Hodbarrow

Black-headed gulls and Sandwich terns

I had a pile of Go Anywhere On Northern return tickets burning a hole in my pocket with more on the way so I thought I'd best get one used up. I've been "going to Hodbarrow" since the end of March and have either been distracted or put off by the lousy train services between Lancaster and Preston, I thought I'd best get out there, have a nosy round, get it off my worry list. So off I went.

I set off early for me, the rush hour hell to be avoided of the weekday is a leisurely journey on a Saturday. I got the Windermere train to Lancaster and the Carlisle train from there. Swings and roundabouts, on a weekday this would be a lot less busy than it was today.

The birdwatching had been quiet on the way up. Even the coastal pools at Leighton Moss were quiet, a handful of avocets lingered with some black-headed gulls, little egrets and a great egret. A carrion crow chased a marsh harrier over the fields just beyond as a red deer hind and her two half-grown fawns watched on.

A grey and cloudy day got greyer and cloudier and distant hills became faded pedestals for rolling mists. The tide was coming in as the train went over the Kent at Arnside, the last redshank beating a retreat as we passed. A couple of dozen eiders bobbed about on the Leven by the viaduct in the company of a handful of mute swans and a couple of mallards.

We passed the gangs of herring gulls and lesser black-backs at Ulverston and Barrow and the great mass of large gulls at the waste management site just outside Barrow. As the train traveled up the Duddon Estuary dozens of black-headed gulls and oystercatchers shuffled closer together on the mudbanks as the tide rolled in with the brisk wind. I looked over to the old osprey nest on Arnaby Moss but saw no sign of its being in use.

I got off at Millom and walked the mile or so to Hodbarrow. It would have been a heavy and uncomfortable walk but the wind was so brisk it felt like Spring. House martins and swifts swooped about at rooftop height, beyond the houses swallows skimmed low over the fields and shot across the road at knee height.

Little egrets and cormorants 

The distant sounds of heavy machinery in need of a regiment of grease monkeys resolved itself into the grunts and croaks of nesting little egrets and cormorants. The cormorants had young in their nests, I think there were one or two juvenile little egrets but at the distance from the path across the lagoon to the trees it was impossible to be sure of it. A handful of herons lurked about the bank under the trees with a bunch of mallards and mute swans.

Walking towards the old lighthouse 

The wind was keeping all the small birds undercover but, mercifully, they weren't all for keeping quiet. Chiffchaffs and willow warblers sang in the trees, blackcaps, dunnocks and greenfinches in the bushes and blackbirds sang from both. The robins crept about silently and I was surprised to neither see nor hear any wrens.

Hodbarrow 

Out in the open whitethroats sang from the depths of gorse bushes, reed buntings from brambles and a lesser whitethroat claimed the biggest hawthorn bush as its own.

Common thyme

I remembered seeing bee orchid along this path in the past and I kept a look out just in case. There were no orchids that I could see but there was plenty else in bloom.

Kidney vetch

Centuary

At last I reached the corner of the lagoon and the start of the sea wall, I always trick myself by thinking the end of that North bay is the start of the sea wall when it's actually the three-quarter mark. A small group of Canada geese steamed out of this corner and headed for the crowds on the shingle beach. The tide was nearly in on the Duddon with just a tiny patch of beach yet to be invaded.

Duddon Estuary 

The tern and gull colony in the lagoon

It was late in the season and there wasn't the frenetic feeding activity on the tern colony. Earlier in the year I'd have been ducking my head as terns flew low over the seawall between estuary and nests. A few black-headed gulls flew over, a few lesser black-backs flew by. I was wondering if I'd missed the boat but every so often the wind dropped slightly and I could hear terns calling.

