Appley Bridge

It was another bright, crisp day and if I'm being honest the idea of staying inside and enjoying it as a spectator sport had its appeal. The spadgers were making inroads on the freshly filled feeders and a dozen starlings came in to attack the fat balls. Both the families of spadgers were in, though Team Silver looked sorely depleted, never more than five at a time flying in from that direction. The woodpigeons are drifting back to gardens and rooftops (I wonder how many, if any, are the local breeding population) but aren't settling in the fields for any great length of time. The school playing field is starting to approach double figures of black-headed gulls amongst the playtime melee.

I appear to be in a filling in the gaps mood lately. I got the lunchtime train into town with a view to make my way over to Chisworth to see if the flock of waxwings was still about. (It's a straightforward journey on paper but making the connections with the bus between Glossop and Marple is an art.) Arriving at Oxford Road the Southport train was sitting there ready to leave ten minutes late. I took this as an omen and got on. I wouldn't have had much time for birdwatching at Southport or Martin Mere so I got off at Appley Bridge to explore the quarry lake just down the road from the station.

Most of the time when I indulge in these speculative forays I get a decent walk out of it and often find a gem that I've been missing. It's not very often I find a dud, today was one of them. You can only approach it from a distance on the main road and it's just a small drowned quarry with no surrounding vegetation. The birdwatching cupboard wasn't entirely bare: a flock of more than a hundred black-headed gulls loafed on the water in the company of a dozen common gulls, half a dozen lesser black-backs, a few herring gulls and a pair of coots. It's the sort of site you keep an eye on if it's local but you wouldn't make a special trip without good reason.

On the way back to the station the hawthorn hedgerows were thick with hungry blackbirds that didn't pay any heed to passersby and song thrushes which dropped down to the floor behind the hedge if anyone got within arm's length.

There's a train every half hour so it was no hardship getting back though I'd have been better advised waiting half an hour for the train home rather than getting the bus, the rush hour traffic jam down Chester Road seems to kick in before the school run these days.

Canal walk: Leigh to Astley Green

House sparrow

It was a very misty morning and there didn't seem a lot of point setting out birdwatching as I was struggling to see the starlings that turned up in the sycamores on the railway embankment until they descended on the fat feeders. The sun finally blazed through the mist at lunchtime, by which time I'd settled into the usual comfortable trap of spending more energy thinking where I should go for a walk than actually putting my boots on.

In the end I set out aimlessly, caught the first bus going out of the Trafford Centre and found myself heading out to Leigh. On a whim I got off at Butts Bridge with the intention of walking down Warrington Road for a nosy round Hope Carr. On another whim I found myself descending onto the canal towpath and heading off towards Astley. I've not walked the stretch between Leigh and Astley Green before so I went along with the whim.

Bridgewater Canal, Leigh

A couple of pairs of mallards and a pair of mute swans cruised the canal by the bridge. House sparrows chattered in the hedgerows and pigeons flew about the rooftops. The houses by the towpath on the gave way to the farmed mosslands that lie between the canal and the East Lancashire Road. Jackdaws, magpies and carrion crows fossicked about in the fields and woodpigeons started to fly into the trees to roost.

Fields by Bedford Brook 

Jackdaws

The hedgerows were lively with blackbirds and house sparrows, there was a surprising abundance of hips and haws still available for them to have a go at. A couple of mistle thrushes split their time between a couple of tall oak trees and the fields by the path. Houses and gardens line the other side of the canal at Marsland Green and these were busy with sparrows and woodpigeons. Small groups of mallards and a family of mute swans lurked by odd corners of the bank.

Mute swans 

Marsland Green 

A lady passed by with her dog and asked if I'd seen much. This is the standard opening gambit I get nearly every day. Yesterday I was lending my binoculars to a lady so she could see there were three different kinds of waders on the pontoon at West Kirby, today a lady was telling me where to keep an eye out for kingfishers. I didn't get to see them today but I know to keep an eye out for them if I'm round here again. I mentioned that there were a couple of bullfinches with the greenfinches and spadgers feeding on the bramble pips in the hedge behind us.

Pheasants on the hoary stubble

Passing Marsland Bridge and heading out for Astley Green I started seeing pheasants in the fields with the jackdaws and magpies. The hoar frost that had lingered in the deep shadows by the houses became a fixture in the more open landscape. A buzzard sat on a fence post a couple of fields away, another sat on a lamppost on the East Lancs Road bridge and flew off as I approached. Over the other side of the canal a couple of blackbirds and a jay chased a flock of redwings off a stand of hawthorn bushes.

