Southport

Little ringed plover, Marshside 

After the biblical rains of the weekend washed out the Test Match I thought I'd best get some exercise before I seized up completely. So I headed out for Southport for a wander round Marshside and Crossens Marsh.

Flooded field, Parbold

The effects of the weekend rain was evident as the train went by. The back gardens of Lostock were being lapped by Middle Brook, as was Deane Golf Course; some of the roads in Wigan were being pumped dry; the River Douglas had burst its banks in Parbold and the field drains on the West Lancashire mosses were full to overflowing.

I just missed the 44 bus from Southport Station so I walked down to Lord Street and got the number 2 to Hesketh Park and walked down Hesketh Road to have a look at the pool by the Hesketh platform. I needn't have bothered, aside from two farm ducks there were no birds whatsoever.

It was a nice sunny day with a welcome cooling breeze as I walked down Marine Drive. Small flocks of starlings flew between marshes, greenfinches rummaged about in the rose bushes on the embankment and a great black-back lumbered by and headed off to sea. I could hear a couple of meadow pipits in the long grass but they kept hidden. Mipits, linnets and skylarks kept a very low profile, in fact I didn't see or hear any skylarks all day.

At Nels Hide 

The pools at Nels Hide were littered with dozing mallards and paddling bullocks. Swallows hawked low over the marsh and family parties of Canada geese grazed the long grass and that was it. As I walked down to the Junction Pool I wondered why it was that the hawthorns and spindle trees were ruthlessly chopped back but the Japanese knotweed left unmolested. There were literally no birds at all on the Junction Pool.

As I crossed Marshside Road a cloud of starlings rose from the marsh then parted and scattered as a sparrowhawk shot by, unsuccessful this time.

Barnacle goose, Marshside 

Things were livelier at Sandgrounders. Flocks of Canada geese and greylags loafed and grazed in the long grass on the marsh, as did a couple of herds of cattle. I'd hoped that with all those cattle about there might be a cattle egret or two but not today. There were a few little egrets and herons, though. A barnacle goose dozed with some Canada geese on the bank of the pool next to Sandgrounders. A couple of tufted ducks slept nearby while little ringed plovers and a common sandpiper whizzed about the muddy islands. There were only a handful of avocets about, including a pair with two very young chicks.

Little ringed plovers, Marshside 
Juvenile (left) and adult (right)

Common sandpiper, Marshside 

The large white lump on a stick was almost certainly a sleeping spoonbill but I kept second-guessing myself about it until it woke up for a minute, had a quick preen and went straight back to sleep. God knows what it might have been if it wasn't a spoonbill.

Spoonbill waking up, Marshside 

Having a scratch…

Spoonbill showing us its spoon before going back to sleep

There were more common sandpipers skipping about the pools in front of the hide, together with a few lapwings and, hiding in the long grass, a few dozen black-tailed godwits. Nearly all the small wader-like birds that were moving between tussocks of grass and sedges were starlings though I did find one ringed plover at the far end of the pool. 

Tufted duckling, Marshside 

A family party of shovelers steamed by and a couple of pairs of gadwalls flew in and settled in the little creeks. The mallard ducklings all looked full grown, the tufted ducklings were still half-sized.

Marshside 

Walking down towards Crossens Marsh Marshside Inner was mostly populated by Canada geese and greylags, the outer marsh apparently empty except when the starlings flew in to feed. Every so often a pair of linnets would rise up, fly a little way and disappear, dropping a hint of what else might have been lurking in there.

Crossens Inner Marsh 

Aside from a couple of lapwings, a flock of black-headed gulls over by the water treatment works and a little egret fishing in the main drain all the birds on Crossens Inner Marsh were geese. There were more geese, and a few more lapwings on the outer marsh with a handful of mallards and teals asleep on the pools by the river.

I decided against walking back along the bund so got the bus back into Southport and made my way home. It had been one of the quieter days on the marshes but there had still been plenty to see.