Starr Gate

Seawatching
One of those days where the sky doesn't get lighter at the horizon.

It was another cool and dreary day. I decided against the planned adventure and checked out the other options. I didn't much fancy Martin Mere on a Bank Holiday Monday or half term so thought I'd head thataway today. If the weather got worse en route I could bail at Wigan, wait five minutes for the train to Orrell and have a quick dekko at Orrell Water Park without getting atrociously wet. Which would have been fine if the Southport train hadn't been cancelled.

So I got myself an old man's explorer ticket and played first train out bingo, the first train happening to be the one to Blackpool North. I decided not to hop off at Bolton for the Southport train from Victoria, if it was running, and I didn't want to push my luck any by going North of Lancaster… I've not been on the Fylde yet this year. I thought a bit of seawatching at Starr Gate would be a nice contrast to recent trips out. I changed trains at Kirkham and Wesham, having about quarter of an hour to wait for the Blackpool South train. 

It's difficult to imagine a bigger contrast than the big new trains going to the big terminus at Blackpool North and the two coach stopper terminating at not much more than a pretty halt. It's quite a nice run. Woodpigeons, rooks and jackdaws fossicked about in fields, hares and lapwings lurked in tall grass and the occasional swallow twittered past, which came as a relief because despite all the leaves on the trees there was an end of March feel to the day.

The beach by Starr Gate 

I got off at Squires Gate and walked down to the seafront by the tram terminus at Starr Gate. I was in luck, it was high tide. May isn't the optimum time for seawatching on the Lancashire coast but a high tide might tempt something to pass within the range of a pair of binoculars. (August and September are usually better when there's more birds on the move.)

Most of the gulls inshore were herring gulls. There were a few lesser black-backs and three great black-backs flew in to loaf on the sea. A common gull flew by, I had to look twice to be sure it wasn't a herring gull looking dark in the glum light. Offshore there were far more lesser black-backs and great black-backs than herring gulls. The great black-backs towered over the waves, a dozen or so lesser black-backs on the horizon seemed to have found a school of fish to prey on. A few cormorants skittered over the distant waves. Five shelducks flew South. Half an hour later a drake eider headed the same way. A distant common scoter flew low over the water heading towards Blackpool. And a swallow flew by. 

And that was it. 

Seawatching very often involves spending a lot of time searching for something you know not what that isn't there anyway, today's was one of the more extreme examples. Which is okay, an excellent day's birdwatching would have been wasted on me in that mood. The sun came out for quarter of an hour and it felt slightly warmer but nothing less than my adding a great auk to my life list would have dented my grumpiness and I wouldn't have bet the farm on that.

Lytham St Anne's Local Nature Reserve
(There's a lot more of it over the top of the dune)

The tide started to retreat and the beach filled with people walking their dogs. I had a wander into the dunes on the nature reserve. A couple of sand martins hawked over the dune tops, a couple of jackdaws rummaged in the hollows, house sparrows and magpies flitted to and fro across the main road. Linnets, meadow pipits and skylarks were notable absentees. On the plus side, there were some delightful drifts of dune pansies.

Dune pansies 

I had thought to get the 68 bus back to Preston to spec out the way to Warton Bank but I just missed it. I had a longer than advertised wait for the next one so gave up and got the train back. I had an old man's explorer ticket burning a hole in my pocket so I checked out the various permutations for moving on to someplace else then checked the listed cancellations then got the train back to Manchester then the bus home because the train back was cancelled.

Not one of my good days.

Xanthoria lichen