Thirdly review

Mallard and ducklings, Marshside

I had meant to do a quarterly review at the end of March but I forgot so I'll do a thirdly review to make up for it.

The first thing to say about 2023 is that as far as the year list is concerned it started more slowly than 2022 despite my making roughly the same effort to get about. I'm still very confident of hitting the 200 target for the year list, at the end of April it's reached 164 (this time last year it had hit 175 but had predictably peaked and there wasn't a month thereafter where I was adding double figures to the total). 

The year list 01/01/2023 — 30/04/2023
That big step in mid-January was this year's first visit to Southport, I usually try to fit it in in the first week.

The year list 01/01/2022 — 30/04/2022

The main differences are that last year I got a couple of East coast trips out and added rocky shore specialities like fulmars, shags and auks, had been lucky with owls and geese and had a surge of migrants in mid-April; this year it took three goes to Redcar for the king eider and the other trip out of the Northwest was to North Wales with both trips providing a selection of sandy beach and mussel bed specialists, and most of the migrants have rolled in later this year.

Totals for the recording areas so far:

• Greater Manchester 103
• Lancashire and North Merseyside 117
• Cheshire and Wirral 113
• Cumbria 48
• Derbyshire 29
• Yorkshire 46
• Cleveland 31
• Durham 13
• Denbighshire 37
• Flintshire 28

The important thing is that I'm getting out and about and keeping eyes and ears open for what's around. It should be an interesting year.

Marsh harrier, Leighton Moss

Martin Mere

Cattle egret, with cattle

I haven't gotten round to Martin Mere this month so I thought I should rectify the matter. The weather was grey and cool but threatened to get better later in the afternoon so there was no good excuse not to go for a walk. We'll skip the cancelled train and get to the bit where I alight at New Lane and start my walk.

Savoy cabbage, New Lane 

I had all day so I thought I'd take the long way round via the reedbeds and sewage works. The latter were a bit ripe but the brisk, cold wind was in my favour and I hadn't gone far beyond the station when I was already upwind of the smell. There were a few black-headed gulls and oystercatchers on the filtration beds and blackcaps, whitethroats and willow warblers sang in the trees. There was a lot of calling from the black-headed gulls as a buzzard floated by. As I was watching it I noticed a smaller bird flying towards Martin Mere perhaps fifty yards behind it. It took that bird's wheeling and flying closer for me to be sure it was a kestrel. A couple of pairs of stock doves flew overhead and over towards the covert near the tea rooms while there was a steady to and fro of woodpigeons, jackdaws and carrion crows. Everything went quiet for a moment as a sparrowhawk flew out from Martin Mere and headed towards New Lane Station.

I was approaching the crossing when the buzzard came back. A pair of carrion crows made a point of sending it packing.

Carrion crows mobbing a buzzard, New Lane
First approach

Carrion crows mobbing a buzzard, New Lane
First pass

Carrion crows mobbing a buzzard, New Lane
Another pass

Carrion crows mobbing a buzzard, New Lane
Both crows get involved

Carrion crows mobbing a buzzard, New Lane

Carrion crows mobbing a buzzard, New Lane
Job done, exit buzzard stage left

I crossed the railway line and upset half a dozen greylags that had been grazing in the field on the other side. I'd be no match for half a dozen greylag geese but they weren't to know that. My walk over towards the reedbed path was accompanied by the sounds of lapwings display-flying over the reserve.

Looking towards the Reedbed walk

The hedges along the reedbed perimeter were lively with whitethroats, robins, chiffchaffs, wrens and goldfinches. Linnets and reed buntings flew about overhead and titmice quietly fossicked around in the depths of hawthorns. 

The reedbeds from the perimeter path

Every so often a blackcap, willow warbler or a Cetti's warbler would burst into song and a reed warbler reeled from the pool by the side of the hedge. The noise that puzzled me the most was the sound of a moorhen on its nest about ten feet up in a densely-foliaged hawthorn bush. I had a scout round by the sewage works fence but even the chiffchaffs were getting better pickings elsewhere.

