Woolston Eyes

Coot

My time's not really my own this week so seeing as it was scheduled to be a nice day I thought I'd best get that exploratory stroll round Woolston Eyes done and dusted. The penduline tit hasn't been reported for the best part of a week so there was no pressure to go hunting for it and I could just have a wander round to get my bearings.

When I've visited this area before I've walked the couple of miles down from Padgate. I wanted to put my energy into Woolston Eyes today so I got the train to Warrington and the 12 bus round to Thelwall Road and walked down from there. The knees wanted to stay on the bus.

Entering No.4 Bed

I went through the gate into No.4 Bed and started taking the path clockwise round. The path runs along a wide bund, the pools and reedbeds on the right-hand side and a wooded bank down to the boundary with the industrial estate on the left. Small mixed tit flocks bounced about the willow and birch scrub, robins sang and goldfinches twittered about the treetops. It took ages to find the great spotted woodpecker calling from the trees, the chaffinches pinking from the treetops were more obliging. A flock of about thirty redwings flitted between the trees by the path, pausing long enough for me to get the camera focused on them before fidgeting off to the next branch as I pressed the shutter button. It was nice to see a large flock of redwings, they've been pretty sparse this Winter. Fieldfares are even thinner on the ground.

One of the small pools

The titmice seemed to favour these scrubby areas

The main pool 

A couple of people were clearing scrub on one of the islands on the main lake. The coots and mute swans didn't seem to be taking a blind bit of notice but the gadwalls were sulking in the reeds. A dozen black-headed gulls loafed on the water with a small raft of tufted ducks on the far side, a few herring gulls and lesser black-backs dropped by for a wash and a preen but none of them stayed long. Way in the distance a marsh harrier was being given a hard time by a black-headed gull as it flew low over No.3 bed.

Cormorants 

The Northern edge of No.4 bed is the River Mersey. The path bends and follows the river and overlooks Paddington Meadows over on the North bank. Cormorants loafed and squabbled on the electricity pylons by the river, song thrushes and robins sang from the trees in Paddington Meadows. There were some teal calling on the river, three of them flew downstream. It's about forty years since I last visited the reserve proper and I hadn't recognised any of the topography so far but this stretch felt familiar though the landscape and vegetation were very different.

River Mersey

Inward of the bund this part of the bed was mostly thin willow and birch scrub interspersed with reeds . I was watching a large flock — more than two dozen — long-tailed tits bouncing through the trees when I heard my first Cetti's warbler and water rail of the year from the depths of the reeds. A buzzard called loudly as it drifted over the bed then wheeled round and headed over the river.

The path turned away from the river then dropped from the bund. I'd gone a hundred yards when the path became one big puddle. I waded ankle-deep through one rusty stretch of drowned grass beside the main pool, walked a little way and met a longer stretch of deeper water curving round a corner. There was no way of knowing what was round the corner, if I knew it was dry I'd have chanced the wade but as far as I knew it could go on for the next couple of hundred yards. I decided not to push my luck. I was about two-thirds the way round the bed, next time I come I'll see how far I get walking anticlockwise.

No.4 Bed

A scan over the pool found a common gull amongst the black-headed gulls and a great crested grebe drifted out of the reeds.

On the way back I found a path leading to a locked hide. I wasn't sure of the reason why it's locked, it might just be a precaution against vandalism, but I decided to leave well alone this time.

I checked to see if the path continued along the bund. It was evident that people had tried it before and, like me, gave up when they hit the impenetrable bramble patches.

No.4 Bed

I don't like doubling back on a walk but the weather was fine and it imprinted the landscape on me. As I was walking along the final stretch by the industrial estate a large bird of prey flew over the reedbeds. I thought it was the buzzard come back but as it got nearer I realised it was a very hefty female peregrine.

Same view three hours later

I wandered back down Thelwall Road in the company of an old chap and his very affable Romanian shepherd dog. I crossed over Latchford Locks and got the 5 bus back. For all the woodland walks I've been doing I saw my first jay of the year on the bus as it passed through Heatley.