Sandwich terns and black-headed gulls 

As it happened I hadn't missed the boat. There were still lots of Sandwich terns and common terns out on the shingle beach, together with crowds of black-headed gulls. A lady in the hide said that the little terns had gone, they'd been crowded out by the black-headed gulls and hadn't had a good season. The black-headed gulls had had a good season by the looks of it, some nests having half-grown youngsters, many of the older juveniles being capable of flight. Whatever their stage of development, God help them should they stray into another bird's territory. Some of them got a serious pecking until their parents intervened. The Sandwich terns seemed more sedate but they were at least as noisy. Many of the juveniles were flying with their parents, begging as they went. The common terns were more thinly spread and it took me a while to start picking up the juveniles in the crowds of Sandwich terns and black-headed gulls. A few pairs of oystercatchers with chicks were dotted about in the grass, a ringed plover with a near full grown youngster lurked near cover at the front of the shingle beach. A great crested grebe sat on its nest in the middle of a crowd of juvenile gulls and terns bathing in a tiny inlet by the beach.

Common tern

Sandwich terns and black-headed gulls 
A juvenile Sandwich tern just scuttled into the grass on the left.

Canada geese, oystercatchers, black-headed gulls and Sandwich terns

Common tern

Juvenile black-headed gull and ringed plover
Two different plumage strategies for merging with a gravel beach.

Black-headed gull and Sandwich tern 

Sandwich terns and black-headed gulls
Juvenile Sandwich tern limbering up at the front.

Millom from Hodbarrow on a grey and gloomy day

Black-headed gulls 

Crowds of Canada geese were everywhere. Eiders, all the drakes in eclipse plumage, loafed on the water's edge while a couple of dozen red-breasted mergansers sat offshore with a few greylags and mute swans cruised about aimlessly. A cloud of black-headed gulls shot in the air as a great black-back passed over ominously low and settled back down the moment it had gone on its way. All in all it was a lazy June day on the colony more befitting a sunnier sort of day. A flock of sand martins flew in to join the swifts hawking low over the lagoon to make the picture complete.

Mute swans, Canada geese, greylags and red-breasted mergansers

Duddon Estuary 

I walked back and watched the breakers hitting the rocks on the estuary. It had been good walking weather so I decided to take the path that loops round away from the lagoon before returning to the car park. Most of this path runs through the trees and I thought I might hear and see more birds with a bit of cover from the wind. I was rewarded with more blackcaps, blackbirds, willow warblers and chiffchaffs and a family of long-tailed tits bouncing through the willows.

There was about ten minutes to wait for the train back to Lancaster. We passed Green Road and I kept an eye out for the abandoned osprey nest and was astonished to see an osprey standing on it. The eiders had been pushed upstream of the viaduct on the Leven with the tide. Redhead goosanders dozed with the mallards and black-headed gulls on the last remaining mudflat at Arnside.

I got off at Silverdale. I had the choice of mooching around for an hour at Lancaster for the Manchester train or mooching around for an hour at Leighton Moss for the same train and it was an easy decision. And the birds were a lot closer to hand.

Robin

Robins and blue tits rummaged about the hideout while more blue tits jostled with the great tits, chaffinches, greenfinches and goldfinches on the feeders. The jostling about was providing easy pickings for half a dozen mallards and a pair of crows.

Carrion crow

As I walked through the trees to Lilian's Hide blackcaps, chiffchaffs, wrens and a Cetti's warbler sang in the undergrowth.

Chaffinch 

I had Lilian's Hide to myself, a pleasant novelty. The black-headed gulls were noisy and fidgety and will soon be taking their kids further afield. The coots crowded in their corner, the mallards and gadwalls skulked by the reeds. Greylag geese, a great crested grebe and a shelduck cruised about. In the distance I could see the great black-backs have two youngsters in their platform nest.

Mallard and juvenile black-headed gull 

Did I have time to go and have a nosy at the Causeway Hide? I checked the trains as I left Lilian's Hide. I had time enough to walk to the causeway (but not the hide) and back then on to the station without having to rush. If I missed that train I'd be stuck here for two hours after closing time and it was looking like rain. So I walked down to the causeway and back. I was rather hoping to bump into the marsh tits having had no luck on the previous couple of visits. I had no luck today, either. I did hear a booming bittern and watched a marsh harrier floating over the reedbeds.

I got back to the station with seven minutes to spare for the train back as it was running four minutes late. A Cetti's warbler sang in the rain from the reserve car park as the train pulled in.