Banks

Pink-footed geese, Banks

I wanted to escape the leaden skies of Manchester so I took a chance on the Met Office app's being roughly right for once and headed for Southport. I thought I'd have a quick nosy at the geese on Crossens Outer Marsh then have a stroll over to Banks Marsh in the hopes of finally adding a spoonbill to the year list.

The skies cleared over Burscough and by the time I arrived at Southport I was feeling distinctly overdressed. I just missed the 44 bus so I walked down to Lord Street and got the 47 straight to Crossens.

Black-tailed godwits and black-headed gulls, Crossens Outer Marsh

There were more geese about than last week, including a few small flocks on Crossens Inner Marsh. A scan around from the wildfowlers' pull-in found pretty much the same numbers of lapwings, godwits and golden plovers as last week, and all showing nicely. The ruff with the white head was still about, too, but no sign of any curlew sandpiper. There also seemed to be roughly the same numbers of teal but easily twice as many wigeon. But the biggest difference was the thousands of pink-footed geese scattered over the marsh, with hundreds more incoming. A marsh harrier floated over the long grass beyond the fence.

Wigeon and lapwings, Crossens Outer Marsh

Teal, golden plovers, starlings and lapwings, Crossens Outer Marsh

I walked back down the river to the border with Banks and walked along the path that follows the opposite riverbank then veers off and joins the bund between Banks and Hesketh Outer Marsh.

Painted lady, Banks

As I walked along the river common hawkers patrolled the remaining stalks of cow parsley and foxgloves and a joined pair of brown hawkers flew across the path towards one of the drains. There were plenty of large whites around and a painted lady sunbathed on the path. An odd mixture of Summer and Winter as the path took me closer to the geese. I scanned round in vain for anything that wasn't a Canada goose or a pink-foot. It's always worth a go, there's plenty of stuff moving through and you never know your luck.

Walking from Banks to Banks Marsh 

It became fairly apparent why the wildfowl was mostly close in to the Marine Drive and were avoiding the salt marsh: as far as I could determine the wildfowlers out there were shooting at clouds.

Snipe, Banks
I finally got a photo of a snipe in flight and managed to capture the single most useless angle

There was a constant traffic of hirundines across the bund. Swallows passed over in twos and threes, a handful of sand martins high over, and house martins one at a time. Meadow pipits and linnets flitted about in the grass and robins sang from the trees in the fields. I accidentally flushed a snipe that rose from the grass on the bank of the bund and disappeared over the marsh. As I watched it go I noticed in the far distance a cloud of knots rise from the estuary, billow about for a few moments then settle back down, usually a sign that the low tide is starting to turn.

It clouded over, the wind got up and I was glad I'd put my waistcoat on. A couple of grazing mute swans marked my approach to Banks Marsh. A female kestrel passed by and another marsh harrier floated over the salt marsh. I could start to recognise the birds in the large pool in the cow field on the marsh. There were lesser black-backs and lapwings close by and little egrets wading in the pool. A larger white bird turned out to be two little egrets standing close together. The spoonbill asleep in the middle of the pool was obvious: a typical mattress on a stick pose and it wasn't white so much as bright buff. A chap I bumped into told me I'd just missed a common crane. It's ten years since I saw my first and last common crane, it would have been good to have seen it. Ah well.

Black-headed gulls, spoonbill (just right of centre) and little egret, Banks Marsh
A sadly typical spoonbill view: distant, asleep and with its bill tucked in its back feathers

The cattle were coming in for milking so I had to politely ask them to let me pass to get through the gate to the next stretch of the bund. A closer look at the pool picked up some teal and mallards on the banks, a lot more little egrets on an island with a dozen herons, and two great white egrets fishing in the margins.

I checked the buses and noticed I'd be just in time to wave the next one goodbye as it chugged down Marsh Road. Rather than hanging round the back end of Banks for an hour I decided to carry on down to Hundred End, see what was about and pick up the next bus from there. A flock of redshanks flew into the marsh with a few dunlins in tow and half a dozen golden plovers flew over and headed for Crossens. All the while there was the constant calling of pink-feet on the marsh and skeins passing overhead coming in from inland fields.

Banks Marsh 

I dropped down from the bund, crossed the wobbly stile and walked down the lane to Marsh Road. More swallows passed by and goldfinches twittered in the roadside teasels. A rather pretty little black hen shepherded her chicks across the lane, drawing my attention to the couple of dozen chickens feeding in a field of barley stubble. Over in the trees my first buzzard of the day was having its patience tested by a couple of jackdaws.

A couple more skeins of pink-footed geese flew overhead and more called from the marsh behind me. One goose was calling particularly loudly so I turned round for a look at it. Five pink-feet flew by about a hundred yards away at rooftop height, calling quietly. A sixth bird followed behind them, slightly closer to me and slightly lower. This was the bird that was calling, a deeper and almost angry bark of a call, typical of a tundra bean goose. As it flew on I could see that the grey on its wings was duller and browner than on a pink-foot and it didn't have a pink-foot's short, stubby bill, confirmation that it was a tundra bean.

Any hopes that I might catch up with the crane at Hundred End were dashed, I was told it had been and gone. I had to make do with a dozen collared doves by the bus stop and a sparrowhawk being chased off by a flock of swallows.

I got the next bus, going home via Preston and Bolton as the sun went down on a very pleasant afternoon.

Walking down to Hundred End