. It took me a while to find a ringed plover then once I found one I suddenly found lots of them. And having found them I found a couple of dozen dunlins. There was quite a bit of variation between the dunlins, some being slightly smaller, a couple having longer bills, all of them definitely dunlins I'm sure. I was reminded of the old saying that every smallish sandpiper is a dunlin unless explicitly proven otherwise and it occurred to me yet again that I don't have a cat in hell's chance of ever finding myself a rare peep.

Common gull, Meols

Ringed plover, Meols

Pied wagtail, Meols

Meols

I didn't fancy carrying on down to Hoylake so I got the train at Manor Road and headed North with my all-areas Saveaway. My intention was to check out the waders at Hightown but I realised it would be low tide when I'd be getting there and I'd just be seeing distant shapes in the mud. I remembered I haven't visited Formby Point yet this year so I carried on to Freshfield and walked down to the National Trust reserve from there.

Formby Point 

Rather than walking down to the beach I took a meandering series of paths down to Formby. I hadn't gone far from the car park before I was hearing nuthatches and great tits in the pine trees. About a hundred yards further along I saw a red squirrel as it collected pine cones off the woodland floor. 

Most of the small bird movements I was reacting to turned out to be falling leaves or pine cones so it came as a relief to bump into a mixed tit flock — great tits, blue tits, coal tits and a few long-tailed tits. As I was sorting out the runners and riders another red squirrel came bounding overhead with a pine cone in its mouth and disappeared into a thicket of tall pines.

Red squirrel, Formby

I passed into a patch of deciduous trees and bumped into some goldfinches and chaffinches and spent longer than should have been necessary finding a particularly noisy buzzard.

In a clearing I was buzzed by a dragonfly I didn't recognise, a dark, large dragonfly with a thin blue abdomen. Most of the time there was just a blue patch at the waist of the abdomen but every so often the light would catch it just right and the whole abdomen looked a dark metallic inky blue. And of course would it eck as like sit still for the camera. I looked it up and by a slow process of elimination concluded it could only have been a lesser emperor, a first for me.

Formby Point 

I walked down to Formby Station for the trains home, having a bit of fun with the connecting train at Hunts Cross. Still, it had been a fine day, the birdwatching was good and I'd seen a new dragonfly, which can't be all bad.