Trains stop play

By Burneside Station

It was another bright, sunny morning after a very wet night. It hadn't been on the day's game plan to spend over half an hour stuck at a signal in Trafford Park on my way into Manchester. Which rather scotched the day's plans for a trip out to Leighton Moss, the connections being as they are I'd get an hour in before sunset.

I caught the late-running Blackpool train to try and retrieve something from the day, the Barrow train sits at Preston for quarter of an hour and there was an outside chance we could catch it up (if you look at the timetables there's no chance but I've ridden the rails long enough to know how driver switchover works when there are delays on the network). We just missed it so I kicked my heels waiting for the Windermere train and weighed up the pros and cons of changing at Lancaster and having that hour at Leighton Moss.

The weather turned cooler and greyer as we travelled North and I was dead browned off. I decided to give up and go home via Windermere, my thinking being that an hour or two travelling through a landscape of sheep grazing islands in flooded fields with a backdrop of glowering grey hills merging with glowering grey skies might cheer me up. And so it did.

Merseyside bumper bundle

Preening redshanks, New Brighton

It was a bright, sunny day after a very wet night so I headed for the seaside. The problem with December is that you've no sooner arrived somewhere than the light begins to fade so I'm going to try and "front-load" this month's birdwatching before the short days cramp my style.

I got the Liverpool train, noting the return of woodpigeons along the way and that they were all feeding or loafing in trees and none on the ground. The wariness of newcomers? I'm becoming persuaded that "our" woodpigeons don't come back for the Winter.

New Brighton sea front, Liverpool Docks in the background

At Liverpool I got myself an all areas Saveaway and went to New Brighton, hoping to get purple sandpiper onto the year list. The tide was on the ebb when I arrived at the sea front and there was already plenty of beach for gulls, waders and dog walkers to use.

Herring gull

Herring gulls and black-headed gulls were much in evidence, common gulls and lesser black-backs needed looking for though there were a few about. I just saw the one great black-back. I browsed through the gulls, just in case. My first Bonaparte's gull, Mediterranean gull and my only Laughing gull were at New Brighton and a lad can dream.

Most of the oystercatchers had moved on. Redshanks bathed and preened in pools before flying out to the retreating tideline.

Redshanks

Herring gulls

Dozens of cormorants and herring gulls loafed on the sea defences by the lighthouse. Starlings bustled about on the tops, turnstones and oystercatchers about the bottom. As the tide ebbed the gulls started to drift away, all the quicker when an elderly couple of dog walkers thought it would be a fine idea to climb over the sea defence until they discovered it wasn't.

Cormorants, herring gulls, oystercatchers and great black-back

New Brighton Lighthouse 

A wander round found more gulls, redshanks, turnstones and starlings and crowds of pigeons on the car park. A dozen black-headed gulls dozed on the pontoons. I was disappointed but not surprised not to find any purple sandpipers, the mild Autumn has postponed a lot of Winter visitors.

Next stop was Lunt Meadows, long due a proper visit by me this year. I had twenty minutes to wait for the 133 at Waterloo so I said a quick hello to Crosby Marine Lake where the herring gulls and coots carpeted the grass by the boating pond. A quick look over the pond found coots, mute swans and tufted ducks but I didn't notice any mallards. An equally quick look over the lake found a dabchick fishing on its own out in midwater.

Roughley's Wood 

I got off the 133 at Lunt and had a brief nosy in Roughley's Wood. At first I didn't think the mixed tit flocks were including long-tailed tits then the flock bouncing across the main path included more than two dozen of them. The blue tits were staying in the treetops with goldfinches and chaffinches, the great tits at the bottom of the canopy and the long-tailed tits tended to move between the lower canopy and the undergrowth, which was busy with robins and wrens.

A kestrel was hovering over near the car park to Lunt Meadows. Greenfinches passed low overhead, higher up there was a steady traffic of black-headed gulls and herring gulls heading for the coast.

Lapwings

Lapwings, teals, wigeons and mallards were settling down on the main pool. Shovelers dabbled midwater and a couple of dozen Canada geese cruised about. Moorhens and pied wagtails fussed about the water margins while the coots squabbled in that half-hearted way I associate with sleepy toddlers in a grump.

Lunt Meadows 

I'd walked round for a look over the pool from the screen on the East side, finding myself a goosander hiding in plain sight on the open water. I stepped away from the screen, turned onto the path and came face to face with a short-eared owl sitting on a fencepost almost within arm's reach. The owl slipped sideways from the fence — I don't know any other bird that can fly sideways effortlessly like a short-eared owl can — then slowly circled round and flew over to the open meadow. By this time I'd retrieved my camera and took what is unequivocally the worst photo I have ever taken of an owl. Which I'll be keeping for the memory.

Lunt Meadows 

I got another, more prolonged though distant, view of the owl on the way back as it drifted over the meadow and round the edge of the wood.

