Pennington Flash

Dabchick

I"d thought I'd got away without any aches and pains from yesterday's bumper bundle and woke up to find out I was wrong. It was a bright Spring day so I thought I'd have a lazy few hours toddling around Pennington Flash. I wasn't looking to add to the year list, though I wouldn't be upset if I did and it would be nice if the white stork reported as floating westwards over Monton made an appearance (it didn't but a lad can dream).

The woods on the South side of the flash

Arriving at Pennington Flash I decided to explore the woods by the Southern bank of the flash for a change before wandering round for a sit down in the hides. There were plenty of small birds around, mostly goldfinches, great tits and chiffchaffs. Blackbirds chased each other round the undergrowth, robins bobbed out of hiding and bobbed back in again and a pair of bullfinches made sure that although they looked stunning in the treetops against a clear blue sky there would always be some vegetation between them and a camera. A willow tit made itself known, I wasn't expecting one here I always associate them with the wetter bits of woodland on the other side of the flash.

Pennington Flash 

Looking over the flash it was striking how few birds were on the water. Of the couple of dozen large gulls all but the two herring gulls were lesser black-backs. There weren't many more black-headed gulls despite their noise. There was a small raft of tufted ducks, a few pairs of mallards and a single goldeneye. There's certainly been a change of season in the past couple of weeks. I heard a tern and was lucky enough to spot it quickly as it skirted this end of the flash, and was surprised that my first tern of the year was an Arctic tern. I went through the familiar "Which commic tern is this one?" anxieties but it was close enough for the head shape and relatively short, dark red beak to rescue me. 

I hadn't gone a hundred yards when a Cetti's warbler jumped out of a clump of Japanese knotweed and sang at me, the sun catching its chestnut brown upperparts against steel grey underparts. It jumped back into cover before I could get over the surprise let alone dig out my camera.

A venerable old sallow, the haunt of chiffchaffs and blue tits

The car park was fairly busy and the mute swans and coots were doing good business mugging passersby for scraps. There were about a dozen Canada geese floating about, all in pairs.

I could hear more terns as I approached the Horrocks Hide. A pair of common terns were fluttering about at the end of the spit. A little egret stalked about on the spit and a couple of snipe were feeding on one of the islands, a dozing lapwing acting as a marker for me whenever they drifted into the tall grass. Oddly, that was the only lapwing I saw here all afternoon.

The Tom Edmondson Hide was closed for repairs, the shouts of a heron and a couple of jays hinting at what we were missing.

At Ramsdales Hide

The reeds in front of the Ramsdales Hide have been trimmed a bit so the pool is visible. A few Canada geese were sitting on nests and all the ducks were mallards and gadwalls. Teal and shovelers were conspicuously absent from this afternoon's walk, I suspect because they've gone into deep cover for nesting. They're both of them a lot more secretive about nesting than are mallards. The usual Cetti's warbler gave a half-hearted burst of song before retreating quietly into his brambles.

Pennington Flash 

I walked up to the canal and then followed the wood round to the Charlie Owen Hide (the Teal Hide as was). There's a subtle change as you take this path: chiffchaffs are abundant round the flash but give way to willow warblers by the canal and reappear roughly a hundred yards from the hide.

Goosanders and black-headed gulls

Mute swan

The Charlie Owen Hide was moderately busy with black-headed gulls, gadwalls and dozing goosanders. A heron stalked the far reeds, a pair of mute swans cruised about and a couple of Canada geese were having a siesta. There was a lot of noise coming from the dabchicks in the reeds, culminating in a flurry of wings and water as two males flew out into the open water. They settled for a moment then one chased the other out into the middle of the pool before immediately flying back to its mate in the reeds. There was a lot of hinneying in the reeds while the interloper swam nonchalantly across the pool unruffled by the event 

Dabchick

It was very quiet at the Bunting Hide, just a mallard and a few great tits. A great spotted woodpecker flew in, saw there were no fat balls in the feeders and flew out again.

I had a sit down by the flash for one last scan round. I'd seen a couple of swallows and a few sand martins hawking over the water earlier, there were a couple of hundred sand martins now.

Bradshaw Leach Meadow

I made my way back to St Helens Road and got the bus back to Leigh and thence home. I missed the connection for the 25 so I got the 250 and walked home through Lostock Park, noting a new chiffchaff singing by the bowling green.