Leighton Moss

Marsh tit

It was a bright Spring day so I got myself an old man's explorer ticket (at the unpopular new price of £18.40) and headed off to Leighton Moss to see if I could see more than I did last week. An added attraction was a pair of lesser scaups which turned up over the weekend, I've only ever seen one and that was a male so it would be an opportunity to learn something new.

The Hideout at Leighton Moss was slightly busier than it had been last Tuesday but this didn't faze the titmice and chaffinches and the usual marsh tit sneezed from the shrubbery by the side.

The boardwalk to the causeway 

The causeway

Great black-backs and coot

Unusually for me I headed straight for the Causeway Hide where the lesser scaups had been seen. A couple of Cetti's warblers sang by the boardwalk and another was singing by the causeway. A bittern boomed from somewhere deep in the reedbed to my left. Moorhens and water rails clucked and squealed from the reeds and there were sounds of extremely disgruntled coots ahead, probably caused by three great black-backs — a pair and a second Winter — flying in.

Cormorant
The square corner to yellow throat patch tells me this is a "continental" sinensis bird.

The Causeway Hide wasn't too busy so I sat awhile to scan the pool. Half a dozen cormorants and the young great black-back loafed on the tiny portion of the island above water. Rafts of coots steered clear of the great black-backs, mallards and gadwall dabbled and mute swans cruised about. 

Tufted ducks, mute swans and coot

There was a raft of a couple of dozen tufted ducks by the reeds at the far corner of the causeway, I was told the lesser scaup were in there. It took a while to spot them even though they were in plain sight. I found the duck first, a compact tuftie type with a rounder head and a white blaze on the front of its face. It took ten minutes to find the drake even though he was swimming next to her. I kept getting distracted by male tufties lying on their backs to rub their tummies. Eventually I registered the grey-backed duck with the dark head tucked into its back feathers. 

Tufted ducks and lesser scaup (bottom right)

The lesser scaup lay lower in the water so looked compact without that rectangular box shape that tufties manage. I'll try and remember that as an ID feature. The drake woke up as the tufties decided to cruise the length of the reedbed. On the return leg the lesser scaups took the lead in the company of the female ring-necked duck I saw last week. Just to complete the party a male pochard flew in and mingled.

The main drain from the causeway

Willows

Marsh tit

I've been neglecting this half of the reserve this Winter, primarily because so much of it has been underwater. I drifted down to the end of the causeway and onto the path for the Lower Hide. Robins sang, marsh tits sneezed, blue tits, great tits and coal tits bounced about in the willows. I could still hear the bittern booming from here. Over the wall on the fields rabbits grazed and pheasants pottered about. The paths were pretty good though when I stepped to one side to let a couple pass it was clear that the paths were only fractions of an inch above water.

Approaching the Lower Hide
The new boardwalk over the path was definitely necessary.

Mute swans

Teal

The corner of the pool by the Lower Hide was littered with mallards and teal. The mallards and some of the teal were paired up and having a doze, the rest of the teal were doing a lot of head-bobbing. A few mute swans loafed by the bank with the ducks. Further out a raft of gadwall, tufted ducks and coots was cruising about aimlessly until the great black-backs flew over and the coots scattered. Oddly, none of the ducks panicked even though they'd be as like to be a meal for a great black-back as a coot would. The gadwalls drifted over, some of the unattached drakes making themselves objectionable to the paired-up drakes.

Gadwall

Curlews

I wandered back and checked the train times. I had plenty of time for the trains in either direction so I had a look in at Lilian's Hide. A couple of dozen greylags were calling the odds from the middle of the pool while a raft of pochards and goldeneyes bobbed about over by the far reedbeds. A couple of shovelers drifted about mid distance, there were no teal about. A female-type marsh harrier floated over the reeds and not a bird paid any attention to it.

From Lilian's Hide, a bit different to last week

I was tempted to go over to Ulverston and try and find the Richard's pipit that's been there the past week or so but the options were to get there and wait twenty minutes for a bus that would get me a mile and a half away or have a two mile walk and it was getting late in the afternoon for having much time for a hunt. I'm tempted to make a day of it and have a proper wander round, my one and only Richard's pipit was thirty years ago. Common sense prevailed: I got the train to Arnside and had five minutes' quick shufti over the low tide mudflats before getting the train home.

Leighton Moss

By the visitor centre