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 

Rain stopped play

For all the feeders in the back garden have been replenished it was a quiet morning in the back garden, I think the sparrows suspect the Big Garden Birdwatch is ongoing. The school playing field was strangely quiet, a handful of black-headed gulls first thing and only a common gull at lunchtime as I walked over to the station.

It was another grey day and I wasn't much up for the planned outing so I had an early lunch, got the train into town and played public transport bingo. Which is how I ended up on the 203 bus heading for Debdale Park with the intention of having another look at the Gorton Reservoirs. Three stops before my destination the sky turned black and it started pouring down. For once common sense prevailed. I stayed on the bus and made my way home via a circuitous route, counting the woodpigeons and jackdaws along the way and noting the dozen redwings in a tree in Reddish town centre. The rain calmed down on the approach to sunset. Tomorrow is another day.

Elton Reservoir

Tufted ducks

It was a surprisingly sunny morning so I set off for Elton Reservoir to see if the first-Winter scaup that was there all last week had decided to linger awhile.

Car park feeding station 

I got off the 471 just after the petrol station and walked down to Nigel's Lane and thence to the car park by the sailing club. The hedgerows were fizzing with robins, blue tits and goldfinches. As were the feeders in the tree by the car park. They were joined by great tits, greenfinches and long-tailed tits. There was a notable absence of chaffinches, perhaps they were put off by the wind which every so often would shake all the goldfinches off the feeders. A buzzard passed overhead and was chi-acked by magpies.

Elton Sailing Club 

I had a squint at the reservoir, very much in the manner of Jack Palance staring into the sun. The reservoir was very full. A lone mute swan sat in the corner, there were no Canada geese and just half a dozen mallards drifting by the bank. Out on the water the silhouettes of dozens of coots and black-headed gulls bobbed about on the choppy water.

I looked at the state of the path and concluded that I wouldn't be having much fun negotiating the muddier stretches while trying to pick out the runners and riders amongst wobbly silhouettes. I walked round past the sailing club to have a look over the Reservoir from the South bank. As I passed the farmhouse a kestrel flew over and hovered over the garden at head height before quickly drifting down the hedgerow and over the fields.

Elton Reservoir 

As I climbed onto the South bank the issue of sun in my eyes became suddenly theoretical as the wind blew a bank of thick, dark clouds our way. I disturbed a grey wagtail as I started walking on the puddle-strewn path and it disappeared into the grass down the bank.

Great crested grebe 

The change of light greatly worked in my favour. I could now pick out the small raft of tufted ducks amongst the coots by the mouth of the creek and the common gulls amongst the black-headed gulls. There weren't many large gulls about and they were 2:1 herring gulls to lesser black-backs. A couple of great crested grebes drifted about, half a dozen goldeneyes popped up from nowhere and there were lots more tufted ducks but I wasn't seeing me a scaup.

Tufted ducks

The weather got progressively less pleasant but I persevered. I got to the point where I decided to concentrate on the gulls on the irrational premise that the scaup would turn up if I stopped looking for it. A drake goosander turned up instead.

Goosander

I reached the path to Withins Reservoir and had one last look around for the scaup on Elton Reservoir. The rules of dramatic suspense would have it that this is the point at which the scaup hove into view. It didn't.

All the Canada geese were on the field behind the trees to the North of Elton Reservoir. The field by the path, which I'm told is Capsticks, was full of horses and woodpigeons but, strangely, no wagtails, meadow pipits or lapwings. I've yet to get meadow pipits onto the year list despite the visits to Chat Moss and the Sefton coast.

Walking to Withins Reservoir 

The path up to Within Reservoir was a bubbling brook. The reservoir was full to overflowing, very different to my last visit. There were more Canada geese by the far bank with a handful of mallards but any hopes the scaup might be hanging out here for a change came to naught.

Withins Reservoir 

I walked back to the path that leads to St Andrews Road. The weather had brightened which seemed to provoke a couple of song thrushes into song. I walked down to the bus stop to get the 98 into Manchester and passed singing collared doves and starlings along the way. Yet another dip — smew, shore lark, white-fronted goose, now scaup. I felt a bit despondent for a few minutes until I noticed that I was still matching last year's progress with the year list. It's a marathon, not a sprint.

Big garden birdwatch

As ever the spadgers made themselves scarce as soon as I started recording what was in the garden for this year's Big Garden Birdwatch. Which gave the goldfinches and long-tailed tits the opportunity to linger over their meals instead of rushing in and out. 

The dunnocks were busy chasing each other round the currant bushes, the robins seemed similarly inclined, too. It's not always easy to tell the first steps in the dance from ordinary aggressive behaviour but it quickly turns into a ritualised version of the bobbing about with a puffed-up chest and doesn't finish with a punch-up even though in the early stages of pair bonding the female tends to fly off to think things over for a bit.

