Things to do on a wet day

Collared dove, Stretford

The Met Office's yellow warning of rain was cancelled mid-morning but it was still pretty dismal out there. Which didn't stop a cock sparrow out-singing both the robin and the collared dove at the crack of dawn. I decided not to go for a walk today, the joints were feeling the change in the weather and I wouldn't have had much fun.

I got myself an old man's explorer ticket and headed North for a bit of train-bound birdwatching to see what was on the estuaries of Cumbria.

The journey up to Carnforth from Manchester provided a steady stream of birds, mostly either woodpigeons, carrion crows or magpies. The train I took was one of the few that still go through Salford then join the West Coast Mainline at Wigan Northwestern, which reminded me I still haven't done that walk down from Astley to Irlam this year.

The pools at Leighton Moss' coastal hides were relatively quiet, the one crowd scene was a few dozen teal clustered round an island with a herd of greylags. The usual great white egret was two great white egrets today, both feeding on a pool close to the railway line. The weather had bucked up by this stage and I was tempted to go for a walk round Leighton Moss but in the end I stuck to the original plan.

Kent Estuary salt marshes

The tide was still quite high at Arnside and a dozen or so black-headed gulls loafed by the side of the Kent Estuary with a few carrion crows while a curlew was feeding on a mudbank.

The marshes on the opposite side of the estuary were busy with crows, little egrets and jackdaws. A couple of goosanders swam in one of the pools while a great white egret hunted in another. Nearing Grange-over-Sands fifteen pink-footed geese were grazing the salt marsh. More than a hundred black-headed gulls were loafing on the beach at Grange-over-Sands.

Leven Estuary from the train

The salt marsh beyond Cark was quieter than usual, just a few carrion crows and little egrets. The Leven Estuary was a little busier, with half a dozen black-headed gulls loafing on the shore while redshanks and curlews foraged in the mud and a small flock of eiders drifted in the river channel.

The rail connections are umpty at this time of day: the train gets into Barrow in time to miss the Carlisle train by ten minutes and the trains back to Preston from there are a bit hit and miss this time of day, so I bailed at Ulverston and waited the quarter of an hour for the last Manchester Airport train for a few hours. Which was down from six carriages to three and very crowded, which didn't make for a pleasant journey and made seeing out of the windows difficult.

The flocks of redshanks and black-headed gulls were considerably bigger on the mudbanks of the Leven Inland of the railway viaduct. A couple of dozen greylags were on the pool a bit further along the line. Here and there curlews joined the carrion crows and black-headed gulls feeding in the fields.

Grange-over-Sands 

Passing Grange-over-Sands the flock of pink-footed geese had swelled to more than a hundred. As the train passed through the mosses between Arnside and Silverdale little egrets and a great white egret were feeding in the flooded fields. I couldn't really see much of the coastal pools, just a few mute swans and Canada geese.

This train goes through Wigan, too. We crawled slowly round the corner at Golborne Dale, waiting for the train from Wales to pass through, which gave me five minutes' watching a pair of buzzards flying low about the railway embankment. Just as we started moving a kestrel flew by and there was another buzzard over the embankment as we approached the Winwick Lane bridge.

It was one of those days when I could, and arguably should, have waited to see if the weather cleared and then gone for a walk. On the other hand, it was a change of pace on a day when the weather looked dicey and there was plenty to see along the way.