Blackbird

Bridgewater Canal between Marsland Green and Astley Green 

Approaching Astley Green 

Approaching Astley Green as the sun set behind the clouds I spent a few minutes trying to pick the runners and riders out of the mixed tit flock in the trees on the other side of the canal. In the end I had to concede that they were all long-tailed tits and blue tits, there were a couple of great tits in the trees by the towpath a little way further along where I also accidently disturbed a grey wagtail that was settling down for the night in the hedgerow.

Astley Green
The pit wheel in the background is the mining museum.

The sun was setting and the path was icing up as I reached Astley Green. The 129 bus was sat at its terminus on the other side of the canal and was due to set off in five minutes' time so I took the hint, called it a day and took the bus to Boothstown where I picked up the 132 back to the Trafford Centre after an unexpectedly pleasant afternoon.

House sparrows

South of Marsland Green 

Wirral

Black redstart, Red Rocks

A bright sunny day was promised so I decided on a day at the seaside. Hoylake was boasting both black redstart and snow buntings yesterday so I headed thataway to see if I could find one or other of them, then see where else I end up.

I left home earlier than usual, hoping to get into Liverpool half an hour earlier. What I hadn't figured on was the train I was getting to Warrington not connecting with anything heading towards Liverpool — it's another of those cases where Northern chops a service into two smaller chunks then making sure there's no through connection. 

From Birchwood Station 

I didn't fancy spending the best part of half an hour sitting at Warrington Station so I got off at Birchwood and watched the fields by the station. Which turned out to be very rewarding: about fifty black-headed gulls came in to feed on the closest fields with a couple of stock doves, a flock of rooks feeding further out. Woodpigeons and carrion crows flew hither and thither and the hedgerows by the platforms were busy with dunnocks, blackbirds and a mixed tit flock. Robins and a mistle thrush sang in the bright sunshine and it was a very agreeable way to wait for a train.

Herring gull, Hoylake

Knots, Hoylake

I arrived at Hoylake and walked straight down The Kings Gap to the beach. The tide was on the ebb and dark lines of roosting waders still marked the high points on the mud banks. Redshanks dunlins and knots were the most numerous, small groups of ringed plovers skittered around the mud, grey plovers lurked at the edges of the crowds, oystercatchers and curlews were already moving out. Small groups of herring gulls loafed near the esplanade, more were flying out to the timeline with a few lesser black-backs. One group of half a dozen herring gulls were dwarfed by three great black-backs. As the herring gulls flew out from the beach black-headed gulls started flying in.

Walking from Hoylake to Red Rocks 

As I started walking across the top of the beach towards Red Rocks linnets, goldfinches and meadow pipits started flying down to the beach from the seaside gardens. The starlings were for staying on the rooftops for a bit longer. I let on to a couple of birdwatchers who were after the black redstart and let them walk ahead so as not to put the jinx on them. 

Snow bunting, Hoylake

Snow bunting, Hoylake

Snow bunting, Hoylake

I hadn't gone far when a cheep from the wall by my shoulder made me stop and look round. Two snow buntings were sat on top of the wall looking at me. They were very close and the sun was directly behind them so I had to walk down the beach a bit to try and photograph them, all the while gesticulating at the other two guys to let them know the buntings were there. Snow buntings are fearless so you can get away with this sort of nonsense with them. Anyway, we all three got a good look at them and once the buntings had decided we'd had our fill they jumped down into the garden to feed on the lawn.

Cormorants, herring gulls and brent geese

The crowds on the offshore rocks off Red Rocks were starting to disperse, flocks of dunlin, knots, redshanks and ringed plovers flying up the estuary, oystercatchers and curlews following the tide out to join the shelducks already dabbling out there, leaving loafing cormorants and grazing brent geese behind.

Hoylake from Red Rocks 

I wasn't sure if I wanted to walk as far as Red Rocks or just get as far as the big muddy patch and retrace my steps with the sun behind me as I walked. I was approaching the muddy bit when I noticed a robin-like bird on the fence by the nursing home. "It'll be a robin," I told myself, not unreasonably. There was something about it that wasn't quite so I tiptoed a bit closer. 

Black redstart, Red Rocks

Black redstart, Red Rocks

Black redstart, Red Rocks

The something that wasn't quite right was that its underparts were the same colour as its upperparts and the tail was stick-thin and a bit long for a robin. I got close enough for a better look and it dived out of sight onto the lawn. It quickly bobbed back up onto the seawall where I identified it properly as a "female type" black redstart (young male black redstarts look like females and some of them never gain the black face and breast of the textbook male). It kept bobbing up and down onto the wall as I walked along trying to get the sunlight to the side of it rather than directly behind. I looked back for the pair of birders but they were already halfway back to Hoylake.

