Leighton Moss

Great white egret

I had a pile of compensatory travel vouchers burning a hole in my pocket so I used a few to buy an old man's explorer ticket for a wander round Leighton Moss on a muggy, sweaty, showery day.

I got off at Silverdale and walked round the corner. Robins sang in the trees and a mallard walked down the middle of the road, running to the side whenever a car came along then going back to the middle before heading off for the car park. It seemed alright in itself, just no road sense.

Goldfinch

First port of call was the Hideout where the feeding stations were getting a lot of traffic from robins, chaffinches, dunnocks, coal tits, great tits, blue tits, greenfinches, marsh tits, bullfinches, goldfinches and house sparrows with mallards tidying up below stairs. Such a contrast to the past few weeks.

Coot and shoveler

By far the most numerous duck at Lilian's Hide, indeed all the hides I visited today, were gadwalls. The drakes had finished their moults and were already whistling and head-bobbing to let the ladies know they were looking good. The mallards that were about skulked in the reeds and I could see no tufted ducks. There were a few shovelers about, they all looked like young birds. And there were plenty of coots. Over on the far side of the pool a great white egret was preening on the bank. A heron flew in and headed for the egret. I was expecting the usual punch-up, herons don't like GWE's, but it settled down a few yards away without incident. The dragonflies that were zipping over the pool, and there were many, all looked to be common darters except for the brown hawker I saw skimming over the reeds on the opposite side.

Great white egret

Gadwalls

As I came out of the hide I bumped into a mixed tit flock which seemed to be equal numbers of long-tailed, great and blue tits.

Heading for the reedbeds

The walk through the reedbeds to the hides was quiet, just the occasional chiffchaff in the trees or blue tits in the reeds.

Heading for the Tim Jackson Hide 

The pool at the Tim Jackson Hide was busy with gadwalls. A few mallards lurked in the long grass and a handful of teal dabbled in the far corner. The drake cinnamon teal x shoveler hybrid cruised by the far bank looking a lot more orange than usual in his fresh plumage. The mute swans cygnets here are quite young, they've still only got stubby wings even though they're pretty much full grown otherwise.

Gadwalls

When I got to the Griesdale Hide the rain that had been threatening came with a vengeance and there was a good ten minutes' heavy shower. The crows and jackdaws in the field beyond beat a retreat into the trees. There weren't so many gadwalls here and they and the great white egret on the bank weren't much fussed about the weather.

Walking back from the Griesdale Hide 

The rain eased off and I wandered back, passing a Cetti's warbler practising its vocals. The humid conditions seemed to suit the common darters that were zipping round the reedbeds. It was uncomfortable walking so I decided to call it quits and go for the next Barrow train to check out the Morecambe Bay estuaries. The sun came out for the five minutes I waited for the train bringing out a lot of large whites together with a brimstone butterfly and my first painted lady of the year. A common hawker zipped past, a Southern hawker took its time and patrolled both platforms.

As we crossed the Kent Estuary at Arnside there were a few dozen redshanks feeding on one of the mudbanks. There had been enough rain lately to bring the little egrets back to the salt marshes and there were dozens of black-headed gulls loafing on the beaches of Grange-over-Sands. The flocks of eiders on the Leven Estuary were smaller than the last time I came this way and seemed to be all young birds. There were a lot more redshanks here, too.

I got off at Ulverston to catch the train back to Manchester. As we crossed back over the Kent Estuary a flock of a few dozen lapwings lined the mudbanks inland of the viaduct together with sixty-odd redshanks and a couple of dozen eiders. 

There were more redshanks, lapwings and teal on the coastal pools by Leighton Moss together with a small flock of black-tailed godwits. I sort of hoped that the juvenile purple heron that's hiding out there might get spooked by the train and show itself as we passed by but it wasn't happening. A lad can dream.

As the train stopped at Deansgate a male peregrine came flying low over the station, the first time I've seen any of the city centre peregrines in ages.