Southport

Wigeons, Crossens Inner Marsh 

I thought I'd take advantage of a cool, bright Autumn day for a trip out to Marshside and Crossens Marsh. It turned out to be one of those days that are almost overwhelming.

It was a very clear, very bright morning and the light just kept on ramping up in intensity through the day. As I walked down Marshside Road the cold wind made me wish I'd brought some gloves. I got to the end of the houses and the start of the reserve and stopped and gaped. The scenes ahead of me were worlds apart from the picture during the Summer, much more so even than on my last visit a few weeks ago. 

By Marshside Road 

To my right the whole of the marsh was awash with small patches of emergent grasses ground. To my left was acres of very wet grass and a very extended Junction Pool. But the biggest contrast was the birdlife. It was heaving.

Greylags

All that wet grass was carpeted with birds. Scores of greylags, lapwings and wigeons, dozens of Canada geese, curlews and shovelers. Here and there in the distance there were small family groups of pink-footed geese and more flew overhead. A bit of scanning round the waders found a few ruffs and a handful of golden plovers. And many hundreds of black-tailed godwits, all of them a-twitter.

Black-tailed godwits 

Black-tailed godwits 

On my side of the road there was more of the same but the wigeons were in their hundreds and there were dozens of teal, gadwall and mallards. Black-headed gulls made more noise than their numbers warranted and a few herring gulls and lesser black-backs passed by. Crowds of starlings were skittish as they bustled about amongst the ducks and waders and a few pied wagtails flitted about in the damp grass.

Wigeon

Mallards and black-tailed godwits 

Looking over to Sandgrounders from Marshside Road 

Black-tailed godwits 

A couple of great black-backs flew in, prompting a mass panic of godwits, lapwings and teal, any of which could be on their menu. The gulls settled down to loaf on the marsh and the waders and teal subsided and made sure they landed way away from them. They weren't remotely fussed about the kestrel hunting over the corner of the marsh by Marine Drive.

Black-tailed godwits 

Pink-footed geese 

Gadwalls

Shovelers 

The islands in the pool by Sandgrounders were inundated with just the bund between the pools to provide loafing room for shovelers, wigeons and mallards. Ironically, Sandgrounders itself provided the worst views of the birdlife today.

Walking by Marine Drive towards Crossens

I walked along the path by the inner marsh down to Crossens. The difference between the heaving masses on the inner marsh and the apparent emptiness of the outer marsh was striking. The emptiness was only apparent. I eventually found a distant couple of little egrets, they'd been conspicuously absent so far today. There were mallards and gadwalls skulking in the pools and every so often a head would poke above the tall grasses as a pink-footed goose played sentry. There were dozens of geese near the road, I suspect there were hundreds far out on the salt marsh judging by the number of heads that bobbed up whenever a crow passed by. A passing female-type marsh harrier was mobbed by dozens of meadow pipits.

On my side of the road robins and goldfinches fidgeted about in the hawthorns and gorse bushes. I saw a bird pounce-hunting from the fence some way ahead of me. I expected it to be a stonechat and was surprised that it was a grey wagtail.

Marshside Inner Marsh 

Approaching the boundary fence between Marshside and Crossens I was amused to notice that every fifth post had a carrion crow sitting on it. Then I realised that one of the crows halfway along was twice the size of the next nearest carrion crow. I'm not used to ravens sitting about round here, they're nearly always going somewhere. There was a sudden commotion and a cloud of a couple of hundred small birds — meadow pipits, linnets, skylarks and goldfinches — erupted from the marsh. The male merlin that caused the commotion snatched a skylark from the air and took to to a far fence post to eat.

Stonechat 

A buzzard sat on the boundary fence to the inner marshes, over towards the bund. Closer by a couple of reed buntings fussed about in the hawthorns and a pair of stonechats supervised my passing by from the safety of their gorse bush.

Crossens Inner Marsh was bustling with black-tailed godwits and wigeons. I struggle to visualise a thousand anything, I think there were easily a thousand of each here. Scores of lapwings, shovelers, teals and mallards were very heavily outnumbered. Half a dozen golden plovers were dark, dumpy shapes amongst a group of sleeping godwits in their plain Winter pale greys. A charm of goldfinches flew over from the outer marsh to twitter in the roadside trees.

Black-tailed godwits, lapwings and wigeons 

Goldfinches 

Crossens Outer Marsh 

I crossed the road to look for geese on the outer marsh and disturbed a flock of a couple of dozen woodpigeons. There were a few dozen pink-footed geese on the marsh near the road, there were lots more half-hidden in the long grass on the salt marsh. Way out over on Banks Marsh were a couple of hundred Canada geese. All told it was very quiet for November. I wonder if I'll be seeing the Todd's Canada goose this Winter, or any bean geese.

Pink-footed geese 

The white shapes out on the marsh were black-headed gulls, shelducks and three little egrets. An immature marsh harrier floated by and upset a flock of mipits. A female-type marsh harrier, possibly the same one I saw before, hunted low over the far salt marsh. A paler brown bird, fast but buoyant, shot across the marsh. My first instinct was that it was a hen harrier but the moment I got my binoculars onto the bird it was obvious it was a short-eared owl. It headed off towards the sand plant.

Stonechats

I looked in vain for any pipits or wagtails on the marsh next to the road. I was rather hoping to find a water pipit but I wasn't even finding any meadow pipits or pied wagtails. Small crowds of wigeons bustled about in the little pools while more whistled from the River Crossens where they loaded at the waterside with dozens of teal.

Pink-footed geese and wigeon
I wish this was a technically better photo. The odd-looking object in the centre is a drake wigeon in eclipse plumage scratching its belly.

Walking along the bund

I crossed back over and walked back into Marshside along the bund. What I lost in walking with the low sun in my eyes I gained by looking back at the wildfowl and waders glowing in the light. I'd spent the afternoon making sure that all the wigeons and teals were our Eurasian species and none of their American counterparts and so I ended the visit. My not finding any doesn't necessarily mean there were none to be found somewhere in the crowds, the sheer number of birds is daunting. A few redshanks and handfuls of pintails were easier for my poor old mind to process.

Wigeons

Mallards, wigeons and black-tailed godwit

Redshank 

Pintails, mallard and greylags 

Wigeons and pintails 
Again, another which I wish was technically better, the pintail to the right at the front is a first-Winter drake.

Pintails and mallard

I wandered back and struck lucky with the bus and the train. My first whooper swans of the Winter were feeding on a ploughed field just before Bescar Lane Station.

Marshside