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| Canada goose and little ringed plover |
It was a greyer sort of a day than it has been lately but still not unpleasant. I dawdled about all morning then got the buses over to Pennington Flash for an afternoon wander.
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| Jay |
Robins, great tits and blackbirds dominated the songscape on the way in from St Helens Road. Blue tits, wrens, chaffinches and goldfinches quietly went about their business, magpies and woodpigeons made a lot of noise about it. A jay silently escorted me past its territory.
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| Pennington Flash We're early into the butterflies and landscape photography phase of the year. |
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| Pennington Flash |
The car park was Summer quiet, small groups of mallards, Canada geese and black-headed gulls loafing about, coots chugging past like freight trains past a colliery. There were more coots out on the flash, together with a small raft of lesser black-backs and a few herring gulls and great crested grebes. A couple of common terns made a disproportionate amount of noise as they fished around the buoys. There were a lot of small, dark shapes almost skimming the top of the water, it took me a while to be sure they were all sand martins the light was so dull.
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| Ruff (left) and little ringed plover The little ringed plover showing how suitable its plumage is on its preferred freshwater shingle. Luckily they are mostly insanely active and they catch the eye as they run about. |
At the F.W.Horrocks Hide a chap put me onto the couple of distant black-necked grebes on the flash and four ruffs on the spit. All the ruffs looked like females (calling them reeves seems to be going out of fashion) and a couple of them were strikingly plumaged with wings and backs like a black and tawny checkerboard. Reeves' plumages aren't anywhere near as variable as their male counterparts but they can provide plenty enough confusion seen own their own in an unfamiliar context. They're not common at Pennington Flash but at least they're on the radar. A couple of little ringed plovers flew in and there were a couple of common sandpipers rummaging about in the shingle further back. At one point there were five ruffs and four little ringed plovers skittering about, which is very good to see here. None of them came very close.
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| Little ringed plover, ruff and Canada goose |
A few lapwings, cormorants and lesser black-backs loafed at the end of the spit. Woodpigeons and mallards rummaged about in the vegetation on top. Looking over towards Ramsdales there was a lot of noise and activity from the black-headed gulls on the nesting raft. Shovelers and gadwalls took some finding, I didn't see a single teal all afternoon. This time of year that's strangely encouraging.
The chiffchaffs in the trees were mostly being as quiet and unobtrusive as the titmice. Unlike the reed warblers and Cetti's warbler singing by the Kidney Pool opposite the Tom Edmondson Hide.
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| The Kidney Pool |
At first sight it was quiet on the pool in front of the Tom Edmondson Hide. Canada geese and coots dozed, a couple of gadwalls and shovelers drifted by and into the reeds and on to Pengy's Pool. An extremely dapper male dabchick, all polished mahogany with rusty highlights, made a brief appearance before disappearing into the reeds when a heron flew over. Then a pair of magpies found a moorhens' nest. Sound and fury there was much. The magpies were unsuccessful this time but I wouldn't lay odds on any eggs in the nest lasting very long.
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| From the Tom Edmondson Hide |
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| From Ramsdales Hide |
The scrape at Ramsdales looked even dozier at first. Canada geese and mallards slept on the banks. Lapwings wandered about apparently aimlessly, which usually means they have a working nest wherever it is they aren't walking and whichever bird isn't sitting is keeping vigil. I eventually spotted one sitting female on a nest. There will have been more I missed. A couple of little ringed plovers had been quietly dashing about on the mud. This all changed when a third flew in. For the next ten minutes two of them flew about chasing each other round the place, calling loudly all the while. I made no attempt whatever to get a photo, I knew when I was beaten and just settled back to watch the show.
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| Pennington Flash |
A little gull had been reported on the flash at lunchtime so I wandered back to try my luck. I sat on a bench by the F.W.Horrocks Hide and scanned around. If there was a little gull still about it was either over by the rucks or the sailing club, it certainly wasn't in sight from here. Black-headed gulls and common terns wheeled about catching midges and the distant cloud of sand martins had been joined by at least a dozen swifts. Then I had a bit of luck. One of the terns didn't look quite right. Usually, especially in flat grey light like today, that means I'm seeing it at a funny angle and if I keep tabs on it awhile it'll turn out to look exactly the same as the others. Except this time it didn't, it was uniform silver grey above and had bright white underwings. My first Arctic tern of the year. They're regular but uncommon visitors and I nearly always miss them as they pass through so I was quite chuffed to pick one up today.
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| Walking back to St Helens Road |
I wandered back for the bus into Leigh, the rain started as the 126 passed through Astley and fizzled out as we got to the Trafford Centre. It was obviously one of my luckier days.
