Southport

Gadwall, Marshside

It was another fine day and scarce waders had been reported all week at Marshside so I thought I'd head that way for a bit of exercise, the hope of an addition to the year list and perhaps one last chance of adding another goose to the year list before Autumn. Things didn't quite go to plan.

Since Northern last tweaked the schedules getting the train out to Southport is a bit of a palaver but I got there OK and it wasn't long after getting there I was getting off the 44 and walking up Marshside Road. It was a hazy sunny day and would have felt a bit sweaty but for the light sea breeze. Spadgers, starlings and collared doves fussed about in gardens and on rooftops, pigeons and woodpigeons came and went and a couple of house martins hawked low over chimney tops.

House sparrow, Marshside

I can never remember the names of the marshes on Marshside. I think the one on the left-hand side of the road is Rimmer's and the one on the right is Sutton's but don't quote me on that. We've only had a couple of weeks of not-Autumnal weather but the marshes had dried out considerably. The lake on the left had become wet meadows, muddy patches and pools, on the right grassland with damp hollows and creeks. A profusion of Canada geese and lapwings was dotted about both. Greylags had goslings in tow, coots had baldycoot youngsters. Woodpigeons and starlings foraged in the grass, spadgers and goldfinches worked the remains of the hawthorn hedgerows with a handful of linnets. There's still enough hedgerow to support a couple of whitethroat territories and they sang at each other loudly across the road.

Whitethroat, Marshside

There were a lot of gadwalls about. I'm not used to seeing flocks of dozens of gadwall flying overhead. Small groups of three or four of them congregated in pools to court, the drakes spending at least as much time pecking holes in each other as head-bobbing with the ducks. Oystercatchers and redshanks flew about on both sides of the road. There was a lot of wader action going on in the mud across the road with small groups of black-tailed godwits joining the lapwings and redshanks feeding on there. I spotted a couple of smaller waders and immediately got my hopes up but they were bigger than the linnets and meadow pipits hopping round and when I walked down the road a bit to get a clearer look at them they both had typically dunlin beaks. Still, if dunlins are about there might be something else if I keep my eyes open.

Sedge warbler, Marshside

I checked out Junction Pool, which was still a pool and had a few coots, gadwall and tufted ducks sitting about in it. A big white farm goose was cosying up to a Canada goose on the bank by Marshside Road and black-headed gulls were peppered about the marsh. A sedge warbler riffed madly in the hawthorn next to the screen. Scanning round there were a lot of herring gulls further out and a black swan sitting on her nest. I'd heard she was back. I could see no sign of her mate.

Black swan, Marshside

After a short chat I set off towards Nel's Hide. Skylarks and meadow pipits sang in the breeze, black-headed gulls and little egrets flew by. The traffic on the road was heavy. I stopped at the halfway screen and had a scan round. The black swan had set her nest up directly in front of the screen. A family of coots were pottering about and she kept an eye on the male as he foraged, giving him the evil eye whenever he got too close. 

Coots, Marshside

A bunch of linnets were fussing about in the grass on one of the small rises, a couple of the males having extremely bright carmine pink breasts. Another small bird dropped in and at first I thought it was another linnet. Luckily for me it hopped up and perched halfway up a grass stem and I could see the distinctive short-tailed and dumpy chat silhouette. I had it down as a female stonechat, it had its back to me but I could see it didn't have a black head. Then it bobbed down to the ground and bobbed back up again, facing me this time so I could see the broad pale eyebrows of a whinchat. I'd given up on them this Spring.

Second-calendar-year little gull

An unexpected movement over one of the pools caught my eye. Two small white birds were pirouetting low over the pool then rising and sweeping about in a tern-like manner. My first thought was little gull but they didn't have black underwings then I saw the black W across the backs of their wings, recalled that first Winter little gulls have white underwings and did a quick image search for second calendar year little gulls to confirm the ID. It's not a plumage I see often enough not to be able to second-guess myself about.

Skylark, Marshside 

Greylags and redshank, Marshside 

I walked down to Nel's Hide, the skylarks making themselves heard over the traffic. I was the only person in the hide, which is unusual this time of year. There were lots of greylags and Canada geese about and a gang of large gulls, nearly all of them herring gulls, were having a wash and brush-up. A second calendar year great black-back cruised around like a dreadnought. I had a scan round for waders, finding a few redshanks and lapwings.

