Hodbarrow

Little tern

I've had Hodbarrow in my sights for a few weeks and now the trains to Barrow are back in action and the weather okay there was no excuse not to go for a visit and, hopefully, add common tern and Sandwich tern to the year list. A very ropey night's sleep had me wondering if I really wanted to bother but I got myself an old man's explorer ticket and set out. The weather was gloomy and although I was overdressed for sitting in the train I was equal to the strong, cool wind that was blowing. I took my raincoat to make sure it wouldn't rain.

The trip up was without incident. Jackdaws, carrion crows and woodpigeons abounded. A couple of swifts flew low over Carnforth Station. The lesser black-backs of Manchester gave way to the black-headed gulls of Bolton and Chorley which gave way to the herring gulls and lesser black-backs of Preston. Herring gulls nested on Ulverston Station, the heronry at Meathop was busy, the black-headed gull colony on the coastal pools at Leighton Moss was packed. There was something on the old osprey's nest on Arnaby Moss but the black tail feather tips on show could have been a crow, rook, raven or even an osprey. 

The herring gulls at Ulverston Station were already nesting, these lesser black-backs were still billing and cooing.

I'd been doing so well with the train-bound birdwatching and the weather was looking so unpromising I wondered if I should just stay on the train and leave Hodbarrow for another day. I dragged myself off the train at Millom and headed for Hodbarrow and I would have good reason for being glad that I did.

The chiffchaff singing at the station was the last warbler I'd hear for the next mile. Blackbirds, chaffinches and collared doves sang, the rookery was noisy and busy and every other rooftop had its crowd of herring gulls or pair of lesser black-backs. Spadgers fussed in garden hedges, greenfinches and goldfinches in treetops. A handful of swallows hawked at chimney pot height above the road.

Walking into Hodbarrow 

Walking into Hodbarrow I was greeted by singing chiffchaffs and willow warblers, which came as a bit of a relief after a warbler-free walk by the hedgerows. I needn't have worried; the reserve was heaving with warblers. The singing at the entrance was accompanied by absurd bubblings and croaks which told me that the mixed colony of cormorants and little egrets was in full swing. I walked through to the edge of the lagoon and looked over: a couple of dozen cormorants were on nests, there were a similar number of little egrets in the trees but I could only find a couple of nests. A raft of herring gulls and lesser black-backs loafed in this relatively quiet corner of the lagoon.

Cormorants and little egrets 

Walking along chaffinches and blackcaps joined the songscape in the trees, blackbirds, whitethroats and a song thrush sang from the gorse bushes. Every so often a dunnock or linnet would strike a pose in a gorse bush and sing. Greenfinches and goldfinches twittered between trees, robins staked out the path margins, sand martins flew round the old iron mines. And all the time there was a constant traffic of rather noisy black-headed gulls.

Walking towards the old iron mines

Red-breasted mergansers
Mergansers nearly always strike me as having untidy crests but when you see them in display like this they make sense.

The terns I heard a long time before they came into view. The corner of the lagoon by the iron mines was dotted with eiders, tufted ducks and Canada geese. Two drake red-breasted mergansers were putting a lot of work into impressing a duck, their slow motion head bobbing accentuated by the symmetry of their long bills and crests. A few terns flew in and wheeled round before disappearing over to the noisy colony on the shingle over by the sea wall, they were all common terns. Odd ones and twos flew by as I watched the mergansers. Then one that didn't quite look right. The grey belly looking slightly darker than the wings might have been a trick of the light but the plain pale wings were those of an arctic tern and the black cap not stretching down the nape made the head look different to the common terns. I was quite chuffed to get two additions to the year list so quickly.

Old iron mines from the sea wall

Eider on the lagoon

Eiders on the Duddon Estuary 

I joined the path on the sea wall. Over on the Duddon Estuary a few pairs of eiders bobbed in the sea, on the lagoon there were hundreds of them. A flock of swallows twittered madly as they flew over the sea wall at knee height. Herring gulls flew out to sea, black-headed gulls flew hither and thither but the noise of the gulls was equalled by the calls of terns. Most were common terns, many dozens of them rather than the hundreds of gulls but making up for numbers in noise. A few Sandwich terns and common terns flew over the sea wall to fish in the estuary. Most of the little terns stayed in the lagoon. Every year I'm surprised by how small little terns are.

