Southport

Herring gull, Southport Marine Lake

It was a glorious late Autumn morning so I set off for the seaside. The plan was to see if the twite are back at Southport Marine Lake then see where time, energy and the weather got me. The weather was glorious, if a bit nippy in the shadows and I ran out of time about the same time as I ran out of steam (I forget how little afternoon daylight there is this time of year and then try and cram too much into it).

My train got into Manchester a few minutes  late so I got the Barrow train to Wigan and picked up the Southport train from there. As we steamed our way through the mosses I was surprised to find I was seeing more buzzards than woodpigeons. This changed once we got into Lancashire though nowhere were there big crowds of woodpigeons. A marsh harrier was a nice surprise just beyond Bescar Lane Station, I don't generally see them this far West away from the coast. The change in the weather is starting to tell by the small flocks of fieldfares and redwings dashing between copses and the mallards and teals starting to populate the drains on the Scarisbrick mosses.

Southport Marine Lake 

At Southport I walked down to the marine lake and for once had a walk round instead of the usual hit and run. There were dozens of mute swans and black-headed gulls on the lake and more than a hundred herring gulls. I looked in vain for any egrets on the islands — any white birds were swans or gulls — but did manage to find a family of greylag geese and a dozen cormorants hanging around in the trees. A family group of great crested grebes fussed about by the nearest island, the young full grown but still wearing stripy pyjamas on their heads.

Mute swans, Southport Marine Lake

Black-headed gull, Southport Marine Lake

I walked round to the sailing club car park to see if there were any twites around. As if by magic sixteen of them rose from the yachting club roof, circled round a couple of times then settled back on the rooftop hidden by the parapet. They were very flighty and rose up a couple more times but wouldn't settle anywhere for me to take a photo. My photographic skills are limited and getting anything of a flock of small finches flying into the sun on a clear day is beyond me. Still, it was good to see them, and good to see so many of them after only seeing one here at the start of the year.

Redshanks, Southport Beach

Shelducks, Southport Beach

I walked from here past the pier and into Birkdale as the tide quietly came in. Shelducks dabbled at the shoreline in the company of hundreds of redshanks. A couple of greenshanks were disturbed by the tide and flew off into the marshes South of the pier. Skylarks frolicked in the marsh grass and pied wagtails skittered about the sea wall. There was a steady overhead traffic of black-headed gulls, herring gulls and starlings while a pair of common gulls floated in and settled to forage in the car park. Further out a small flock of knots gave in to the tide and flew off towards Marshside while a couple of dozen black-tailed godwits stubbornly held on to a patch of increasingly wet mud. I spotted a line of black shapes off shore. Just as I'd convinced myself it was a big piece of timber two of the six common scoters involved decided to have a squabble.

Common scoters, Southport Beach
First sighting

Common scoters, Southport Beach
A marginally better view later on (heavily cropped!)

Black-headed gulls loafed in the water South of the pier. Further down the ground was higher and only slightly damp with the tide. Oystercatchers came in to roost, redshanks and shelducks fed at the tideline and curlews fed in the tall grass. A few dunlins and ringed plovers flew in to feed amongst the redshanks and I found the greenshanks I'd seen earlier. 

Shelducks, oystercatchers and redshanks, Southport Beach

Curlews, oystercatchers and knots, Southport Beach

I assumed the tide had displaced the cloud of waders, including a few ruffs and a couple of knots I hadn't spotted, that rose from the edge of the marsh. The cause turned out to be a marsh harrier which floated low over the ground chased and mobbed by meadow pipits and skylarks.

Marsh harrier, Southport Beach

I carried on down Marine Drive into Birkdale then walked down to get the train into Hightown, the plan being to walk down to Hightown Dunes for a bit more wader watching. The arrival of heaps of schoolkids at Formby Station alerted me to the passage of time. I got off at Hightown, set off at a trot towards the dunes then conceded defeat, I wouldn't be getting much done before twilight and I wasn't convinced I wouldn't doze off on a bench in the cold.

I got the train back to Manchester from Southport and spent a large part of the journey with my nose pressed against the window in the forlorn hopes of spotting a passing owl or some such. I've had my ration of pure dumb luck this month.

Southport Pier 

Southport Pier from South of the Pleasure Beach