Merseyside bumper bundle

Lesser yellowlegs, Crossens Inner Marsh

The early start was necessitated by the day's cancellations, I wanted to be beyond Manchester by lunchtime. And so it was I was at Marshside mid-morning. The plan was to get armed with an old man's explorer ticket and an all areas Saveaway and have a wander round Marshside and Crossens, see if the weekend's lesser yellowlegs was around, then have a wader watch at Hightown Dunes and anything after that would depend on remaining time and energy.

I got off the 44 bus at Marshside School and walked up the cut to the bund at the back of the marsh. The geese were noisy, the pink-feet mostly flying in skeins overhead, the greylags feeding on the marsh. Mallards, wigeons and teal dabbled in the pools near the bund; golden plovers, lapwings, curlews and black-tailed godwits further out on the marsh. Gulls congregated on the larger pools, a hundred or so black-headed gulls on one, groups of a couple of dozen or so herring gulls on the others.

Wigeons and black-tailed godwit, Marshside

Crossens Inner Marsh was reassuringly damp, the path on the bund less reassuring as it, too, was very damp. A flock of house sparrows fossicked about noisily in the brambles. There were more teal and wigeons in the pools, more greylags, godwits and lapwings on the marsh (no golden plovers, though, they weren't on either of the Crossens marshes). I thought I'd best scan the pools by the bund to get my eye in for when I got to the end where the yellowlegs was last reported. It was the first bird I saw. It was great to see it so close, a lovely little thing. The overall jizz of the bird was more like wood sandpiper than redshank, quietly snapping up insects from the surface of the mud and puddles (there were plenty of midges about).

Lesser yellowlegs, Crossens Inner Marsh

Lesser yellowlegs, Crossens Inner Marsh

Lesser yellowlegs and pied wagtail, Crossens Inner Marsh

Lesser yellowlegs, Crossens Inner Marsh

Juvenile pied wagtail, Crossens Inner Marsh

Elsewhere on the marsh there were small groups of shovelers and mallards and a lone whooper made a cameo appearance, flying at head height across the marsh and calling all the way.

Wigeon, Crossens Inner Marsh

Teal, a drake coming out of eclipse, Crossens Inner Marsh

I crossed over Marine Drive to have a look at the outer marsh which turned out to be relatively quiet despite it approaching high tide. Most of the geese on the marsh were Canada geese and they were all half a mile out. A couple of pink-feet and a few greylags were closer to hand. Shovelers and lapwings loafed by the pools while wigeon grazed and teal dabbled. There were a few little egrets about and one great white egret out with the Canada geese. I watched it fly in but wasn't sure of the scale until it stood behind some of the geese. A kestrel hunted over the long grass and was largely ignored by the flocks of skylarks, starlings and linnets. It was quite another matter when a marsh harrier floated by.

Shovelers and lapwings, Crossens Outer Marsh

Marsh harrier, Crossens Outer Marsh

Marsh harrier, Crossens Outer Marsh

I crossed back over to walk over to Sandgrounders. There was a pleasing abundance of greenfinches in the hedgerow. The marsh harrier floated over to Marshside Outer and put up more flocks of skylarks, starlings and linnets as well as all the mallards, wigeons and little egrets on the pools. 

Snipe, Marshside

It was fairly busy at Sandgrounders but not uncomfortable. There were plenty of birds about, including dabchicks, gadwalls shelduck and tufted ducks on the pools. The scaup had been reported again today but I had no luck with it. I had more luck with the flock of snipe in front of the hide, primarily because every time they settled, before they got the chance to blend into the scenery they'd be chased by a lapwing.

Dabchick, Marshside

Pintail. a drake nearly out of eclipse, Marshside

I walked down to the Junction Pool, passing a Cetti's warbler by the main drain. The pool was busy with ducks, mostly pintails and shovelers with mallards and teal round the margins. Walking up Marshside Road for the bus I passed a male stonechat playing king of the castle on the top of a privet bush. It had been a cloudy day with patches of brilliant sunshine. Halfway down the road the clouds rolled in and it started pouring down.

I got the Hunt's Cross train at Southport, thinking if the rain continued to be bad I'd call it quits and head home. It started to clear up at Formby so I got off at Hightown and headed off for the dunes.

Alt Estuary, Hightown 

It became a sunny but ferociously windy afternoon. The tide had receded, leaving behind plenty of mud for the shelducks, curlews and oystercatchers. The banks of the Alt just in front of the sailing club looked busy with birds so I sat down and spent half an hour checking out what was what. There were dozens of mallards on the river, mostly in groups of half a dozen or so, dabbling in the river or mudlarking on the banks. There were similar numbers of redshanks and dunlins though it took me a while to get my eye in on the dunlins with the wind buffeting my binoculars so much. A little egret was an easier spot, as were the crowds of black-headed gulls on the beach. A grey plover made itself unusually conspicuous as it foraged on the brow of the bank. Try as I may (and I did try very hard) I couldn't make any of the dunlins into anything other than dunlins.

Grey plover, Hightown

Little egret, Hightown

I was walking back to the station when I noticed the 206 bus was due. This goes up Alt Road to the junction with North End Lane then turns and heads off to Little Crosby. I caught it to get an idea of the route, it could come in useful on a wild goose chase this Winter.

I got off at Hall Road Station and wandered down to enjoy the starlings at Burbo Point. 

First-Winter starling, Burbo Point

Starling, Burbo Point
Singing for all he was worth

Starlings bathing in the car park, Burbo Point

I got the train into Liverpool from Hall Road, looked at the cancelled trains to Manchester, gave up on trying to get onto the train to Preston which was half short (with all the cancellations you wouldn't think there weren't enough carriages available to run services normally), so I got the Wigan train where my train to Oxford Road was cancelled. I got home ridiculously late and had to apologise profusely to the cat. But it had been a damned good day's birdwatching.

Alt Estuary, Hightown