Ringed plover making sure I stay on the path

I walked over to the hide. Linnets chipped from clumps of mustard and ringed plovers tried to distract me from patches of bare ground so I was careful to stick to the path. I was scanning the lagoon as I walked along and got a surprise when I noticed a whimbrel standing on the rubble that serves as a screen between the path and the shingle.

Whimbrel 

Eiders

Eiders, oystercatchers and herring gulls 

Black-headed gulls 

Little terns

I sat in the hide and scanned the shingle banks. Hundreds of black-headed gulls sat on nests, hundreds of eiders loafed, many dozens of common terns fussed about. There weren't many Sandwich terns but they were busy making babies. The little terns kept to a couple of shingle islands. A distant black-tailed godwit in rust red breeding plumage dazzled amongst all this monochrome. A couple of dunlins and a few more ringed plovers skittered about, a redshank flew in, a couple of lapwings lost themselves in the crowds. A very dapper common gull preened at the edge of a pool.

The view from the hide

I was about to leave when the lady sitting nearby said: "Roseate tern!" It took me a while to see where she was looking but there, fast asleep by a pair of black-headed gulls, was a bright pink tern. My fears that it was a common tern that had done well on a shrimp diet were allayed when it woke up and had a look round, displaying a great black dagger of a beak. It promptly went back to sleep again before I could get my camera on it. I really wasn't expecting a life tick today!

Black-headed gulls, common tern (centre left), roseate tern (centre, in front of the pair of gulls) and Sandwich tern (right)

Male wheatear 

Female wheatear 

I tried and failed to not disturb the ringed plovers on the way out and bumped into a pair of wheatears. Walking back a sedge warbler riffing a rapid series of squeaks, churrs and rattles was a nice bonus for the year list.

It's a very substantial sea wall

If I didn't dawdle I'd be okay for the quarter past four train back to Barrow. I checked the times and found it was running three-quarters of an hour late. So I sat down for a bit and listened to the songs of linnets, chiffchaffs, blackcaps and a song thrush as sand martins flew overhead.

Walking back from the sea wall 

I got the late-running train and even though it didn't stop at any of the stations before Barrow I still missed the Manchester train by ten minutes. I got the next train to Lancaster, enjoying the little egrets and shelducks on the fields and marshes and the marsh harrier cruising the pools at Leighton Moss, then had an hour's wait for the next train to Manchester from Lancaster. Which, surprisingly, didn't take the gloss off an excellent day's birdwatching.

Rochdale

Peregrine, Rochdale

It's been bugging me that it's nearly May and I haven't had peregrine falcon on the year list so I headed over to Rochdale to see if the peregrines have come back to the town hall tower after all the building repair works. The good news is that yes, they're back, if a bit windswept.

Peregrine, Rochdale

With the falcons grounded in the wind the town centre pigeons were flying about conspicuously and even perching on the town hall roof. I checked the river, the only birdlife were the white farm geese lurking by one of the bridges.

Domestic geese, Rochdale 

I played bus station bingo to decide where to move on to next. The 450 was the next bus out so I caught that, got off at Peppermint Bridge and walked up Huddersfield Road to Piethorne Valley.

Piethorne Valley

I took the little cobbled lane that runs along Piethorne Brook. Blackbirds, chaffinches and willow warblers sang in the trees, a whitethroat sang over by the bus terminus, robins and wrens sang from the undergrowth by the brook. 

Grey wagtail, Piethorne Valley

A rabbit scampered across the path. I was watching where it went when I heard a grey wagtail calling. I walked a way down, scanning the brook to find the wagtail when it started singing somewhere above me. I looked up and there it was sitting on a telephone wire.

Ogden Reservoir

I walked up to Ogden Reservoir. Blackbirds and chaffinches sang in the background and a pair of oystercatchers called from the hill above the reservoir. Jackdaws and woodpigeons flew about between fields and trees. I climbed up to the path by the reservoir, accidentally disturbing a flock of linnets and a couple of magpies. The magpies soon settled, the linnets moved on. I spent a while scanning the reservoir but could only find a lone Canada goose over on the far bank.

