Southport

Avocets and Canada goslings, Marshside

I suppose the day started at quarter to one when I had to break up a fight between the cat I live with and the one from down the road over a bowl of cat food one of the hedgehogs was tucking into while the cats were otherwise engaged. It had to be uphill from there.

I travelled out to Southport, the trains behaving themselves, and didn't have long to wait for the 44 to Marshside. It was going to be a bright, dry day and I was due a wander round Marshside and Crossens Marsh. It stayed a bright, if occasionally cloudy, day but the strong breeze blowing in from the sea made it a cool one.

Little egret, Marshside

The scores of starlings shadowed by hungry youngsters were a conspicuous and vocal feature of the walk down Marshside Road and the hundreds more of them on the marsh a feature of the day. Dotted about on the marsh were families of Canada geese and greylags, pairs of redshanks and lapwings with invisible youngsters somewhere in the grass and loafing mallards and shelducks. A few little egrets fossicked in the drains, much to the annoyance of the moorhens and coots, and squadrons of swifts and handfuls of house martins hawked overhead. It's good to see good-sized flocks of swifts again even if I am starting to worry about the hirundines.

The bulk of the noise was provided by black-headed gulls. The colony's smaller than it was when I first started visiting here but it is still very vocal. For all the noise they were making I didn't see a great many youngsters and they all quite young. Which might be why they were making a noise.

I had a quick look at the Junction Pool to see if the pair of black swans were about. I'm told they have five cygnets. I couldn't see them today, I think they must have gone over to the Hesketh Road side of the marsh.

Common blue, Marshside

The fierce wind was keeping the butterflies under cover. A handful of common blues doggedly held onto whatever anchorages they could find as they tried to feed on the lee of the low roadside bank. I couldn't see any signs of the bee orchids that were here last year, I hope they've not been tidied away.

The pools by Sandgrounders were busy even without the heaving numbers of wigeon and geese of Winter. A few pairs of wigeon lingered, as did a dozen black-tailed godwits most of which were in their Summer gingers. 

Avocets, Marshside

The adult avocets made themselves very conspicuous as their chicks fed by themselves a little way away. There were dozens of both which is very gratifying. The adults are phenomenally aggressive against anything which might possibly be a threat or against any bird that happened to look their way. Anything larger than a sparrow could be a target; house martins, redshanks and shelducks getting a lot of aggro. The starlings were let off Scott free, probably because their sheer weight of numbers would exhaust even an avocet's energies. This aggression came in useful a few times, I'd be wondering what a distant silhouetted wader would be, it doggedly facing the wrong way to get a good idea of the size and shape of body or bill, then pow! along would come an avocet and it would be a redshank.

Avocets, Marshside

Both curlew sandpipers and little stints had been reported from Sandgrounders this week but I had no luck. They could have been there and I just didn't see them, I was surprised a couple of time by little ringed plovers walking across what I was sure was deserted mud.

Coot and young, Marshside

I walked down to Crossens beside the Marine Drive. The pools on the outer marsh were already dry with just a few patches of mud for redshanks to fossick about. The pools on the inner marsh still had plenty of water in them, enough for tufted ducks to be able to keep out of the way of avocets on the drain margins. 

Something brought up the waders on Polly's Pool. I couldn't see the culprit but I noticed amongst the redshanks, lapwings and godwits there were a couple of smaller waders. They settled on a small lump of mud by a bank but were too distant to identify and I guessed they were probably dunlins but couldn't be sure. A little further along the curve in the path changed the perspective and I could get a very slightly better view of one of them. My suspicion that it might be a little stint was confirmed when a passing avocet chick provided a useful scale. I very rarely see little stints on Spring passage, I usually only see adults in their rather muted Winter plumage or first-Winter birds with conspicuous braces, without the avocet's confirming the tiny size of the stint I really would have struggled. At that distance I couldn't convincingly judge the bill length.

Marshside Inner Marsh 

Crossens Outer Marsh was dry, a haunt of woodpigeons and starlings. The unexpected terrace of buildings on the horizon turned out to be a herd of cattle distorted by the heat haze. A kestrel hovered far out on the salt marsh and a distant marsh harrier was harassed by black-headed gulls.

Crossens Inner Marsh 

Crossens Inner Marsh was busy with families of avocets, lapwings, shelducks and geese. A herd of mute swans cruised about and black-headed gulls bathed in the pool by the water treatment works.

Garganey, Crossens Inner Marsh

I turned onto the bund and walked down the back of the Inner Marsh, both the sun and the wind fiercely in my face. A mixed flock of swifts and house martins hawked low over the water works and the marsh, joined after a while by a handful of swallows. A drake garganey was fast asleep on the pool close to the bund. It did well to find a spot far enough away from the avocets not to be bothered by them. A few lesser black-backs drifted in and given reason to quickly drift out again. A kestrel flew in and beat a retreat pursued by a dozen avocets and a couple of lapwings.

Avocet chick, Crossens Inner Marsh

Avocet and chick, Crossens Inner Marsh

When I reached the cut by the primary school I dropped down from the bund and got the bus back into Southport with ten minutes to spare for the train home. Summer at Marshside and Crossens Marsh isn't as spectacular as Winter but so long as the marshes don't dry out completely there's plenty about to see.

Marshside