Southport

Ruff and starling, Marshside

The weather was marginally cooler today so I decided to go out for an afternoon's wander round Marshside and Crossens. These days any time I set out on this journey after 10am I have the choice of running across the city centre to Victoria, hanging round Salford Crescent for half an hour or hanging round Bolton Station for half an hour. The options get me on the same train, today I set out at lunchtime and decided on Bolton because there's more shade and better air flow than Salford Crescent.

I struck dead lucky getting the 44 bus to Marshside and soon I was walking down Marshside Road watching flocks of starlings and house sparrows to-ing and fro-ing between gardens and fields and worrying there was only the one house martin overhead. It seems a thin year for hirundines despite an explosive arrival in Spring.

Juvenile avocets, Marshside

Lapwing chick, Marshside

Lapwing, Marshside

Family parties of Canada geese and pairs of oystercatchers and lapwings littered the field on Sutton's Marsh, starlings, goldfinches and linnets filling in a lot of the gaps. There were a few lapwing chicks skittering about and mallard ducklings dozed in the drains. The avocet chicks have put on a growth spurt since my last visit.

The Junction Pool was a swathe of cracked mud with a tiny puddle in one of the bigger cracks. Judging by the avocet feeding on it there must have been a lot of shrimps concentrated in there. A few little egrets flew around but they seemed thinner on the ground than usual. I scanned round the grazing cattle for any cattle egrets just in case but it's a bit early for them, there were just a couple of dozen greylags trundling through the herd. It still seems a bit strange to be trying to predict the post-breeding dispersal of cattle egrets.

Bee orchid, Marshside

I'd worried that I'd missed the bee orchid flowering on the path to Sandgrounders. I hadn't — just — but it was thirty yards away from last year's position. It probably got moved along when they tidied the bank verges over Winter. Dozens of black-tailed skimmers zipped around the banks and an emperor dragonfly patrolled the main drain.

Black-tailed godwits, Marshside

There were still a couple of dozen black-tailed godwits and half a dozen wigeons on the pools. Most of the godwits were immature birds, their plumage not much browner than adults' Winter greys. There were a couple of pairs of wigeons but nothing to suggest they might have tried breeding here, it might be too busy for them.

Juvenile and adult avocets, Marshside

Wigeon and a family of black-headed gulls

There were a lot of avocet chicks, mostly well-grown birds almost as big as their parents though there were a couple of chicks that couldn't have been more than a week old. The black-headed gull colony is a lot smaller than it used to be but still productive, some of the youngsters managing to get airborne in a wobbly sort of way. A female was nesting directly in front of the hide, having at least two eggs under her. The Canada geese chicks were well nigh full grown and herding together like teenage street gangsters. Every so often an adult would remind them not to get too cocky and the avocets weren't taking any nonsense but a passing hare got a bit of a rough ride.

Canada geese and hare, Marshside

Avocet and mallards

Black-headed gull on her nest panting in the heat

Spoonbill and lapwings, Marshside

It took me a while to spot the spoonbill despite its being in plain sight on the pool by the entrance path. The default setting for spoonbills is "mattress on a stick" and this one nailed the pose perfectly.

I walked down the path alongside the Marine Drive towards Crossens. Whitethroats churred and sang in the hawthorns along the way and sedge warblers sang in the drains. Families of greenfinches were heard more often than seen as they fussed about in the undergrowth.

Black-headed gulls, ruff, Canada goose and redshank, Marshside

Squadrons of starlings shuttled between the inner marsh and outer marsh. I was watching one flock bathing in the drain when I noticed a male ruff in breeding finery feeding on the bank. It's not often I see them and never before after the beginning of May. 

Ruff and starlings, Marshside

Starling bathtime, Marshside

I carried on down to Crossens as the sky clouded over. There had been a fair breeze keeping things comfortable, now it was just circulating sweaty air. The inner marsh was largely more of the same with redshanks and families of tufted ducks avoiding the avocets in the drains. I was surprised to find a pair of moulting gadwalls amongst the mallards dozing on a mud bank. There were lots of meadow browns fussing round the brambles, rather a lot fewer red admirals and small tortoiseshells. Oddly, no common blues to be found.

The outer marsh was bone dry, a few skylarks and meadow pipits singing from the tall grass. Way beyond them a marsh harrier hunting over the estuary was the only raptor of the day.

The boundary fence between Marshside and Crossens Inner Marsh, punctuated by woodpigeons

Crossens Marsh was drier than Marshside but there was still enough water on the pools for the dozens of avocets and Canada geese. A pair of mute swans had a dozen small cygnets in tow.

Azure damselflies, Crossens Inner Marsh

There seemed to have been an emergence of cinnabar moths, they were fluttering about all over the place. They're beautiful moths, I wish they'd stay still for photographs. I don't tend to see a lot of dragonflies on Crossens Inner Marsh, I think it dries out just as they're emerging. I'd seen a couple of common blue damselflies zipping round a rose bush and thought I'd got my quota then bumped into dozens of azure damselflies in a breeding frenzy around a bramble patch.

Avocet and herons, Crossens Inner Marsh

I got to the water treatment works and watched a pair of swallows trying to meet the demands of four hungry youngsters sitting on a fence wire.

I thought about walking down the bund back to Marshside but I didn't fancy having the sun in my face in what had become uncomfortable walking conditions. It had been a good couple of hours' birdwatching and I didn't want to spoil it by jacketing myself.

High Summer's the quiet season here.