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