Chiffchaff

A sedge warbler singing in the willowherbs by one of the screens made my reedbed warbler tally up to seven.

The path by Martin Mere was less atrocious than last time so I hardly upset any of the mallards, shelducks or greylags loafing in the field.

Black-headed gulls

My first port of call at Martin Mere was the Discovery Hide. I was lured as much by the opportunity for a sit down as the sound of the black-headed gull colony. Most of the gulls had nests to sit or guard though there were still a few courting couples in the crowds. I looked around for Mediterranean gulls but only found the one reeling round the mere. Nearly all the whooper swans had left, I could find only one grazing on the far bank, and I didn't see any pink-feet. Waders were thin on the ground, too, save a few oystercatchers and the lapwings flying about over the fields.

Black-headed gull on its nest

I was scanning round to see what else was about when a little gull flitted across my line of vision. Every time I got a bead on it and started watching its feeding on midges it would be chased out of view by a black-headed gull, no doubt enjoying the experience of not being the smallest gull on the mere for a change.

Little gull

There was a sudden, muttered exclamation from the chap I was sharing the hide with. "The wife's just sent me a text," he said, "She wants to know what this bird is." It was a hooded crow in the car park of the Co-op in Banks. "I'll have a look for it on my way home," he said, "It'll be gone by the time I get there so there's no point in rushing off." I hope he got it.

The feeding station by the Raines Observatory was being monopolised by goldfinches and mallards. There were more goldfinches with the chaffinches and rats on the feeders by the Kingfisher Hide. The only sparrows I found were a pair of house sparrows in the hedge by the Hale Hide.

Approaching the Ron Barker Hide 

I'd barely sat down at the Ron Barker Hide before I noticed the two cattle egrets. The cattle were lying down by a pool with the egrets preening in front of them. Shelducks, shovelers, mallards and teal dabbled in the pools with a handful of avocets. A dozen black-tailed godwits flew by but didn't stop. I spent a while trying and failing to see much of the Cetti's warbler singing in the ditch in front of the hide.

As I was walking away from the hide an alarm call from a passing jackdaw made me look up in time to catch a peregrine steaming by at treetop height. Oddly, I didn't see a harrier all day.

The call of a cup of tea trumped the temptation to go down to the reedbed hides so I sloped off to the café and watched the swallows skittering about. Once I'd finished I decided to call it quits and make my way over to Burscough Bridge for the train home as the wind blew the clouds away and it became a warm teatime.

Swallows, Red Cat Lane

I'd stopped off for a wander down Curlew Lane in the hopes of catching a yellow wagtail or two but had no luck. There were plenty of lapwings and pied wagtails but no yellow wagtails as I could see. I got talking to the farmer whose house in on the corner. He'd asked if I'd seen anything special and I replied that I'd been hoping for a yellow wagtail. "Are yellow wagtails special?" he asked, "We have loads of them." "That's why your farm's special," I told him. We had a very long chat about farm prices, climate change and the prehistory of the mosses. I hadn't realised that this part of the moss was a glacial U-shaped valley, you can't see it from Tarlscough Lane or Red Cat Lane but looking towards the hills from that angle on Curlew Lane it's quite obvious even though the bulk of it has been filled in by the mosses. Apparently researchers have discovered that the bog wood that keeps fouling the ploughing is about 9,000 years old and that all the trees were toppled in the same event. All the while we were talking dozens of swallows and house martins wheeled over our heads and round the farm buildings.

Red Cat Lane 

Having a long yarn evidently recharged my batteries as I had plenty of energy for the rest of the walk. I struck lucky with tree sparrows in the hedgerows by Crabtree Lane but I had no luck finding any corn buntings. Mind you, given the way the starlings, rooks and woodpigeons vanished into the fields of oilseed rape I ought not to have been surprised.

Footpath through a field of rape, Red Cat Lane 

One of those days that emphasise the unpredictability of birdwatching.

