Marshside

Common sandpiper and tufted ducklings

It was cooler, cloudier and altogether better for walking weather so I headed over to Marshside. I didn't do so enthusiastically, the effects of last week's heat and humidity are taking some shaking off. Rather than faff around with connections in Manchester —  especially on a Monday! — I got the train to Liverpool and got the Southport train from there. 

The birdwatching from the train was pretty thin, I was even struggling to find woodpigeons and corvids along the way. The unseasonably brisk winds kept nearly all the smaller birds quiet and under cover. Even when I changed trains at Liverpool South Parkway where I can usually bump into robins, wrens and titmice on the embankments beside the platforms I wasn't seeing or hearing anything. (In fact, I didn't hear or see a robin all day.)

North of Liverpool we started to see plenty of herring gulls and lesser black-backs round the docks and warehouses. Teenage gangs of magpies bounced and strutted about the trackside of Bootle. The Sefton coast gave up a thin peppering of woodpigeons and jackdaws.

The strong wind had cleared most of the cloud when I got the 44 to Marshside and got off at Marshside Road. Starlings and house sparrows were busily to-ing and fro-ing between gardens, the school field and the marsh, pigeons flew about the chimney tops and house martins flew about the pigeons.

This time of year it's the Canada geese hiding in the tall grass.

The marshes were, for the most part, dry grasslands peppered with starlings and woodpigeons. Small herds of Canada geese, mostly a dozen or so birds each, grazed over Sutton's Marsh to my right. House martins skimmed the grass tops, goldfinches and linnets kept low as they flew across the road between marshes,  the skylarks sang at about rooftop height before settling quickly back down into cover.

Marshside Road 

Junction Pool 

Junction Pool was relatively quiet, just a couple of dozing teal, a shelduck and a handful of mallards with a dozen or so black-tailed godwits twittering together on an island.

From Nel's Hide 

I walked down to Nel's Hide, flocks of starlings rising and falling over the bund, the singing skylarks, reed buntings and meadow pipits struggling to be heard over the wind and the pipits struggling to keep to a clean course in their parachute song. House martins, swallows and a swift hawked low over the marsh. As I had a nosy from the Halfway Viewpoint a flock of lapwings, mostly juveniles, flew over to the marsh by the hide, which looked overwise deserted. An oystercatcher flew by but didn't settle.

Lapwings

Lapwings and redshanks

It was getting on for low tide so there weren't many waders about other than the lapwings. The adults were moulting and most had lost the longer feathers on their crests, making them similar in profile to the smudgy-faced youngsters. Three redshanks were sporadically noisy, fidgeting between the banks of the pool in front of the hide but not actually doing anything bar getting in the way of lapwings and starlings trying to have a bath. A herd of Canada geese grazing in the long grass had a variety of youngsters ranging from half-sized fluffy goslings to near enough full size adult looky-likeys. 

Spoonbill and lesser black-back

A handful of black-headed gulls floated by with a lot of attendant noise but the only large gull was a bathing lesser black-back. A chap who had joined me in the hide was busily opening all the windows when he said: "Spoonbill coming in!" And so it did, an adult spoonbill which joined the gull and got busy feeding.

Spoonbill and lesser black-back

It's nice to see a spoonbill being active. For years all my sightings of them had been of sleeping birds looking like a mattress on stilts. As it fed the lesser black-back was joined by a herring gull and a few minutes later by another lesser black-back. 

Spoonbill

After about ten minutes then spoonbill was off stage left. There was nothing much else doing so I bid the other chap good luck and walked back towards Marshside Road.

A scan over Sutton's Marsh from the seat at the road junction found me a group of moulting mallards on a pool and herons and little egrets skulking by creeks and drains. A wren came to object to my presence, I was surprised not to see or hear any whitethroats or stonechats.

Spoonbill

As I walked down to Sandgrounders I noticed the spoonbill had settled on the big pool here to feed behind an island covered in tufted ducks. It very obligingly flew over to feed on the near side of the island.

Tufted ducks 

Tufted ducks and spoonbill 

Tufted ducks and spoonbill 

Spoonbill 

Spoonbill 

A couple of cormorants and a great black-back dozed on another of the islands. A couple of black-headed gulls looked like they were still on nests in the long grass.

Tufted duck and ducklings 

Tufted ducks and their ducklings swam about on the pool in front of Sandgrounders. It looked like all the avocets had moved on, dozens of black-tailed godwits had moved in, including a few very grey juveniles. Most of the black-headed gulls had moved on, too. The remaining young gulls were at the flying stage and most of them were loafing with the adults on the bund.

Canada geese, black-tailed godwits and black-headed gulls 

Canada geese and black-tailed godwits 

Juvenile black-headed gull 

Black-tailed godwit 

Hen moorhen
For a couple of weeks when the youngsters are very young you can identify female moorhens by the red garters at the top of their thighs. These seem to be to help the youngsters find her while they are in cover.

Tufted ducks and ducklings

A couple of tufted ducklings seemed reluctant to leave the island in front of the hide despite their mother's calling for them. In the end she had to come and get them, a common sandpiper walking round to join them for a minute or two before pottering off round the back of the island.

There were a lot of black-tailed godwits feeding in the water at the back by the mouth of the creek. I scanned them in the hopes of finding some more waders. I found a couple of redshanks in the crowd then noticed something skittering about on the bank behind which turned out to be a juvenile pied wagtail. This, in turn, made me notice a wader that was too small to be a redshank and too big to be a dunlin. It eventually raised its head above the water so I could see its long, curved beak and obligingly walked in front of a couple of godwits so I could confirm it had black legs. Which is how curlew sandpiper got added to the year list.

Bee orchid

I mentioned to one of the ladies in the hide that I thought I'd missed out on bee orchids this year. "There's a couple flowering by the path still," she said and told me where they were. I'd been looking where they flowered last year, these were where they'd been flowering the year before and had been disturbed when the bank had needed a bit of repair. I could be forgiven for missing the larger spike of flowers as it was poking its way through a dewberry, I had no such excuse for missing the smaller one.

Bindweed
A lovely flower in the wild.

As I walked round for the bus a sedge warbler burst into song in a drain and a whitethroat churred at me before escorting its youngsters into deep cover.

I had ten minutes to wait for the train and the ride was uneventful until we got to Wigan and stayed at Wigan. Eventually we were told that we'd be going to Victoria instead of Oxford Road because of a fire (the Hotspur Press building by the station was burnt down and is now a prime city centre development site). A while later we were told the train wasn't going anywhere. I just had time to run round the corner and get the 132 to the Trafford Centre and thence home. It's been an eventful month on the rails.