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