Short-eared owl
Not a great picture but substantially better than my first one today.

The chaffinches were going to bed as I walked past Roughley's Wood and the blackbirds were having one last go at the hawthorn berries. As I waited for the bus back to Waterloo the hedgerow fizzed with house sparrows and the big trees on the corner of the road were becoming black with jackdaws. The journey home was nicely uneventful and I was ready for a pot of tea when I got there.

Roughley's Wood 

Irlam Locks

Black-headed gulls 

It was a bright sunny morning and I'd had two hours' sleep. The usual array of a dozen black-headed gulls danced for worms on the school playing field while two dozen spadgers demolished suet blocks in the back garden. The black-headed gulls disappeared before noon. A few herring gulls floated in, saw there was no playground activity and moved on.

Black-headed gulls 

Fortified by tea and toast I set out for a lunchtime walk — it had struck me as a nice symmetry to begin and end the month with a stroll round Irlam Locks. I'd no sooner got to the garden gate when the clouds rolled in. 

I got the 256 into Flixton and walked down Irlam Road. Woodpigeons were suddenly back and adorning chimney pots along the way. When I got off at Towns Gate the wind had an edge to it and every so often the sun poked through a hole in the clouds. Pigeons clattered about rooftops, starlings bubbled and squeaked as they gathered in the treetops and house sparrows clamoured in hedgerows.

Irlam Locks 

There weren't many small birds about on Irlam Locks, the thin cover not providing much protection from the wind. Blackbirds rummaged round in the brambles while dunnocks and robins kept to the hedge bottoms.

Black-headed gulls

Pairs of mallards and a single mute swan floated down the Manchester Ship Canal while a pair of gadwalls dozed under the far bank. There were more mallards with the crowd of black-headed gulls by the locks, some on the water and more loafing on the lockside. It occurred to me it would be nice to find a Mediterranean gull in the crowd, I've had a poor year for them, but all that wasn't black-headed gull was a couple of lesser black-backs and a common gull. A heron croaked loudly as it flew in and settled down at the end of the lock.

Black-headed gulls

Yet more black-headed gulls were fussing about the water treatment works with a dozen or so magpies. I couldn't find any wagtails and it's long months since I last saw oystercatchers here.

Irlam Locks, looking downstream to the railway bridge

Pigeons

As I crossed the lock it started to rain. A hundred or so pigeons loafed on the lockside downstream of the gates. Down at the end of the lock cormorants dried their wings in the rain. Moorhens bustled across the canal but there was just the one great crested grebe. A couple of pied wagtails skittered about the Irlam side of the locks.

Manchester Ship Canal from Cadishead Way 

Walking along Cadishead Way I was hoping there'd be small birds bouncing about in the trees by the canal but they had more sense than me. I decided I'd walk over to Liverpool Road and get the 100 to the Trafford Centre and thence home.

River Irwell Old Course, by The Boathouse 

Crossing over, I walked along the River Irwell Old Course to Princes Park. A great tit called in the trees by The Boathouse and a grey wagtail flitted about the waterside. Moorhens, mallards and coots sheltered by the bankside, except for those moorhens intent on chasing each other across the path. The rain was at its most intense when the low sun lit up the trees like a stage set. Approaching the park a mixed tit flock — quite a lot of long-tailed tits and blue tits and a pair of great tits — bounced through the alders and willows and coincided with a small flock of goldfinches.

River Irwell Old Course 

I walked through the park and struck lucky with the bus. The rain stopped as we passed through Irlam, which was a blessing as I'd missed the 25 and had to get the 250 and walk through the park home. Lesser black-backs and black-headed gulls flew overhead to roost and the park was dead quiet save the magpies on the football pitch.

Lostock Park

Foulridge

Goodander

A red-throated diver's been on Lower Foulridge Reservoir the past few days which gave me the excuse to visit part of Lancashire I've neglected this year.

At Preston Station 

I got the train to Colne, fretting about the connections until I realised I was on the right Blackpool train to make an easy connection at Preston with no fuss whatsoever. In the ten minutes at Preston it changed from being a mild, cloudy day to torrential rain and I wondered if I was being quite wise. It was still pouring down at Colne so I decided to get the bus into Foulridge rather than walking. Luckily the rain had blown over three quarters of an hour later when I started walking, the buses apparently having been diverted.

By Skipton Road 

The wind asserted itself as I walked up Skipton Road to the reservoirs and I was glad of the shelter of some roadside trees. Looking over to Upper Foulridge Reservoir I couldn't see much save a cormorant and a goldeneye on the water. On this side of the road every tree trunk had a squirrel.

Coming onto Lower Foulridge Reservoir 

I joined the path by Lower Foulridge Reservoir, disturbing a couple of mallards and a pair of teal as the path came down to the waterside. The last time I came here, last Autumn, the reservoir was barely half full with great stretches of muddy shore. Today it was full to the brim.