Giant hogweed

Dreich

Amberswood 

A cold and windy night was followed by a cold and rainy morning. The sun poked through the clouds every so often, mostly when it was raining the heaviest. I'd already put today's plans on ice in anticipation of this weather and as it dragged on into lunchtime I came to the conclusion I wasn't getting a walk in today.

The birds in the back garden were in the same gloomy mood, all but the woodpigeons that obviously had had a rising of the fires in the blood. It's no wonder the fence panels are wrecked. The oldest of the spadgers appears to be the silver-cheeked male now entering his third year. I've not seen the venerable silver-cheek, at least five years old, for a few weeks. Now I've written that down he'll be back tomorrow.

The wind made the gulls on the playing field restless. A couple of dozen black-headed gulls fidgeted between the field and the rooftops where the dozen each of lesser black-backs and herring gulls loafed and preened ready for the lunchtime scrabble.

The weather cleared up at teatime. I was in the area and had half an hour to wait for the 132 bus so I decided on a dawdle along the cycleway at Amberswood. As I got off the bus by the Wigan Road entrance a raven flew low over the trees, over the road and up the Whelley Line Loop. Robins, song thrushes, coal tits and great tits sang in the hedgerows and blue tits bounced about the treetops. I'd decided to walk as far as the fork in the path and walk back again, not a bad idea as at that point it started raining.

I walked back in the rain, which didn't dampen the songbirds' efforts one whit. I crossed over to the bus stop and checked how they were running. I had quarter of an hour to wait for my bus, I could have a quick nosy on the Whelley Line path while I was waiting. It started teeming down. I took the hint.

The Wigan Road end of the Whelley Line Loop

I like sneaking in these little bits of birdwatching, they feel like minor victories which is no bad thing.

Mersey Valley

Willow tit, Sale Water Park 

I'd had an early start to the day then found I had unexpectedly got a free day after all. All my instincts were to go and get some sleep but it was a sunny morning with a hint of Spring about it and I didn't want to waste it so I sleepwalked my way over to Sale Water Park via Stretford Meadows.

The gulls were waiting for their lunchtime treat. A dozen black-headed gulls loafed on the school playing field, a dozen more sat on the roof of one of the school buildings with a similar number of lesser black-backs and rather more herring gulls.

It clouded over as I passed the allotments on Humphrey Lane. The hedgerow by the garden centre was busy with spadgers and long-tailed tits. I looked at the start of the path onto the meadows and decided it was too nippy for bog snorkelling so I stuck to the Transpennine Way path by the motorway. 

Stretford Meadows 

Robins sang, blue tits and great tits rummaged about and the pair of kestrels were back, the male sitting in the hawthorns on the Urmston side of the mound and the female in the hawthorns on the Stretford side. The parakeets flying about the cricket pitch were phenomenally noisy. There was a sporadic passage of gulls overhead moving on from the school playing fields to mooch on the farmland by the river or head over to Sale Water Park. I wondered if gulls go on school playground crawls the same way we go on pub crawls.

I wandered down to Stretford Ees still half asleep but kept on my toes by a mixed tit flock, a great spotted woodpecker and a lot of magpies. Oddly, I've yet to see a jay this year. And actually it was probably the calling of the parakeets keeping me awake. The Mersey was a lot calmer but there were plenty of signs of flood damage on the banks.

Black-headed gulls and common gulls, Sale Water Park 

There was a sailing class on the lake at Sale Water Park so the rafts of gulls were close to shore. There were a couple of dozen black-headed gulls in each together with a dozen common gulls by the near bank and half a dozen lesser black-backs and a couple of herring gulls in the raft by the far bank. The great crested grebe with the damaged wing was starting to look dapper as it was going into breeding plumage.

Common gulls and black-headed gull, Sale Water Park 

Last year I was falling over Cetti's warblers. So far this year, not a sausage. I was hoping the regular one by Broad Ees Dole would break the spell but it was nowhere to found.