Over the road the three dozen black-headed gulls loafing and dancing for worms after the football match was a shadow of earlier years' totals but pretty good by recent standards. Today's large gulls were three common gulls, two first-Winter herring gulls and a first-Winter lesser black-back. I've not been seeing many rooks in this week, there was just the one today, I wonder if they're busy at work on the rookeries in the Mersey Valley. The jackdaws have spent the past week or so arguing over chimney pots. Judging by the proprietorial air of the pairs sitting on every other chimney this afternoon I think they've sorted themselves out. For now, at least.

Greater Manchester bumper bundle

Moorhen, Crime Lake

It was a bright, sunny day and the school playing field was filled with the excited shouts of P.E. teachers. Some white-fronted geese have been grazing on a field near Daisy Nook Country Park this past few days so I decided it was time I had a visit down there.

I just missed the train I was aiming for so did what I should have done in the first place and got the bus into town, crossed Piccadilly Gardens and got the 76, getting off just where it turns off Ashton Road East onto Westminster Road. I walked back to the corner and walked down Cutler Hill Road to the car park by Crime Lake. The geese had been reported on a field just to the North of the lake.

Crime Lake 

Crime Lake's a small reservoir, the feed for the Bardsley Canal which runs through Daisy Nook roughly parallel with the River Medlock. A couple of groups of Canada geese lined the far banks, half a dozen goosanders cruised by them. Mallards, tufted ducks, coots and moorhens bobbed about on the water closer to hand. Titmice and chaffinches bobbed about in the tree-lined slope behind the wall on the other side of the path and a nuthatch sang from somewhere near the road. The field which had hosted the white-fronted geese was on the far side of the lake and the part of it I could see from here looked empty save a couple of carrion crows.

Bardsley Canal 

Stairway to
the unknown 

I walked a way down the canal which was busy with people taking advantage of a mild, sunny weekend day. I decided I needed to get down to Crime Lane and walk round past the farm so I could see the rest of that field. I was wondering whether the perilous-looking flight of steps in a gap in the wall led down to Crime Lane when a couple of birdwatchers asked me the same thing. Checking the map the answer was yes. I let them go first, promising to give them a five minute head start so I didn't jinx their search. It's not a flight of steps I'd recommend to anyone with walking difficulties, the turn at the top is a bit tricky. Anyway, I got down and walked along the fly-tipped rubbish-strewn lane and met the birdwatchers who told me the geese were nowhere to be seen.

I wasn't awfully surprised but decided to have a dawdle down the lane anyway. Magpies, woodpigeons and black-headed gulls flitted about the fields. A pair of herring gulls canoodled in the middle of one of the fields. The equestrian centre down the road was identifiable by the crowd of jackdaws calling from the trees nearby. I was seeing no sign of white-fronted geese on the field by the lake, just molehills and carrion crows. I walked further, curious to find where a buzzard was calling from. The brook feeding the lake is hidden by trees and a pair of buzzards were sitting in there calling at each other.

Crime Lane 

Should I turn back and explore Daisy Nook or carry on down to Ashton Road and get a bus from there? I decided to carry on, I'd come back for a proper explore of Daisy Nook on a quieter day. I walked down and got the 409 to Rochdale. A couple of walkers told me a friend of theirs had seen the geese fly off that morning.

The plan was to head over to Elton Reservoir to see if the scaup was still on there. The plan was. It was too nice a day to spend it on buses so on a whim I decided to get off at Tandle Hill Road and have a wander round the country park. I ended up getting off at Thornham Old Road because two bus stops were closed because the pavements were dug up.

By Thornham Old Road 

As I walked down Thornham Old Road goldfinches and robins called from the hedgerows. A crowd of black-headed gulls loafed in one field; a crowd of common gulls, herring gulls, magpies and crows fussed about just over the brow of another. I took the footpath up to Tandle Hill, tiptoeing my way through feeding dunnocks at one point.

Tandle Hill 

The woods were very quiet, or would have been if it weren't for the occasional rattle of magpies. Up top the views were spectacular in the clear January light. There was a little more birdlife on the way down to Oozewood Road: a couple of blue tits flew from a gorse bush into the trees, a chaffinch called from a bush, a kestrel hovered over a field and was chased off by a carrion crow.

Winter Hill in the distance

I seriously contemplated turning West on Oozewood Road and walking into Stakehill but my knees suggested it made more sense to head back to Rochdale Road, get the 409 and the train back to Manchester from Rochdale. Which I did. All the woodpigeons I hadn't been seeing on Tandle Hill were in the fields by Oozewood Road. Had I a mind to I might have felt disappointed by the day's birdwatching but I'd had a couple of nice walks in glorious weather so I wasn't complaining.

Not quite the last flight of steps of the day

Dreich

Mandarin duck, Etherow Country Park 

The pouring rain of the morning persuaded me against any jolly jaunts out and I caught up with my sleep. The sun came out at lunchtime to gull the unwary. I went over to Etherow Country Park to take photos of mandarin ducks in the rain. You don't realise how bad the light is until you see the shutter speeds your camera chooses for the scene.

Mandarin duck 

Mandarin duck 

Female mandarin duck 

Mandarin ducks 

Mandarin duck 

Don't think I didn't check out all the tufted ducks on the lake to make sure they were all tufties.

Etherow Country Park