Flixton

Blackbird, Jack Lane

Yesterday's decision to have a lazy day today was reinforced by a night's sleep that involved feeding a cat at 3am. I thought I'd spend the afternoon pottering around Wellacre Country Park so I got the 256 into Flixton and set off into Wellacre Wood.

The house sparrows and starlings were plentiful but too busy for making much noise. Blackbirds, wrens, chiffchaffs, robins and blackcaps weren't so shy about singing. A song thrush tuned up a bit then changed its mind and went hunting for food in the grass verges.

Wellacre Wood 

It's amazing how different the wood looks now that Spring is here. In all but the densest patches the woodland floor was green with cow parsley, hogweed, wood avens and wood cranesbills. Which provided plenty of cover for great tits.

Wellacre Wood 

I spent a few minutes scanning over the sewage works at Irlam Locks. There was a steady flow of starlings and magpies collecting food to take back to hungry mouths. A cloud of a hundred or so sand martins billowed low over the filtration beds with a handful of swallows. The black-headed gulls that have been unlucky in love are drifting back to their off-season feeding grounds, there were about a dozen here today.

Jack Lane Nature Reserve 

Jack Lane was noisy with singing chiffchaffs, robins and great tits and the pair of reed warblers having a singing duel either side of the path struggled to make themselves heard. A mallard flew out of the reeds as I passed while a moorhen sidled into deeper cover. It was a cool, grey day so my hopes of seeing my first damselflies of the year were wildly optimistic.

Jack Lane Nature Reserve 

Dutton's Pond was busy with anglers and the mallards were kept on their toes dodging ground bait and fishing lines.

Fly Ash Hill was filled with the songs of chiffchaffs and blackcaps in the trees and whitethroats and linnets in the scrub. Goldfinches and greenfinches flitted between the birch trees and the hawthorn bushes.

Fly Ash Hill 

A quick look at the river at Flixton Bridge found me three loafing mallards and a redhead goosander.

The 247 into Altrincham was due so I went home via Altrincham, Warrington and Newton-le-Willows. The CAT5 bus service between Altrincham and Warrington has disappeared from Google Maps so I wanted to check if it's still a thing, it's a useful service for Woolston Eyes as well as Carrington Moss and Dunham Massey. It is still a thing and runs through Lymm and Grappenhall same as ever. Unfortunately we got stuck in a traffic jam for half an hour on the way into Warrington so I missed both the bus to Irlam and the later train back home so I had to get the Manchester train from Bank Quay. Then I noticed there was a connection at Newton-le-Willows with the stopping train from St Helens to Manchester which meant I could get the bus to the Trafford Centre from Eccles and only have to wait five minutes for the bus home and a grumpy cat wanting to know what time you call this and what's for tea?

Southport

Mallard and ducklings, Marshside

It bode well to be a fine Spring day so I negotiated the train timetables and went over to Southport for a wander round Marshside and Crossens. The Southport trains leave Oxford Road and Victoria within minutes of each other which means that if you can't make the connection you end up going out to Salford Crescent or Bolton and hanging round for three quarters of an hour for the next one. So I stopped over at Bolton and went out for a vegan sausage roll breakfast (the vegan one tastes better than the meat one).

With the leaves bursting t's getting harder to see the birds in the trees as the train goes by but that's more than compensated for by hearing more birds singing at the stations and signals. Blackcaps seem to like railway stations almost as much as blackbirds, robins and wrens.

I struck lucky and caught the 15 at Southport and was soon walking up Marshside Road. A couple of house martins hawked over Elswick Road, I didn't see any over the RSPB reserve.

Lapwing, Marshside

The change of season means that although there are crowd scenes on the reserve they aren't as obvious as in Winter as their constituents aren't big and goose shaped. There were dozens of Canada geese and greylags about but the crowds down Marshside Road were starlings, house sparrows, linnets and goldfinches. They were very busy and very vocal. Lapwings were widely spaced out on the fields, occasionally chasing off Canada geese that had clumped a bit too close to where nests must have been. Shelducks and mallards dabbled in pools with little egrets while gadwall and teal dozed in the drains. One female mallard had a couple of dozen ducklings in her charge. A sedge warbler sang from a bit of rough at the foot of one of the few remaining hawthorns on the opposite side of the road. A whitethroat held a territory in the bushes at the corner by the junction.

