Hesketh Outer Marsh

Brown hare, Hundred End

The weather bode decidedly dodgy locally but the West coast looked like it should miss the worst of it so I headed thataway. The plan was to get the train to Southport then get the number 2 bus to Hesketh Bank. The plan was. It turns out there are no trains between Manchester Victoria and Southport this week and, as the Southport train has to leave Oxford Road just before my trains arrive because they both use platform 5, I had an hour's wait for the next. So I got the next train to Bolton, got the 125 bus to Preston and had a ten minute wait for the number 2, arriving about five minutes later than if I'd gone through Southport (assuming that connection worked).

It was a bright sunny day when I got off the bus and walked down Shore Road. The fields on the moss were being ploughed and a hare and a Covey of red-legged partridges moved out of the way of the tractor with all the performative reluctance of a cat vacating a warm lap. I wondered why there was a sudden flourish of alarm calls from the swallows, blackbirds and chiffchaffs, then a kestrel shot through the trees and out over the moss.

Dib Road 

I crossed over and walked down Dib Road to Hesketh Outer Marsh. Chiffchaffs and goldfinches sang in the trees and whitethroats sang in the hedgerows. A couple of mallards exploded out of the heavily vegetated drain by the road, giving me the fright of my life. They flew off over the fields towards the marsh. Mallards and shelducks fossicked around on the fields with a couple of hares and pheasants stalked the field margins. I'd been keeping an eye on the drain to avoid any more shocks and was rewarded by spotting a water vole before it plopped underwater for cover. I had thought all the sparrows in the hedgerows were house sparrows then a tree sparrow fluttered across the road carrying a monster-sized privet hawk moth. There's a lot of nest boxes in the corner of the farmyard near the end of the road and a few of these were definitely occupied with adults bringing food in for youngsters.

Mallards, Hesketh Bank

Hesketh Outer Marsh without thousands of geese looks deceptively empty. There were dozens of shelducks and black-headed gulls dotted about, mostly in pairs. A marsh harrier soared over the river, much to the consternation of a crowd of herring gulls. Most of the ducks were shelducks, there were a few mallards and a pair of gadwall loafing on the banks of the pools. There were half a dozen common terns flying about. One pair were courting with the male bringing in fish for the female. After feeding her a couple of times they flew off, possibly to the breeding colony on Preston Docks.

Hesketh Outer Marsh 

I walked down the bund to the sound of a sedge warbler in one of the drains and whitethroats in the hedgerows along the field margins. A few goldfinches twittered about and a couple of meadow pipits did their parachute song. Out on the marsh a couple of dozen avocets were feeding on the pools and about a dozen each of redshanks and black-tailed godwits were dotted about. I could hear a wagtail calling on the ploughed fields but I couldn't see it, just a handful of mallards, some woodpigeons and a nesting oystercatcher. 

Hesketh Outer Marsh

There's a hundred yards of bund between Hesketh Outer and Banks Marsh that's out of bounds, which is a bit frustrating. You have to walk down to Hundred End then walk back up again, adding a mile to the walk, the begining of one path being five yards from the end of the other, which makes it more frustrating.

As I started walking down to Hundred End the wind picked up and blew for rain. A scary cloud billowed up from inland. I decided I'd get the bus into Southport from Hundred End. Fifty-odd black-headed gulls followed the tractor ploughing the field by the path, joined by handfuls of jackdaws, herring gulls and lesser black-backs. On the other side of the path whitethroats and reed buntings sang in the hedgerows. Over on the field on that side a hare dozed and mallards and woodpigeons picked around the young cabbage plants.

Walking towards Hundred End 

I had a while to wait for the bus. A flock of swallows twittered about the 'phone lines while I stood at the bus stop.

I'd dodged a bullet: it was heaving down as the bus passed Banks Marsh.