Robins and wrens sang and a couple of blue tits and a great tit bounced through the trees. They proved to be the rearguard of a mixed tit flock that would be accompanying me as I walked along the Southern edge of the reservoir. The long-tailed tits in the flock had no qualms about coming within arm's length but were off like a shot whenever the camera got their measure.

Long-tailed tit

Lower Foulridge Reservoir 

There were nearly a dozen great crested grebes out on the water, a couple of territorial males being very vocal indeed, barking at younger-looking birds they didn't like the look of. I could also find a couple of goldeneyes and a raft of black-headed gulls but no sign of any diver.

Lower Foulridge Reservoir 

I carried on looking through the trees as I walked along but I wasn't seeing even a likely candidate for a diver. I let on to a couple of local birdwatchers (I've an idea one was the chap who found the hoopoe last year) and they told me it flew off at dusk last night. Ah well, no matter, it was okay walking weather and it's a nice walk.

The path by the Southern margin of the reservoir 

This is the first time I've seen Polytrichum moss on top of a dry stone wall, though it was dry only in the sense of having no cement.

Goosander

Half a dozen redhead goosanders bobbed about by the sailing club. Midwater another redhead was accompanied by a drake. 

Goosander

The wind was blowing sun and showers at almost minute intervals. The blue tits and blackbirds in the hedgerow by the path kept to the depths, breaking cover only when the gaps in the hedge gave them no other option. A coal tit in a tree by the road was a little hardier but it dived for cover when a particularly heavy — but mercifully short — burst of rain passed through.

Incoming squall

One of the sunny spells

I completed the circuit of the reservoir and checked the buses. Had it been earlier in the day — or the year — I'd have taken the M5 to Barnoldswick and the bus round from there to Clitheroe, just to explore a bit. But it wasn't so I got the M5 to Burnley, the timings being such that I would have been kicking my heels for the best part of an hour waiting for the next train at Colne. It was a long journey home, made the longer and more wearisome by late and cancelled trains. I think I'll give them a miss this weekend .

Lower Foulridge Reservoir 

Etherow Country Park

Mandarin duck

I'd had one of those night's sleep where the sound of arrival of the bin men is the cue to finally doze off, which put the kibosh on the day's plans. I decided to bob over to Etherow Country Park for a look at the mandarin ducks and to see if I'd have any more luck with dippers than I have had lately. I got the train into town, the idea being to get the train to Marple and walk through Brabyns Park over to Etherow Country Park. The idea being. That train got cancelled a few minutes after it was due to leave, waiting until the train to Rose Hill Marple on the next platform had left so that anyone wanting to go to Romiley or Marple were out of luck. So I got the train to Stockport and the 383 to Compstall Village and walked into Etherow Country Park about ten minutes earlier than if I'd waited for the next Marple train.

Etherow Country Park, by the car park

The lake by the car park was busy with waterfowl. The usual gangs of coots, mallards and Canada geese were there but there were also more mute swans than I've seen here in ages and the tufted ducks were back. I could only see one of the usual pair of farmyard geese, the Canada x greylag hybrid goose was still about and there were moorhens everywhere. Add to that about fifty black-headed gulls and the usual crowds of pigeons and jackdaws and it was quite lively.

Etherow Country Park 

Walking down to the weir I kept bumping into robins and dunnocks in the pathside vegetation. Goldfinches twittered in the tops of alders, long-tailed tits bounced through hawthorns and mixed tit flocks — great tits, blue tits and coal tits — skittered about the beech woods. For some reason the long-tailed tits stayed in their family groups and didn't mix with the others.

It was a while before I saw my first mandarins of the day, a pair lurking with mallards under the bank of the canal. The crowds turned out to be on the mill pond at the head of the canal.

River Etherow 
The waterfall is the overflow from the canal

The river was very high and running fast. I looked for dippers or wagtails because you never know your luck but it was a fool's errand, there were hardly any rocks above water. A pair of mistle thrushes sat at the top of a bare tree by the weir.

Mistle thrush

Jelly ear fungus

Keg Wood 

Looking over towards Ludworth Moor

I hadn't been walking long in Keg Wood before my legs told me we weren't doing this. Up to then I'd only been seeing robins and woodpigeons in the wood. As I stood and debated whether or not to force myself on with the walk a mixed tit flock flew over to see what I was up to and to tell me to beggar off. The vanguard was a nuthatch with a couple of great tits. More great tits, blue tits and coal tits flew in and I took the hint and headed back. Which was as well as I was dead beat by the time I got to the bus stop. I don't know what was wrong with me today.

Etherow Country Park 

Along the way I encountered a big group of mandarins loafing in drowned willows on the canal. The drakes were doing a lot of puffed-up breasts and flaunting of orange sails for the ladies, which were all being suitably demure about it. All charmingly different to the rugby scrums the mallards were indulging in by the car park.

Mandarin duck

Mandarin duck

Mandarin ducks