Banks Marsh

Pink-footed geese, Hundred End
Including some individuals with white forehead markings.

It was a bright Winter's day, starting cold and frosty but boding well so I decided I'd go over to Martin Mere to see if I could get a photo of the yellow-browed warbler that's still there. I thought I'd managed to work out a connection to New Lane but it didn't work out so rather than kicking my heels in Bolton waiting for a bus replacement service I got a Stagecoach day rider ticket and got the 125 to Preston. The plan was to get the number 2 and get off at Hesketh Bank but we missed that due to roadworks and I only just managed to catch the X2 for Banks. Kicking my heels at Preston Bus Station would be even more miserable than at Bolton!

I got off at St Stephen's Church and instead of tracing the number 2 bus route out to Far Banks to get onto the marsh I thought I'd investigate Charnleys Lane which meets the end of Vicarage Road then runs down to the field next to the bund and then parallel to the marsh before looping down to the corner of Marsh Road by the bus stop. I thought it would be more interesting than walking through the village's housing estate. And so it was.

Big sky day on Banks Marsh 

There were plenty of blackbirds and robins in the hedgerows along Charnleys Lane and woodpigeons and collared doves sang from cottage rooftops. There were a few skylarks in the fields and a flock of a couple of dozen curlews skipped from one ploughed field to another. The first of the day's skeins of pink-footed geese flew over as I approached the bend at the bund. 

There was a very tempting stile up to the bund at the other end of the field and a very big "Trespassers will be prosecuted" sign at the entrance by the path. In between was a heron fishing in the land drain and a flock of about fifty skylarks with a dozen each of linnets and meadow pipits tagging along for the ride. Every so often they'd rise up as a cloud and settled back down all of ten yards further along the field, which didn't strike me as energetically efficient. A little further on I bumped into my first pair of stonechats of the year as they fossicked about in the dry grass by a drain. I followed the path round to Marsh Road, congratulating myself on finding a good walk for a nice day with the weather for a big sky.

Meadow pipit, Banks Marsh

A tractor was ploughing the remains of a field of cabbages on Marsh Road, eagerly followed by a flock of black-headed gulls. The nearby field margins were awash with meadow pipits and pied wagtails, fidgeting and taking flight every time the tractor approached and pretty much impossible to count. At a guess, more than fifty of each and possibly less than a hundred. Meadow pipits are quite attractive this time of year as they go through their pre-breeding moult. Some have fresh, almost glowing golden olive backs and wings, others are browner and duller. Every so often I'd spot a pipit that was bright olive brown with a whitish throat and breast without any gold or buff colouring but they turned out to be meadow pipits all the same. I'd be no good at finding any exotic species of pipit.

Banks Marsh 

Wigeon, Banks Marsh

Banks Marsh was relatively quiet with the wigeons, teal and lapwings in their hundreds. There were small groups of pink-footed geese, none more than a few dozen, close to the bund. Out in the estuary there were thousands. It's impossible not to skyline as you walk along the path at the top so I was constantly spooking wigeon and teal, when I wasn't tripping over an abundance of meadow pipits. The marsh was littered with little egrets and shelducks, the curlews and redshanks hung around in groups. 

Whooper swans, Banks Marsh

The large white bird a hundred yards down the drain turned out to be a little egret and its reflection. The huge white bird flying in from the fields to the North turned out to be three whooper swans. I eventually found a pair of great white egrets, both of them playing the game where they disappear into a creek with just their outstretched necks as periscopes.

Walking down to Hundred End 

Tundra bean goose (centre) with pink-footed geese
Note the "duck" bill compared with the pink-feet's stubby bills. The orange legs are hidden by the grass.

I got to the stile that drops down to the bund path to Hundred End and I walked down this to get the bus either to Preston or Southport, whichever came first. A distant flock of whooper swans flew from the fields by Hundred Lane End over onto Hesketh Bank. The thousands of pink-footed geese on the field by the path mostly stayed put as I tiptoed my way past the sheep on the bund, only the very nearest took flight and they only moved down to the middle of the field. By the purest of luck I found a single tundra bean goose in the throng. The geese were between me and the setting sun so I assayed a few artistic photographs.

Pink-footed geese, Hundred End

I must be out of condition: I didn't have it in me to walk down to Hesketh Bank to check out the swans so I waited for the Southport bus and got the train home.

Banks Marsh