Southport

Pintails, Marshside

It was a sunny, if decidedly cold, morning and I set out for a wander round Southport beach to look for the snow bunting then go up to Marshside and Crossens. This involves my wasting the best part of there quarters of an hour en route because my train into Manchester doesn't stop at Deansgate and can't get into Oxford Road until the Southport train arrives at Deansgate (they're the only trains using platform 5) so I have to go to Salford Crescent or Bolton and have a long wait for the stopping train. 

Southport Marine Lake 

Despite all that I got to Southport without alarums or excursions and walked down to the marine lake.

Herring gull, Southport Marine Lake

It was below freezing but the marine lake was still unfrozen, unlike a lot of the freshwater lakes and ponds we passed on the way into Southport. A herd of mute swans with its mallard, coot and black-headed gull attendants cruised the far bank in search of families with bird seed about their person. There weren't many ducks about, just the dozen or so mallards with the swans.

Herring gull, Southport Marine Lake
I had to think about this bird.

There were more herring gulls than black-headed gulls and there was the usual confusing array of sub adult plumages. One bird caught my eye by having a perfectly clean black ring on its beak. Back in the days when ring-billed gulls were a regular and increasing Winter visitor I'd have gotten into difficulties with this bird. Now they're proper scarcities it's easier not to get swept along by the possibility. This bird was nearly the same size as the adult herring gulls near to it and had a fair bit of brown markings on its flight coverts, suggesting that it's a third-Winter bird, possibly a female. A ring-billed gull would have been significantly smaller, roughly halfway between a herring and a common gull.

Southport Pier 

My arrival at the beach coincided with the arrival of a bunch of dog walkers so I had no luck with the snow bunting, especially as one of them persisted in throwing a ball for their dog to chase just in front of where I was walking. Snow buntings see human beings as objects of curiosity but don't like dogs at all. I had no more joy finding any ringed plovers out on the mud though there were plenty of black-headed gulls and redshanks close in and shelducks, curlews and cormorants out towards the tideline.

Redshanks, Southport Marine Drive

Passing under the pier there were dozens more redshanks feeding at the edge of the salt marsh and the first of very many family parties of pink-footed geese were grazing in the long grass. A flock of finches got my hopes up for twite and dashed them when I got a proper look at them and realised they were linnets. Which is not to disrespect linnets, a flock of them is an unambiguously good thing.

Meadow pipit having a bath, Southport Marine Drive

I bobbed across the road to have a look at this end of the marine lake and see if there were any twite in the car park of the sailing club. There were more mute swans, a dozen greylags dozed on one of the islands, a pair of dabchicks hunted midwater and the slipway opposite was white with gulls, mostly herring gulls. Pied wagtails and a robin foraged in the car park and I had to wait for a meadow pipit to finish its bath before I could pass on.

Pink-footed geese, Southport Marine Drive

I crossed back over Marine Drive and walked on to Marshside. The groups of grazing pink-feet got bigger, the groups of feeding redshanks got smaller. Further out, curlews probed the grass while little egrets and shelducks fed in the creeks and pools or loafed by their banks. Flocks of starlings and skylarks flitted about and disappeared into the long grass and a charm of goldfinches earned its name by wheeling low over the marsh, black and yellow wings moving as one, before descending into its depths. 

Pink-footed geese, Southport Marine Drive

An alarm call caught my ear and I turned to see the cause: a ring-tail hen harrier flying perhaps a foot above the marsh. Redshanks and skylarks moved out of its way sharpish but it wasn't in hunting mode and it steamed off straight out into the estuary. The profusion of small birds that settled back into the marsh included starlings, skylarks, linnets and the only twite of the day. A little further on heads were turned as a male sparrowhawk flew across the road into the marsh but he settled down into the long grass to preen.

Marine Drive, with a flock of pink-footed geese by the side

There were groups of a couple of dozen or so pink-feet grazing by the road, each with a couple of birds taking their turn at sentry go. If you're within reach of Southport I would really recommend taking a walk along the Marine Drive on a sunny Winter's day, even if it's just as far as Hesketh Road and back. There's something a bit special about being so close to the sight and sound of wild geese.

Passing Hesketh Road I could start to see the frozen flooded marsh on Marshside over tha banks on the other side of Marine Drive. For a change pintails far exceeded wigeon and there were good numbers of teal and shovelers. Flocks of black-tailed godwits, never more than a couple of dozen, flitted to and fro across the road. 

Tufted duck, Marshside

I had a quick look at Nels Hide where there the open water began. Tufted ducks dozed and drifted by the hide. Further out a few lapwings loafed with the assorted ducks. 

Teal, wigeon, lapwings and pintails, Marshside

Little egret, Marshside

I walked down to Sandgrounders where a flock of wigeon took flight to escape a hunting great black-back. They didn't all settle back once it had gone. Teal glowed as they dozed in the low sunlight, there wasn't a lot about in the marsh beyond.

Teal, Marshside

Shovelers, Marshside

I decided I didn't have the legs to carry on to Crossens, the cold was starting to get to my joints. I wandered back to Marshside Road. The Junction Pool was just a corner of the vast pool of half-frozen water stretching over to Hesketh Road. A few dozen shovelers dozed with the mallards and teal.

Ruff, Marshside

Walking up Marshside Road for the bus a ruff feeding with the lapwings by the road made ninety-nine for the year and a dozen golden plovers made it a hundred. It'll be well into Autumn before I get the second hundred in. A hare was too busy grazing to be fussed by passersby.

Hare, Marshside

It had been a beautiful, though very cold, day and both the walk and the birdwatching had been excellent. And the trains home behaved impeccably. 

Marshside Road looking over towards Hesketh Road