Lazy day

Yes, I know the back garden needs tidying up

After the dry cold of yesterday it poured down overnight and today was mild and very damp. Oddly, it felt milder before dawn when I was running an errand than at lunchtime when I was running another, or perhaps I was feeling the damp air the more. Yesterday's easy walking was today's hobbling like somebody had stuck snooker cues up my trousers legs. I debated trying to walk the stiffness out but lacked the motivation to do so. It's easier in January when the year list is in its teens.

Another long-tailed duck did a quick local pit stop, this one was at High Rid Reservoir last night and not this morning, which paradoxically came as a bit of a relief. I suspect if I bump into one at all this year it'll be by accident when I'm looking for something else.

No blackcap in the back garden today, though there's every possibility I overlooked it. There's still just enough leaf cover on the rowan for titmice to go missing when they fly up from the feeders and plenty enough on the railway embankment sycamores to hide a flock of long-tailed tits, which happened a couple of times this morning. The titmice and sparrows have made huge inroads on the bird food though I suspect the squirrels account for most of the sunflower seeds now they've worked out the squirrel-proof feeders. I'm seeing more woodpigeons locally, ones and twos but a definite drift back, but not yet in the garden or the school playing field. In contrast, the collared doves and jackdaws are paired up and billing and cooking.

A mild, damp day would suggest a crowd of gulls on the school playing field but today the highest count was ten black-headed gulls and all the large gulls are flyovers. There's a definite change in the use of this field by gulls over the past twenty years, the large pre-roost flocks of black-headed gulls just aren't happening any more.

Knott End

Sparrowhawk, Pilling Lane 

If the frost and frozen bird bath were not enough confirmation of the cold weather the first black ap of the Winter, a nice female with a caramel brown cap, arrived in the back garden and had a peck at the few remaining rowan berries. I'll have to get some suet blocks, the blackcaps seem to prefer them to the suet pellets, similarly the long-tailed tits and goldcrests.

I've pretty much avoided rail travel this week. Today reminded me why I've done that. The connection between my train into Manchester and the Blackpool train is straightforward on paper but is a bit tight for comfort in reality. Even more so when the train into Manchester is stuck at Castlefield Junction for an age. I wrote off making that connection and started to worry whether I'd be able to make the connection with the next one half an hour later. I needn't have worried, my train was running twenty-eight minutes late. The departures board was carnage, what wasn't late was cancelled. 

The train arrived at my destination, Poulton-le-Fylde, twelve minutes late by the simple expedient of not stopping at the stations between Bolton and Preston. (Passengers were told to get off at Bolton and wait for the next one which was right behind. I could see on the departures board it was twenty minutes late.) Any road, I'd arrived and I had ten minutes to wait for the 5c to Knott End. The plan was to have a look to see if the twites were back at the ferry jetty then have a mosey along the esplanade and then move on. And it's a nice, winding bus route through picturesque little towns on a cool, sunny day.

Fleetwood from Knott End 

The high tide was just starting to ebb at Knott End. There were no twites about on the slipway but I kept my fingers crossed that there might be some on the salt marsh along the esplanade. The house sparrows in the gardens tried to provide a suitable alternative. Herring gulls and black-headed gulls made plenty of noise as they flew about. Redshanks waded in the shallow waters by the jetty, I could hear more on the salt marsh. I could also hear pink-footed geese but could see no sign of them (I found out later that they were on the fields behind the local library, I worked with libraries for a quarter of a century, I should have guessed).

By the esplanade 

When I started walking along the salt marsh by the esplanade I wasn't intending to have a walk down to Pillings Lane but that's what I did.

Scores of waders roosted on the wet mud just beyond the salt marsh, a hundred yards or so from the esplanade. Most were curlews and oystercatchers, there were a few redshanks and a few dozen clockwork sanderlings raced along the surf. Closer to hand, half a dozen mallards dabbled in a pool by the pub and every fifty yards or so there'd be a little egret rummaging about in the marsh grass and shelducks dabbled in the mud.

