Leighton Moss

Juvenile bullfinch

After yesterday's trek I got myself an old man's explorer ticket and had the nice lazy stroll round Leighton Moss and the trains behaved impeccably for me (though not for many, judging by the cancellations listed on the boards). 

It was a cool, grey day and the light rain was incessant, I enjoyed it greatly. There was a party of tiny tots come for a visit and the rain didn't seem to dampen their spirits either and a party of mallards wandered into their storytime to add to the fun. From a selfish perspective it's a bit of a faff working around a school group but I'd sooner they were visiting and enjoying nature reserves than not, and this time the teachers weren't foghorns either, which was nice.

From Lilian's Hide 

Nearly all the black-headed gulls had left the pool at Lilian's Hide and the lingerers were only there for a wash and brush-up. Rafts of moulting mallards drifted round the pool. Gadwalls were few and far between and always distant, something I found to be true throughout the visit. A pair of young-looking pochards caught my eye so they disappeared into the reeds.

Leighton Moss, entering the reedbeds

Walking down to the reedbed hides there was a lot of furtive activity in the willows. Investigation was not helped by the fact that every raindrop hitting a leaf looked like a small bird was bouncing on the nearby twigs. The wrens and chiffchaffs showed themselves fairly readily, the robins not at all even though I could hear them. It was strangely reassuring to bump into a great tit this time, their absence last time unnerved me. A marsh tit sneezed at me from the undergrowth by a ditch and I was damned if I could see it despite its repeating the performance a couple more times from the canopy by my head.

I was looking at a family of Canada geese in the main drain, the half-grown goslings now sporting black heads and necks and white cheeks like their parents, when a young red deer barged across the drain and disappeared into the reeds. It was so fast my mind only registered a fairly chunky rear end about a hand too high for a roebuck and rather a lot too ginger.

Mute swan and cygnets

At the Tim Jackson Hide the coots were feeding well-grown youngsters, the black-headed gulls had gone, a mute swan had a nest full of young cygnets and the oystercatcher was still sat on its nest. A red deer stag bellowed quietly to himself somewhere in the trees and this mingled oddly with the lowing of cattle a couple of fields away.

Nesting oystercatcher

Reed warblers and Cetti's warblers sang in the reedbeds and blue tits and great tits foraged in the drowned willows. 

The grit trays are in there somewhere 

There was an object lesson in the growth spurts of reeds at the point where they'd been cleared and opened out the better to see a couple of grit trays used by the bearded tits in Winter. There was a bit of reed growth here on my last visit. The grit trays are invisible now.

Great black-back and chick

At the Griesdale Hide the great black-backs have a well-grown chick in their nest, big enough for the only thing likely to be able to bother it being another great black-back. Reed growth was hiding most of the action downstairs: reed warblers and reed buntings were singing and somewhere was a flock of greylag geese. A flock of swifts barrelled in to hawk over the pools for midges and they were joined briefly by a couple of sand martins.

The Griesdale Hide 

By the Griesdale Hide 

I walked back and had a look at the feeding station by the visitor centre, my attention having been attracted by the loud calls of a very young bullfinch. It didn't take a lot of finding, it was sat on the top of a sunflower seed feeder trying to persuade its mother to share the seeds.

Leighton Moss 

I'd had a couple of hours' wander. I looked at the weather and looked at the trains and decided not to push my luck. I had a five minute wait for the next Barrow train and took it as far as Ulverston with a quarter of an hour's wait for the Manchester Airport train.

The salt marshes were still mainly dry, which was good news for the sheep but not so good for the little egrets and shelducks which had to feed in the estuaries. It was a lowish tide so there wasn't a lot to be seen on the Kent Estuary at Arnside save singles of redshank, oystercatcher and curlew and a couple of shelducks. There were more shelducks feeding on the beach at Grange-over-Sands and parties of loafing black-headed gulls and herring gulls. Dozens of eiders loafed on the mudbanks of the Leven Estuary while oystercatchers, redshanks and shelduck browsed the open mud and little egrets hunted in the creeks.

I could hear that the lesser black-backs had at least one youngster in their nest on the canopy of Ulverston Station. It wasn't until my train was pulling in that one came to the edge of the canopy so I could confirm what I was hearing. I think there's a herring gull nest on the roof proper but out of sight of the platform.

A nice, very productive lazy day out.