The year of oh, you've just missed it mate

Fledgling barn owl, Greater Manchester
(My blog posts sometimes omit birds I've seen due to the need to protect sensitive areas or breeding species.)
(This was late Summer.)

There had to come a time when my post-retirement accumulation of lifers started to slow down and this year seemed to be it. It was bound to happen as recently-added species become regular annual — or even monthly — ticks (great white egret and ring-necked parakeet, for instance) and I can't go hurtling round to out of the way places. This year certainly put last year's bumper tally into perspective. Still, there was plenty about and plenty to see, I visited some new places and got reacquainted with old ones and got a bit of exercise along the way.

It was a year of odd weather: generally mild Winters, an early Spring punctuated by slabs of sullen weather, a bit of scorchio then a slab of dull, wet weather that kept the butterflies and dragonflies at bay, and an Indian Summer before a lot of mild wet grey. It's been a damp year ending very wet. This was reflected in my birdwatching, if not in the birds I found.

The ones that got away

Let's get them out of the way first… 

• I dipped on the common rosefinch that was singing just outside Kendal for a couple of weeks. No excuses, I just couldn't find it. Lovely walk, though.

• The marsh warbler singing on the Staffordshire University campus in Stoke disappeared about an hour before I arrived. It's a nice little walk to have in the bag.

• The Baird's sandpiper at Meols might or might not have been one of the birds tooling round in the distance in filthy weather.

• The bee-eater at Withins Reservoir did a flit shortly before I arrived.

• And although it wasn't a lifer I'm still a bit miffed that the long-billed dowitcher that had been showing well for days at Leighton Moss did a runner five minutes before I got into the Eric Morecambe Hide and was never seen again.

Somehow the stonking Autumn for North American passerines in South Wales, Shetland and the Scilly Isles well nigh ignored North West England where even the regular Autumn scarcities were thin on the ground. 

This year's bogey birds were common redstarts and spotted flycatchers. I just couldn't connect with them at all. Glossy ibis, red-crested pochards, shrikes and snow geese reminded me that they're scarce birds, I didn't get over to the right places for choughs or red grouse, and I didn't do well for seabirds or owls.

A bad year for…

Another negative is the impact of avian flu on black-headed gull populations. We're not getting the usual crowds on the school playgrounds and the corpse-strewn breeding grounds were heartbreaking.

I do seriously have to mention the state of our railway companies. The random cancellations had a bigger, and more sustained, impact than the strikes. Perhaps the biggest negative of the year was the performance of Transpennine Express which at one point was cancelling train journeys faster than I could spend the compensatory rail vouchers, I think in the end I made £30 profit on trying to get up to Redcar. I'd rather have not had the £30 or the stress and wasted time it paid for. I should also mention Flowery Field Station, which is consistently voted the worst railway station in Greater Manchester. I've often wondered why; going through there it looks just like hundreds of other unstaffed halts around the country. This year I used it a few times in my bid to see the firecrest at Dukinfield Park. My God. It gets my vote.

Adding to the lists

So what of the lifers I did manage to see?

• It took three goes for Transpennine Express to get me to Redcar for the king eider just off the beach, and I only got a distant view of it. 

Alpine swift, Elton Reservoir

• I've seen alpine swifts in Italy, the one showing beautifully well at Elton Reservoir was a nice addition to my British list.

• The Kumlein's gull at Widnes was a new taxon for me. It's a subspecies of Iceland gull but given the splits and revisions going on in the taxonomy of large gulls it might become a full armchair tick. It was an interesting bird to see and not one I'm confident I'd identify off my own bat. I'm very grateful to the birders who let me use their telescopes.

• The white-tailed eagle on the Mersey opposite Hale Lighthouse was hard work. I hope I get better views of one in the future.

• I twitched the red-eyed vireo at Bempton and managed to see it twice, once on the way in and again on the way out. A bonny bird though a fidget to try and photograph.

Red-breasted goose, Martin Mere

• I couldn't not try and find the red-breasted goose that spent a bit of time on Banks Marsh and, despite the very gloomy weather, I managed to find it. It was very nice to get a second go at it at Martin Mere in rather more comfortable conditions.

The stats

In the end I managed a year list of 213, which isn't bad for what I felt was hard work at times. The monthly average was 113 so I must have been doing something right and there wasn't a month where I wasn't seeing at least 100 species of birds. I didn't travel quite as extensively as I'd planned, somehow neglecting North Wales and bits of Cheshire and still not getting round to a couple of day trips I've had planned for a couple of years but I've managed to get about a bit.

• Cheshire and Wirral 137 species
• Cleveland 31
• Cumbria 91
• Denbighshire 37
• Derbyshire 49
• Durham 13
• Flintshire 28
• Greater Manchester 134
• Lancashire and North Merseyside 158
• Staffordshire 27
• Yorkshire 85

The Greater Manchester list stands at 187, the British list at 302 and the life list at 382.

Next year

Again there's the temptation to make the game more complicated but the double target of 200 species a year, 100 species a month is challenging enough to make me shift myself and get out and about without being so irksome I stop enjoying the experience.

When I put king eider on this year's wish list I had an eye on the bird at Redcar last Christmas, adding red-breasted goose to the life list was vanishingly unlikely. The random additions to the life list are part of the fun, I wouldn't have predicted eagles or vireos. So for my predictions for next year I'll keep the hardy annual wish for wryneck, little auk, nightjar and great reed warbler and let's have a guess at long-eared owl and bee-eater. As for an unlikely punt I'll hedge my bets with a red-rumped swallow or a shore lark. Or a vulture.

