Southport

Golden plovers, Crossens Inner Marsh

I'd kept promising myself a trip out to the Southport marshes so I thought it was more than high time I got my carcass over there. The trains in Manchester were not having a happy day but I arrived at Southport at the scheduled time and the uncertain weather we were promised after the morning's fog burned away turned out to be a glorious Autumn day.

Along the way in there were a couple of big (200+) flocks of black-headed gulls in the fields between Parbold and Burscough Bridge which I found reassuring after such a thin showing so far this Autumn.

I'd just missed the 44 bus to Marshside so I walked down to Lord Street and got the 40 which stops by the school at the corner of Marshside Road. This bus skirts part of the marine lake which today was busy with herring gulls and mute swans.

Curlew, Marshside

Walking down Marshside Road the school playing field was crowded with curlews, woodpigeons and black-headed gulls and the hedgerow was busy with house sparrows. The marsh on the right-hand side of the road was a lot quieter than usual (except for the spadgers). A herd of cattle were being put onto the marsh and most of the birds were keeping a distance until the cowherding had been done and dusted. Which meant that the marsh on the left-hand side of the road was carpeted with greylags, pink-footed geese, curlews and wigeon. As I passed the herd a stonechat bobbed up into the bushes to check me out before returning to whatever it was up to in the ditch.

Pink-footed geese, Marshside

The pool just beyond the Junction Pool was wall-to-wall black-tailed godwits and the Junction Pool was busy with mallards, teal and shovelers. As I was picking out the runners and riders and establishing that the distant white shape was a mute swan a bunch of migrant hawkers were whirring about the reedbed by the path.

Just before I got to Sandgrounders a Cetti's warbler jumped up to the top of a hawthorn bush and belted out its song before adding to my portfolio of places a warbler was a moment ago. Flocks of hundreds of starlings wheeled to and fro and every so often they'd be joined by hundreds of lapwings spooked off the marsh by some unseen predator.

Marshside 

The pools at Sandgrounders were busy with lapwings, teal and wigeon. There were hundreds of wigeon in the grass, the drakes still mostly in shades of ginger, the few drakes in full breeding plumage conspicuously bright silvery white in comparison. A small group of gadwalls cruised about, tufted ducks slept, shovelers dabbled and a pintail sat just at the edge of a mudbank to preen. Little egrets were few and far between and there were only a couple of Canada geese about. In contrast there were groups of dozens of greylags grazing beyond the pools. Coupled pairs of migrant hawkers whizzed about the reeds and a couple of females were laying eggs down in the reed roots.

Wigeon and tufted duck, Marshside

A chap was asking about merlins as he'd never seen one before. I told him that his best bet was to check out the ungrazed (by cattle, not geese) marsh on the other side of the Marine Drive and walk down towards the boundary fence between Marshside and Crossens as that's where they like to sit. I warned him that it was a 30% chance and that now I'd said it out loud I'd probably put the mockers on it. I always worry about giving people advice like this after I've been and gone and opened my mouth.

Marsh harrier, Marshside

I walked down Marine Drive to see what was about. I hadn't gone far when I started wondering what was putting up a cloud of skylarks in the distance on the outer marsh. Eventually a marsh harrier rose from the long grass and all Hell broke loose. A small cloud of starlings flew across the road, meadow pipits and skylarks went in all directions and the small pool hosting a little egret, a black-headed gull and a pair of mallards was suddenly full of teal and wigeon. The harrier floated around awhile, shadowed by crows and skylarks, before heading off towards the Ribble. A stonechat in the bushes next to me came out to see what the fuss was about then spent a minute checking me out before getting back into the depths.

Stonechat, Marshside

Things settled down then suddenly hadn't. The crows had returned and were giving something a hard time. The something turned out to be a male merlin that outpaced them and flew towards the road. I was hoping it had stopped for a breather on the fence below the bank but by the time I'd crossed the road there was nothing to be seen except the heads of pink-footed geese on sentry go. I hope wherever it went that chap saw it.

Pink-footed geese, Crossens Outer Marsh

Cattle egret, with cattle, Crossens Outer Marsh

It was all pink-feet, starlings and little egrets until I approached the grazed marsh on Crossens Outer. Two cattle egrets were doing what it says on the tin. It's amazing to see cattle egrets next to a busy road and not having a crowd of people staring at them, it just shows how their status has changed over the past few years. 

Cattle egrey, Crossens Outer Marsh

Merlin, Crossens Outer Marsh

I was taking photos of the egrets when a dark shape shot across the line of view. Merlins and cattle egrets still feel like an odd combination. The merlin, this one a female, sat on a fencepost as previously advertised.

Crossens Outer Marsh, Lytham in the distance 

I had a sit down for a breather and a drink and scanned the outer marsh. There were distant pinkfeet and beyond them waves of grey lines of unidentifiable geese shimmering in the haze. A couple of great white egrets towered over geese and little egrets were peppered over the landscape. The distant white dots were either wildfowlers' markers or little egrets. 

Lapwing and golden plover, Crossens Outer Marsh

Wigeon, Crossens Outer Marsh

Closer by yet more wigeon grazed the marsh and teal dozed on the pools with a handful of shovelers. I hadn't seen any golden plovers yet, it came as a bit of a relief to see a couple with the lapwings.

Crossens Inner Marsh 

Lapwings, Crossens Inner Marsh

Lapwings and golden plovers, Crossens Inner Marsh

Lapwings, Crossens Inner Marsh

I crossed back over the road and walked along the bund behind the marshes. Pied wagtails fussed about the water treatment works but the pool on this end of the marsh was empty. Until a merlin flew over and put all the waders to flight. The lapwings split up with one flock eventually settling on the pool near me, the rest going back onto the dry marsh with a flock of a couple of hundred black-tailed godwits and a similar number of golden plovers. Yet more wigeon and teal grazed and dabbled, black-headed and herring gulls loafed on pools and a flock of a hundred or so greylags quietly muttered as I walked by.

Greylags, Crossens Inner Marsh

Teal, Crossens Inner Marsh
Teal are very pretty ducks so I'm having to make a conscious effort not to take hundreds of photos of them. The light at this time of year brings them out a treat.

Wigeon, Crossens Inner Marsh
The head moult patterns on wigeon this time of year always make me look twice. Eurasian wigeon never get the faded straw yellow background colour on the head nor the dark green mask of an American wigeon. There are subtle structural differences which I admit have escaped me with the very few American wigeon I've seen.

Back on Marshside the cattle had settled on the marsh bar a bit of bellowing to let off steam and were accompanied by a flock of starlings.

I had five minutes to wait for the next bus which turned into half an hour, the 44 not being the most reliable service on the books. I got the stopping train back to Manchester, keeping an eye out for owls but only counting pheasants after an excellent afternoon's birdwatching.

Pink-footed geese, Marshside