Lunt Meadows

Smew

I had a yen to go on a twitch, saw that a smew had joined the green-winged teal and the Richardson's cackling goose at Lunt Meadows and got the trains over to Waterloo in Merseyside. 

Crosby Marine Lake 

I had half an hour to wait for the 133 to Lunt so I had quick nosy at Crosby Marine Lake. The black-throated diver played hard to get over on the far side of the lake, most of the diving was being done by cormorants and goldeneyes. A dozen oystercatchers joined the herring gulls and starlings on the boating pond roost; the usual mallards, coots and mute swans mugged for scraps and half a dozen turnstones skittered to and fro at the lakeside.

Crosby Marine Lake 

I got the 133 to Lunt, took the footpath down Lunt Lane and had a quick look in Roughley's Wood. A mixed tit flock flitted about the riding, jackdaws called from the tall trees and a Cetti's warbler called from some hawthorn scrub. I'd usually expect it to be singing from the reeds in the brook that crosses the lane but they'd been absolutely flattened by last week's floods.

Lunt Lane 

Walking into Lunt Meadows I was surprised that the paths were in such good nick. Even at their worst they were no worse shape than the ones I've been walking on this past week. The effects of the flooding were evident by the flattened vegetation and tide marks on the sides of trees and posts but the tidy-up has been impressive.

Lunt Meadows 

The greylags loafing in the field by the entrance were noisy as usual. Looking out on the main pool from the screen next to them I could see plenty of mallards, Canada geese and teal and a handful of wigeon.

Smew

Walking down the path a chap walking by told me that the smew was hugging the near bank but could be seen from the screen on the next corner. And so it could, a very nice white nun showing very well.

Mallard and smew

Mallard and smew

Mallard and smew

I'd been wondering what kept bringing up the couple of hundred lapwings from the fields by the Alt. I got the answer when a marsh harrier floated over and provoked a lot of panicky whistlings from the teal on the main pool. It carried on floating by towards Lunt Road.

Lunt Meadows 

I checked out the pools to the North of the path. Mallards, teal and herons hugged the banks. One pool was covered with gadwalls, the other with tufted ducks and pochards. A skein of pink-footed geese flew overhead towards the local mosses.

The green-winged teal and cackling goose had been reported on the Great White Pool first thing. I couldn't see any geese at all on the pool but there were plenty of teal about. I spent a good half hour scanning them looking for a vertical white stripe to no avail. Drake upon drake with a horizontal white stripe and rather too many fluffing up their body feathers to show no stripe at all.

Green-winged teal and common teal
(Heavily cropped photo)

I walked round the pool getting increasingly eye-boggled staring at teal. The supporting cast included shovelers, gadwalls and rather a lot of lapwings. At one point I was struggling to concentrate on the teal dozing on an island because a pair of stonechats kept bobbing up and down in my line of view. I gave up and retraced my steps and found a group of people staring in a corner. I was offered a look through a telescope and really should have apologised more profusely for my exclamation. I'd spent ten minutes staring at that group of teal and hadn't seen the green-winged teal sitting in the middle of them. Once it had been pointed out to me it was obvious, if distant.

Richardson's cackling goose (left) and Canada geese

I walked over to the screen overlooking this corner of the main pool and spotted the cackling goose amongst the Canada geese almost immediately. A duck-sized "Canada goose" with a short neck was reassuringly obvious after making such a botch of the teal.

Richardson's cackling goose (left) and Canada geese

I completed a circle of the reserve, bumping into a kestrel, a handful of fieldfares and another Cetti's warbler in the process then headed off back down Lunt Lane for the 133 back to Waterloo and thence back home after an excellent afternoon's birdwatching.