Heron, Broad Ees Dole 

The water was still very high on Broad Ees Dole, the islands were underwater. A couple of herons loafed and preened and a couple of moorhens fussed about. A small group of mallards threaded their way through the trees and drains between Teal Pool, the main pool and the drowned willows beyond.

Coots and great crested grebes, Sale Water Park 

The usual gang of mute swans and Canada geese were mugging for scraps on the slipway and were being jostled out of the way by a flock of black-headed gulls. A few tufted ducks bobbed about with the coots and mallards. A couple of first-Winter great crested grebes had paired up and were doing a lot of synchronised head nodding before they got swept up by a flotilla of coots.

Willow tit, Sale Water Park 

I got myself a cup of tea at the café and sat and watched the willow tits on the bird feeders. There were quite a lot of people stopping by the feeders to look for the birds. Each time the great tits, long-tailed tits, coal tits, blue tits and nuthatches would scatter. And each time it was the pair of willow tits that were first at the table as the people walked away, they're more worried about being hassled by larger titmice than people.

Willow tit, Sale Water Park 

I decided I didn't have the legs to carry on either into Chorlton or on to Chorlton Water Park. I walked under the motorway and caught the 41 into Manchester, thinking I'd get off at Oxford Road and get the train home. We started to hit the traffic in Fallowfield and I didn't fancy sitting on the bus as it crawled through Rusholme so I bailed out at Platt Fields and walked through the park to get the 150 back to Stretford.

Platt Fields 

Song thrushes and robins sang in the park, parakeets screeched through the treetops and mallards were making baby ducks on the lake. I had a couple of minutes to wait for the bus and was glad of a pot of tea and a "Where do you think you've been?" from the cat.

Mosses

Little Woolden Moss 

It was a grey, cool Saturday and I had too many ideas for what to do with it, which nearly always ends up with me spending all day drinking too much tea while making a bog of unraveling my indecision. I dragged myself out for the lunchtime train to Irlam and had a walk over the mosses, which has become the Saturday default setting.

Walking up Astley Road there was plenty of birdlife in the garden hedges, most of it sparrows. This made it all the stranger than most of the hedgerows further along the road were dead quiet. There were handfuls of goldfinches and a few blackbirds by the Jack Russell's gate. A small mixed tit flock mingled with a flock of goldfinches in the trees by the farmhouse just after the motorway. A much larger mixed tit flock, including a couple of dozen long-tailed tits, mingled with another flock of goldfinches by the stables just before Four Lanes End.

The fields between Astley Road and Roscoe Road were busy with woodpigeons, mistle thrushes and starlings but no sign of the covey of partridges I've grown used to seeing here. Robins and blackbirds flitted about the field margins and a female kestrel sat in one of the trees.. As I looked back down Roscoe Road a pale-morph buzzard lumbered off a fencepost and flew off. I've not seen this bird before, a sandy-headed individual with a lot of white on its face. The fallow ground by Prospect Grange held a pheasant and a black and white cat playing tigers which explained why one of the trees in the far corner were full of blackbirds and redwings.

Astley Road 

A lot of magpies and carrion crows littered the turf field just North of the motorway but no sign of wagtails, lapwings or gulls, which is unusual. The turf fields further along were even quieter, a carrion crow or two over on the far side of the field. A bird sat on one of the telephone lines caught my attention and I struggled to identify it because I couldn't get a sense of scale and had nothing to compare it to. I wasn't getting a lot of clues by its being in silhouette. I finally identified it as my first meadow pipit of the year when it flew over, landing close to me in the field so I could get a good look at it then flew back to its wire, which I thought was very sporting of it even if it was camera shy. A couple of great black-backs flew overhead. Oddly the usual passage of herring gulls and lesser black-backs didn't happen.

I walked down Lavender Lane to Little Woolden Moss, scanning the fields either side for signs of birdlife. There were handfuls of carrion crows and magpies and a young kestrel sat on a telegraph pole. A small crowd had built up at the car park, people hoping to see any short-eared owls.