Stonechats, Red Rocks

I didn't fancy walking back to Hoylake — I'd either have to go back through the mud or traipse down Stanley Road — so I headed through the nature reserve and on to West Kirby. The boardwalk seemed to have a pair of stonechats every hundred yards, which was a bit distracting as I was having to keep a close eye on where I was walking as I'd forgotten how dodgy the boardwalk's become. Pairs of water rails squealing in the reedbeds were even more distracting.

Hilbre from Red Rocks Nature Reserve 

Looking out into the estuary small flocks of dunlin and ringed plovers flew upstream, a little egret flew into the long grass in the marsh and redshanks foraged on the mud in the marsh. Further out the brent geese were spreading out across the estuary as they grazed upon the sea grass.

Great Egret, Red Rocks

A sense of relief passed over me as I reached Terra Firma and another pair of stonechats. Looking back out of the estuary I was surprised to see a great white egret at the edge of the marsh. (There's no good reason why one wouldn't be here, they breed a few miles upriver.)

Dee Estuary 

Black-headed gulls and turnstones, West Kirby

I decided on a late lunch by the marine lake at West Kirby. The tide was well out now and there were loads of waders on the estuary upstream but the pontoon was still standing room only with black-headed gulls, turnstones, redshanks and knots. I was feeling greedy so I double-checked to make sure there weren't any purple sandpipers in there. There weren't.

Black-headed gulls and turnstones, West Kirby

Redshanks and turnstones, West Kirby

Knots, turnstones and redshank, West Kirby

There were a few gulls and a pair of mute swans out on the lake. I looked for the juvenile great Northern diver and found it very easily: the lake was like a mill pond and the diver was dead in the middle of it. 

I looked at the time, remembered it was late November and decided against moving on to another site. It had been a good walk in excellent weather and some excellent birdwatching. A seaside walk with snow buntings in it is always special and the black redstart was a cherry on the cake.

West Kirby Marine Lake 

Local patch

Lostock Park 

It was a grey and dismal morning and it poured down until lunchtime so I was disinclined to go out for a walk. The weather tidied itself up a bit over lunchtime so I drifted over for a nosy round the local park to try to nudge myself out of the usual November slump. A meadow pipit flying over as I walked down the road reminded me that the weather's going to get colder this week.

All the action was going on in the treetops of the Lombardy poplars along the old Old Hall Lane. Forty-odd starlings bubbled and squeaked before flying off into the gardens down the road. A few goldfinches twittered about and some blue tits and a great tit dangled from the ends of twigs. I must remember to bring something with me next time, the magpies were giving me that body language the cat's so eloquent about just before breakfast.

Barton Clough 

I was telling myself that the old cornfields were a lot quiet — just a few robins setting out their Winter territories and a couple of blackbirds fossicking about in the brambles — when a couple of dozen goldfinches flew in and settled in the hawthorns in the United Utilities compound. 

It's still not been cold enough for the redwings to be coming in to the park. Looking round there's not much in the way of berries, the blackbirds, squirrels and woodpigeons have had a feast of it over the past couple of months. It's vanishingly unlikely we'll be hosting any waxwings here this Winter.

Mersey Valley

Robin, Cob Kiln Wood

It was a mild, dry, grey November Sunday, a bit of a contrast to the bright, frosty Saturday. I'd topped up the feeders in the back garden, supervised by the coal tit, the robin and one of the dunnocks, all within reaching distance, and the pair of great tits on the other side of the roses. They were soon joined by a couple of blue tits and half a dozen spadgers before one of the squirrels barged in to have a go at the fat feeder. He didn't linger, the spadgers weren't taking prisoners. 

There's something odd going on with the sparrows. For the past ten years or so there have been two families, one ("Team Tawny") based in the rambling rose hedge by the train station, one ("Team Silver") based in the brambles on the embankment by the little park. The past couple of years it's been getting harder to tell them apart at a glance as there's a bit of gene flow between the two and the bright silver cheeks of the patriarchs in Team Silver looks to be a recessive gene, the younger males have tended towards a lead grey. So I've been tending to tell the difference by the direction of travel: Team Tawny works the gardens and embankments in an anticlockwise direction, Team Silver clockwise. Except I've not seen much clockwise movement this week and then never more than a couple of birds at a time. They may just have decided to go with the flow and all move anticlockwise, in which case I won't be seeing the big crowd scenes when both families coincide on the feeders. Time will tell.

