Pennington Flash

Little gull

I honestly wasn't going to go chasing little gulls. It's just that in the two days since I went to Pennington Flash there have been little gulls there all day each day and there they were again this morning. First thing it was reported as a couple of dozen birds, then sixty-odd, then ninety. So off I went.

The 25 was very late into the Trafford Centre so I missed the 126 to Leigh so I got the 100 into Eccles, just missing the 34 to Leigh at Salford Royal Hospital so I had to wait twenty minutes for the next one (I could have waited half an hour at the Trafford Centre for the 132 then waited quarter of an hour for the V1 into Leigh). Then we hit roadworks at Leigh Cemetery and the bit of the journey that usually takes two minutes took twenty-five. By this stage I was convinced the gulls had beggared off by now and I was thinking dark thoughts about the driver of the 25. By the time I'd caught the number 10 from Leigh, crossed St Helens Road at its busiest and bustled down the path to the flash I was stressed to the knickers and almost missed noticing a willow tit as it flew down to have a look at what I thought I was about.

Which is why, oh best-beloved, I try not to go running after passages of Spring migrants.

Pennington Flash by the car park 

Luckily I was worrying over nothing. I could see at least twelve little gulls feeding over the flash in the far distance with a couple of hundred sand martins.

I had a sit down to check them out and make sure I wasn't wishing dark underwings onto innocent black-headed gulls but no, right enough they were littlies. Besides their size they have a stiff-winged flight more like swallows than black-headed gulls. Even from this distance I could see the dark underwings on most of them, too. The car park Cetti's warbler made a reappearance as it serenaded me as I watched the gulls.

First sight: I thought this was the best view I was going to get of the little gulls.
Also some mute swans and sand martins.

Mission accomplished I went into the Horrocks Hide to see what else was about and whether I could get better views of the little gulls.

There were a few more lapwings about on the spit and the little egret flew in again. I was in luck with the little gulls as a few more flew in with the wind and drifted over to the bight at the end of the spit.

Little gulls

It occured to me that there might be better views of the little gulls from the Northern shore of the flash. This suited me because I didn't want to repeat Tuesday's walk.

The chiffchaffs were quieter today, outsung by a lot of new willow warbler arrivals. Blackcaps sang in the willows, reed warblers sang in the reedbeds and the usual Cetti's sang properly from the undergrowth by Ramsdales.

From the Tom Edmondson Hide 

The Tom Edmondson Hide was open and there was just a heron and a mute swan on the pool. Ramsdales was being painted but I could still see that a couple of lapwings had joined the Canada geese.

Pennington Flash
The flash is on the left behind the trees, the canal is fifty yards to the right

Black-headed gulls, sand martins and swallows flew overhead as I walked up to the canal. Skylarks sang from the rough on the other side of the canal, competing with yet more willow warblers on the flash.

I was luckier than I deserved to be: the little gulls were coming in very close to the Northern shore and more had been brought in by the wind and a shower of light rain.

Little gull showing its diagnostic dark underwing and the typically stiff-winged mode of flight

Little gulls are very active birds, especially when they're catching midges emerging from the lake. They're quite tern-like in normal flight but when they hawk over the water like this they remind me very much of swifts.

Little gulls
How dark the underwing appears to be and how much contrast there is with the upperparts depends very much on the light. There's always a contrast between the dark underwing and the white trailing edge to the flight feathers.

Most of the birds I could see were adults but at least half a dozen were first-Winter birds with pale underwings. They were moulting into adult plumage and had variations of kittiwake-like black Vs on their wings.

First-Winter (top) and adult little gulls
The first-Winters were even more fidgety and difficult to photograph than the adults

Little gull catching midges as they emerge from the water

I carried on along the path to the end on Slag Lane and walked into Plank Lane for the bus back into Leigh. (People think I make these names up.) It was still only early afternoon but I decided I'd had enough and was in desperate need of going home for a pot of tea and a butty.

Heading for Slag Lane