Little Woolden Moss 

It was an hour before sunset but Little Woolden Moss had a twilit feel about it. Carrion crows came in to roost on the far bank and mallards muttered amongst themselves in the pools. I was scanning the scrubby heath by the path when I had a five seconds glimpse of a short-eared owl. Luckily there's not a lot that has that high contrast look of black markings on an oak yellow background, off the top of my head a bittern would be the only other possible match but you'd have to work hard to confuse the two. It disappeared into the heather even fast than it had left it.

Twelve Yards Road 

I walked down Twelve Yards Road and onto Cutnook Lane in the gathering twilight. The last woodpigeons and jackdaws flew to roost. The male kestrel flew in to roost in an old nest. A couple of pairs of mallards quacked in the drowned willows in one corner of a field while a couple of roe deer grazed in the opposite corner. 

New moon and Venus,
Cutnook Lane 

My progress down Cutnook Lane was punctuated by the alarm calls of blackbirds.

It had been a nice, if quiet, walk and the pipit kept the year list ticking on to 114.

Birchwood

Buzzard

I had all sorts of plans for the day but couldn't be doing with any of them so I found myself on the lunchtime train to Liverpool debating whether to get off at Birchwood for a walk round to Risley Moss or get off at Padgate and walk down to Woolston Eyes now I've finally got my act together and bought a permit. I decided against Woolston Eyes, I'd want to give more time for my first proper explore of the inside of the reserve, and got off at Birchwood.

There were dozens of black-headed gulls and woodpigeons in the field by the Liverpool-bound platform yesterday morning, this afternoon there was one of each. And a buzzard sat in the tree in the corner.

Birchwood Forest Park 

Leaving the station I walked down into Birchwood Forest Park. The trees were full of bird song, the inevitable robins being joined by song thrushes, dunnocks, woodpigeons and coal tits. A mixed tit flock fizzed through the trees by the railway line, a couple of goldcrests joining the coal tits and long-tailed tits while the blue tits and great tits forged ahead. For once it was the red in a great spotted woodpecker's plumage that caught my attention. I was watching some long-tailed tits when the bright red undertail and white belly of a woodpecker flashed in the tree just behind them.

Song thrush 

A flock of redwings moved over the woodland, flying over in ones and twos, a few of them stopping in the treetops for a minute or two before moving on to who knows where. My guess from the direction of travel is they were going for an early roost at Woolston Eyes.

Birchwood Forest Park 

The large mixed tit flock near the brook included singing coal tits and a lesser redpoll. Lesser redpolls are tiny finches though I hadn't properly registered just how small they are until I saw this one sharing a twig with a long-tailed tit. Even allowing for the tit being fluffed up in the cold wind its body wasn't much smaller than the redpoll's.

Risley Moss 

I thought I'd left plenty of time for a wander round Risley Moss, which keeps office hours. I would have done but it's closed Fridays. The bus to Warrington was due in five minutes, I took it and got the train home.

Oglet (again)

Oglet

The shore lark(s) at Oglet have been appearing with startling regularity on the bird reports this past couple of weeks. I know a taunt when I see one. Today was forecast to be a bright, fine day so I set out to see if I can find it.

I got the train to Liverpool South Parkway and the 82 into Speke. The clear blue skies of Stretford had clouded over by Hunts Cross but it was still a bright morning. I walked down to Hale Road then along the bridleway beside the airport fence to Bailey's Lane. There were plenty of pigeons and herring gulls about and a kestrel hunted over the bit of waste ground on the other side of the fence. Goldfinches, greenfinches and blue tits flitted between the trees and robins and a song thrush sang in the background. A couple of ravens flew by and went out of their way to discomfort every carrion crow they passed.

