St Helens and Orrell

Tufted ducks, Taylor Park

It was a cold and frosty morning. The robin started singing at the first hint of dawn, the blackbird ran through a few practice notes and by sunrise the woodpigeon was singing in the sycamores. Not for the first time I was dubious of the welcome I should give the parakeet in the back garden.

I headed off to St Helens to see if I could add the ring-necked duck to the year list. The train to Warrington was five minutes late, which it always is unless you're running late yourself. Warrington bus station was as unlovely and unhelpful as ever with half the doors to buses not in use and no information on the screens, except in the bays that had been roped off for repairs. All one can do is wander vaguely between vantage points in the hope of seeing your bus. The only advantage it has over Piccadilly Gardens is that at least you're under cover. Arriva's 329 bus runs every half hour. After three quarters of an hour I got the little MD 329 to St Helens. It was a relief to be moving. Birdwatching by public transport involves a lot of hanging around in uncomely places.

Taylor Park 

From St Helens I got the 10a bus and was soon walking up Dunriding Road to Taylor Park. It was a bright, sunny day but cold with it and most of the lake was iced over leaving a channel of free water running most of its circumference. Consequently nearly all the ducks came close to the path whether or not anyone was throwing bird food out to them.

Mallards, Taylor Park 

Moorhen 

Mute swan and tufted duck

Black-headed gulls 

A few dozen black-headed gulls loafed on the ice when they weren't dashing over after duck food. A couple of common gulls mingled with them, the herring gulls stood to one side and didn't really settle.

Common gull 

Tufted duck

There was absolutely no problem getting very close views of the tufted ducks. The main problem was that just as you were nearly finished working through a group of them in search of the ring-necked duck they'd fly off because they'd heard the rustle of a paper bag and mallards being fed. It struck me forcibly that I'd probably not be able to pick out a ring-necked duck from a flock of tufties in flight. A lot of the drake tufties had very striking beaks with bright white bands behind the black nail at the tip but none were like the big spade-ended effort of a ring-necked duck and they all had bright white flanks and a ponytail.

Tufted duck

Tufted duck 

Tufted duck
I've been trying for ages to get a picture of this behaviour. Many's the time I've scanned a raft of tufted ducks and wondered about a light-backed bird and have it turn out to be a tuftie scratching its belly.

Tufted ducks 

Tufted duck
Not often you get to see the underside of the beak.

I spent a lot of time looking for the ring-necked duck with views like this

Tufted duck

I did a circuit of the pool without seeing the ring-necked duck, though I had a couple of false alarms with tufties diving and emerging in the shade of trees with the white flanks in shadow and wet ponytail flattened to the back of the head. I bumped into a few other people also having no luck. After an hour I started another circuit convinced, for no good reason, that the bird was out there and probably somewhere in the far corner with the trees on the bank blocking the view.

I kept coming back to a couple of sleeping beauties in this corner. One was definitely a drake tuftie. The other was probably a drake tuftie but the flanks weren't bright white, possibly it was a first-Winter bird still with some brown in the feathers. With its beak tucked into its back feathers I wasn't getting much else help with the identification. About the fourth time my eyes drifted that way a pair of tufties swam past this duck and it woke up and tagged along. It was the ring-necked duck and I'd walked past it at least twice and not clocked it. It was at the opposite end of the pool and I wanted a closer look and perhaps a photo so I walked round towards that corner. I was walking clockwise, it was swimming anticlockwise, then it dived. I lost it for a minute, didn't see where it came back up, when I found it it was swimming clockwise away from me. I turned round, walked a couple of hundred yards, the duck dived, bobbed up, swam anticlockwise. After five minutes of this I thought sod this for a game of soldiers. I noticed a couple of people with telescopes on the far bank, I hoped they were getting a better view of the bird than I was. Ironically I'd had a better view of it last Autumn when it was in the middle of the lake.

Mallard

I was in a scratchy sort of mood as I travelled back to the bus station. Missing the next bus to Wigan because I was too busy trying to find when the next bus to Wigan was due probably didn't help matters. Luckily they're very frequent. The 352 goes through Carr Mill, Billinge and Orrell and literally stops at the entrance of Orrell Water Park so I had an hour and a half's wander round.

Orrell Water Park 

The lakes were fairly quiet, a couple of dozen mallards, some tufted ducks and moorhens, a few coots and black-headed gulls. The water was open but there were a few bits of ice still drifting about in dark corners.

Greenslate Water Meadows 

A circuit of Greenslate Water Meadows had me bumping into a lot of blue tits, great tits and robins. A pair of blue tits were inspecting holes in trees and doing a lot of flirty chasing about in the willows. Chaffinches, dunnocks and moorhens were busy on the feeders. A couple of bullfinches wheezed in the trees on the field margins, nuthatches called and a song thrush sang from the trees by the brook. Walking back a flock of siskins flew into the treetops by the road and glowed in the low sun of the golden hour. I found my camera battery had run out.

Orrell Water Park 

I walked over to Orrell Station for the train to Manchester. Another song thrush sang from the opposite platform, as did a robin, a great tit and a woodpigeon while blackbirds and blue tits fidgeted about. 

It had been a scratchy, bitty sort of day but I'd seen and heard plenty of birds and got some exercise on a lovely Winter's day.

Taylor Park