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Coot, tufted ducks and goosanders |
It was a cool, grey and windy day but I thought I'd best get yesterday's planned walk under my boots and get some movement back into the joints. Yesterday I got as far as the Trafford Centre bus station asked myself what's the point and sloped off home despite the fact the 126 had just pulled in. I had rather more excuse for it today, by the time the 132 I had aimed for after missing the 126 while waiting for the 25 had arrived the next 126 had turned up. The 126 is an hourly service and travel on our buses on a Saturday can be as complicated as that last sentence. We'll draw a veil over Sundays.
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Walking by Bradshaw Leach Meadow |
I'd intended visiting Pennington Flash earlier this month but the St Helens Road pedestrian entrance was closed while they sorted out the paths. I won't miss bitching about the state of the mudhole. They've done a nice job of it and didn't make a mess of the verges in the process. The robins, wrens and great tits in the hedgerows were occupied with business as usual on a cool Spring day.
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Mute swan |
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Mallards |
There was rain in the air which wasn't stopping people taking their dogs and kids for a walk or feeding the ducks. Most of the mallards were otherwise engaged elsewhere though one gang of drake mallards was otherwise engaged with an unlucky duck in the car park. Mallards are not gentle and attentive lovers. There were still plenty of black-headed gulls about, I noticed that a large proportion were first-Winter birds. Out in the middle of the flash, keeping away from the sailing regatta, there was a raft of a few dozen large gulls, mostly lesser black-backs. There were slightly fewer coots out on the open water, a large raft of tufted ducks cruised the far bank amid a lot of head-bobbing, and a pair of great crested grebes courted by the bank. I looked in vain for goldeneyes or pochards, they've moved on, and the cool weather scotched any hopes I might have of sand martins hawking over the flash.
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Great crested grebes a-courting None of them were giving close views today. |
The wind howled through the F.W.Horrocks Hide. At first sight the spit looked almost deserted, the flock of woodpigeons merging with the grass in the gloom. It was similarly difficult to pick up the lapwings at the end of the spit and even the Canada geese weren't very conspicuous. Half a dozen cormorants loafed at the end with a group of herring gulls, a small raft of herring gulls drifted about the channel.
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Horrocks Spit: lapwings, Canada geese, cormorants, herring gulls and woodpigeons on the spit, herring gulls and mute swans in the channel |
The black-headed gulls were occupying nesting rafts and quarreling noisily. They made sure to make any approaching large gull or cormorant very unwelcome. I could see a few teal and gadwall in the bight and a raft of a couple of dozen great crested grebes was obviously waiting for the sailing regatta to pack up and go home.
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Mute swan and coot |
Singing chiffchaffs were few and far between, probably put off by the weather. It didn't put off the robins, great tits and blackbirds and they were drowned out by a song thrush singing in a willow tree. There wasn't a lot of evidence of nest-building yet as I walked from the Horrocks Hide to the Tom Edmondson Hide but a mute swan was already occupying a nest on Pengy's Pool. Luckily it was asleep otherwise a coot busily pinching sticks from the nest would have had a beating.
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Coots are lunatics so I ought not to be surprised by one stealing nesting materials from a sitting mute swan. |
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At the Tom Edmondson Hide |
The shrubs at the side of the Tom Edmondson Hide have been cut back a lot to improve visibility. It's a bit of a shock at first sight, the view's quite different. A few gadwalls, coots and Canada geese pottered about. I'd seen three herons fly off as I was approaching.
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Oystercatchers and teal |
Ramsdales was quietly busy. A couple of dozen teal dozed and dabbled, a few mallards and Canada geese slept on the island. A couple of pairs of oystercatchers were quite noisy as they rummaged about in the grass, a handful of redshanks were uncharacteristically quiet. I was feeling optimistic despite myself so I had a look for garganey or any of ringed plover or little ringed plover and wasn't desperately surprised not to find any. An odd looking rock at the back of an island caught my eye then it moved and proved to be the top of a snipe's head, confirmed when it obligingly took a step back and yawned.
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Walking round to the Charlie Owen Hide The hawthorns are in leaf and the sycamores and maples in flower. |
It was raining properly as I walked up to the canal and followed the path round to the Charlie Owen Hide. Singing birds were few and far between, mostly robins and great tits with a sprinkling of blackbirds, wrens and another song thrush. Blue tits and long-tailed tits rummaged about in the hawthorn hedgerows, woodpigeons and goldfinches bounced about in the treetops. I reached a clearing leading to some steps to the canal and a pair of buzzards glided silently out of a sycamore and deep into the trees.
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Shovelers |
Three goosanders dozed amongst the tufted ducks, coots and shovelers on the pool at the Charlie Owen Hide. I'd been surprised not to have seen or heard any dabchicks so far but was confident I'd see a pair here and was dead wrong.
Walking along the path by the golf course I heard what I would unquestionably assume would be a willow warbler if I heard it in April or May. It took a second hearing of the minute scratch of song it was trying out to convince me this time.
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Walking back for the bus |
The Bunting Hide and Pengy's Hide had been locked up for the night so I sloped off for the bus back into Leigh. A lot more herring gulls had joined the raft of large gulls spreading out across the flash now the yachts were back in dock. A female goldeneye in the middle of a raft of tufties was one last reminder of Winter.