Whitethroat, Marshside

One of the joys of this time of year is the pineapple scent of gorse bushes with a sound track of warblers, skylarks and meadow pipits.

Gorse, Marshside

The surprise at the Junction Pool was a black swan asleep on a nest.

Black swan, Marshside

The wind had ensured it had been a chilly walk despite its being bright and sunny and I was glad of the shelter of the sand plant as I walked over to Sandgrounders.

It was quiet on the big pool, just a few loafing Canada geese, mallards and black-headed gulls and a Canada goose nesting on the big island. There were more nesting geese around the banks.

Ruff, Marshside

The black-headed gulls were sitting on nests on the marsh though the colony still seemed smaller than it has been, just a hundred or so birds. There were still a few dozen black-tailed godwits about with a few ruffs and redshanks scampering amongst them. The avocets were keeping their distance, I could see a couple of dozen from the hide. Another sign of changing seasons was the very few lingering wigeons dotted about in the pools.

Tufted duck with a brood of mallard ducklings

There were more mallard ducklings bobbing around on the water, including half a dozen that had been foisted onto a family of tufted ducks and were being taught how to dive. They did a good job of it though their buoyancy kicked in sooner than it did the tufted ducklings. Mallards are notorious for not laying all their eggs in the one nest as a sort of insurance policy.

Barnacle geese and black-headed gull, Marshside

The sun triumphed over the wind and it became a warm afternoon. Brimstones and orange tips fluttered about the dandelions by the hide and a willow warbler sang from behind the portaloo. Walking down the path I met more brimstones and a few peacocks and small tortoiseshells. A reed warbler reeled from a tiny patch of reeds on the bank of the main drain. I spotted a pair of barnacle geese amongst the Canada geese on Polly's Pool. There was no sign of the weekend's spoonbill, which didn't surprise me.

Over on the outer marsh little egrets and black-headed gulls shrimped in the pools and a dozen or so pink-footed geese grazed in the long grass. A marsh harrier, the only bird of prey I saw here today, wheeled high above the salt marsh.

There were more avocets on Crossens Inner Marsh and a lot more teal and shelducks. I saw some small black and white heads scampering between clumps of grass in a brightly-lit patch of mud and wondered if they were ringed plovers or little ringed plovers. I shifted position to try and reduce the glare and saw a couple of pied wagtails. Ten yards further along I was vindicated when I looked back and saw three little ringed plovers trotting over the mud.

Pink-footed geese, Crossens Outer Marsh

There were only a couple of dozen pink-feet left by the roadside on Crossens Outer Marsh. There was a good thousand of them over on Banks Marsh judging by the cloud that rose when spooked by a low-flying aircraft. There were plenty of little egrets and shelducks dotted about the marsh. I looked in vain for any water pipits by the wildfowlers' pull-in and found a male white wagtail.

I got into Crossens and got the 49 bus. I stayed on until Ainsdale, thinking that I might have a wander over the dunes but once I arrived I decided I against and got the train back to Southport and thence home. I think I'll have a lazy day tomorrow and recharge my batteries.

Frodsham

No.6 Tank: black-tailed godwits, bar-tailed godwits, ruffs, shelducks, shovelers, teal and gadwall

I was tempted by the green-winged teal's third day at Frodsham Marsh. I seem to be going through a patch of catching up with birds I've not seen since before the pandemic so off I toddled in the hopes of carrying on with the lucky streak.

Female orange tip butterfly on dandelion

As I crossed the motorway and joined Moorditch Lane the air was full of the sound of birds trying to sing over the traffic noise. A song thrush and a wren were, predictably, the most nearly successful. Between them and the traffic I was lucky to hear the jangling keys songs of the dunnock in the hawthorn hedge and a corn bunting in a hawthorn bush in the opposite corner of the field.