The path down to the old dungeon salt works off Bailey's Lane 

I walked down Bailey's Lane and joined Oglet Lane where I bumped into a family of birdwatchers trying to work out which direction to take for the shore lark. I gave them directions as best I could and we spent the next couple of hours sort of playing leapfrog along the path. I hung back a bit, mostly because I was scouring round to see what was around, partly because I've been feeling jinxed lately and I didn't want to put the mockers on them.

There were a hundred or more woodpigeons in the trees by the farmstead at Oglet and a handful of pheasants rummaging about in the field by the path. The path beyond Oglet Shore was muddy and harder walking than when it was frozen the other week. It was high tide and small groups of mallards bobbed about on the water near the bank.

A light shower over the Wirral

A band of filthy weather was blown inland. As I trudged my way through the sleet and hail I wondered why I do these things. Did I really want to see a shore lark this badly? Dammit, yes, I told myself and trudged on.

Redshanks and oystercatchers called as they flew along the bank of the river and a handful of teal joined the mallards. A flock of black-tailed godwits flew in but didn't seem to want to settle. Curlews flew about the far edges of the fields with a crowd of jackdaws.

Oglet

The path got muddier and more treacherous in the descents and rises across the gulleys. I caught up with the family at this point and pointed out the line of trees which marked the boundary of the first of the ploughed fields the lark had been seen on. I was a bit uncomfortable acting as guide, it felt hubristic on my part, but I did my best.

We eventually reached the first ploughed field which was pretty much empty save a couple of magpies. We trudged on to the next field. On the approach we bumped into a birdwatcher who told us he'd just seen the shore lark amongst a flock of skylarks. As he was talking a flock of about a dozen skylarks flew over the hedge and settled onto this field and almost disappeared into the muddy furrows. I had a long look at them, it would be just my luck to have the shore lark in the crowd and me walk past it. They were all skylarks and were joined by a handful of linnets. As we negotiated the muddy boundary between the ploughed fields the larks flew back over the hedge and joined a much bigger flock over the far side of the field.

We spent a long time scanning this flock. They were very fidgety, every time I got my eye in on them they took flight and swirled round low over the field. One time they did this one of the birds caught my eye as being quite contrasty and pale-headed. Was that the shore lark? No idea but it looked promising and I promptly lost it. I thought I saw it again a few minutes later then I saw it skittering across a distant furrow but not well enough to identify it. I was trying my best to describe where the flock was but was finding it hard work myself to keep track of them. Then much to my shock a pale-headed bird popped up from a rut. A sort of very pale lime green paleness to the face with a black mask and dark cap. I had me a shore lark. And promptly lost it. I was starting to worry that I was stringing myself and the others along when a chap with a dog walked up and asked if I'd seen the shore lark when it just jumped up into the open. The others were still struggling with the flock and I wasn't helping any and was probably just winding them up. After a short while I wished them luck and left them to it. I hope they got it, they'd worked damned hard to find it.

Oglet Shore, Helsby Hill in the distance

It was a long trudge back to Oglet Lane in bright sunshine. The tide was ebbing, bringing in lots of redshanks and curlews to the emerging shore. I couldn't find any black-tailed godwits but there was a bar-tailed godwit and a sprinkling of grey plovers and dunlins. Way out over by the far bank a few hundred large gulls loafed on emerging mud banks and glistened in the sunshine like damp pebbles.

A buzzard flew low by as I walked back up the bridle path and the kestrel was still hunting over the waste. I had intended moving on either to Widnes to try and find the Kumlein's gull or Marshside for the American wigeon that's just turned up. Two and a half hour's trudging through the mud had me knackered so I walked up to the bus stop, got the 89 bus and thence the train home.

I do hope that family got the shore lark, they deserved it. 

Pennington Flash

Teals and heron

It was a bright sunny morning. The spadgers were back at the feeders and the male great tit was glowing bright butter yellow in the sunlight. It was more than high time I headed over to Pennington Flash.

Pennington Flash Country Park 

Walking down from St Helens Road the path was no better. A couple of trees had fallen down in the storms, opening up the woodland and making it easier to find the great spotted woodpeckers when they called.

