Pennington Flash

Teal

The day started well with the arrival of the first greenfinch of the year in the garden. When I first moved in they were garden regulars outside the nesting period, now they're Winter visitors. I'm not sure if that's a reflection of the general population decline or the way my garden has evolved into woodland edge.

I didn't want to put my trust in trains today so I decided to go over to Pennington Flash. I was nearly put off by reports of there being a penduline tit in the reeds by the seat where the old East bay hide used to be; I didn't fancy going on a twitch but then I thought: why not? I've never knowingly seen one. I might have seen one in South Devon thirty years ago but I was even less confident than I would be now in identifying it off my own bat after a fleeting encounter. Even before I'd finished my cup of tea whilst having this conversation with myself a report came in that the bird had gone missing so there was no excuse for not going.

It was my own fault I missed the bus to the Trafford Centre, I got distracted counting the gulls on the school playing field. Besides the twenty-eight black-headed gulls three lesser black-backs and two herring gulls were loafing quietly while four common gulls squabbled noisily, the sound of school playgrounds in my youth.

Two things keep catching my eye this week and they were very conspicuous on the journey to Leigh. One is the number of small all-male flocks of blackbirds feeding in hawthorn hedges. The other is an almost complete absence of woodpigeons from their usual haunts, I didn't even see any after a couple of hours at Pennington Flash. No idea what's happening there.

The first bird I bumped into as I walked down from St Helens Road was a great spotted woodpecker which turned out to be shadowing a flock of blue tits and great tits. There were quite a few mixed tit flocks about today though only a couple containing long-tailed tits. A flock of lapwings flew overhead, the only ones I saw today.

Great crested grebe

I walked down to the Eastern bay, partly for a change, partly for the Autumn colour, partly to try my luck with the penduline tit. There was nobody around except a dog walker. I told myself that it was vanishingly unlikely I would see the bird, a trick that worked well with the pallid swift the other week but this time proved true. A pair of willow tits came up to see what I was about and weren't impressed. I was impressed by the stunningly fresh plumage one of them was sporting with rich raw umber upperparts and bright sienna flanks. "Small brown bird" often fails to describe something very colourful. Try as I might they weren't for being photographed. As I walked away another birdwatcher turned up. "Any luck with the penduline tit?" he asked. I replied in the negative but assured him that now I was leaving he'd have more luck. (Sadly, he didn't.)

Mallards in the brook

There were a couple of hundred black-headed gulls on the flash together with sixty or seventy large gulls, most of which were lesser black-backs. I could see half a dozen common gulls and a great black-back steamed across the water halfway out. The few herring gulls were very active, unlike the lesser black-backs which were loafing and preening. The usual coots, tufted ducks and great crested grebes were joined by half a dozen pochards. I'd expect to see some goldeneyes a by now, I expect the mild weather isn't acting as a spur for movement. A couple of magpies chased a kestrel over the flash and another pair mobbed a sparrowhawk flying low over the trees by the path.

Black-headed gulls, mallards, oystercatcher and Canada geese

A couple of dozen mallards were bathing in the brook as I passed by. The car park was busy, mostly with contractors. A flock of black-headed gulls followed the digger as it ploughed a trench in the tarmac. The car park oystercatcher dozed with the mallards and Canada geese.

Heron

The Horrocks Hide was locked and barricaded, I don't know why. I know it's been the target of vandalism in the past but there was nothing obviously amiss from the outside. The spit was flooded, mallards dabbled in the grass and a heron hunted in the drain. The usual half a dozen cormorants drying their wings at the end of the spit had become an even score, the overflow sitting on sticks and posts in the bight.

Song thrush

A few teal drifted on the pool opposite the Tom Edmondson Hide. A speculative search of the reeds in the hopes of a penduline tit turned up a couple of reed buntings and a family of long-tailed tits.

Teal

The gadwall on the Tom Edmondson pool were busily pairing up, the teal were already in pairs and were doing a lot of head-bobbing. The scrub on the left-hand bank seems to have grown too high for the herons' comfort, they've moved to the bank of the right-hand pool.

Herons
(Natural lighting, the sun was low)

The water was high at Ramsdales which suited the teals and shovelers but left waders with no place to go. I checked the bushes for warblers with no success, even the usual Cetti's warbler wasn't in its bramble patch. There were a lot of long-tailed tits and blackbirds.

I decided to call it quits and drifted back home. The rain threatened by the weather forecast didn't turn up and it had been a mild, bright afternoon though you felt the chill whenever a cloud passed over the sun.