Pennington Flash

Chiffchaff, Barton Clough

Seeing as how it was a bright and sunny Good Friday I thought I'd have an afternoon walk around Pennington Flash but I just missed the 25 to the Trafford Centre so I decided to have a nosy round my local patch then get the 250 to the Trafford Centre and bus it to Leigh from there.

Lostock Park 

Lostock Park was understandably busy, which didn't stop the great tits, blue tits and robins bouncing round the trees and shrubs. Somebody put up a lot of nest boxes over Winter and at least one of them has been adopted by great tits. The usual magpies were about, most of them on the playing field with a single mistle thrush which suggests there's an occupied nest somewhere.

Blackbird, Barton Clough

The old cornfields were busy with robins, great tits and blackbirds. I concluded that there were two singing chiffchaffs, one very mobile bird working the length of the park perimeter and the footpath, and one in the trees behind the school. A singing blackcap in a cherry tree made a pleasing tableau but he was very camera shy. It was good to see the buzzard hovering over the Parkway flyover.

Barton Clough 

• Black-headed gull 1 overhead
• Blackbird 10
• Blackcap 1
• Blue tit 8
• Buzzard 1
• Carrion crow 1
• Chaffinch 1
• Chiffchaff 2
• Dunnock 1
• Feral pigeon 1 overhead
• Goldfinch 5
• Great tit 7
• Greenfinch 4
• House sparrow 1
• Lesser black-back 1 overhead
• Long-tailed tit 2
• Magpie 13
• Mistle thrush 1
• Robin 6
• Starling 1
• Woodpigeon 14
• Wren 3

Gadwall, Pennington Flash

I forgot that the bank holiday timetable for the 126 and 132 is entirely different to normal running so it was a late afternoon visit to Pennington Flash. Which was OK as visitors were winding down and the birdlife wasn't much bothered by them anyway.

Pennington Flash 

Both duck and gull numbers were well down on the flash as birds move to on breeding quarters. There were still plenty of tufted ducks about and a raft of about a dozen goldeneyes. Oddly, there were more gadwall about on the open water than mallards. Herring gulls and lesser black-backs were peppered about liberally and nearly a hundred black-headed gulls made sure we know what they sound like. 

Horrocks spit

The Horrocks Hide has been reopened, which is good. The vegetation on the spit has grown quite high so mallards and woodpigeons tended to disappear into it. Pairs of great crested grebes were out in the open water, a raft of about a dozen grebes at the end of the spit looked like nothing so much as a teenage gang, which I dare say it was.

Mallard duckling, Pennington Flash

At least one pair of mallards had ducklings in tow on the pools on the way to the Tom Edmondson Hide. It was hard to be sure as the ducklings didn't seem to know which pair they were with and moved freely between both. Chiffchaffs and blackcaps sang in the trees and reed buntings were surprisingly conspicuous in the bushes by the paths.

Pennington Flash 

The Tom Edmondson Hide was quiet again though if you looked hard enough you could find a couple of herons lurking in the background.

The reeds obscure a lot of the view from Ramsdales, which is a shame as the water level's now good for passing waders. A couple of lapwings dozed with the teal and Canada geese and a pair of dabchicks hinneyed at each other from the pool.

Tufted ducks, Pennington Flash

Pengy's Pool was littered with tufted ducks and gadwall. A willow tit briefly joined the reed buntings and great tits on the feeders by the side of the hide.

Great tit, Pennington Flash

There were a lot more great tits and reed buntings on the feeders at the Bunting Hide, together with half a dozen each of magpies, stock doves and mallards.

Stock dove, Pennington Flash

Magpie, Pennington Flash

I walked back, having one last look at the flash. The raft of goldeneyes had tightened up into one dark patch on the water and the tufted ducks were starting to settle into larger groups for the night. Scanning round I noticed that what I thought was one of the hundred or more coots didn't have a white bill and had a long tail. We're in the middle of a cross-country migration by common scoters at the moment so I should have been more active about looking for one.

Pennington Flash 

I got home to "What time do you call this?" off the cat after a very good afternoon's birdwatching.