Shelducks

The salt marsh beyond Knott End 

Sea defences at the top of the salt marsh

It was notable that there weren't many small birds in the salt marsh, I wasn't surprised not to see any twites but an absence of linnets and goldfinches was a bit unexpected and I had to go a long way before I bumped into the first meadow pipit. I can't blame the dogs being walked on the path because the few that weren't on leads were sticking strictly to the path. I know not how or why but they seemed to make a point of it.

Dunlins and ringed plovers

Mostly curlews and knots

The tide ebbed as I walked along and I was seeing more waders, mostly curlews and knots with sanderlings, redshanks, dunlins and unidentifiable godwits, and they were becoming more active. Redshanks fossicked about the margins of the marsh or foraged on the mud with dunlins and ringed plovers. Single lapwings were stationed at regular intervals along the edge of the marsh until I started seeing small groups of them on the mud opposite the caravan park and beyond. A flock of knots rose and fell in the distance then whatever it was causing the commotion came closer and a billowing cloud of peeps and plovers rose from the shore line. I looked for whatever raptor was responsible and couldn't find it. I reckoned it wasn't a peregrine as the curlews and oystercatchers stayed put.

Curlew

Meadow pipit

Just beyond the caravan park I had a stroke of luck. I'd watched a meadow pipit fly in and land on the fence by the path. Just ahead of it a robin bobbed up out of the newly mown grass, sat on a fence post and used that as a launch pad for a couple of pounce-hunting forays. Then another bird bobbed up just beyond the robin and took up the same hunting activity. A black redstart. I don't see enough black redstarts to be able identify females from first-Winter males, this was one of the other. And very nice to see, too. 

Black redstart

A birdwatching couple following behind joined me in watching it as it progressed down the fence posts then it disappeared into the marsh. They walked on and stopped almost immediately, signalling me to look ahead where a male sparrowhawk was sitting on the rocks by the path. 

Sparrowhawk, exit stage left

It sat there for a few minutes before flying off on the approach of some walkers. It didn't go far: about five minutes later I was watching it chase a meadow pipit which got away by doing a very tight wingtip turn then flying up when the sparrowhawk flew across.

Looking towards Barrow

Greenfinches

Beyond the houses on Beach Road the fields were busy with goldfinches, greenfinches, rooks and lapwings. Out on the bay the tideline was a memory and the waders were widely dispersed in the distance. 

Looking across Morecambe Bay

There was snow on the Lake District hilltops on the horizon, the wind had picked up and had blown in a lot of cloud to cover the sun and it felt a lot cooler, but it was still decent walking weather. I checked the public transport options beyond Pilling Lane and headed back for Knott End and the bus back. I didn't get to see the black redstart again but there were plenty of meadow pipits and they were joined by a couple of linnets.

Walking back to Knott End 

The bus got me back just in time for the train to York. I'd bought an old man's explorer ticket so my options were to get this train and change at Preston or Blackburn for a Manchester train or wait for the Liverpool train and change at Preston, Wigan, St Helens or Liverpool. I decided to head for Blackburn. All was going stunningly well until the train stopped at signals just after Salford Crescent. And stayed there for twenty minutes before stopping at signals at Castlefield Junction for another ten minutes or so. I'd missed my train home and was starting to fret about making the next train half an hour later but that was stuck at signals at Castlefield, too, so I had ten minutes' wait for it at Oxford Road. Which it left after sitting at the platform for half an hour for no apparent reason.  (I had more bad luck later on, I thought I'd take advantage of the explorer ticket to run an errand, the train was cancelled and the next one was two hours later.) It's good of the train operators to keep that doughty spirit of adventure kindling to stop us all getting blasé about the wonders of travel.

It's not like I wasn't warned 

Wellacre Country Park

Jack Lane nature reserve 

The planned options for the day involved either being windswept and interesting on the Lancashire coast or taking my new boots for a walk up a hill. It became apparent that I had no intention of doing either when I found myself emptying the last from a packet of posh Darjeeling tea into the teapot and filling the toaster with crumpets.

It was a bright, cold day. I told myself I should be out there frolicking in the sunshine while there was still sunshine to frolic in. I told myself. After an interval which involved a toasted cheese sandwich and more toast I dragged myself out and got the 256 into Flixton for a walk round Wellacre Country Park.

