Sefton bumper bundle

Carrion crow, Crosby Beach

After yesterday's rather grim escapade I thought I'd best make an effort. As the forecasts promised a mixed bag of sun and showers, but with a lighter wind so it shouldn't feel so cold, I thought I'd check out:

• Crosby Marine Lake and Seaforth Nature Reserve to see if any Spring migrants were about;
• Hightown to look for waders; and 
• Marshside to see what was on generally as I've not been this month.

The only question was whether to head for Marshside first or Crosby. The decision was taken out of my hands by the cancellation of the Manchester train that provides the day's only connection of less than 58 minutes with the Southport train so I got the train to Liverpool South Parkway, bought an all-areas Saveaway and took the Northern Line to Waterloo.

Herring gulls, Crosby Marine Lake 

Lesser black-back and herring gulls, Crosby Marine Lake 

It was a mild and cloudy bank holiday morning with occasional spots of rain. Crosby Marine Lake was unsurprisingly busy with people and most of the birdlife didn't care. The herring gulls — almost all of them immature birds — congregated by the little pond with the mallards, tufties, coots and Canada geese. More herring gulls were on the marine lake along with a couple of cormorants and a drake red-breasted merganser, a first for me here. 

Little egret, Crosby Marine Lake 

I was walking by the pond when a little egret flew over and stood by the bank of the lake a couple of yards away from where I stood. It paid no heed to any of the people — and dogs — passing by on the path. The flock of starlings busy eating the pips on last year's sea buckthorn berries were a little less laid back, calling if people got too close but staying put because they were in the middle of a thicket of very thorny bushes. Skylarks sang above the dunes and linnets twitted by but it was all a bit too busy for any meadow pipits to be about.

Starlings, Crosby Marine Lake 

Seaforth Coastguard Station 

The tide was rising, and so was the number of people using the beach, so there were only carrion crows and magpies about on the sand. A few herring gulls flew by but didn't stop.

Linnet, Seaforth Nature Reserve 

I wandered over to the perimeter fence of Seaforth Nature Reserve, lured as much by the singing of linnets and greenfinches in the bushes as the prospect of passage migrants on the open ground. Canada geese and shelducks loafed on the grass, teal and shovelers dozed on little pools and rabbits grazed. This time of year any place by the sea with rabbits makes me hope for wheatears but there were none about today. There was a crowd of pied wagtails, though. There was a lot of variation in the colour of their backs from jet black to mid grey but they all had the required dark smudgy flanks and no contrast between the black on the nape and the colour on the back. Then up bobbed a male white wagtail, silvery grey on the back and clean white flanks, a textbook example. And it quickly bobbed back down again once the camera got it into focus.

One of those pied wagtails that make you look twice

The same bird as above showing its pied wagtail credentials 

One of those pied wagtails you don't have to look twice at to identify 

An uncooperative white wagtail 

There were small crowds of waders, Canada geese and cormorants loafing on the open water. Most of the waders were redshanks and black-tailed godwits with a few curlews. I couldn't find any dunlins, which was a bit of a surprise, nor the spotted redshank that's been here for a couple of weeks, which was less of a surprise given how far away they all were. Even had it been in full breeding black I'd have struggled as most of the waders were silhouetted in the sunlight.

Chiffchaffs sang in the sea buckthorns as I walked down to the lakeside path and watched a couple of little egrets fly in to feed on the bank by the nature reserve. I took a stroll round the reserve where another chiffchaff sang in the trees and a Cetti's warbler sang in the reeds. I'm old enough to remember when little egrets and Cetti's warblers were rarities you had to go down to the South coast to find.

I got the train to Hightown. The clouds were rolling in but it was still mild as I walked down to the dunes. I took a seat by the sailing club and looked round. The tide was high now and all the waders were distant dark lines on the roost over by the Altcar Camp firing zone. Lines of oystercatchers, redshanks and curlews spread across the mudbanks, identifiable more easily by sound than by sight. A lot of unidentifiable small dark objects might have been dunlins or ringed plovers or rocks. At the seaward end a couple of dozen cormorants stood like sentinels. Closer to hand pairs of shelducks and small groups of herring gulls bobbed on the water. Cormorants and carrion crows jostled for places on one of the large buoys and a raven got fed up of them all and flew over and inland.

There weren't any waders on the scrap of ground between the jetty and the groyne but there were a few dozing mallards, a little egret and there, all alone, a single pink-footed goose.

From Hightown Dunes

There was some filthy weather out at sea and the quickening wind was blowing it in fast. I decided to move on and hope to get to the shelter of the station or a train before the rain hit. I didn't get a hundred yards. The rain pelted down, then there was hail and then horizontal blasts of sleet. I hoped the sequence meant the squall was blowing over, instead my approach to the station was accompanied by horizontal hail and I was glad to scuttle into shelter. I decided that if it was like this at Southport I'd give Marshside a miss and go home.

The sun came out a couple of times on the way to Southport. On arrival it was a bit grey, the rain had passed but the evidence of its passage was everywhere and I got the 44 to Marshside. It started raining as we passed Hesketh Park. It got heavier as we turned onto Marshside Road. It became a thunderstorm as I walked past Elswick Road to the marsh. I wondered what on earth I was doing.

The rain abated a little and I reckoned I could safely walk down to Sandgrounders, have a scan round in the dry and walk back for the bus. The lake that was the marsh on the other side of the road was littered with mallards, shelducks, shovelers, teal and wigeon. The grassy marsh on my side was busy with starlings, woodpigeons, Canada geese, teal and lapwings. A few pairs of lapwings were display flying together. Further out there were dozens of black+headed gulls by one of the pools. Herring gulls and lesser black-backs flew overhead and a couple of immature great black-backs patrolled the marsh and put the wind up the starlings and lapwings.

Marshside Road 

The rain got heavier and colder. A chiffchaff sang from deep in the cover of a gorse bush. Even the coots and moorhens were looking fed up in the rain. I carried on mulishly. A couple of "they're too small to be shelducks" on a distant pool turned out to be my first avocets of the year. It started to thunder. I took the hint. I turned and squelched back for the bus.

The journey back was uneventful. The wait at Salford Crescent for the train to Deansgate was accompanied by the twitterings of sixteen goldfinches. I got home to a lovely sunset.

Stretford