Walking down Moorditch Lane there were a lot of small birds about, and a lot of willow leaves and hawthorn leaves to provide cover for small birds. In one stretch of the lane I bumped into six species of warbler. Blackcaps and chiffchaffs sang in the trees while whitethroats sang in the bushes on the rise behind them. My first sedge warbler of the year sang from a bit of rough reeds and nettles and a Cetti's warbler sang from the nettles in the ditch. I was to lose count of the number of Cetti's warblers I heard today. A garden warbler sang from a hawthorn bush, not sure if it was being a blackcap or a sedge warbler and being reassuringly different from the blackcap singing two bushes to my right.

No.6 Tank

The fields on No.5 tank were busy with jackdaws and rooks. A pair of ring ousels had been reported earlier but I couldn't see any sign of them. I bobbed up onto the bank of No.6 tank for a quick look round. Plenty of shelducks, mallards and tufted ducks, not as many shovelers as last time, and a pair of dabchicks. I hoped the green-winged teal hadn't skipped over onto this tank, all the teal I could see were distant silhouettes identifiable only by size and shape.

I exchanged pleasantries with the chap I last bumped into last year at Ince Blundell, each convinced they were the last birdwatcher on public transport. He'd been looking for the green-winged teal for a couple of hours and was about to go home but decided sod it, he'd give it another go. I last saw him half an hour later scanning the mitigation pool from a high bank. I note that the teal was reported there about the same time, I hope it was him he put in the work to deserve it.

No.6 Tank is on the other side of the high bank on the right

I had another look at No.6 Tank from further down the lane. There were about a dozen bar-tailed godwits amongst the crowds of black-tailed loafing and feeding by the shore. A few ruffs skittered about on the shore and a couple of pairs of gadwall dabbled with the shovelers.

I reached the mitigation pool — the tiny pool about halfway along the lane on the opposite side to No.6. There wasn't anything on that I could see. Four teal flew in and I got my hopes up but the drakes were all common teal. I walked along a little, scanning the pool all the while, and another teal popped its head up. Another drake common teal. I couldn't in all conscience turn any of the teal on the pool into a green-winged teal no matter how much I wished for it.

Moorditch Lane 

There were plenty of butterflies about, mostly orange tips with a few large whites, peacocks and small tortoiseshells, brought out as the cold, cloudy morning turned into a warm, bright lunchtime. I found myself acting as sheepdog to half a dozen sheep on the lane. Try as I might to pass by them they'd scamper on ahead a few paces. In the end they havered between me and a chap who was scanning the phalarope pool so they ducked under the fence back onto the marsh.

Garganey

A drake garganey was showing well on the phalarope pool in the company of a dozen teal and a couple of pairs of gadwall. A female teal joined it for a few minutes, I didn't think anything of it until I noticed it had a distinct eyestripe and a pale loral spot just in front of its beak. A female garganey hiding in plain sight!

Common teal

Whinchat

There were a couple of whitethroat skittering about in the vegetation at the front of the pool. I was looking at them when something small and colourful flitted by. I was lucky: it found a couple of sticks it liked and spent a few minutes fly-catching from them. I was struck by how different a whinchat looks side-on, where it is a small brown bird with a white eyestripe, and head-on, where it is a fiery orange bird with a black-and-white striped face.

Whinchat

I carried on walking to a backdrop of singing whitethroats and Cetti's warblers. A male marsh harrier floated over the marsh, stopping only to mob a buzzard that had floated too low and too near for its liking.

Marsh harrier

Lordship Lane was almost bone dry. In fact it was entirely unnecessary to step in any mud, which is remarkable so early in the year. Linnets, which had been a bit thin on the ground on Moorditch Lane, were plentiful and noisy, as were the goldfinches, chiffchaffs and whitethroats. Yet another Cetti's warbler sang a duet with a sedge warbler in the nettles in the ditch.

I seriously contemplated trying the walk into Elton and catching the bus back to Frodsham but after due consideration I had to concede that I had the mile and a half to Helsby in my legs but not the three and a half to Elton. 

