Martin Mere

Mallards, pintails and whooper swans

Today had the makings of being a nice day so I headed off for Martin Mere while I had the chance.

The train ride to Burscough Bridge was pleasant and uneventful. The trackside woodpigeons were back in numbers, it wasn't often I saw just the one bird. Magpies, black-headed gulls and carrion crows were much in evidence; pigeons, blackbirds, robins, collared doves and blue tits could be seen on rooftops or stations; and there were a couple of moorhens on the pools close by Hindley Station. The Douglas had broken its banks, almost but not quite merging with the lake at Pemberton Park where only a few coots and black-headed gulls lingered. The course of the river could be traced by the mist beyond the canal beyond Gathurst. We left Parbold and passed through a mist bank, emerging just before Hoscar. I got off at Burscough Bridge for a walk on a cool, bright Winter's day.

Red Cat Lane in the mid-day sun

The jackdaws were being noisy about town but there wasn't much sign of the local rooks. Nor was there much sign of either in the fields outside town. A handful of each flew about but the arable fields were left empty. Common gulls and black-headed gulls mooched about in paddocks or bathed in puddles, starlings and house sparrows fussed about farmsteads. It was all surprisingly quiet.

Martin Mere 

Arriving at Martin Mere I went straight to the Discovery Hide, as much for a sit down as to get my eye in on the waterfowl. 

Mostly mallards

The mere was packed. There were more whooper swans and wigeons than on my last visit and a lot more greylags, pochards and tufted ducks. The flocks of lapwings and starlings looked bigger, too, but for the life of me I couldn't see what kept putting them up. The shelducks were paired up and the pairs put a lot of time into quarrelling with each other. A scan round the near bank found me a single black-tailed godwit, all the waders on the far bank looked to be lapwings.

Lapwings

Pochard

Tufted duck

Shelducks

A drake ring-necked duck has been showing well here the past few days. I soon found it, fast asleep at the edge of a raft of tufted ducks. It drifted about in dozy. A one point I thought a collision with a coot might wake it up but aside from shuffling its head and pushing its beak further into its back feathers it hardly noticed.

Ring-necked duck

Ring-necked duck

Cladonia
This lichen's on the stump next to the gate for the path to the Ron Barker Hide

The snowdrops were already showing by the Raines Observatory. I've been seeing signs of crocuses at home. It's been an oddly mild start to December, I hope we don't get caught napping with some Winter awfulness.

Pink-footed geese

Pink-footed geese fed on the potatoes at the Hale Hide while a little egret shrimped in the pool.

Little egret

Mere View Hide 

The view from Mere View Hide 

The views from the Mere View Hide were wonderful though lacking in bird life. There was some work done last week to enlarge and lower one of the windows so wheelchair users can see and it's made a big difference to the light in the hide, it feels less like standing in a pillbox. It wasn't so very long ago that the trees by the little pools here were busy with tree sparrows, I wonder why numbers have collapsed so badly.

Sunley's Marsh

Vinson's Marsh 

Teal

I had the top deck of the Ron Barker Hide to myself, which is very unusual. Vinson's Marsh, to my left, was very quiet. Sunley's, to my right, was busy with teal, they lined the banks of the pool and a couple of rafts of them dabbled and fussed on the water. The wigeons and a couple of mallards were lost in the crowd. Crows sat in the trees on the far side, venturing out every so often to irritate passing marsh harriers. At least six harriers, all of them female or immature birds, floated in and out of the reeds or sat on fenceposts at the edge of the marsh. A buzzard sat on a fencepost by a field, it took me a while to realise that the shape a few posts further along was a pheasant. A great white egret flew by but didn't stop, similarly waves of pink-feet and black-headed gulls. More closely to hand a dabchick was fishing in the drain in front of the hide.

Dabchick

Shaggy inkcap

Wandering back, I passed mixed tit flocks and checked the flocks of goldfinches in the treetops for any siskins or redpolls. I've not had a good year for bumping into redpolls and today was no exception, they were all goldfinches.

Black Bulgaria 

Walking back towards the visitor centre 

Whooper swans, mallards and wigeons

The waterfowl were gathering on the mere for the afternoon feed as I passed the screens by the path. By three o'clock the corner near the Discovery Hide would be chock-a-block with hungry beaks. In the meantime there was a lot of dozing and preening and squabbling about. The lapwings went up again and again I couldn't see the reason for it. I did manage to find a ruff in the mêlée.

Black-headed gulls, pintails, shelducks, wigeons and lapwings

Wigeons

Shelducks, black-headed gulls and pintails

Teal

A juvenile kestrel flew into the poplars by the Janet Kear Hide then flew down onto the grass on the other side of the fence to dig for worms for a few minutes before flying back into the trees.

Kestrel

Given the very damp conditions I didn't fancy the walk to New Lane so on a whim I took the short path round the reedbed walk which was mostly dry underfoot. Truth to tell, I saw a notice saying that there was a clump of bird's nest fungus a hundred yards down the path, I've never seen them before and I didn't today. But it was a very nice walk. 