Wellacre Wood 

The paths onto Wellacre Wood were muddy but not atrociously so. In the shadows the puddles were still frozen. Parakeets and magpies called in the trees by the school but the wood itself was deadly quiet save the occasional falling leaf.

Oyster mushrooms 

Carrion crow 

Emerging, blinking, into the strong sunlight I had a look round the fields by the paths. Carrion crows and magpies fed in the fields occupied by horses, those without horses were also empty of birds. Way over by Irlam Locks a few pigeons and black-headed gulls wheeled about and the starlings were starting to congregate on the electricity pylons.

Jack Lane

I took a chance and walked through Jack Lane nature reserve. To my surprise the path was bone dry. Most of the pools had refilled, and many were frozen over. It came as something of a relief to see a flock of woodpigeons. I kept hearing redwings in the trees but only actually saw a mistle thrush and a fieldfare, the blackbirds were busy in the hawthorn bushes. I'm a bit puzzled by my keeping on seeing lone fieldfares round here, it goes against the natural order of things. Moorhens muttered in the reedbed while a water rail squealed and there was the welcome return of the Cetti's warbler I've not heard in months. Mixed tit flocks were busy either end of the reserve, long-tailed tits with blue tits at the Jack Lane end, long-tailed tits with great tits and blue tits by the railway embankment. I looked out for any willow tits but it wasn't my day for them.

Wellacre Country Park 

Dutton's Pond 

A cormorant briefly visited Dutton's Pond and got more barracking from the moorhens and mallards than the anglers.

Walking along the path at the bottom of Green Hill found me a large mixed tit flock: a couple of dozen long-tailed tits, a dozen blue tits, a few great tits and a nuthatch. I think the house sparrows, chaffinches and bullfinches were innocent bystanders dragged into the melee.

River Mersey at Flixton Bridge

The river was very high at Flixton Bridge and for the first time in a while it had no birds on it. I walked down to the station and got the train home.

Mersey Valley

Ring-necked parakeet, Ivy Green

It was a cool, sunny day so once the morning's errands were done I had an early lunch, walked down to Urmston Lane and got the 23 to the edge of Chorlton for a walk along a bit of the Mersey Valley. 

I'd left behind a dozen spadgers competing with the squirrels for the use of the squirrel-proof feeders. The hairy hooligans have learned how to prise open the lids and only retreat when the coal tits peck them on the face, they can't do anything to retaliate as they're scrunched up inside the feeder and the coal tits are free to fly off. I don't know if it's mobbing behaviour or bad eyesight. There was a moment of harmony when they all congregated in the rambling rose bush with the great tits, robin and blue tits to make rude noises at the white cat that's taken over the territory now the poor old thing that lived with me has passed on. Which is a dead waste of time as it's deaf.

The usual dozen black-headed gulls on the school playing field were augmented today by four herring gulls and a couple of lesser black-backs. For some reason there weren't as many rooks and jackdaws as usual, perhaps the ground was that bit too wet for them. A common gull flew in as I walked down the road.

Hawthorn Lane 

I got off the 23 at Ryebank Road, crossed over and walked round onto Hawthorn Lane where the ring-necked parakeets were making a racket in the trees and great tits and blue tits bounced about in the undergrowth. I cut through Ivy Green where carrion crows called at each other over the clearing and over to Chorlton Brook where a teacher was using Loud Outdoor Voice to tell children that if they were very quiet they might see some birds. Mercifully it was the shrieks of parakeets and the calls of crows that were the constant backing track to the afternoon.

Ivy Green 

Chorlton Ees 

I crossed over into Chorlton Ees where the hawthorns were busy with blackbirds and the blackbirds busy with hawthorn berries. Mixed tit flocks tended to favour the alders and poplars, the magpies, jays and woodpigeons the oaks and sycamores. Somewhere in the depths of the hay meadow two cock pheasants were having a scrap.

River Mersey at Jackson's Boat 

The Mersey was running high, which wasn't a surprise after the recent weather but is a worry if we have another very wet Winter. A dozen mallards fussed about on the water by the bridge at Jackson's Boat. As I crossed the bridge I looked upstream and saw a buzzard flying between the golf courses either side of the river.

