Rainy day

Great crested grebes, Pennington Flash

I had plans for after today's errands were done but my hope that the weather forecast for today might have been as wrong as the forecasts last week turned out to be wildly optimistic.

In the back garden the spadgers and titmice continued their furtive pillaging of the suet feeders while a blackbird continued to defend the rowan tree without making any attempt at eating any of the berries.

The jackdaws and woodpigeons are making crowd scenes on the school playing field, the rooks being a bit more hit-and-miss, there's a dozen on there some days, other days I won't see any sign of them. The gulls are similarly erratic and even though we've had a week of more or less continual heavy weather and rain there's never been more than a couple of dozen black-headed gulls and a handful of lesser black-backs. The herring gulls and common gulls are staying away completely (I'm hoping that by writing that down they'll be back tomorrow with a Caspian gull or two in tow).

Desperate to get some birdwatching in and get the year list moving again I thought I'd go over to Spike Island see if the ruddy shelducks reported over the weekend were still on the river. There's a bus straight there from Warrington so it shouldn't be too bad even with a drop of rain. I got to Warrington and that drop of rain became a bit biblical so I knocked that idea on the head. For a change I thought I'd get the bus to Wigan thence homewards, just in case the weather changed along the way. So the bus broke down on Winwick Road and we had to wait half an hour for the next. Some enterprises are doomed from the outset.

The rain eased off by teatime so I had a twilight stroll round Pennington Flash. I decided to have a walk along the South bank for a change, which turned out to be quite rewarding. A lot of noise along the path to the flash turned out to be a bunch of magpies mobbing a couple of sparrowhawks. The hawks both looked like females but the noisier of the two was slightly smaller and may have been an immature bird. A large mixed tit flock bouncing through the willows included half a dozen chiffchaffs.

Lesser black-backs

Lesser black-backs and herring gulls, Pennington Flash

I arrived at the flash a bit early for the large gull roost: there were just a few dozen lesser black-backs, a few herring gulls and a couple of great black-backs, together with a couple of hundred black-headed gulls. I had a scan round, feeling that sense of dread of the first Autumn gull watch and all the stuff I've forgotten since Easter. I looked twice at a couple of very meaty first Winter lesser black-backs and found a second Winter I wonder what that was which was probably also a lesser black-back. Rafts of coots strung themselves across the flash and there were a couple of rafts of tufted ducks, upwards of a couple of dozen each. A pair of great crested grebes had three very noisy and very hungry youngsters in tow. A dabchick swimming across the middle of the flash was a surprise.

Lesser black-backs, herring gulls and probable second Winter lesser black-back (centre left), Pennington Flash

Great crested grebes, Pennington Flash

From Ramsdales, Pennington Flash 

The hides were all closed so I did as best could. There were more black-headed gulls and coots with the mallards and cormorants on the Horrocks spit together with at least a couple of lapwings. A few dozen teal and a dozen moorhens combined to make a weird lot of noises at Ramsdales. The water's higher this week and there was enough, just, for three dabchicks to dive in. I had no joy finding any waders on the scrape this time.

Teal and mallard, Pennington Flash

I checked the buses and it made most sense to walk down the canal into Leigh town centre for the bus homewards. Robins sang in the trees by the canal whilst overhead there was a steady stream of lesser black-backs heading for the roost on the flash.

Liverpool and Leeds Canal
Not a bad ending to a lousy day's weather

Not the day I had planned but it turned out pretty well anyway.