Martin Mere

Mallard

Despite a bad night's sleep I was up and out for the train to Burscough Bridge and a walk down to Martin Mere and, probably due to a bad night's sleep, I had a 'phone that hadn't charged up properly, a back-up battery that had done similar and a lunch that was still in the fridge. It was going to be one of those days but it turned out that the birdwatching was in good form even if I wasn't.

Rooks

It was still August quiet on the train journey though the hundred or more black-headed gulls on the wet fields outside Parbold hinted at a change of season. I walked down Red Cat Lane from the station, brooding black clouds on one side of the road, sunshine on the other. The cool, brisk wind was sending the clouds away so the gardens of Preston could get a drop of rain. The fields were busy with small flocks, rather than crowds, of woodpigeons, jackdaws and rooks rummaging about in the stubble. Swallows skimmed low over the stubble as I walked past. There were more around the farmhouse at the corner of Curlew Lane with rather a lot more house martins. There was no sign of any wagtails of any kind, a robin was singing from the top of the barn they usually favour.

Curlew Lane 

On a whim I walked halfway up Curlew Lane looking for wagtails. There were a couple of pied wagtails with the lapwings, rooks and goldfinches on the ploughed field to the East, just crows and house martins on the stubble to the West. It didn't look like any birds at all were interested in the hay harvest beyond. I wasn't expecting to see any dragonflies about so a common darter patroling the grass verge was a nice surprise. A buzzard drifted low over the fields and headed over towards Crabtree Lane with absolutely no reaction at all from the assembled bird life. 

The Pennines from Curlew Road

Collared dove

I walked back and carried on down to Martin Mere. It might be August but the collared doves and woodpigeons had Spring fever, if they weren't feeding in the fields they were singing and billing and cooing on chimney pots.

Arriving at Martin Mere I went straight to the Discovery Hide for a nosy at the mere. I couldn't see many mallards on the near bank at first sight for the simple reason that they had cosied up to the hide out of the wind, I had to look down, not out. Scanning round there were lots more mallards huddled together on the leeward sides of all the islands. A handful of shovelers dabbled by the far bank, a gadwall loafed on one of the islands, all the shelducks were still in their moulting flocks on the Mersey and Ribble. Most of the noise was provided by Canada geese, greylags and the sprinkling of black-headed gulls. A couple of recently-fledged juvenile gulls were particularly noisy. There weren't many waders about, just a few lapwings and a couple of ruffs on the far bank. I popped into the Raines Observatory on the way to Ron Barker's hoping to see more waders at that end of the mere and finding none at all.

A mixed tit flock in the conifers by the Raines Observatory was mostly blue tits with a few great tits, chiffchaffs and goldcrests.

Red admiral

I walked down to the Ron Barker Hide, the elderberries in the hedgerows being devoured by woodpigeons and the fallen apples in the path near the Hale Hide providing a feast for a crowd of red admiral butterflies. Besides nearly treading on some mallard ducklings I didn't encounter many birds along the way.

At the Ron Barker Hide 

Things looked quiet at the Ron Barker Hide. In the distance a digger was clearing out a land drain and making quite a noise about it. There weren't crowds of birds, a couple of dozen teal dabbling in the remaining pool, Canada geese grazing, lapwings and woodpigeons flying by. Marsh harriers drifted about the reedbeds, including a female doing a food pass to an almost identical juvenile (some of the flight feathers looked greyer). At one point one of the harriers drifted close to the pool and all the teal panicked their way into the centre of the pool and quacked and whistled to keep their spirits up. A wader flew into the reed fringes and lurked on the bank of the pool for a few minutes. It had a curlew-like vibe as it flew in, though it was half the size. Wood sandpipers and green sandpipers can look similar from a distance when they're walking round but in flight wood sandpipers remind me of curlews, green sandpipers remind me of house martins.

Cuckoo pint

I walked back, adding a very noisy coal tit and some very quiet chaffinches to the day's tally. A party of long-tailed tits bounced through the trees by the duckery. I felt a bit low on waders and a lot low on songbirds so I decided to have another look at the mere, see what was on the feeders at the Janet Kear Hide and have a nosy at the reedbed hides, assuming there was any water in the pools there. I was feeling the lack of sleep and something had the hayfever kicking in but I was feeling bloody-minded and sleepwalked on.

The Mere

It was only when I looked at the mere from the screens where the Swan Link Hide used to be that I realised how low the water was. Everything was far away, even the black-headed gulls and moorhens.

The feeders at the Janet Kear Hide were being monopolised by blue tits and great tits though to be fair it didn't look like anything else could be bothered trying to muscle in on them.

Cattle and cattle egrets

The reason why the hayfever was kicking in was the mowing of the hay fields by the reedbeds. I decided to give that a miss. The new, remodeled United Utilities Hide looks remarkably similar to the old United Utilities Hide but a bit sounder in structure. I sat for a bit hoping to find the first pink-feet of Autumn out on the rough pastures but could only find Canada geese and greylags, and they distant. Everything was distant. It took me an embarrassingly long time to realise that the bright white legs on some of the grazing cattle were actually cattle egrets.

The pool at the Harrier Hide is a bit deeper than most so I headed that way to see what ducks were on there. It was standing room only and a bit more in the hide, a huge edifice with very limited internal space and even more limited space usable for birdwatching. Which was frustrating because even from three rows behind I could see a dozen ruffs running about amongst the lapwings and mallards scant yards away from the hide. I gave it a couple of minutes and gave up on it and spent a few minutes watching the Southern hawkers patrolling the margins of the amphitheatre outside the hide.

Winter Hill from Red Cat Lane

I walked back to Burscough Bridge. House martins and swallows zipped low over the fields. Collared doves and woodpigeons sang. Goldfinches and greenfinches twittered. A grey partridge flew low over the stubble field at the bend of the round after Curlew Lane and disappeared into the rough grass in the corner. Jackdaws and rooks made noises in distant fields.

By Crabtree Lane 

On a whim I walked down Crabtree Lane and down the trackside footpath to the station. It's a nice walk, though so deathly quiet today I could hear the passing butterflies. My 'phone being dead I didn't have the time but thought I should get to the station about five minutes before the next train. That element of uncertainty isn't what you want as you walk by the trackside, especially as there's fifty yards of fence between the platform and the entrance to the station from the footpath. I barged through at a fast limp, leaving a lot of irritated blackbirds and red admiral butterflies in my wake. And had eight minutes to wait for the train.

The odd thing was that for all it seemed to have been a very quiet day's birdwatching I'd racked up a tally of fifty species and added wood sandpiper to the year list.