Marshside and Crossens

Ruff

Marshside's having one of its golden patches for waders and it's getting its share of a very good passage of wood sandpipers so I headed that way to try my luck.

The weather was officially "changeable" but started cool with light cloud and got warmer. I thought the Canada geese had abandoned their nest on Pomona Dock so I was pleasantly surprised to see the goose with three goslings as the train chugged into town.

The train passed the woodpigeons, rooks and jackdaws of West Lancashire without incident and I didn't have long to wait for the bus into Marshside. It was a bright and sunny, but still cool, lunchtime when I arrived. The spadgers and starlings of Marshside were frantically busy with mouths to feed and the first couple of house martins were hawking over the rooftops.

Lapwing

The marshes looked deceptively quiet. An illusion quickly ruined by the arrival of flocks of starlings and house sparrows and a pair of lapwings taking exception to a passing jogger. The regular networked layout of greylags, Canada geese and lapwings had been disrupted, there were few greylags and lapwings dotted about, the greylags that were around were mostly in small groups, there just weren't many lapwings. The very few pairs of shelducks took some finding, I saw more shovelers in flight than on the ground and the crowds of wigeon and teal of just a few weeks ago were a vanished memory. 

Sutton's Marsh 

A reed warbler sang from a tiny patch of reeds and somehow remained invisible, all I could find to see was a couple of wrens twitching about in the depths. Over the road, goldfinches and whitethroats sang from the remaining patches of hawthorn hedge.

Junction Pool 

First stop was the Junction Pool where a few mallards and a drake wigeon puttered about and a handful of redshanks and ruffs fossicked about in the mud. A smaller, slimmer bird could have been a wood sandpiper but as a silhouette against dark, wet mud it wasn't a safe identification. 

I moved on to the Halfway Viewpoint for a better look, with the sun behind me. I found that the ruffs and reeves (female ruffs) easily outnumbered the redshanks, most were hidden from view from the junction by muddy ridges as they rummaged about in a couple of channels. The ruffs were also quite dark individuals, which wouldn't have helped with the light behind them. The russet ruff on one of them would have showed up a treat had he fluffed it up. Two had black ruffs, an all-dark bird disappeared into the shadows, the other was betrayed by his bright white horns.

I was struggling to find the potential wood sandpiper, the change in angle of view foxed me for a bit and the group of waders in question had dispersed. My eye kept being caught by redshanks and reeves as they skittered about. Then a smaller, slimmer wader dashed across a small pool and into some tall grass and I had me a wood sandpiper on the year list. There might have been two but I wasn't confident of the brief glimpse I had of the second candidate.

The path by Marine Drive 

The high bank between the marsh and the path to Nels Hide was smothered in a blue haze of alkanet. I noticed that some of the Duke of Argyll's tea trees that had been cut down were bouncing back, a very active sedge warbler sang from one, always keeping a few twigs and branches between itself and the would-be photographer.

Reeve (left) and ruffs

Even before I'd sat down at Nels Hide I'd noticed the ruffs on the mud immediately in front. A fluffed-up dandy of a ginger-ruffed male stood out a mile, a darker bird with his ruff flattened down most of the time was less conspicuous. The ginger lad sported himself about a lot and every so often would dash over to a passing reeve to show off a bit. The reeves played hard to get.

Redshank (top), reeve (left) and ruffs

Ruff

Ruff

Ruff

Ruff

Ruff

Ruff

Ruff

Reeve and ruff
The ruff noticed the reeve walking his way so he ran over and started displaying to her. 

Ruff
The darker bird only erected his ruff once the ginger bird had flown off.

Ruffs come in a bewildering variety of plumages and not all the males have ruffs, a tiny percentage look like reeves. There was a nice mixture peppered about the marsh between Junction Pool and Nels Hide.

Ruff, one of the dark birds from the Halfway Viewpoint 

Ruff
I don't know if this bird is still moulting into breeding plumage or has completed it and doesn't have a ruff.

Besides the ruffs there were a few redshanks, coots and mallards had fluffy youngsters in tow, and a couple of dozen herring gulls were having a wash and brush-up. I was feeling so perked-up by the views of ruffs that I started scanning the marsh between Nels Hide and Hesketh Road for spoonbills, ibises and who-knows-what and it serves me damned well right I didn't find any. There's no need to be greedy.

Spindle tree

Walking back in the warming sun I noticed the spindle trees by Nels Hide were in full flower, hopefully they'll be spectacular in Autumn. On the way over the skylarks and meadow pipits had been quietly flitting about the outer marsh, on the way back the sunshine seemed to coax some of the skylarks into song and meadow pipits fussed about on the bank by the path, vanishing into the alkanets whenever I passed too close by, just leaving a short, sharp call behind them.

Alkanet

Pollen beetle on burnet rose

On the way over to Sandgrounders I noticed the vetchlings and dewberries on the verge were in flower and I started to have half an eye out for orchids. And I tell my father off for being impatient. The burnet roses were already in full bloom and were busy with insects.

Black-headed gulls, moorhen and tufted ducks

The pool by Sandgrounders was noisy with nesting black-headed gulls. A few tufted ducks, coots and gadwalls loafed about, avocets and redshanks paddled round the edges and Canada geese dozed on the banks. It was more of the same at Sandgrounders, with a few mallard families and pairs of shovelers also cruising about and a handful of black-tailed godwits rummaging about on the marsh. Over on Polly's Pool about a couple of dozen black-tailed godwits lined up in a roost.

I didn't stop long and carried on walking by Marine Drive. Over on the outer marsh all the geese were Canada geese and a dozen little egrets shrimped in the bigger pool. A female marsh harrier drifted over from the marsh towards the road then veered off into the estuary. The sun brought out the butterflies and I found myself tiptoeing round peacocks, small tortoiseshells and wall browns that were basking on the path. I also found myself keeping having to apologise to the linnets and goldfinches disturbed as I passed too close to the dandelion patches they were feeding in.

By Marine Drive 

Walking along the bund by Crossens Inner Marsh 

I crossed over to have a look at Crossens Outer Marsh from McCarthy's. It looked deserted, the dark bands of thousands of geese replaced by grey hazes of scores of woodpigeons. There were meadow pipits, skylarks and starlings out there feeding in the grass, small flocks erupting when a kestrel hovered over or a buzzard passed overhead.

I wondered if I had the legs for the walk round to Banks Marsh to see if the American golden plover reported yesterday was still about. Regretfully I had to admit I hadn't. I crossed back over and walked back into Marshside along the bund. A couple of swallows hawking over the marsh and water treatment works were, hopefully, a precursor to the Summer crowds.

Avocet chicks

A lapwing was having a running spat with a couple of avocets. At first I thought the avocets had wandered too close to the lapwings' chicks. It turned out to be the other way round: the lapwing had been warned off by the avocets and it was having a tantrum about it.

Avocet and chicks

I had a sit down on the bench at the boundary between Marshside and Crossens Inner Marsh and surveyed the scene as house sparrows, starlings and dunnocks rummaged about the brambles nearby. Neither marsh looked crowded though there were plenty of birds about. On Crossens lapwings, redshanks and avocets paddled about while mallards, shovelers and a mute swan cruised the pools and channels. On Marshside Canada geese and lapwings were peppered about the nearby marsh and the black-headed gull colony was heard as much as seen. It was an easy and uneventful journey home after a very nice walk.

Avocet