Ogden Reservoir

Looking at the maps at home I've sometimes entertained the though of a walk along the Piethorne Valley then going down Huddersfield Road to Denshaw for the bus to Greenfield and the train back to Manchester, or getting the bus to Denshaw and walking over. Looking at the gradient in this stretch of Huddersfield Road I've decided not to be so bloody silly. It might be feasible to walk up the valley and make my way to Ripponden Road and thence to Denshaw. Perhaps.

The cars at the bottom of the tree line are on Huddersfield Road 

It started spotting with rain. I decided not to push my luck, we were offered heavy showers today and the buses run hourly. I could have a leisurely wander back and catch the bus back to Rochdale (the 450 goes anticlockwise back to Rochdale via Milnrow, the 451 goes clockwise back via Kingsway Business Park, they leave Peppermint Bridge within five minutes of each other).

Walking down to Bethany Lane 

I took the rough path down to Bethany Lane, greenfinches and goldfinches calling from the trees on the field margins and a pied wagtail fussing about in a field of horses. More blackbirds and chaffinches sang and jackdaws and house sparrows lurked about the houses.

I had a couple of minutes to wait for the 450, the rain petered out but I didn't mind, I'd had a bit of gentle exercise and there were some nice birds about.

Piethorne Brook

Home thoughts

The past couple of weeks I've noticed I've gotten into the habit of starting each post with a review of the weather which is, in part, a reflection of how unreliable it's been even though we haven't had much in the way of very heavy rain or very dour weather, unlike the beginning of the month. It does feel like Spring even if that is, still, a very cold wind. We keep being promised: "It'll be warm next week," and we'll see.

I'm seeing more of the female spadgers this week which tells me there are mouths to be fed back at the nests. Some years I'll be seeing youngsters by now, they may well be amongst the rustling in the rambling rose leaves and I've just not spotted them yet. I've seen the female great tit more often, too, so hope to be seeing some of theirs soon. The blue tits are still being furtive and you'd not think there were coal tits about, this is par for the course and I just have to be patience and wait for the inevitable yellow-faced balls of fluff to turn up.

The male robins have resumed singing, which I usually assume means that the first brood of the year is on the go. The blackbirds have never stopped singing. As feared the garden warbler was a passing stranger though the blackcap's become a daily fixture.

Each evening there's a thin passage of lesser black-backs going to roost on Salford Quays. There's usually one or two floating about during the day and they've been being joined by a few herring gulls at school lunch times. They've even learned not to bother on Saturdays and Sundays.

There's a stray pair of carrion crows bobbing about. One pair is, I think, nesting in the old crow's nest near the old library. I think the stray pair are the young birds that build a nest by Barton Road last year but didn't seem to do much with it. This year they've started building a nest a few branches up from the occupied magpies' nest in the flowering pear tree across the road. There was must rattling in the foliage at first but things seemed to have settled down. If there's going to be a soap opera of it I hope the leaf cover doesn't obscure the drama.

Longendale

Willow warbler

It was a cool, cloudy Saturday and I didn't feel like doing much so I got the train to Hadfield and had a slow stroll along the Longendale Trail as far as Valehouse Reservoir and back. One of the beauties of the Longendale Trail is that although it's apparently dead flat you quickly get a sense of being among the hills. There were a few people about but no crowds and a lot of the time there was just me, whatever birds were about and a cold wind.

The singing blackbirds, robins and chiffchaffs in the trees drowned out the collared doves and woodpigeons singing on the rooftops of Hadfield. I walked round the corner and through the car park onto the trail. For once the wind was blowing down the trail so this first, sheltered stretch felt decidedly cool. Which didn't stop it being busy with small birds though they could be a devil to spot amongst all the new foliage. 

Coal tits

Robins, wrens and great tits bounced about in the hedgerows and fossicked about the sides of the path. The blackbirds tended to favour the damp grass by the trackside stream. Blackcaps, chaffinches and chiffchaffs sang from the depths and a song thrush sang from a treetop over by the road. I wouldn't have noticed the goldfinches and long-tailed tits in the trees but for their quiet contact calls. A pair of coal tits were more conspicuous as they hunted in the deep moss on one of the tree trunks and, unlike the others, didn't do a flit the moment a camera appeared.