Cob Kiln Wood, the bridge over Ousel Brook 

I decided on a bit of a local potter to keep the joints moving and headed off to Cob Kiln Wood. The treetops on the approach down Torbay Road were full of woodpigeons and I'd barely stepped onto the path into the wood when I encountered a large mixed tit flock. At first I thought it was just a large family of long-tailed tits but a few blue tits and great tits tagged along. They bounced off into the trees beyond Ousel Brook, leaving behind a bunch of woodpigeons and magpies in the trees and half a dozen blackbirds chucking leaves about on the ground. I kept bumping into a mixed tit flock throughout my walk through the wood and I couldn't tell if it was the same one or two or three flocks.

Cob Kiln Wood 

The paths were surprisingly passable but I still decided not to cross the clearing with the pylons, the path at the other end gets interesting in the best of weathers. Chaffinches, goldfinches and greenfinches passed overhead but the only finch I found in the trees was a male bullfinch in one of the hawthorns. I only found that because I was trying to keep tabs on a goldcrest that I first noticed fidgeting about in a young oak tree. The goldcrest didn't seem part of the tit flock passing through here, in fact all the goldcrests I saw this afternoon seemed to be lone agents.

I had a look at the river, toyed with the idea of walking into Banky Meadow and decided against, walking down the river to Kickety Brook Nature Reserve instead. The paths were busy with people, dogs and bicycles and the handful of mallards on the river were keeping away from any dogs giddying about on the banks. 

River Mersey

Woodpigeons, jackdaws and carrion crows flew to and fro over the golf course on the other side, the jackdaws already starting to drift over towards the roost on Bradley Lane. I spent a few minutes watching a crow and a black-headed gull having a dogfight over the golf course. I've no idea what it was about, it wasn't one chasing the other to try to steal food as each time it looked like the action was over and they started drifting apart one or other would swoop back to resume the fight. I think they got bored or distracted in the end as they flew off in opposite directions over the river.

A goldcrest flew over the river and disappeared into the hawthorns next to me on the path, re-emerging a couple of times to dare me to try and take a photo before vanishing into the depths. A flock of a couple of dozen siskins flew high overhead and descended into the trees behind the Riverbank Coffee shack.

Kickety Brook LNR

As I walked into Kickety Brook Nature Reserve the jackdaws and ring-necked parakeets were making a racket of going to roost. Otherwise it was fairly quiet, the highlights being another goldcrest working an oak tree and a nuthatch playing peekaboo in some willows. 

Ring-necked parakeet, Stretford Meadows

Over the motorway and onto Stretford Meadows which I would have said was very quiet but now the leaves are off the trees the motorway noise is all-pervasive. I stuck to the Transpennine Route, the paths onto the meadows property looking suspiciously passable with an obvious intent on trapping the unwary and filling their boots with muddy water. Magpies bounced around in the trees while reed buntings flew into hawthorn bushes to roost with robins and blackbirds. Where the path diverges a few great tits and blue tits were settling down in the dogwoods by the path leading to Loretto Road while a goldcrest accompanied me part of the way towards Newcroft Road. Half a dozen parakeets were settling down for the night in the trees by the stables as I passed.

Stretford Meadows 

I'd had a good afternoon's wander and the garden centre was still open so I popped in and bought myself a nice hellebore for the front garden by way of a prize for good behaviour.

Lancashire bumper bundle

Twite, Knott End

I've been feeling that I've been skimping lately so I took advantage of a decent night's sleep after nodding off before two and set off on a jaunt with an old man's explorer ticket on a very bright November day.

Skipool Creek 

I got the train to Poulton-le-Fylde and walked up to Skipool Creek. The interminable bypass building continues to make a mess but at least the pedestrian crossing lights are working now. The tide was low so both the creek and the Wyre were mostly exposed mud. Mallards sat on the banks of the creek watching a couple of workmen repairing a jetty. A mixed tit flock which seemed to be equal numbers of blue tits and long-tailed tits with a couple of great tits bounced about the trees in the car park. A rat and a robin were feasting at the feeding station hidden in the hedgerow. A curlew was feeding below the bank at the mouth of the creek.