Barrow Brook, also a lot higher than usual

I walked along Barrow Brook to Sale Water Park. Unusually, there were no small birds about until near the end of the path when I heard a great tit in one of the hawthorn bushes. There were a few woodpigeons and magpies in the trees and a great spotted woodpecker called from the top of the canopy of one of the taller willows on the brookside.

Sale Water Park

The joints were feeling the cold and I was glad to come out of the shadows whenever I could, which wasn't very often as the sun was at treetop height. Mute swans and coots were dotted around the lake, more were mugging for scraps with a crowd of mallards and black-headed gulls by the landing stage. Cormorants loafed on jetties, half a dozen goosanders cruised midwater and the tufted ducks and great crested grebes took some finding. Way over the other side lesser black-backs and herring gulls were coming in to roost. I took the hint and called it a day.

I'm not sure of this, I think it's a white cheese polypore 

On my way to the tram I stopped briefly at the feeding station by the café. I could hardly see the feeders for great tits, blue tits and coal tits and a nuthatch had to peck its way through the crowd to get at the peanuts.

On the way home I bowed to the inevitable and bought a new pair of boots. Comparing and contrasting old and new I realised that the reason why the old ones had started to feel very loose was that a year's use by a fat old man had flattened and spread the soles and they were half an inch wider than they were when new.

Damp Tuesday

Taylor Park 

A long-tailed duck was reported on the lake at Taylor Park in St Helens last night and again first thing so I headed thataway. I was unlucky with long-tailed ducks last Winter, Taylor Park is dead easy to get to and experience tells me that if a duck's there it'll be seen eventually, it's a nice, straightforward site to visit.

I got the train to Warrington and the 329 bus to St Helens. Along the way I had a surprise: you don't expect to see a common darter patrolling the roadside as your bus is stuck in traffic on Winwick Road in mid-November. The poor blighter's days were numbered, the weather was turning nasty even as we crawled along. Something else's days were numbered: a kestrel caught a vole on the verge as the bus approached Burtonwood. The vole still had a bit of fight left in it and it wriggled out of the kestrel's grasp about ten feet above the ground. The kestrel wasn't having any, swooped down and caught it in mid-air and flew off. It's difficult to identify a small mammal tumbling through the air from a bus waiting for a gap in the traffic to turn at a junction but judging by the length of the tail I think it was a bank vole.

The plan had been to get a Saveaway at St Helens Bus Station but there isn't one anymore, the temporary bus stops are dotted about the town centre. It was the sort of day that would be good spent sitting on buses finding my way round bits of Merseyside I don't know (the Knowsley and Croxteth areas are blind spots), it wasn't the sort of day for buying a day saver on the bus and trying to explore new places while trying to work out whether the buses you're aiming to use are run by the right bus operator. I bought a day saver and stuck to what I knew today.

Taylor Park

I'd hoped to get to Taylor Park and see the duck before the forecast wintry squall came in. It was raining lightly when I got off the bus and walked to the park. Blackbirds were scoffing berries in gardens and grey squirrels were romping about the Moxon Street entrance to the park. This leads directly onto the Taylor Park Dam, the lake the duck was reported as being on. And was reported to have flown away from forty minutes before I arrived.

So no long-tailed duck. There were no tufted ducks, either. There were plenty of mallards and coots, a handful of moorhens, a couple of Canada geese and a couple of mute swans. A chap told me a sick mute swan had been taken into care a few days ago, which is a worry. There were also dozens of pigeons and black-headed gulls together with a couple of common gulls and a herring gull. I couldn't work out whether one of the black-headed gulls had retained its brown hood since Summer or had prematurely moulted into it. 

It was nice to bump into a couple of mixed tit flocks in the surrounding trees, mostly long-tailed tits with a few blue tits and great tits and one goldcrest. The bird surprise of the day was the kingfisher sitting on the railings by the tearooms. It was off like a shot the moment it saw me.

Taylor Park 

I also bumped into the couple of people I met last week at Leasowe. They managed to see the Lapland bunting despite my being a jinx and they went back a couple of days later and got a closer view of it, and as a bonus they saw the snow buntings that had turned up on the revetment.