Along the reedbed walk 

Reed buntings bounced about, appropriately enough, in the reeds. Cetti's warblers and wrens sang in the depths of the reeds as I passed. Teal and gadwalls and a pair of shelducks dozed and dabbled on pools. A chiffhaff squeaked as it flew between willows. Overhead a passage of lesser black-backs was just starting, they seemed to be all heading for the coast. A pair of ravens chased a carrion crow out of their patch of reedbed and in an obvious effort to replenish its self-esteem it flew over into the trees to join a gang of jackdaws barracking a buzzard.

The Harrier Hide 

Cattle egrets in the mist

The longhorn cattle were feeding in the fields close to the hides, accompanied by the now-inevitable cattle egrets. There were more gadwalls and teal with the shovelers at the Gordon Taylor Hide and a flock of pink-feet on the fields beyond. I was checking out the geese when I noticed a movement in the corner of my eye. As I lowered my binoculars a barn owl, glowing white in the low sun, flew down the drain and across the path in front of me then disappeared into the reedbeds.

I wandered back, feeling a bit giddy, and walked back to Burscough Bridge for the train home. I was so entranced by the sunset and mist-filled twilight I only caught the train by the skin of my teeth.

Red Cat Lane 

Near Crabtree Lane 

Looking towards Mere Sands Wood

By Red Cat Lane

Wellacre Country Park

Dutton's Pond 

I made sure I wasn't needed for an early morning errand and with a sigh of relief I caught up with my sleep, sleeping through what had looked likely to be a very pleasant morning. Twilight descended at lunchtime. I got the 256 into Flixton and had a wander round Wellacre Country Park anyway.

Wellacre Wood 

Wellacre Wood would have been quiet but the titmice were getting one last feed in before bedtime so the great tits and blue tits chiacked me on my way. A couple of parakeets made a racket as they went to roost in the trees behind the school. I'm still a bit boggled by having local parakeets.

Walking down to Dutton's Pond 

I decided to take the path to Dutton's Pond rather than go over to Jack Lane. Heaven knows what that path would be like. Small groups of carrion crows and magpies rummaged about in the fields, I wasn't sure whether the woodpigeon and magpie on the dung heap were looking for food or warming their feet. Black-headed gulls drifted overhead but didn't seem to have any consistent direction in mind. None seemed to be going to roost at Irlam Locks.

Wellacre Country Park 

The approach to Dutton's Pond came as a surprise. No matter how often I do this walk I have it in my head that the path goes straight ahead and turn right for the pond and every time I'm suddenly wondering what that pond is on the left side of the path. The curve of the path isn't so gentle as to explain the mistake. Old men forget. The reeds in the centre of the pond have been cut back a lot so the area keeps its value as shelter for young fish and doesn't become another island. Consequently there were a lot of moorhens out in the open, usually there's just two or three to be seen.

A quick look at Green Hill found me a mixed tit flock, or rather they found me. I got razzed by long-tailed tits then they bounced off with the blue tits and great tits into the brambles. Some of the woodpigeons sang in the treetops. A few goldfinches and chaffinches twittered about in the trees but it was otherwise fairly quiet.

Walking down to Jack Lane 

Turning back and wandering along the path by the railway embankment towards Jack Lane I wasn't sure if there were two mixed tit flocks or one very extended one. The family group of over a dozen long-tailed tits in the bushes near Dutton's Pond made themselves very conspicuous, the blue tits and great tits bounced through the hedgerows in silence and were easily missed. All the time I was distracted by the crunch, crunch, crunch of squirrels eating hawthorn berries, and blackbirds and redwings flitting between bushes.

The sun was nearly down when I got to Jack Lane Nature Reserve and the titmice and robins were settling to roost in the reeds. Somewhere in the depths a water rail squealed like a distressed piglet but otherwise even the magpies and woodpigeons settling into the trees were quiet. As I reached Jack Lane a flock of about thirty starlings flew in and disappeared into the reeds.

Jack Lane Nature Reserve 

Walking down Jack Lane I looked over towards Irlam Locks where another couple of dozen starlings were sitting on the electricity pylons. I could see no sign of gulls but about fifty magpies were bouncing round the water treatment works and the fields by Irlam Road. I wasn't tempted to walk round for a closer look at them, I turned the other way down Irlam Road and got the bus home.

Leighton Moss

Teal

It was a rainy start to the day with the promise of its becoming finer and it was very mild for the approach to mid-December. I thought I really should get out to Leighton Moss before another weekend's worth of yellow and amber warnings of heavy rain made itself felt so I took a risk and used another of my Delay Repay compo return tickets and, just for the record, today the trains behaved themselves.

I don't know if it's the mild weather or the Christmas spirit but there was a lot of billing and cooing amongst the rooks on the school playing field as I walked to the station.

