A bit of a wander

Kents Bank 

I was right in my guess about Leach's petrels: today the Mersey Estuary is peppered with them and a supporting cast of grey phalaropes, Sabine's gulls and who knows what. I looked out, the sky was leaden, the rain heavy. When I checked the Met Office I found that the Wirral was having much the same. Excellent seawatching weather. I took my cough bottle, put on my coat and went out for a lazy day's birdwatching by train.

I got myself an old man's explorer ticket (and apologised profusely for offering a pile of National Rail Travel Vouchers to pay for them — the barcodes on the ones issued by Northern don't scan) and got the Barrow train. All along the journey the sun came out and it was a bright Autumn day for all of quarter of a mile and then the sky would suddenly darken and we'd run through a bleak ten minutes' worth of muck before the sun came out again for a couple of minutes. I can't say I wasn't tempted to bail at Preston to get the Liverpool train.

What I wasn't seeing along the way was more striking than what I was seeing. No crows at Agecroft, no black-headed gulls or pigeons at Chorley, woodpigeons were few and far between even in the stubble fields we passed. Preston and Carnforth stations are usually the haunts of large gulls but not today. Galgate still had rooftops littered with jackdaws so some eternal verities still applied.

Mute swans and little egrets mooched round the pools at the coastal hides. I looked at the expanses of wader-friendly mud and hoped the weather would be less filthy on the way back.

Passing through Silverdale Moss a great white egret stalked past a carrion crow in a field so I'd know I'd got the scale right. A little egret a bit down the field confirmed the identification if I still had any doubts.

Grange-over-Sands 

The Lune was riding high at Lancaster but the tide was low on Morecambe Bay. Black-headed gulls and rooks giddied about on the salt marsh by the Kent, there were a few little egrets about but they were few and far between.

River Leven

A couple of dozen eiders loafed on the Leven. I almost missed the half dozen shelducks dabbling in a creek near the bank.

I got to Barrow and decided not to venture North on the rail replacement bus. I had the best part of an hour to wait for the next Manchester train so I got the X6 bus to Dalton just for a change of scenery and waited for the train there in bright sunshine and a fierce wind.

Idly checking reports on the 'phone I noticed a wryneck had turned up at Rishton Reservoir. I've dipped on wryneck a few times, it would be a nice lifer to get so I decided I'd go down to Preston and get the Colne train to Rishton and try my luck. Rishton Reservoir's been on my radar a while so if I had no luck with the wryneck I could at least check out a new site.

The sun brought out the birds, I was seeing more woodpigeons and jackdaws, an occasional swallow or house martin skimmed the fields and even a few large whites fluttered by. There was a large crowd of black-headed gulls inland of the viaduct over the Leven together with more eiders, little egrets, redshanks and curlews. A couple of dozen rooks clattered about the station at Kents Bank, three dozen black-headed gulls crowded out the mallards on the park pond at Grange-over-Sands and I was surprised to see a couple of great white egrets sitting in a tree near Meathop. The Kent at Arnside was busy with mallards, redshanks and lapwings and I know there was something smaller on the mud that I missed spotting.

I resisted the temptation to get off at Silverdale. I'll have a proper walk round Leighton Moss sometime in the next week or two. A flock of lapwings had joined the mute swans on the coastal pools.

Cutwood Park 

I got the Colne train at Preston and soon arrived at Rishton. It had been bright and sunny all the way. It won't surprise regular readers to hear that it started raining as soon as I reached Blackburn Road. I walked through Cutwood Park to the reservoir and had a look round from the terrace on the East side.

Rishton Reservoir

There were a few dozen black-headed gulls about with a few mallards and a couple of dozen Canada geese grazing on the West bank and a dabchick bobbing about midwater. These almost faded into the background compared to the swarm of swallows feeding low over the water with handfuls of house martins and sand martins tagging along with them. The wryneck had been reported on the West bank and I couldn't see any way of walking round so I presumed somebody with a telescope had reported it. I scanned around more in hope than expectation and found myself a couple of pied wagtails. Finding a wryneck at that distance in this light would be nigh on miraculous. After a while I decided I'd have an explore and see if there were any paths that might get me closer to the West bank, or else provide a change of perspective that might be useful. At this point it started hailing. I took the hint and got the next bus back to Blackburn.

Rishton Reservoir — same view as above

Despite everything it wasn't a disappointing day. I had no expectations of it in the first place save seeing a few eiders on the Cumbrian estuaries. I'd seen plenty of birds, and some fine scenery, and had checked out a new site and all without knackering myself along the way. I'll have that as a win, a wryneck would have been the cherry on the cake.

It will surprise regular readers not one whit to hear that it was sunny all the way home.