Greylags, Marshside 

Herring gull and great black-back, Marshside 

On the walk back I had another quick scout at the halfway screen. The swan sat on her nest, the coots milled about. There was no sign of the whinchat but the male linnets were still very vivid in the sunshine. One of the waders up to its thighs in water in the distance was too small for a redshank but didn't look right for a dunlin, for one thing it looked too dark even accounting for the backlighting. I was just about to give up on it when it stopped feeding and raised its head as it walked a few paces forward and I could see it was a curlew sandpiper. If I still harboured any doubts it strolled over a bit of mud and showed off its relatively long legs before wading into another puddle.

There was a cluster of birdwatchers with telescopes at the Junction Pool. Apparently a wood sandpiper and a garganey had been spotted. I eventually found the wood sandpiper, having twice glanced at it thinking it was a redshank until a passing tuftie gave me a sense of scale and I looked properly. I had no luck whatever with the garganey.

The corner of Marshside Road 

I walked over to Sandgrounders, whitethroats and goldfinches singing either side of the road, a chiffchaff singing over on the sand plant and a Cetti's warbler singing from somewhere in a gorse bush on the bank by the path.

Avocet, Marshside 

It was quiet a Sandgrounders. The black-headed gulls that had taken a chance on nesting on the island on the pool had been having a rough time with marauding lesser black-backs and were busy mobbing an adult great black-back that had come to loaf on the bank. The lady volunteering at the hide told me those nests had been pretty thoroughly plundered. Avocets and black-tailed godwits fed in the pools, shelducks dabbled and tufted ducks drifted about half asleep. I looked in vain for any small waders.

Avocets, Marshside 

Snow geese, Marshside 

I walked along the rough path beside the road towards Crossens Marsh. There were a lot of white birds on the banks of Polly's Pool which I took at first to be little egrets, there were plenty of them elsewhere on the marsh. As I got closer I realised I was wrong. They were geese. Snow geese. Twenty two of them. A feral flock had been doing the rounds of Lancashire during the week and they'd decided on a return visit here. It was very nice to see them, and it was nice to see a blue morph snow goose in a wild setting so that I could get my eye in for the future, but I couldn't in all conscience add them to the year list. A voice in my head kept saying: "But you count the Canada geese don't you?" but the temptation has been resisted. One bird on its own I could give the benefit of the doubt but not twenty two.

Shelducks, Marshside 

The bulk of the black-headed gull colony has drifted into this side of the marsh where the grass is longer and the ground bumpier. They looked very spread out, I don't know whether or not this helps chick survival by not being so much of an easy buffet lunch for predators. I suspect it pays dividends in the case of an avian flu outbreak. The creeks and gullies were busy with gadwalls, tufties, shelducks, avocets and godwits and every ten yards or so a pair of Canada geese would be standing in the drain staring as I passed by.

Black-tailed godwit, Marshside 

Shelducks and snow geese, Marshside 

I was getting good views of the snow geese now and compared them to the white farm goose I'd seen at Junction Pool. The obvious differences were the size and shape: the snow geese weren't much bigger than pink-footed geese and the farm goose had a rectangular body with a very steep, deep breast rather than the rounded breasts of wild geese.

Whitethroat, Marshside 

More whitethroats sang in the bushes, skylarks sang over the marsh, I had to be careful not to trip over goldfinches and wall brown butterflies. I added herons and shovelers to the day's sightings.

Snow geese, Crossens Outer Marsh 

I crossed the road and scanned Crossens Outer Marsh. After the crowd scenes of Winter it looked deserted despite the hundreds of wood pigeons, dozens of Canada geese and shelducks and the little egrets skittering about. I sat at Mackenzie's lookout point and tried to find any pink-feet without any luck. A lot of strange honking alerted me to the snow geese flying over from Marshside. They landed agreeably close to hand and, as a bonus, four pink-footed geese that had been deep in a tussocky hollow popped up to see who'd arrived.

Snow geese, Crossens Outer Marsh 

Snow geese, Crossens Outer Marsh
The blue morph bird is in the middle of the line.

As I carried on walking I looked over the road onto Crossens Inner Marsh. There were lots more Canada geese and greylags, gadwalls and tufties, avocets and black-headed gulls. I was a bit surprised to find a couple of pairs of wigeon hiding in plain sight in the middle of the marsh. Oddly I didn't see a single teal all day, they must be very busy somewhere in the more secluded creeks and drains.

Crossens Inner Marsh 

I got the bus back to Southport Station from Crossens, I'd just missed the stopping train and had three-quarters of an hour for the train to Oxford Road which ran late all the way before threatening to break down completely at Bolton. My train home from Oxford Road was cancelled and i just had time to leg it down the road and catch the bus home (there'd be a half-hour wait for the next bus, a two-hour wait for the next train). So I got home somewhat later than intended — did I say that getting to Southport is a faff these days?

It had been a full, and unusual, day's birdwatching and well worthwhile despite the trains.