Crosby Marine Park

Tufted ducks

It was a grey and windy day. I debated whether or not to take my raincoat and left it at home, I reminded myself to slap on the factor thingy despite the cloud and just caught the Liverpool train. I had wondered whether to not bother with a walk today as the Achilles tendon had been really sore all night, I decided the exercise would help more than hinder.

I'd decided I'd go and get an all-areas Saveaway, have a look round Crosby Marine Park, see if I could get lucky with the roseate tern at Seaforth again then see how I felt about moving on to another site.

The journey out confirmed the feeling I've had for a couple of days that the usual July doldrums had descended. Even the woodpigeons sitting on railway furniture were fitful and unreliable sightings. Yesterday I was seeing more large whites than woodpigeons from the train, today the weather was too cool and gloomy for butterflies. It poured down as the train arrived at Brunswick but cleared up slightly as I got off at Sandhills to wait for the Southport train.

Crosby Marine Lake 

The wind asserted itself as I walked into the park. Pied wagtails and starlings banked and drifted unsteadily before dropping into the grass. A few black-headed gulls moped around on the grass, a few more drifted about the lake which was quite deserted save a cormorant and a couple of sailboarders. A couple of common terns flew by and over to Seaforth Nature Reserve.

Herring gulls

A crowd of a couple of dozen herring gulls and a handful of lesser black-backs loafed on the grass by the boating pond, a few more drifted about on the lake. There weren't many mallards or Canada geese but plenty of coots and tufted ducks.

Starlings

The thicket of buckthorn and brambles at the corner of the lake was busy with starlings and house sparrows though only a couple of either could be seen. The rest were betrayed by cheeps and mutterings and the frequent bouncing about of twigs.

Sea holly

The dunes provided a modicum of shelter before the full onslaught of the seafront. It was lowish tide and it felt like the entire beach was making a bid to cover the promenade. I was walking round like a pebble-dashed idiot as the sand clung to the sun block on my face and I'll be emptying sand out of my ears for weeks. 

Crosby Beach 

The usual party of carrion crows looked a bit disconsolate as they sheltered as best could behind sand mounds. A pied wagtail flew in and immediately ran for shelter. All the gulls were loafing at the tideline, even the black-headed gulls that usually rummage about on the exposed sand banks or go shrimping in pools. The wind was so strong even a great black-back passing close by had to tack into it to make progress. All the other gulls and the common terns and cormorants rode the wind and headed straight for the reserve.

Curlew

It felt slightly more sheltered as I walked along the fence to look over the nature reserve. Shelducks dozed on the grass, linnets and greenfinches muttered from the bramble thicket. There were more shelducks on the water with dozens of Canada geese and a handful of bar-tailed godwits. There was a lot of noise coming from the tern colony but I couldn't tell the cause. As I moved down I could see a few curlews and lapwings with the shelducks and godwits on the pool and there were a couple of curlews asleep on the grass. Oystercatchers and black-headed gulls made a racket as they flew about.

At last I could see what was going on with the terns. A group of people on boats were at the rafts, it looked like they were ringing the young terns. I was surprised they hadn't put helmets on, I wouldn't fancy being cracked on the head by an angry tern. Above the rafts a cloud of noisy protest wheeled around. I couldn't imagine for one moment I'd be able to pick out the roseate tern, if indeed it was there to be found. A rather clean-looking bird I had to put down as a "commic" teen as I didn't get a long enough look at it to confirm it as an Arctic tern before it vanished into the crowd and I couldn't pick it up again later. While I was searching for it a very white, long-billed shape did a figure of eight across my line of view and I had the roseate tern on the day list.

Common tern

A couple of terns with beaks full of fish wheeled around the marine lake waiting for the interlopers to get out of the way so they could return to their nests.

Southern marsh orchid

The Southern marsh orchids in the grass by the car park were nearly all gone to seed. I wandered over to the little nature reserve for a walk round, beckoned hither by singing blackbirds, blackcaps and chiffchaffs. This is one of those places where you can reliably hear Cetti's warbler so of course I didn't hear one today.

I limped back into Waterloo and decided not to visit another site, tempting though it was to go and see what was on Lunt Meadows. I took a circuitous route home and persuaded the cat to come in out of the rain.