I got the bus back to St Helens and got the 320 bus to Wigan, like you do. We were barely out of the town centre when the heavens opened. And then it snowed. The downpour as we passed through Haydock washed away the evidence.

Viridor Wood 

Viridor Wood is on my To Visit list so I got off the bus in Bamfurlong and walked into the wood for a nosy round. The rain had calmed down so I pushed my luck. Also like you do. I was rewarded by half an hour of bright November sunshine, accompanied by flocks of redwings, mixed tit flocks bouncing about in the trees and at least one blackbird in every hawthorn bush. I kept to the metalled paths so as not to push my luck to breaking point.

Viridor Wood, by the West Coast Main Line 

Viridor Wood 

My luck held right up to my approaching the West Coast Main Line. I sheltered in the underpass for a couple of minutes and weighed up the options. I could carry on under the railway and walk over to Abram. Which is a nice walk with not a lot of cover and a bus every half hour from Dover Lock. Or I could walk round in the shelter of the woods back round to Bamfurlong where the buses are about three an hour. Which is what I did.

Coffin Lane Brook 

I took the shortcut along Coffin Lane Brook. One bone dry Summer and you forget how to walk in mud. First chance I got I took the opportunity to leave the moorhens to their own devices and get onto a metalled path. It was nice to finally see my first song thrushes of the month, though.

Viridor Wood 

I didn't have long to wait in the rain for the next 320 and I made the connection with the 132 to the Trafford Centre easily enough. As the bus sat in heavy traffic on Manchester Road I wiped the condensation off the window and looked out and a voice in the back of my head suggested a twilight stroll into Amberswood. I'm not proud of my reply but it came from the heart.

Southport

Wigeons, Crossens Inner Marsh 

I thought I'd take advantage of a cool, bright Autumn day for a trip out to Marshside and Crossens Marsh. It turned out to be one of those days that are almost overwhelming.

It was a very clear, very bright morning and the light just kept on ramping up in intensity through the day. As I walked down Marshside Road the cold wind made me wish I'd brought some gloves. I got to the end of the houses and the start of the reserve and stopped and gaped. The scenes ahead of me were worlds apart from the picture during the Summer, much more so even than on my last visit a few weeks ago. 

By Marshside Road 

To my right the whole of the marsh was awash with small patches of emergent grasses ground. To my left was acres of very wet grass and a very extended Junction Pool. But the biggest contrast was the birdlife. It was heaving.

Greylags

All that wet grass was carpeted with birds. Scores of greylags, lapwings and wigeons, dozens of Canada geese, curlews and shovelers. Here and there in the distance there were small family groups of pink-footed geese and more flew overhead. A bit of scanning round the waders found a few ruffs and a handful of golden plovers. And many hundreds of black-tailed godwits, all of them a-twitter.

Black-tailed godwits 

Black-tailed godwits 

On my side of the road there was more of the same but the wigeons were in their hundreds and there were dozens of teal, gadwall and mallards. Black-headed gulls made more noise than their numbers warranted and a few herring gulls and lesser black-backs passed by. Crowds of starlings were skittish as they bustled about amongst the ducks and waders and a few pied wagtails flitted about in the damp grass.

Wigeon

Mallards and black-tailed godwits 

Looking over to Sandgrounders from Marshside Road 

Black-tailed godwits 

A couple of great black-backs flew in, prompting a mass panic of godwits, lapwings and teal, any of which could be on their menu. The gulls settled down to loaf on the marsh and the waders and teal subsided and made sure they landed way away from them. They weren't remotely fussed about the kestrel hunting over the corner of the marsh by Marine Drive.

Black-tailed godwits 

Pink-footed geese 

Gadwalls

Shovelers 

The islands in the pool by Sandgrounders were inundated with just the bund between the pools to provide loafing room for shovelers, wigeons and mallards. Ironically, Sandgrounders itself provided the worst views of the birdlife today.

