Pennington Flash

Gadwall

After a busy morning I headed over to Pennington Flash. It was a hot, sunny day so it was likely to be very busy but there's plenty of shade about and I was hoping to find some waders on the ground exposed by lowering waters.

Pennington Brook

There were furtive mutterings from great tits and blue tits in the hedgerows as I walked in from St Helens Road and a coal tit called from the trees. I stopped at the bridge over the brook and watched a blue-tailed damselfly patrolling the banks. The car park was busy of people, cars and black-headed gulls, the Canada geese, mallards and mute swans were not for leaving the relatively cool bankside for the baking-hot concrete. Lots more of all of them loafed on the water while rafts of coots, lesser black-backs and herring gulls drifted in midwater. Great crested grebes cruised about with caravans of half-grown humbugs, cormorants fished and there was no sign of any swifts, swallows or martins.

Lapwing, pied wagtail and moorhen

The cool of the F.W.Horrocks Hide was a welcome relief. The spit had become a heavily-vegetated bulge in the landscape. Mallards, gadwalls and lapwings dozed by the waterside while woodpigeons, moorhens and pied wagtails fossicked about. At the end of the spit the usual selection of herring gulls, cormorants and black-headed gulls loafed and preened. A raft of a dozen or so each of great crested grebes and tufted ducks cruised the channel beyond the spit.

The spit

The Kidney Pool 

Mute cygnets

Robins and chiffchaffs squeaked in the trees as I walked down to the Tom Edmondson Hide. Brown hawkers patrolled the reeds by the Kidney Pool. The pools at the Tom Edmondson Hide were busier than they have been, occupied by a large family of mute swans and a couple of gadwalls. Southern hawkers skimmed over the grass, large whites and speckled woods fluttered about the brambles at the side. A heron made a racket as it flew in and decided not to settle, it wasn't apparent what had put it off.

I had high hopes of waders at Ramsdales and found me just the one lapwing. Two teal-sized ducks turned out to be gadwall ducklings, they didn't have enough wings yet for the distinctive white speculum feathers. A pair of teals were dozing in the shade of a tree by the side.

Walking towards the canal 

It was too warm for a long walk in exposed conditions so I decided I'd head back whence I came which is how I found myself walking round the flash and on to Slag Lane instead. Chiffchaffs squeaked in the trees, a blackcap told me off and magpies clattered about. Woodpigeons and gulls flew to and fro. Meadow browns, common blues and large whites fluttered about the wayside, red admirals and speckled woods the hedgerows. A common hawker zipped by, I think they're the least common hawkers round these parts. More expected were the brown hawkers and Southern hawkers patrolling the pathways and tree canopies. 

I stopped at the viewing point by the reeds to look at the end of the spit and the bits of Ramsdales scrapes I couldn't see from the hide, distracted all the while by brown hawkers and a plunge-diving common tern. Mallards, black-headed gulls, lapwings… and skittering across the mud between two patches of reeds a little ringed plover dwarfed by a juvenile pied wagtail. 

Mute swan

I started to see common blue damselflies flitting about in the grass as I approached the little inlet. There weren't the swarms of my last visit and there were no signs of any emperor dragonflies. A couple of Southern hawkers hawked low over the water, keeping away from the mute swans and mallards loafing on the water.

The inlet

Black-headed gulls and common tern

As I carried on walking I noticed that the low water on the flash was exposing more of its industrial heritage. What are generally isolated groups of rocks pointing out of the water had become a sequence of lines suggesting the course of the old railway that served Bickershaw Colliery. These provided loafing places for black-headed gulls and common terns. One of the great crested grebes still had a nest on the go that was now on a small raised platform.

Common blue 

It was definitely too warm for a walk across the rucks to the canal and thence Plank Lane. I stuck to the bankside. There were a lot of common blues skittering about the parched sward. In a couple of places they were joined by small numbers of small blues. The common blues stayed still long enough for a few photos, the small blues didn't want to play and spent most of their time undercover or feeding upside down from kidney vetch flowers. A couple of azure damselflies sunned themselves on rocks. A couple of the gulls circling high overhead didn't look right so I had a look through the binoculars. They were a couple of young sparrowhawks riding the thermals. I didn't notice the third sparrowhawk, an adult female, until she intervened when a lesser black-back circled over to torment them.

The rucks

Pennington Flash 

Willow warblers and goldfinches bounced about in the willow scrub. A female common scoter had been reported on the flash earlier but I wasn't seeing anything that might be it. A few tufted ducks and mallards chugged by, more mallards lurked by the reeds by the sailing club. A big raft of coots were diving for a freshwater mussel bed that's usually too deep for them to reach. Most of the noise was made by three great crested grebes that were being allowed out on their own while the parents went fishing.

Great crested grebes
Humbugs playing at being the Loch Ness monster

Lapwing

It struck me as odd watching young lapwings feeding at the waterside alongside paddling children but I suppose they don't know any different. As far as the lapwings are concerned we're probably not much different to cattle come for a wallow.

Heading for Slag Lane 

I walked into the willow scrub to Slag Lane. A mixed flock of long-tailed tits, chiffchaffs and willow warblers kept me on my toes. I'd just missed the 588 back to Leigh and the next one was due in an hour so I walked into Plank Lane for the 584 due in thirty-five minutes. This is the bus from Crankwood. I don't know that area so I decided to walk a few stops up Crankwood Road just for a nosy, stopping when the bus going up to the terminus passed by. I spent the next five minutes watching a charm of about forty goldfinches feeding on the thistles across the road. Which is no bad way to pass the time.