Cumbria and a bit

Near Green Road, from the train

It was that warm, fine morning the weather forecast keeps promising and the pollen count was frisky from the start. I thought it would be no bad thing to watch the scenery in an air-conditioned bubble so I got me an old man's explorer ticket and got on the train to Barrow with a view to seeing an bit of Cumbrian coastal scenery.

We'd passed the usual variations of woodpigeons, carrion crows, rooks and gulls with a seasonal peppering of swallows and swifts and occasional big flocks of jackdaws. As we approached Silverdale the coastal pools were carpeted in black-headed gulls and lapwings, an avocet flew into the pool by the line and a male marsh harrier floated close by. There was much else but we were gone before I could register it.

Arnside

It was a very low tide as we passed over the Kent at Arnside. A couple of dozen redshanks lined the main channel. The salt marshes on the other side were mostly dry, the haunt of carrion crows and not much else.

There were still a few pools on the marshes by the Leven but nothing taking advantage of them. The river was low, a herd of fifteen mute swans clustering in the channel by the viaduct and a couple of dozen redshanks dozed on a mudbank. I was disappointed not to see any eiders.

A flock of swifts hawked over Cavendish Dock as we approached Barrow. We arrived and I was relieved to find the Carlisle train hadn't been cancelled this time and was waiting for us on platform three. The few minutes' wait while the guard and driver did the checks were accompanied by the loud begging calls of herring gulls chicks in a couple of nests on the station roof, both the youngsters involved being just a day or two short of being able to follow their parents to the food source.

Near Kirkby-in-Furness 

It was a beautiful day for watching the scenery of Cumbria roll by. The industrial units of Barrow with their scores of herring gulls and lesser black-backs gave way to rolling green hills. A flock of greylags honked at the train as we passed a pond near Roanhead. We skirted the Duddon Estuary at Kirkby-in-Furness where hundreds of black-headed gulls loafed on the mud with a few dozen large gulls.

We crossed the Duddon and headed down to Millom, getting further away from the estuary as we progressed. I was delighted to see that the osprey's nest on Arnaby Moss was occupied by an osprey, I had thought they'd abandoned it. We left Millom and headed for the Irish Sea coast, accompanied by carrion crows and swallows most of the way, the first buzzards of the day sitting on trackside posts near Whitebeck. I was so intent on watching the haymaking I almost missed the first one. My reminding myself to pay attention was rewarded by a pair of stonechats and a couple of roe deer a few fields down.

Braystones 

An achingly beautiful Irish Sea met us at Seascale and we spent the next half hour travelling by its side at a leisurely pace. The river Calder at Sellafield was awash with black-headed gulls and herring gulls, I almost didn't notice the common gull with two youngsters just to one side on the bank. I wonder how many more I missed. A few redhead goosanders loafed on the bank amongst the mallards and reed buntings flitted about the trackside. As we skirted the beachside houses of Braystones and Nethertown linnets and pied wagtails skittered about the rooftops. Cormorants loafed on the tideline, herring gulls floated by, I was more puzzled by a Sandwich tern than I should have been.

Nethertown 

I changed at St Bees and got the Lancaster train that was waiting for us at the station (the section between Sellafield and St Bees being single track with a token having to be swapped between drivers at the signal box). I could have carried on and changed at Maryport but that would have involved my putting my trust into the unreliable connections at Lancaster after six o'clock and I currently have no trust in timetables. The choices on the way back were to hang around Lancaster for an hour for the next Lancaster train, get the Morecambe train and stay on it as it became the train for Leeds and use one of my complementary tickets for the journey between Carnforth and Todmorden and thence home or get off en route for an hour's toddle round and catch the next (and last) through train to Manchester. I checked the times, if the trains were behaving themselves I'd be getting home from Leeds pretty late. I looked at the room for manoeuvre if the trains weren't behaving themselves. An hour's toddle it was, then.

River Irt

So I sat on the inland side and enjoyed the views of rolling green hills and distant heights, usually accompanied by herring gulls and carrion crows. The train disturbed a kestrel that had been sitting on a trackside post at Nethertown. A pair of great black-backs and a couple of dozen herring gulls loafed on the Esk near Braystones. House sparrows, blackbirds and a stonechat fossicked about the trackside at Seascale. Small tortoiseshells fluttered about the platform at Drigg. There was a huge flock of rooks in a field by the Mite at Ravenglass, these almost distracted from the little egrets on the river. The train disturbed two greenshanks I hadn't noticed by the near bank.

Osprey, Arnaby Moss 

I must have just missed feeding time at the osprey's nest on Arnaby Moss. A second bird was in the trees near the nest as we approached and it flew off inland as we neared.

Kirkby-in-Furness 

The journey down the East side of the Duddon Estuary was punctuated by flocks of rooks, lapwings and jackdaws on the fields and black-headed gulls on the estuary. As we approached Barrow Canada geese, greylags and mute swans dozed by the Lower Ormansgill Reservoir and the train slowed down enough for me to be able to identify the common darters zipping by the track.

The eiders I hadn't seen on the way up were all inland of the viaduct over the Leven, more than a hundred of them and the drakes in their eclipse plumage barely distinguishable from the immature birds.

Little egrets peppered the estuaries and drains. The golf course at Grange-over-Sands was still damp enough for a great white egret to be foraging in the rough. About a hundred lapwings loafed on the Kent at Arnside.

I decided on a short teatime potter around Leighton Moss. It would be a chance to stretch my legs and reset the eyes and brain after all the tight concentration required for railside birdwatching. I looked at my tally for the day — forty-nine species, it would be good to get over fifty for the day. 

Chaffinch, Leighton Moss

Blackbirds and greenfinches sang at Silverdale Station, chiffchaffs squeaked in the trees by the visitor centre. The feeders at the hideout were busy with chaffinches, blue tits, great tits and squirrels, coal tits and marsh tits diving in to grab a sunflower seed when the opportunity arose. Wrens, dunnocks and robins rummaged about in the undergrowth and a pheasant picked about between the cattle in the field next door.

At Lilian's Hide

There'd been some reed clearance at Lilian's Hide and the water was a bit lower than on my last visit so there was lots of clear bank available for nothing to sit on. All the coots and mallards, plenty of them, were out in midwater. A couple of moorhens with small and noisy chicks pecked around the waterside, a bit of a risk when a great black-back is loafing on an island on the pool. The few black-headed gulls were noisy but the breeding season was definitely over. Way out a few gadwalls and shovelers drifted about near the reeds, a couple of great crested grebes spend more time under the water than stop. Way over in the reeds a pair of mute swans and their cygnets dozed in the sun. It was hard word finding the handful of teal I kept hearing.

Coot, black-headed gull and heron, Leighton Moss
The "bird" on the stick on the left is the remains of a decoy tern intended to persuade terns to use the rafts. They never came but the gulls use them each year.

Gadwalls, great black-back and coots, Leighton Moss

Moorhen and chick, Leighton Moss

Leighton Moss 

I had a short walk into the reedbeds. I was rather hoping to bump into a willow warbler, I'm shy of those so far this month but had no luck. Singing reed warblers and a Cetti's warbler were consolation prizes.

Common darter, Leighton Moss

I walked back to the station with a couple of minutes to spare for the scheduled appearance of the Manchester Airport train. It wasn't quite late enough to be cancelled at Preston but passengers would have to change at Piccadilly for the airport. I didn't mind, I'd had a nice day out, the scenery and weather was splendid and the birdwatching very productive: 67 species for the day.

Near Whitebeck