There were more linnets and goldfinches in the hedgerows along Rake Line together with a lot of chaffinches and house sparrows. A raven gave a passing buzzard a very hard time. I got to Helsby in time to have missed the train by ten minutes then missed the bus to Frodsham because it was five minutes early(!!!) So I got the bus to Chester to get a feel for the Ellesmere Port/North Chester area and found out that the Ince Marshes aren't quite as inaccessible as I thought given a bit of planning.

The phalarope pool 

Back home for a much-needed pot of tea and then another after another good day.

Etherow Country Park

Mandarin duck porn, Etherow Country Park

It was a grey day with a brisk wind adding a further edge to an already cool lunchtime. I was a bit low energy today so I wandered over to Etherow Country Park to take photos of mandarin ducks.

Beech trees by the canalside lane

I got off the 383 at Compstall post office and walked into the country park. Robins, dunnocks and chiffchaffs sang in the bushes and jackdaws and pigeons flew about overhead. Just the two black-headed gulls and a flock of twenty or so sand martins hawking over the boating pond were signs of Spring. Another was the Canada goose nest with the four eggs in it, the parents being too busy hissing at passing coots to sit on them.

Mandarin duck, Etherow Country Park

There weren't many mandarin ducks on the canal, most of the pairs were whistling at each other in the trees by the river.

Scanning the river as I approached the weir I noticed that the white goose was back in station by the bridge and a grey wagtail was flitting about in the rapids. I almost missed the dipper dozing on the rocks.

Dipper, River Etherow

I tried to find the dipper again from the bridge but had no luck. I did find a heron that had been hidden by the unusually large volume of water pouring into the river from the canal overflow.

Heron, River Etherow

Heron, River Etherow

Keg Wood 

I've not been getting the long walks in the past few weeks and it's been showing so I thought I'd give the knees and wind a bit of a workout on the dips and rises in Keg Wood. The woods were lively with birdsong, mostly blackbirds, robins, chiffchaffs and nuthatches, and titmice and goldfinches bounced through the trees. Someone had been through earlier today scattering bird food in small dumps and these were proving popular with the squirrels, great tits and nuthatches. A couple of great tits walked up to me on the path in the hopes I might have something on me, which sadly I didn't.

Nuthatch, Keg Wood

The paths were densely lined with wild garlic and dog's mercury and here and there the first drifts of bluebells were in bloom. I was struck by how dark many of them were this year. I noticed that one pair of nuthatches had a nest right next to the path so I moved on quickly so's not to disturb it any.

Bluebells, Keg Wood

Passing the orchard I started to hear more blackcaps and willow warblers with the chiffchaffs and a pheasant was calling from somewhere up the hill. I stopped for refreshments at Sunny Corner, sitting in the wooden bus shelter affair overlooking the trees. This is a good spot if you keep fairly still. Within minutes I had pairs of robins, nuthatches and blue tits feeding just yards away and they were soon joined by chaffinches, great tits and coal tits. A family of carrion crows were making a racket in the trees on the other side of the dip.

Pied flycatcher, Keg Wood

Later on I was watching a pair of squirrels chasing each other around in the undergrowth when a flash of white in a holly bush caught my eye. It turned out to be a female pied flycatcher, which was an unexpected pleasure. It was very distant and very active, like a rather manic goldcrest. About five minutes later I found a male flycatcher being a little less frenetic but no less distant. I hope they're a pair and they linger rather than passing through. There are more than enough old trees and nest boxes about in the woods for them to choose from.

Pied flycatcher, Keg Wood

Robin, Keg Wood

It started drizzling as I made my way back out of the wood but it didn't last long. Just to be on the safe side I opted for the high level path back to the visitor centre, the trees providing a bit more shelter than the canalside paths.

River Etherow 

A handful of swallows had joined the sand martins over the boating lake. I had one last look round and made why way over for the bus back into Stockport and thence the bus home. One of those afternoons where you don't expect much and receive plenty.