Lapwings, teal, black-headed gulls, herring gulls, carrion crow and little egret, Skipool Creek

Out on the river a flock of a hundred or so lapwings loafed on the mud with a few dozen herring gulls and black-headed gulls, some more curlews and a few redshanks. It sounded like there were more redshanks upstream. Rounding the path to the sailing club I got the other side of a grassy mound and found a flock of more than a hundred golden plovers on a mudbank close to the bank together with a few more lapwings. From here I could also see further upstream in the South bank of the river where a flock of a few dozen jackdaws and a few carrion crows were being very skittish, settling to feed on the mud for a few minutes then taking to the air in a panic. I couldn't see the cause, normally if I can't see what's spooking birds this time of year I look for a merlin but the waders staying put suggests it must have been something else, perhaps a fox on the bank.

Golden plovers and lapwings, Skipool Creek

Twite, Knott End

Twite, Knott End

I walked back to the roadworks and caught the 2C to Knott End. Literally the first birds I saw as I got off the bus at the ferry terminal were a flock of twenty-eight twite sitting twittering on the slipway. I like twite, they don't look like much in the handbooks but they're tough little buggers full of character. A few turnstones were barging around, literally having to shoulder charge their way past some of the twite that weren't for moving for anything smaller than a spaniel. 

Twite, Knott End

Twite, Knott End

Shelduck, Knott End

Looking across Morecambe Bay towards Barrow

A small brown dog passed by so I took the opportunity to sidle past and walk down the slipway. It was a beautiful day, the light was fantastic and a cold North wind was blowing in from Morecambe Bay. Walking by Skipool Creek I'd been wondering if I'd dressed too warm for the day. I hadn't. A dozen shelduck were dabbling in the mud while a handful of oystercatchers flew about by the river. Walking back I found the twites and turnstones had taken to fossicking about in the wrecked seaweed at the top of the slipway in the company of a couple of pied wagtails.

Twite, Knott End

Twite, Knott End

Twite, Knott End

Turnstone, Knott End

Fleetwood from Knott End 

I reckoned I deserved a cup of tea so I got one. Suitably replenished I had a stroll down The Esplanade in the sunshine as I waited for the 89 to Lancaster. This journey turned out to be a good idea, it takes an hour and meanders its way through the mosslands between the Wyre and the Conder, which is very agreeable on a day like this. As we made our way between Preesall and Pilling skeins of pink-footed geese flew low overhead to graze the fields inland. I stared at every one of them in the hopes one might contain the snow goose that's been doing the rounds of the Lancashire mosses but it wasn't happening today. Some fields had large flocks of rooks or jackdaws, some small flocks of curlews, quite a lot had nothing at all, just to keep me honest. The bus takes a detour through Conder Green and Glasson Dock. I was tempted by glimpses of teal on the river to get off for a nosy round but the next bus was more than two hours later which didn't fit my plans. 

At Lancaster I walked down to the station and got a very busy train to Silverdale for a late afternoon wander round Leighton Moss, catching the twilight train back to Lancaster. The feeders by The Hideout were very busy with small birds topping up for the night. It's not often you see coal tits outnumbering blue tits and great tits. I'd have missed the marsh tit if it hadn't sneezed out a whistle to announce its arrival.

From Lilian's Hide, mostly coots

A couple of Cetti's warblers were having a singing duel by the skytower. Given the relative lack of quality and brio I suspect they were young birds establishing Winter territories. The pool at Lilian's Hide was covered with coots, gadwall and tufted ducks with shovelers, teal and mallards loafing on the banks by the hide with a couple of snipe and a trio of dabchicks.

Gadwall, Leighton Moss

Snipe, Leighton Moss

I wandered towards the causeway and had a sit down on the bench by the road overlooking the reserve. As the sun came down a few hundred starlings flew in to roost. A small cloud today, as Winter progresses the crowds will grow and the spectacular murmurations will begin. There were more signs of Winter. I'd passed a few redwings eating the last of the hawthorn berries by the path. Fieldfares started drifting in to roost in the trees by the causeway. They started in ones and twos, then dozens. In the end there were more than a hundred settled in there.

Silverdale Station 

I walked back to the station in the twilight and got the train back to Lancaster. This is the bit that always annoys me: the Northern train from Barrow is scheduled to arrive in Lancaster a minute after the Northern train to Manchester leaves and you have to wait an hour for the next so I have to buy a single to Preston on a West Coast train. Today it was immaterial as that Manchester train was cancelled. Which led to a huge crowd on Platform 2 at Preston for the next train to Manchester. I looked at the alternative routes and saw a long list of cancellations. So I squeezed on and just managed to make a connection with my train home from Oxford Road. Which turned out to be a pretty good end to an excellent day's birdwatching.

Sunset over the Leighton Moss coastal hides from the train