Looking towards Peak Naze

Beyond the bridge carrying Padfield Main Road the landscape opens up and a few willow warblers joined the chiffchaffs singing in the trees. There was a constant traffic of jackdaws, starlings and woodpigeons moving between the fields either side of the trail.

Walking by Bottoms Reservoir

Bottoms Reservoir

A pair of oystercatchers fed in one of the fields above Bottoms Reservoir, black-headed gulls and rooks joined the jackdaws and starlings feeding round the sheep in another. I couldn't see any ducks or geese on the reservoir though a pair of goosanders flew overhead towards the upper valley.

Peak Naze

Cowslips

Approaching Valehouse Reservoir the track is lightly wooded, coal tits and blackcaps joining in with the singing chiffchaffs and willow warblers. 

By Valehouse Reservoir

By Valehouse Reservoir

There was a lot going on in one of the thickets, pairs of blue tits and great tits foraging in the undergrowth while coal tits and something else were flitting about in the canopy. There was a bench nearby set within the bushes with a view out over the valley, I decided to sit there and wait for the birds to head my way. It took a while but the "something" turned out to be a small mixed flock of half a dozen siskins and three or four lesser redpolls. I spent a while trying, and failing, to get a photo of any of them, they were very fidgety and busy and didn't often emerge out into the open. 

The most cooperation I got out of any of the siskins. The female siskin that had been in that open frame had just exited stage left. The redpolls made sure to always have plenty of leaves in the way.

Bottoms Reservoir

It had become a very pleasant afternoon as I made my way back, bumping into another small flock of siskins along the way. A meadow pipit added to the songscape and a curlew called as it flew over the higher fields. I was totally unprepared for the yellow wagtail that flew low overhead and headed up the valley, I'd only seen my first of the year yesterday.

Bottoms Reservoir

Approaching the bridge pairs of dunnocks and siskins frolicked in the bushes, goldcrests, robins and chiffchaffs sang in the trees. As I got nearer to town blackbirds and blackcaps joined in and the robins and great tits became less wary but still remained camera shy.

Dunnock

More by luck than judgement I'd timed it so the train back was waiting for me at Hadfield Station. I'd had a couple of hours' dawdle rather than a walk, which is no bad thing sometimes, the scenery had been splendid and there had been plenty about to see. 

Mosses

Wren, Irlam Moss 

Rain, hail and cool gloomy gave an excuse for a rest from my planned jaunt yesterday, which is just as well as the trains were crap. I was all in favour of a lazy day today, too, despite its being a dry, if cool and cloudy day. So I took to my usual resort when I'm in that sort of mood and got the train into Irlam for a walk on the mosses.

Roscoe Road 

For a change I decided to walk up Roscoe Road rather than Astley Road..I only ever walk down it, I was curious to see how the landscape looked the other way round. For most of its length only one side of the road has a hedgerow and there's a stretch without any so there were fewer small birds about over here. Having said that there were plenty of singing blackbirds, robins and chiffchaffs and backing vocals from wrens, blackcaps, chaffinches and a grey partridge of all things. Pheasants called from field edges, goldfinches twittered about, crowds of woodpigeons browsed fields and song thrushes kept quiet as they rummaged round by the road. High overhead a few lesser black-backs flew by and a sparrowhawk soared on the thermals.

I joined Astley Road and looked over the field next to Prospect Grange. There was another crowd of woodpigeons and a pair of pheasants eyeing each other up from neutral corners. One pair of lapwings definitely had a nest on the go, I'm not sure if the other.

Nearly all the small birds had been happy to let me see them bobbing about by the road but were completely camera shy. The song thrush striking poses on a dung heap on the other side of the road was no exception.

Chat Moss 

I crossed the motorway and walked down to Four Lanes End. The turf fields were busy with woodpigeons, starlings and swallows. A couple of pairs of lapwings had youngsters running about and the parents spent a lot of energy making passing carrion crows feel unwelcome. The horses in the paddocks across the road were accompanied by flocks of starlings and pairs of robins and linnets. I was passing the entrance to Annabel's Farm when I said to myself that I hadn't seen any buzzards today. Right on cue a buzzard floated leisurely overhead and on towards Little Woolden Moss.

