Leighton Moss

Great white egret

The weather was autumnally dreich so I decided to get myself an old man's explorer ticket and head up to Leighton Moss for a walk as it's just round the corner from Silverdale Station and it's pretty easy to dive for cover into one or other of the hides if the rain gets bad.

A flock of redwings flying overhead as the train slowly negotiated the junction at Golborn Dale was a suitably Autumnal touch.

The rain came in seriously once we'd passed Preston and was persisting down by Lancaster. I wondered how the turtle dove at Hest Bank was faring in this weather. On the plus side it might get a bit of a rest from inconsiderate birdwatchers; there was a social media post yesterday of one unconscionable idiot taking selfies with his face six inches away from the bird as it tried to feed. Just because a bird hasn't flown away in a panic doesn't mean you're not stressing it out, there have been plenty enough studies of birds' heart rates as they have people approaching them too closely. I hope for the dove's sake neither of them have avian flu.

For some reason there wasn't a lot on at the coastal hides either coming or going. Even if the tide's low there's usually a selection of ducks and geese about.

It was pouring down at Silverdale Station so I hurried round the corner and headed straight for the cover of the "hideaway." For once there was only me there and I quickly got the first dozen or so ticks for the visit watching the titmice, finches and house sparrows coming to the feeders.

Shovelers and drake shoveler x cinnamon teal

Lilian's Hide was busy with people and packed with film equipment. The film crew were elsewhere, apparently Sky Arts were filming a celebrity wildlife thingy, probably with Hans and Lottie Hass. At least the weather wasn't my fault this time. I was lucky and got a window seat after a few minutes and had a quick look round. The crowds of mallards, coots and gadwalls were joined by a few wigeons and pintails. The couple of dozen shovelers included the drake shoveler x cinnamon teal hybrid that's become a regular here. It's remarkable how much it looks like an Australian shoveler, hybrid ducks have an unnerving habit of looking very similar to a third species uninvolved in the pairing. I scanned through the teals dabbling round the water's edge but had no luck finding either snipe or any possible green-winged teal (it's probably a month to early for any hope of one anyway).

Walking to the reedbed hides 

I walked down to the reedbed hides in the pouring rain, which was OK because I had my cap on. It occurred to me that I'd probably have no luck finding any marsh tits in this weather — they'd be under cover and there was too much in the way of rain-bounced leaves and twigs to pick up any bird movement — and a pair immediately sneezed at me from the willow scrub by the path. While I was trying to find them I found the first of what would turn out to be many treecreepers of the day. All of which were perfectly happy to forage an arm's length away and all of which scooted round behind the tree trunk at the first sign of a camera, returning immediately I put the camera away. Who'd have thought treecreepers were superstitious.

Great white egret

Female wigeon

Literally the first bird I noticed at the Tim Jackson Hide was a great white egret feeding on the pool perhaps twenty yards away. It shuffled its feet busily in the mud but didn't seem to have a lot of success disturbing anything edible. It astonishes me how often I'm seeing them these days, it's only six years since I saw my first one. There were more shovelers, teal and a wigeon on the pools, all busily dabbling in the rain. A Cetti's warbler had a half-hearted stab at a bit of song before retreating into the reeds.

As I set off for the Griesdale Hide a lady told me that a bittern was sitting out in the open there. I kept my fingers crossed in the hopes it might still be there. There wasn't much to see along the path: the visibility wasn't clever and the blue tits, robins, wrens and reed buntings were staying under cover.

Female teal

Great white egret

I had no luck with the bittern at the Griesdale Hide. There was another GWE, though. And lots more teal and shovelers. The tree usually favoured by marsh harriers was littered with cormorants. The Cetti's warbler here wasn't much more enthusiastic about singing than the one at Tim Jackson's.

Cormorants

There's usually too much traffic at Leighton Moss to see much besides the occasional robin or mallard feeding on the paths. It made a nice change to see a flock of reed buntings and I felt incredibly guilty disturbing them to get past. They didn't go far and had returned to the path by the time I was ten yards ahead. I passed a mixed tit flock which included goldcrests and marsh tits. While I was picking out the runners and riders bouncing through the willows half a dozen fieldfares chased each other over the reedbeds.

Reed buntings

Passing Lilian's Hide on the way back to the visitor centre a flock of goldfinches was divided between the alder cones on the trees and the cones fallen into the path, the latter group being bigger because the pickings were easier. I spent a few minutes making sure that all the goldfinches in the alders were goldfinches and just as I concluded that they were two small finches in black and lime striped pyjamas flew in to prove me wrong. Having found a couple of siskins I spent a few minutes more making sure there weren't any redpolls in there (there weren't). A singing song thrush saw me on my way.

I thought I'd get a bit more out of my explorer ticket so I caught the Barrow train as far as Ulverston and caught the last of the afternoon's trains through to Manchester from there.

The Kent was quite low at Arnside but deep enough to have a couple of pairs of red-breasted mergansers swimming by the viaduct as the train went by. There weren't many waders about, just a handful of redshanks. The salt marsh between Meathop and Kent's Bank was littered with carrion crows and little egrets. One of the egrets looked a bit on the big side but it was out on its own in the distance and it wasn't possible to get more than a fleeting impression.

There were more little egrets on the approach to the Leven Estuary but just a few herring gulls and redshanks on the mud. I had more luck on the way back, with small flocks of lapwings and black-headed gulls and a handful of eiders. A red-breasted merganser was having a wash and brush up in one of the pools on the salt marsh.

There was another merganser on a pool on the marsh between Grange and Meathop. There were also more little egrets. This time there was no mistake: two egrets were standing next to each other and one was twice the size of the other and had an orange beak.

I'd just about dried out by the time I got back to Manchester so I decided to not push my luck and went straight home. For all that the weather had been uninspiring it had been a very productive day's birdwatching. I'm noticing absences as much as presences lately, the rain will have grounded any buzzards or marsh harriers that were around but I can't account for the absence of geese and nuthatches today.

I arrived home just as over a hundred black-headed gulls descended onto the school playing field for a last feed before roosting.