Leighton Moss

Female ring-necked duck, tufted ducks and gadwall in the background

The weather forecast was uncertain but it was a bright, mild start to the day so I headed off for the wander round Leighton Moss I didn't do last week.

On the way up there were signs of flooding, mostly abated. A few fields still had bits of standing water and the canals and rivers were high. It was likely to be a bit damp at Leighton Moss. There were no waders on the coastal pools, just rafts of greylags and shelducks and crowds of teal and shovelers dozing atop submerged islands.

I got off the train at Silverdale and walked round the corner to the visitor centre. Robins and blue tits sang in roadside trees. The feeders at the Hideout were busy with chaffinches, blue tits and great tits while dunnocks and mallards hoovered up any fallen scraps.

Tufted ducks, coot and ring-necked duck

The water was well up at Lilian's Hide. The relict islands near the hide were occupied by teal and shovelers dozing in the sun. A big raft of coots, gadwalls and tufted ducks stretched across the opposite corner. It took me a while to pick out the pochards, goldeneyes and wigeon in the crowd. Mute swans and mallards cruised about while more teal and mallard loafed with Canada geese at the base of the reedbeds on the far side.

Canada geese 

A female ring-necked duck has been on this pool for the past week so I kept an eye out for it. And couldn't find it until I realised I was looking too hard: it was distant but dead ahead of me. In my defence, it was very active and spent twice as long on each dive as the tufted ducks nearby.

At Lilian's Hide 

A couple of marsh harriers floated over the distant reeds. A passing carrion crow took exception to one of them and harried it down into the reeds. Tables were quickly turned and the crow beat a hasty retreat.

Walking down to the reedbeds

The path down to the reedbeds was fairly quiet despite there being plenty of birds about. Blue tits, robins and blackbirds rummaged about, a small flock of starlings fed amongst the sheep in the field and I had to stop every so often to let mallards cross the path.

The path into the reedbeds

The paths in the reedbeds were damp with some stretches underwater but nowhere more than a few inches deep. I stood by to allow a returning couple negotiate the deepest stretch of water, a couple of mallards swam round their ankles to encourage them.

At the Tim Jackson Hide

Yet more shovelers and teal dozed at the Tim Jackson Hide, the drake cinnamon teal x shoveler hiding deep in the crowds with his beak tucked in his back feathers.

Robin

As I walked over to the Griesdale Hide the air was still and the only birds overhead were a couple of greylags. It occurred to me that the usual black-headed gulls were entirely absent. Robins and blue tits fussed about in the willows and pairs of mallards dabbled about the roots of drowned willows.

At Griesdale Hide

Teal

There were still more teal and shovelers with the mute swans and mallards at the Griesdale Hide. A great egret flew out of the reeds and over towards the causeway.

Mute swan

Walking back I tried, and failed, to find any sign of the usual pair of marsh tits in the willows along the drain by the path. There were plenty of robins and blue tits but no marsh tits. I carried on past Lilian's Hide where a water rail made a cameo appearance on the path, squealed and scuttled off into the reeds. A song thrush fossicked about at the base of the trees by the dipping pool while nuthatches and goldcrests foraged in the treetops. A pair of great black-backs flew in and landed on the pool at Lilian's, calling loudly as they settled. I got to the corner of the path and heard a distinctive sneeze, a marsh tit was bouncing around in the hedgerow by the golf course.

Marsh tit

I got to the boardwalk and another marsh tit came and sat on a willow branch by my shoulder. It obligingly moved a couple of branches down so I could take a photo.

I moved on and got the Barrow train to Ulverston to see what was about on the estuaries and salt marshes. The flooding was a lot more extensive North of Silverdale Station with mallards and little egrets paddling round waterlogged fields. A couple of dozen redshanks flew from the viaduct piers as the train passed by. The salt marshes between Meathop and Kent's Bank were busy with shelducks, carrion crows, little egrets and black-headed gulls.

More carrion crows and shelducks foraged on the salt marsh on the Leven with a few mallards. The river was high, curlews and redshanks roosted on the banks and three dozen wigeon clustered near the viaduct. There's usually a few eiders on the river but not today. As we were approaching Ulverston the train scattered a couple of dozen greylags on the banks of the Back Drain.

I only had ten minutes to wait for the Manchester train, when it arrived I settled down on the inland side to see what I'd missed on the way up. There were more wigeon on this side of the Leven and the pools and drains between the river and Cark had flooded into the fields to make one big pond. Dozens of teal clustered about in the drains while a few mallards and a mute swan drifted about the edges of the permanent pool. The golf course at Grange-over-Sands was inundated, the only birdies (sorry) a couple of dozen teal and a few little egrets. The tide was on the turn and about fifty redshanks started fidgeting on the mudbanks at Arnside. A great egret watched the train go by as we passed the coastal pools at Leighton Moss.

Leighton Moss 

The days are lengthening so I watched the jackdaws, carrion crows and woodpigeons coming in to roost nearly all the way back to Manchester after a very nice day's pottering about.