Walking by Marine Drive towards Crossens

I walked along the path by the inner marsh down to Crossens. The difference between the heaving masses on the inner marsh and the apparent emptiness of the outer marsh was striking. The emptiness was only apparent. I eventually found a distant couple of little egrets, they'd been conspicuously absent so far today. There were mallards and gadwalls skulking in the pools and every so often a head would poke above the tall grasses as a pink-footed goose played sentry. There were dozens of geese near the road, I suspect there were hundreds far out on the salt marsh judging by the number of heads that bobbed up whenever a crow passed by. A passing female-type marsh harrier was mobbed by dozens of meadow pipits.

On my side of the road robins and goldfinches fidgeted about in the hawthorns and gorse bushes. I saw a bird pounce-hunting from the fence some way ahead of me. I expected it to be a stonechat and was surprised that it was a grey wagtail.

Marshside Inner Marsh 

Approaching the boundary fence between Marshside and Crossens I was amused to notice that every fifth post had a carrion crow sitting on it. Then I realised that one of the crows halfway along was twice the size of the next nearest carrion crow. I'm not used to ravens sitting about round here, they're nearly always going somewhere. There was a sudden commotion and a cloud of a couple of hundred small birds — meadow pipits, linnets, skylarks and goldfinches — erupted from the marsh. The male merlin that caused the commotion snatched a skylark from the air and took to to a far fence post to eat.

Stonechat 

A buzzard sat on the boundary fence to the inner marshes, over towards the bund. Closer by a couple of reed buntings fussed about in the hawthorns and a pair of stonechats supervised my passing by from the safety of their gorse bush.

Crossens Inner Marsh was bustling with black-tailed godwits and wigeons. I struggle to visualise a thousand anything, I think there were easily a thousand of each here. Scores of lapwings, shovelers, teals and mallards were very heavily outnumbered. Half a dozen golden plovers were dark, dumpy shapes amongst a group of sleeping godwits in their plain Winter pale greys. A charm of goldfinches flew over from the outer marsh to twitter in the roadside trees.

Black-tailed godwits, lapwings and wigeons 

Goldfinches 

Crossens Outer Marsh 

I crossed the road to look for geese on the outer marsh and disturbed a flock of a couple of dozen woodpigeons. There were a few dozen pink-footed geese on the marsh near the road, there were lots more half-hidden in the long grass on the salt marsh. Way out over on Banks Marsh were a couple of hundred Canada geese. All told it was very quiet for November. I wonder if I'll be seeing the Todd's Canada goose this Winter, or any bean geese.

Pink-footed geese 

The white shapes out on the marsh were black-headed gulls, shelducks and three little egrets. An immature marsh harrier floated by and upset a flock of mipits. A female-type marsh harrier, possibly the same one I saw before, hunted low over the far salt marsh. A paler brown bird, fast but buoyant, shot across the marsh. My first instinct was that it was a hen harrier but the moment I got my binoculars onto the bird it was obvious it was a short-eared owl. It headed off towards the sand plant.

Stonechats

I looked in vain for any pipits or wagtails on the marsh next to the road. I was rather hoping to find a water pipit but I wasn't even finding any meadow pipits or pied wagtails. Small crowds of wigeons bustled about in the little pools while more whistled from the River Crossens where they loaded at the waterside with dozens of teal.

Pink-footed geese and wigeon
I wish this was a technically better photo. The odd-looking object in the centre is a drake wigeon in eclipse plumage scratching its belly.

Walking along the bund

I crossed back over and walked back into Marshside along the bund. What I lost in walking with the low sun in my eyes I gained by looking back at the wildfowl and waders glowing in the light. I'd spent the afternoon making sure that all the wigeons and teals were our Eurasian species and none of their American counterparts and so I ended the visit. My not finding any doesn't necessarily mean there were none to be found somewhere in the crowds, the sheer number of birds is daunting. A few redshanks and handfuls of pintails were easier for my poor old mind to process.

Wigeons

Mallards, wigeons and black-tailed godwit

Redshank 

Pintails, mallard and greylags 

Wigeons and pintails 
Again, another which I wish was technically better, the pintail to the right at the front is a first-Winter drake.

Pintails and mallard

I wandered back and struck lucky with the bus and the train. My first whooper swans of the Winter were feeding on a ploughed field just before Bescar Lane Station.

Marshside