I had wondered if I should set out early and go straight to Leighton Moss to try and catch the bearded tits, which generally abandon the grit trays and retreat into the reeds after eleven in the morning. I decided not, most of Leighton Moss is still underwater and impassable for visitors so I stuck with my usual routine of staying on to Ulverston and coming back to Silverdale to get a look over the estuaries and salt marshes on the Northern side of Morecambe Bay.

On the way up from Manchester it was as if the woodpigeons hadn't gone missing for most of November. They were in small flocks in fields, sitting on chimney pots, squatting on trackside equipment or swaying in the wind on telephone lines just like they'd never been away. There were plenty of carrion crows, jackdaws and magpies, too, Bolton was stiff with black-headed gulls and Preston with herring gulls and there were a lot of blackbirds in trackside hawthorns.

The coastal pools at Leighton Moss weren't crowded but there was a fair variety of birds out there. A few mute swans cruised about. Mallards, shelducks and teals dabbled in the pools, some groups of ducks in the distance may or may not have been wigeons. I registered but couldn't reliably identify the waders in the corners as we passed by.

On the way to Arnside

There was extensive flooding between thje pools and Silverdale Station, and even more along the stretch of line before Arnside. One large field which occasionally gets damp enough for a great white egret to potter about in was a lake with a couple of dozen greylags sitting on an island.

It was lowish tide as we crossed the Kent, the train disturbing a large flock of pigeons and the pigeons disturbing the redshanks feeding on the mud by the viaduct. A couple of curlews plodded about regardless. Shelducks and carrion crows dotted the salt marsh on the other side and a small flock of linnets passed us going the other way. The usually large crowd of black-headed gulls at Grange-over-sands was thinly dispersed across the mud. A raven flew by, flocks of jackdaws and starlings bobbed up and down on the salt marsh, little egrets stalked creeks and the train headed inland to Cark.

The fields were flooded on this side, too. One which usually has a crowd of rooks and jackdaws today had mallards and mute swans. A flock of fieldfares were panicked out of the trees by the passing train, which made a change as I've only been seeing them in ones and twos this Winter. The pools on the salt marsh by the Leven were full to the brim but the marsh was oddly empty of birds. Perhaps the flooded fields were providing richer pickings.

The Leven looked quiet, the eiders and redshanks had spread out with the ebbing tide. One of the channels had a flock of eiders lining one bank, each a yard apart from its neighbours.

Blackbird, Ulverston Station

I had twenty minutes' wait at Ulverston for the Lancaster train. The trees by the platform have been thinned out drastically but there was still plenty of cover for the robins and blackbirds to be bobbing in and out. Flocks of jackdaws tried to make themselves heard over the calling of herring gulls while rooks cawed softly in the treetops by the rookeries. It didn't really feel like the run-up to Christmas.

The train back was very busy, Northern's running a lot of short-form trains this week so travelers can get to know either as they stand in the aisles. As we left Grange-over-sands I noticed that a pond which usually has a few mallards and moorhens pottering about also had a great white egret doing an impersonation of one of those plastic herons that used to be so popular. Fifty-odd jackdaws bustled over the flooded fields of Meathop and dozens of teals dabbled in the creeks. 

Chaffinch

Leighton Moss was very wet. New arrivals were warned that there was a lot of splashing about to get to Lilian's Hide, the Skytower and the Causeway Hide and the other hides were inaccessible. And so it came to pass. I stopped off first at the Hideout to get my eye in and in the hopes there might be a marsh tit or two amongst the crowds. Chaffinches and coal tits were making most of the running on the feeders, a few great tits, blue tits and greenfinches got their turns and every so often a few goldfinches would bustle in, make a fuss and bustle out again. Robins and dunnocks fidgeted about and a couple of hen pheasants tidied up below the feeders. I didn't get to find a marsh tit but a female blackcap was a nice consolation prize.

Robin

A bit damp

The path by the Skytower was very damp and it was immediately obvious why the path into the reedbeds was out of bounds. Half a dozen mallards obligingly showed me the shallow bits of the path to Lilian's Hide while a Cetti's warbler exploded into song from the drowned willows alongside.

Gadwalls

At Lilian's Hide 

The water by Lilian's Hide was high and the pool was busy with ducks. Shovelers, teals and gadwalls dozed on the remaining islands, a couple of snipe keeping them company. More gadwalls swam with a raft of coots and tufted ducks or cruised about in amorous groups involving lots of soft quacking and vigorous head-bobbing. Mute swans drifted by the reeds, a heron and a greylag sat on the far bank and cormorants dried their wings in the trees over by the Griesdale Hide. I stayed a while in the hide enjoying the birds in the strong, low light.

Tufted ducks, coots, gadwalls, heron and greylag

The gadwalls were getting frisky

Coots

Shovelers and teal

Teal

Snipe and gadwall

I checked the time and decided to go for the train back home. It had been a short visit and I didn't venture far but there'd been plenty enough to see while I was here. On the way back I confirmed that there were wigeon on the coastal pools and we passed a flock of a couple of hundred pink-footed geese on Carnforth Marsh. I'd had a leisurely dawdle of a day out but still somehow totted up fifty-six species of birds along the way.

Shoveler