Pennington Flash

Black-headed gull

The morning's errands done I decided to take advantage of a ridiculously mild and sunny day for a visit to Pennington Flash.

As we were stuck at traffic lights on the way to the Trafford Centre, where I caught the 126 to Leigh, I watched two skeins of pink-footed geese flying low, side by side, over  Trafford Retail Park. There were thirty-nine birds in all, twenty in one skein and nineteen in the other, and I wondered if these were some of the birds I was seeing and hearing on Chat Moss the other day.

Walking in from St Helens Road

I got the bus to Leigh and waited a lot longer than usual for the 610 to Pennington Flash. I was barely through the entrance on St Helens Road when I bumped into the first mixed tit flock of the visit — just blue tits and great tits — as it shared a length of hawthorn hedge with the first mixed flock  of redwings and blackbirds of the afternoon. I'd be seeing plenty of both over the next couple of hours.

Mistletoe
I was struck by how many large mistletoe plants there are in the treetops, They've had a good year, there were only a few big plants here this time last year.

Lunchtime at Pennington Flash 

The park was, inevitably, very busy. I should have visited at the beginning of the month but at least I had the sense to avoid the period between Boxing Day and the New Year. For the most part it wasn't a problem, except for the family that decided it would be a fun thing to spend ten minutes having a kids' tree-climbing competition next to the Tom Edmondson Hide, and they got bored in the end so the kids took the grown-ups for a cup of tea.

Pochards and black-headed gulls

The car park was busy with Canada geese and black-headed gulls with a few mallards, coots and moorhens. Offshore rafts of a couple of dozen each of pochards and tufted ducks drifted about with a few goldeneyes further out on the flash. It was still only lunchtime but the sun was low and a few dozen large gulls loafed midwater. It looked equal numbers of lesser black-backs and herring gulls, I only found the one great black-back. The great crested grebes took some finding and there weren't many of them.

Lapwings and black-headed gulls 

At the Horrocks Hide the spit was half-covered in water. Mallards, black-headed gulls and lapwings loafed and preened, coots bustled about and woodpigeons bathed at the water's edge. There were only a couple of lesser black-backs at the end of the spit and no herring gulls though there was the usual complement of cormorants drying their wings. A heron loafed on one of the islands and way over, near Ramsdales Hide, a great white egret stalked the banks. It's only last year I added great white egret to my Greater Manchester list and now I'm coming to expect them. A burst of noise told me there was an oystercatcher about and it eventually bustled its way out of a crowd of lapwings.

Coot
There must be huge numbers of freshwater mussels in the flash because there's nearly always at least one coot with a big cluster of them in its beak.

Lapwings, black-headed gulls and common gull (fifth gull from the left)

At the Tom Edmondson Hide 

At the Tom Edmondson Hide the gadwalls, shovelers and mallards were paired up and it was the teals' turn to be gathering in groups in corners of the pool whistling and bobbing their heads at the ladies.

Little egret 

I got a closer view of the great white egret from Ramsdales Hide. Even closer was a little egret dancing in the mud just in front of the hide. The sun was low and directly facing me so the mallards, shovelers, teals and cormorants crowding on the islands that are usually the bund between Ramsdales and Horrocks spit were dark grey shadowy ghosts.

Great white egret 

A family of very small kids came into the hide, giddy and noisy on a day out in the sunshine. They quickly settled down when I pointed out the little egret and let each have a borrow of the binoculars (with me and their mum hovering over to make sure they didn't point them at the sun). In my experience kids quickly settle down and become quietly interested when you let them join in. Unlike some grown-ups you meet some days with all the kit.

Little egret 

Walking round to the Charlie Owen Hide 

I wandered up to the canal then looped down through the woodland to the Charlie Owen Hide. A family of long-tailed tits bouncing about in a willow came as a bit of a relief, they'd been absent in the mixed tit flocks up to then. A song thrush bustled about by the side of the path; robins, wrens and dunnocks fidgeted about in the undergrowth; while blackbirds and redwings gorged on hawthorn berries. There were scarcely any finches about, a couple of chaffinches and a goldfinch. 

There was a new water hazard on the golf course

The water was high at the Charlie Owen Hide and the pool was busy with gadwalls, shovelers and dabchicks, the dabchicks being particularly noisy.

Heading for the Bunting Hide 

The Bunting Hide was quiet, a few moorhens pottered about while great tits and blue tits fed on the feeders, and chaffinches and reed buntings did hit and run raids on the bird tables before disappearing into the bushes.

I don't know if this is the car park oystercatcher or a car park oystercatcher. 

I checked the time and made tracks for the bus back to Leigh. I wondered if the couple sitting on a bench realised there was an oystercatcher fossicking about under it.

At Ramsdales Hide