Leighton Moss

Mallards, pintails, teal and wigeons 

After a couple of days' four-hour traipses I thought I'd give my poor old bones a rest and got an old man's explorer ticket, headed off for Leighton Moss and decided not to have another go at the jack snipe on the coastal pools that's been reported regularly since I dipped on it. (See also hawfinch and bittern at Marbury.) So blow me down when I got to the reserve and the lady at the entrance told me that one had been found amongst the snipe at Tim Jackson's Hide during the wader count. I promised not to go and look for it and jinx everyone else's chances.

The Hideout was very quiet. A squirrel and two blue tits were on the feeders, a moorhen and a couple of dunnocks were feeding on the ground and the robins and mallards were inside the Hideout demanding food with menaces. I was allowed to leave after turning all my pockets out.

Tufted ducks and coots

In contrast, the pool at Lilian's Hide was jam-packed. Pintails, mallards and teal dozed by the side, a raft of a couple of dozen each of tufted ducks and coots cruised around the pool gathering up pochards and gadwalls along the way. A herd of first-Winter mute swans were feeding in one corner, a very aggressive pair of mute swans were making territorial claims of the far corner and were making it clear that greylags were not allowed.

Heading for the reedbed hides

It was a very quiet walk through the reedbeds, a robin every fifty yards and every so often a blue tits or wren. It had become a bright, cold lunchtime and quite pleasant walking through the reedbeds out of the biting wind.

Snipe

Snipe and teal

Despite myself I went to Tim Jackson's Hide. It was almost as busy inside as out. Outside the pool was littered with shovelers and teal and what felt like hundreds but was really only a couple of dozen snipe bustled about in and out of the reeds and dead grass on the bank at the side of the hide. At first glance there were no snipe to be seen. A second glance found a couple out in the open. Subsequent glances proved that the grass was heaving with them. Every so often there'd be some furtive movement in the corner of the eye and a teal would helpfully trundle along and barge a snipe out into the open. I gave it half an hour but I couldn't turn any of them into jack snipe and nobody else was having any luck either. You really do have to be looking for something else to find one.

At the Griesdale Hide 

It was a bit quieter at the Griesdale Hide, a couple of dozen teal dabbling in the pool by the hide being the nearest thing to a crowd. The great black-backs were laying claim to the osprey nesting platform again and one of them shadowed a male marsh harrier as it flew over the pool. I can't imagine a marsh harrier being daft or desperate enough to take on a pair of great black-backs. A pair of buzzards soared over Griesdale Wood and a couple of ravens flew in and out of the reeds over by the farm fields.

Marsh harrier 

Marsh harrier 

Walking through the reedbeds 

On the way back I bumped into a small flock of redwings in the trees near the Sky Tower. The noise in the willow bushes next to Lilian's Hide turned out to be a very cross Cetti's warbler bouncing about the willow roots. The bullfinches higher up in the bushes were silently disbudding the ends of twigs.

I had another look in the Hideout in the hopes of seeing a marsh tit but had no joy so I headed for the station. Along the way I realised I hadn't seen any chaffinches which is very unusual here. It turned out they were all at the station. I had five minutes to wait for the train. While I was waiting a marsh tit flew into the hawthorn bush on the Barrow platform, sneezed and flew off into the car park.

The plan for a late afternoon bonus visit was scuppered because when I got to Preston the train I was aiming for was cancelled and I was damned if I was hanging round the station for an hour. I took a meandering route home instead. I've been noticing a few buzzards at train stations lately, today there was one in a tree by Earlstown Station as the train back to Manchester pulled in to stop there.

I'm getting into the habit of dipping on target birds but seeing as I'm seeing plenty else and getting some decent walks in I'm not unduly upset about it.