Short-eared owl, Chat Moss

I'd been scanning the fields for wheatears or yellow wagtails. There were plenty of pied wagtails about but I wasn't having any luck otherwise. Just as I'd given up a wheatear bobbed up onto a cloud of earth and struck a pose. It was a large, colourful male Greenland wheatear, which is always nice to see. Just as I was getting my camera out of the bag a short-eared owl floated across the field right in front of me. I'm doing very well for them this year.

Wheatear, Chat Moss

I found myself a few more wheatears by Four Lanes End. A male kestrel was sitting on the telephone wires by the farmhouse and way over beyond the field to the North a buzzard and a marsh harrier were being bullied by crows before disappearing in opposite directions.

A chap I've seen before a couple of times in passing let on. (I'm hopeless with names, he did tell me his, my family have to wear name badges.) A lot of the fields here have been bought by Natural England and he's working with them. A lady who I think I met in Warrington when I was looking for waxwings came along and joined us and we had a bit of a chat and they told me where to keep an ear open for grasshopper warblers on Little Woolden Moss.

Moss, Little Woolden Moss

Little Woolden Moss was in a generous mood. The trees by the entrance were noisy with willow warblers, chiffchaffs and robins. Out in the open pairs of Canada geese fussed about on the bunds, pairs of tufted ducks dozed and moorhens, oystercatchers and curlews lurked about the far bank. The usual crowd of carrion crows were about and were being given a hard time by lapwings and skylarks. A few pied wagtails bounced about on the bunds and linnets and reed buntings skittered about in the birch scrub.

Little Woolden Moss 

I retraced my steps and took the path that leads to the Northern margin of the reserve. The willow warblers in the trees were almost deafening but there was something else going on in the background. There was a lull as I turned a corner and there it was, a grasshopper warbler singing in the field margins behind the trees. I was damned if I could see it then it got drowned out again as the willow warblers resumed after half time.

Lapwings and chick, Little Woolden Moss 

The field just to the North of the reserve had been recently sown. A couple of pairs of lapwings had chicks running about with them. There was also half a dozen yellow wagtails skittering about in the distance including a couple of males glowing yellow in the sun against the black of the earth. Much to my delight there was also a male Channel wagtail (a cross between a yellow wagtail and a blue-headed wagtail). I've seen one here before but not for a couple of years. I found out later that I'd just missed a whinchat here which is a pity but I mustn't be greedy, I'd had a good visit.

Yellow wagtail, lapwing and Channel wagtail, Little Woolden Moss 
Brightly-lit birds on almost black soil. I bracketed camera exposures like mad but this is the nearest I got to a remotely usable picture. They were too far away to try and get individual photos.

I decided against walking over to Glazebury so I walked back and headed for Twelve Yards Road, bumping into the birdwatchers again along the way. It had turned into a very pleasant afternoon and the walking was getting easier. Even so I decided not to go and explore the path by the pools this time, I didn't want to push my luck. 

Twelve Yards Road

The fields were busy with woodpigeons, stock doves, lapwings and mallards with a couple of wheatears skittering about in one of the open patches. Blackcaps, chiffchaffs and willow warblers sang in the trees and a couple of whitethroats churred in the field drains as I passed by. Over to the South a couple of buzzards were soaring together while trying to ignore a couple of carrion crows and a jackdaw.

Kestrel, Chat Moss 

A male kestrel evidently had mouths to feed — his mate if not yet his kids — and was greeted with a lot of noise whenever he took something to one of the trees on a field boundary.

I've been puzzling over a couple of fields that have been very densely planted with willows. I had a whimsical notion that it was for the wicker furniture trade. The willow warblers and linnets seem to approve.

Chat Moss 

Another field has been flooded, bunds having been built up around the margins like a paddy field. A few dozen mallards were loitering (no other word would describe it) in the drowned vegetation.

Cutnook Lane 

Cutnook Lane was a soundscape of blackbirds, robins, chiffchaffs and woodpigeons. Pairs of collared doves and long-tailed tits chased about the trees. The field opposite Raspberry Lane was littered with woodpigeons and carrion crows and a couple of herons loafed in one corner looking somehow out of place.

The songs of blackbirds, robins and wrens almost drowned out the traffic as I crossed the motorway and got the bus over to the Trafford Centre after an excellent afternoon's birdwatching.