And finally…

Let's finish off with the reason why I chose this way to get a bit of exercise.

Hen harrier, Marshside

Water pipit, Crossens Marsh

Pied wagtail, The Trafford Centre

Robin, Pennington Flash

Redshanks, New Brighton

Mandarin duck, Etherow Country Park

Goldcrest, Pennington Flash

Redshanks, Meols

Herring gulls, great black-back, eider and turnstone, Redcar

Night heron, Ossett

Mute swans, Leighton Moss

Blackcap, Stretford Ees

Eiders, Hodbarrow

Little terns, Hodbarrow

Ruddy shelduck, Widnes

Yellow wagtail, Little Woolden Moss

Greenfinch, Kendal

Kittiwakes and guillemots, Bempton

Juvenile swallow, Bempton

Spoonbills, Leighton Moss

Dabchick, Pennington Flash

Cattle egret, Martin Mere

Bar-tailed godwit, Crosby

Wheatear, Crosby

Dunlin, Hoylake

Gadwall, Pennington Flash

Blue tit, Stretford

Stonechat, Rivington

Bearded tits, Leighton Moss

Whooper swan, Martin Mere

Lapwings, Crossens Inner Marsh

Golden plovers, Crossens Inner Marsh

Common scoter, West Kirby

Black redstart, Red Rocks

Twites, Knott End

Waxwing, Hyde

Black-throated diver, Crosby Marine Lake

Long-tailed tit, Leighton Moss

Urmston

Cattle egret

The plan had been to have a lazy morning then have at the house with mop and yard brush to look presentable for the New Year but when a cattle egret turns up twenty minutes' walk away and the weather's behaving itself then plans need to be revised.

I'd seen a report of a cattle egret on Cob Kiln Lane the other day and kicked myself for not turning right instead of left on my walk through the wood. Nothing more was heard until it was reported again yesterday afternoon so I thought I'd best walk over there before it did a flit and mindful of the heavy showers promised for the afternoon.

(In case it's still around and you don't know the area, go into Urmston and walk down Stretford Road to the Lord Nelson. The road you want is directly opposite, next to the garage.)

Cattle egret and little egret

Cattle egret 

Little egret

Little egret 

I walked down the lane to the sounds of blackbirds, robins and ring-necked parakeets and passed the stables. As I got to the gate to the footpath there, a field away, were some white birds. Two herring gulls and a black-headed gull. And a little egret. And a cattle egret. The cattle egret was strutting round like a catwalk mannequin, it had obviously enjoyed the attention of yesterday's observers. I was the only one there today though I bumped into a couple more birdwatchers later on who had seen it earlier. A wet hoof-chopped field full of earthworms seemed to cater well for both the egrets.

Cob Kiln Wood 

I toyed with the idea of taking the path over to Urmston Meadows then decided not to be silly and walked home through Cob Kiln Wood. The rains of the past few days hadn't helped the paths any and I almost kissed the little bridge over Old Eeas Brook when I got to it. The wood was busy with robins, great tits and blackbirds and gangs of magpies clattered in the trees and a pair of parakeets screeched overhead.

The bridge over Old Eeas Brook

I'd been deaf in one ear with earwax yesterday (a delayed bodily reaction to my dad's television and the cat having a shouty day when she learned she'd missed out on the New Year's Honours again) so it came as a relief that i could hear the tapping of a goldcrest picking at twigs in the bush by my shoulder just as easily as the tapping of a great spotted woodpecker in the trees ahead. The goldcrest was part of a very dispersed mixed tit flock that seemed to stretch from the beginning of the footpath to the bridge.

I squelched home for a shower, a change of clothes and a merry Christmas from the cat.

Skipool Creek

Sketch map: Skipool

Skipool Creek is a stretch of the Wyre near Poulton-Le-Fylde. It's a pleasant hour or so's stroll that can be fitted in with a bit of seawatching at Blackpool, Fleetwood or Knott End.

• It's a twenty minute walk from Poulton-Le-Fylde Station. There are frequent trains between Preston and Blackpool North and Blackpool South. Turn right as you leave the station and walk on to the bypass and carry on a few yards up Skipool Road then turn right onto Wyre Road.
• The 2C bus between Blackpool and Knott End stops at the Wyre Hotel close to the junction with Skipool Road.
• The 74 and 75 buses between Fleetwood and Preston goes through Little Thornton and down Skipool Road. For a first visit it's probably easiest to get off at Thornton Lodge and walk up Wyre Road.

Skipool Creek 

Skipool Creek is a brackish stream running into the Wyre. The path runs parallel to the river, the bank on this side being an extended boatyard. 

River Wyre

The birdlife on the river is what you would expect on a small estuary in the Northwest of England: mallards, lapwings, redshanks and little egrets most of the year, oystercatchers and curlews, greenshanks and green sandpipers, wigeon and gulls.

The hedgerow by the path has a feeding station hidden deep near the car park. The hedgerow and car park can get quite busy with small birds.

The path can get a bit damp, the more so past the entrance to the sailing club. On a fine day it's a nice walk down and onto the Stanah Tramper Trail. This takes you into Stanah, if you carry on to the end and walk down Stanah Road you can get the 24 bus between Fleetwood and Poulton-le-Fylde. If it's a damp day you might want to either retrace your steps down Wyre Road or take the path through the car park to Skipool Road for the 74 or 75 bus.