Southport

Pink-footed geese, Crossens Marsh

It was a bright, cold and frosty morning and I had no excuse for not going over to Southport for a stroll by Marshside and Crossens Marsh. Even the train connections were made easier by weekend engineering work at Bolton. So off I went.

A robin came over to see why we were waiting at the signals near Westwood Cemetery

I noticed there's just the one magpies' nest at Trafford Park Station now, all the trial runs having been either robbed out or blown out of the trees by gales. The diverted journey got to Wigan via the line through Glazebury and Golborne. As we passed through Astley Moss the trees were still full of woodpigeons and a buzzard was setting out for its breakfast. We sat at the signals at Golborne Dale next to three pheasants sitting in a tree not sure if the train was a threat or not (inertia won in the end). There were more pheasants and woodpigeons as we passed by Viridor Wood. 

Leaving Wigan the lake in Pemberton Park was awash and as still as a mill pool, which seemed to suit the raft of tufted ducks and coots mooching around on it. The huge flock of black-headed gulls on the flooded fields outside Parbold included a few dozen lapwings. And for all that the land drains of West Lancashire were full to the brim there weren't many ducks about, only a few pairs of mallards.

Black-tailed godwits and teal, Marshside
Nel's Hide in the background

I got the 44 to Marshside Road and walked down to the reserve. I met an embarrassment of riches: on the left-hand side of the road the field was flooded and awash with ducks and a couple of hundred black-tailed godwits, on the right the field was drier and hosted ducks, geese and woodpigeons. There were hundreds of wigeons together with perhaps a hundred teal and dozens of shovelers, pintails and mallard. Linnets and pied wagtails skittered about the roadside on the left, house sparrows and starlings on the right. A few greylag geese grazed near the road, a few dozen Canada geese loafed further out. A couple of little egrets rummaged round in the pools and drains. 

Black-tailed godwits, shovelers and wigeon, Marshside

Golden plovers, Marshside

All of a sudden a cloud of a few hundred golden plovers rose from the field near Polly's Pool, flew over the road and headed for the Hesketh Road end of the marsh before dividing into two flocks, one of which flew back whence it came. This unsettled the godwits which rose, flew about for a minute or so, collected a dozen lapwings along the way and settled back down again. The culprit turned out to be a great black-back that was cruising the bund near the pool.

Black-tailed godwits, Marshside

Wigeon, Marshside

Wigeon and shovelers, Marshside

The Junction Pool was effectively the corner of the much larger pool stretching over beyond Nel's Hide. A few shovelers and pintails loafed while pairs of tufted ducks cruised around each other.

Marshside 

I didn't linger long at Sandgrounders. A few teal and wigeon loafed on the island with a couple of dozen Canada geese on the pool by the side with some tufties and gadwall. A great white egret stalked the marsh beyond Polly's Pool. It looked like the first of the black-headed gulls were prospecting nesting sites, as early a sign of Spring as the February daffodils in the hedgerows.

Marshside 

I walked down towards Crossens Marsh. Polly's Pool was busy with lapwings and shelducks, the drains busy with wigeon, teal and tufted ducks. Over on the outer marsh the first family parties of pink-footed geese were grazing in the long grass, little egrets fossicked about in creeks and gullies and a couple of dozen black-headed gulls picked at midges in the pools in the company of a few redshanks. Further out I could see a flock of skylarks flying about, a couple of them rose and sang, but there weren't many meadow pipits about.

Pink-footed geese, Crossens Marsh

Pink-footed geese, Crossens Marsh

The nearer I got to Crossens Marsh the closer the pink-footed geese were to the roadside. I crossed over and scanned round. The nearby geese were mostly family parties, the youngsters less small and brown than they had been on arrival. Far out on the marsh there were hundreds, possibly upwards of a thousand, more and beyond them I could make out a few hundred Canada geese. The unidentifiable masses beyond them were probably all pink-feet.

Mute swans, Crossens Marsh

I was on the look-out for water pipits, they're regular Winter visitors here and there have been two or three of them about this week. I wasn't feeling very confident about it, I'd seen less than a handful of meadow pipits so far and had yet to see any pied wagtails on the outer marshes, whenever I've seen water pipits here they've had company. I needn't have worried: I got to the first of the pull-ins and there amongst the pink-feet and mute swans was a mixed flock of pied wagtails and meadow pipits. As usual it was the wagtails that caught the initial attention, the pipits took some finding even though most were hiding in plain sight. 

There was a lot of variation from dark reddish brown through bright golden browns to almost frosty looking birds but they were all reassuringly streaky with short, pale eyebrows. They were very skittish as well so my efforts at taking any pictures were abysmal. The skittishness worked in my favour, though, as the whole flock of a couple of dozen birds seemed to take their turn out in the open before retreating into the hollows and gullies. It was less than five minutes' wait for a water pipit. I had to look twice and, luckily, it let me. It was a heavily marked bird and if it had kept its head down I might have dismissed it as a rather dark looking mipit. Its head was reassuringly plain grey and the white eyebrow extended behind the eye and looking closely the heavy markings on its chest and flanks were more like the blobs on a song thrush than the streaks on a meadow pipit. I hoped to get a photo of it the next time it hopped out into the open. This is when I learned that while pipit flocks aren't bothered by the noise of heavy traffic they don't like motorbikes that need a new exhaust pipe.

They settled further up the road by the pull-in with the parking space so I walked up. There'd been a report of a water pipit here this morning and a couple of people had telescopes trained on the area. They didn't seem to be having any luck, though, and neither did I: all the pipits I could see were meadow pipits. I decided to move on and not jinx them any further.

Crossens Outer Marsh and Marine Drive

Squinting into the sunlight as I looked over the road a few hundred golden plovers loafed by the edge of the pools while similar numbers of wigeon were scattered across the marsh. Lapwings, teal and mallard were scattered about and I noticed a few dunlins amongst a small flock of black-tailed godwits.

Looking over the River Crossens to Banks

I took the path along the river to Banks Road. Small groups of teal, mallard and wigeon sat on the riverbanks while robins, wrens and great tits sang in the bushes on the other side of the bund. I got to Banks Road and asked myself if I really had the legs to walk down onto the marsh and round and down to Hundred End and in truth I had to admit I hadn't. I checked the bus times and accidentally noticed that the 347 to Chorley was due in ten minutes' time from the stop on Ralph's Wife's Lane. That goes past Mere Sands Wood and through Rufford. I could get off there, have a nosy at the canal and get the 2a to Burscough Bridge for the train home. (If I didn't have the legs for Banks to Hundred End I certainly didn't for a walk through Mere Sands Wood and down Curlew Lane to get to Burscough Bridge.)

It had stayed fine, though cold, all day but it started to drizzle as I waited for the bus so it looked like a good call to have made. We soon passed through the shower and by the time we arrived in Rufford it was bright and sunny. I had a quick stroll around the marina and a look at the canal, as much to get some movement into aching knees as to look at the Canada geese and mallards and listen to the robins, coal tits, goldfinches and greenfinches. Jackdaws billed and cooed on rooftops and woodpigeons cosied up in the trees.

Leeds and Liverpool Canal, Rufford 

There was a reduced service at Burscough Bridge due to the engineering works at Bolton so I had plenty of time to watch the activity in the rookery beside Tesco's. There's a couple of dozen nests on the go, with jackdaws on the look-out for any vacant premises. There didn't seem to be any though I noticed a couple of pairs of jackdaws squabbling over a magpies' nest further down the line.

Mute swans, Crossens Outer Marsh