Southport

Cattle egret, Crossens Outer Marsh

I'd kept the morning free in case I was needed for something but the call never came so I headed out to Southport for the afternoon.

It was a warm, sunny September day with three house martins chirping over the houses on Marshside Road allowing the illusion it was still Summer. There had been reports of an osprey at Marshside over the past couple of days so my attention was immediately caught by the alarm call of a herring gull. The cause turned out to be a buzzard flying low over the rooftops.

Greylags, Marshside

Spadgers and starlings flitted about the little paddock at the top of the reserve though most of the starling action was happening out in the middle of the field with the flocks of black-headed gulls, greylags and Canada geese. There were hundreds of geese, a taste of things to come. I had a practice scan through of the crowds and found a small flock of a few dozen pink-feet over near the bund. Just to demonstrate the confusion of seasons this time of year, while the geese were gathering some of the little egrets still had a haze of the long plumes of their breeding plumage and migrant hawkers patrolled the roadside verges.

Pink-footed geese, Marshside

Junction Pool was almost bone dry save for the muddy bottom of a drain that had recently been cut through the middle of it. A lot of small brown birds twitted about in the long grass, most of them turning out to be flocks of linnets and meadow pipits, many of them remaining unidentifiable.

Male shoveler, still in eclipse, Marshside

Teal, Marshside
This photo shows the pitfalls of identifying ducks by one glance at the colour of the speculum on their wings. The colour is usually caused by the diffraction of light and this can vary enormously on the angle the light's coming from. Nearly all of the time this bird had the bright green wing patch you see in the guidebooks, at this angle it's blue. (Exactly the same is going on when you see the bottle green heads of mallards looking violet blue in some lights.)

Teal, Marshside

Mallards, Marshside

The pool by Sandgrounders was busy with more Canada geese and greylags with a few herring gulls,  mallards and teal loafing on the banks with a couple of black-tailed godwits. There were more of the same at the hide together with a couple of shovelers and a few lapwings. Overall there weren't many waders about at all. A small shape busy in a distant puddle turned out to be a bathing pied wagtail.

Canada geese and greylags, Marshside

I walked down towards Crossens. The drains on the marsh were thick with geese, even the ducks didn't get much of a look in. There was a small flock of about twenty godwits on Polly's Pool, a tiny fraction of the number on my last visit. Over on the outer marsh a few black-headed gulls picked at flies on the pools and herring gulls flew about with some sense of purpose. A marsh harrier drifted over and was mobbed by skylarks.

Marsh harrier being mobbed by a skylark, Marshside Outer Marsh

Crossens Inner Marsh was very slightly damper than last time but very much emptier. Whereas Marshside was rammed full of geese right up to the perimeter fence Crossens was entirely bereft. There wasn't even the usual flock of loafing black-headed gulls.

Cattle egret, Crossens Outer Marsh

Juvenile heron and cattle egret, Crossens Outer Marsh

I crossed over the road to have a look at the outer marsh, and a good job I did, too. The contrast was astounding. Immediately in front of me a couple of cattle egrets were rummaging about in the field while in the distance three kestrels hovered over the long grass on the salt marsh. 

Canada geese, Crossens Outer Marsh

Further along was a band of a few hundred Canada geese with a cloud of starlings moving about them. Further yet there were hundreds more birds on the marsh. Walking down I started to be able to get closer views and the hundreds became thousands. In the pools and drains immediately beyond the geese were hundreds of lapwings and many hundreds, perhaps a thousand teal. I had a look back to see if I'd missed anything along the way and noticed two more marsh harriers perched on fence posts.

Lapwings and startlings, Crossens Outer Marsh

Approaching the old wildfowlers' pull-in I could get fairly close views of the waders and ducks. I'd been assuming that all the sandy brown shapes in the grass were teal but there were fifty-odd golden plovers in there, too. Many of them still had black bellies and most were in various stages of moult with a confusing variety of shades of gold and warm sandy brown, one or two young birds making me look twice before being sure I wasn't missing an American golden plover amongst them. A curlew plover poked its head up from the masses on one of the grassy mounds. There being a distinct lack of landmarks I had to use a ruff with a white head to mark the sandpiper's position as I moved along to try and get a better look, so the ruff flew off with a flock of starlings and I lost it. 

The problem with crowd scenes is trying to make sense of who's in the crowd.
These are mostly black-tailed godwits and teal, Crossens Outer Marsh

Mostly teal, lapwings and starlings, Crossens Outer Marsh

Golden plovers and lapwing, Crossens Outer Marsh

Golden plovers and lapwing, Crossens Outer Marsh

Golden plovers and lapwing, Crossens Outer Marsh

Golden plovers and lapwings, Crossens Outer Marsh

Black-tailed godwits and teal, Crossens Outer Marsh

Teal and Canada geese, Crossens Outer Marsh

Further out, beyond the crowds of teal, hundreds of black-tailed godwits fidgeted in the shallow pools and redshanks and yet more starlings bustled about. Yet further out in the salt marsh proper amongst the indistinct shapes moving about I could see more lapwings and some oystercatchers and flocks of Canada geese. I spent a bit more time surveying the crowd scenes without finding anything new save a buzzard that flew in for a drink to the utter indifference of the groups of teal about that pool.

I got the 44 back into Southport and missed the train back to Manchester by a minute. The next train was nearly an hour later so you can imagine my joy when it broke down and couldn't leave the station! Still, it had been a good afternoon's birdwatching so I mustn't grumble.

Crossens Outer Marsh