First-Winter herring gull 

The brook was considerably lower though the flattened and muddy banks told their tale. The water lapped the sides of the flash by the car park, pushing a lot of the loafing mallards up onto the grass. Rather a lot more of them were with the crowd of mute swans, Canada geese, coots and black-headed gulls mugging the punters for food. A few herring gulls and lesser black-backs sat by the bank, dozens more were in rafts out in midwater, roughly three herring gulls for every lesser black-back. Closer in the flash was peppered with coots, rafts of tufted ducks and pairs of goldeneyes. It took me a while to find any great crested grebes, they were all over by the sailing club on the far bank.

Herring gulls, great black-backs, cormorants and lapwings

The spit at the F.W.Horrocks Hide was still half submerged. Mallards dozed on the islands close to the hide. Out at the end of the spit scores of herring gulls washed and preened in the water or loafed on the spit with cormorants, lapwings and a couple of great black-backs. A couple of oystercatchers threaded their way through the crowd, calling nearly all the time.

Mallards

Herons and Canada geese 

The walk down to the Tom Edmondson Hide was fairly quiet. Blue tits and great tits bounced through the willows and a couple of bullfinches wheezed in the treetops. There's been a bit of scrub cutting in front of the hide, opening up the view into the reeds. There was a floodlit quality to the light provided by the low sun through the trees. A couple of pairs of shovelers and a crowd of teal dabbled in the pool with a pair of gadwalls and a pair of mallards, a pair of Canada geese grazed on flood-flattened reeds. Herons dozed on the banks behind them. There were two long,-necked white shapes in the reeds over on the far side of the pool that connects to Pengy's. I assumed they were mute swans until the long, yellow beak of a great white egret poked out for a moment.

I could be forgiven for thinking the long-necked white shapes in the reeds were mute swans.

Walking round to Ramsdales Hide I was particularly struck by the absence of the usual Cetti's warbler.

At Ramsdales Hide 

Robin

At first sight, staring at the sun from the hide, there wasn't much about except a robin on one of the islands. There were a couple of dozen teal and some mallards with a young heron on the islands further out. And there was a great crested grebe asleep on one of the islands over by the bight.

Heron and teals

Leaving the hide I was accosted by robins that didn't believe I didn't have a bag of mealworms on me.

Robin

Pennington Flash Country Park 

I walked up to the canal then round to the Charlie Owen Hide. A female kestrel was hawking from the top of one of the birch trees by the canal. Song thrushes and robins sang in a woodland which was surprisingly quiet of other birds. It came as a relief to hear a goldfinch, and I only heard that one all afternoon.

At the Charlie Owen Hide 

The evidence of the New Year flooding was all over the place, not just the puddles on the path and the ducks swimming on the golf course. The water was high on the pool at the Charlie Owen Hide, covering the islands. A few mallards, shovelers and gadwalls dabbled about and a pair of dabchicks cruised about, hinneying loudly.

Reed buntings 

The ground in front of the Bunting Hide was dry enough, just, for someone to replenish the feeders. A dozen reed buntings were happy to take advantage of the facilities. I lingered in the hopes that a willow tit might turn up but was disappointed.

Reed buntings 

Great tit

The water was also high at Pengy's. A bunch of tufted ducks huddled in one corner while a handful of gadwalls cruises about, significantly fewer than on my last visit.

Black-headed gulls and coots

As I walked back past the flash and through the car park the gulls and waterfowl were being offered bread and bird seed and they squabbled amongst themselves for the spoils. A large gull with a huge curved beak turned out to be a herring gull that had pinched a cluster of freshwater mussels off a coot. The goldeneyes drifted closer to the bank for a change, they usually drift into the distance.

Goldeneyes

It was a bit of a shock to find I'd been dawdling round for three hours. It had been an odd afternoon, it felt quiet despite there being a lot of birds about. I'd had a decent walk in very nice January weather so I toddled off for the bus back into Leigh and thence back home.

At Ramsdales Hide