Marshside and Crossens Marsh

Pink-footed geese 

After a wet and windy night we had the promise of a nice day so I thought I'd best do something with it and went over to Marshside.

It was a bright, sunny day and surprisingly mild. A very stiff wind blew in from the South, the gentle warmth was welcome but it was hard work. It was surprising how many geese — mostly pink-footed geese — were on the marshes close to Marshside Road. There were dozens each of greylags and Canada geese and perhaps a hundred pink-feet. Then I had a scan over the marshes and saw the extent of the flooding caused by the storms. There was limited dry standing room out there..

Greylags 

Pink-footed geese 

Scores of lapwings and hundreds of wigeons were scattered about together with dozens of teal and black-tailed godwits and handfuls of shelducks and little egrets. There were a lot of skylarks flitting about, calling all the while as they flew over the road. A family of mute swans grazed in the pool that had been one of the land drains. Oddly enough, The Junction Pool had no birds on it at all

Little egret 

Black-tailed godwits 

At the corner I looked over at the salt marsh and saw a lot of water punctuated by grass. I bobbed over for a better look. It was high tide, and a high one at that, and it had overrun the marsh. Flocks of starlings fidgeted across the marsh. Further out, clouds of skylarks and meadow pipits were being stirred up by a passing great black-back. Closer to hand most of the pools were littered with black-headed gulls.

Damp salt marsh 

I crossed back and walked over to Sandgrounders, accidentally flushing a couple of greenfinches from the verge as I walked by. I was going to spend the afternoon accidentally flushing greenfinches from the verge. There wasn't a lot of loafing space left for the ducks on the lagoon and what little there was was carpeted in wigeons and Canada geese while a raft of a couple of dozen tufted ducks drifted about.

At Sandgrounders 

The birdlife at Sandgrounders was busy but distant. Wigeons carpeted the marsh, there must have been thousands of them out there. There were hundreds of teal but they were visually overwhelmed by the wigeons. There was a constant piping of redshanks, they rummaged about the margins with black-tailed godwits, starlings and a couple of ruffs.

From the sand plant

The view from the sand plant was wet marsh seething with starlings, geese and ducks. Skylarks, reed buntings and goldfinches flitted about the drier patches, black-headed gulls squabbled round the edges of pools. Most of the geese were pink-footed though most of the heads posted above the tall grass were Canada geese. There were a lot of wigeons on the marsh but most of the ducks swimming about on the water were mallards and shovelers. Way, way out on the marsh a cloud of ducks, lapwings and starlings was rising out of the long grass as a marsh harrier drifted low over. The last time I was here I was agog for a pallid harrier, today I was hoping to spot a hen harrier but had no luck today.

This ruby tiger caterpillar seemed to be on a mission.

Starlings

McCarthy's watchpoint is the promontory on the right overlooking Crossens Outer Marsh 

The walk over to McCarthy's was accompanied by the sounds of low-flying pink-footed geese and the calls of greenfinches, skylarks, meadow pipits and linnets irritated that I'd passed by too close. The ducks and geese were fine with me passing so close by but got nervous whenever I stopped to have a look round.

Greylags 

I had a sit down at McCarthy's. The greylags and Canada geese concluded that I was a thing but probably not an immediate threat. I barely registered at all with the shovelers and wigeons. There were tens of thousands of wigeons out there, spread out in thick lines along the islands and shallowly submerged ridges on the lake that is usually cropped grass. Lapwings, redshanks and black-tailed godwits fidgeted about, teals dozed, carrion crows fossicked about on the high ground by the fences. 

Shovelers and wigeons 

Black-headed gulls and lapwings

Lapwings 

Shoveler

Wigeons and pink-footed geese 

Shovelers and wigeons 

Shovelers and wigeons 

Looking out towards the river there was a great kerfuffle in the long grass beyond the fences. A male marsh harrier rose from the marsh and was mobbed by lapwings. It suddenly lunged down into the grass and disappeared from view for a few minutes. When it rose from the marsh again it was accompanied by a female-type marsh harrier. The two of them started sparring, talons locked together, and in the process disturbed a second female-type marsh harrier that must have been roosting with them. The two female-types settled back on the ground and the male drifted off, upsetting skylarks and lapwings all the way.

By Crossens River, with black-headed gulls 

Carrying on down the road the waterfowl became more distant. I noticed the big white domestic goose was back with the Canada geese. The number of times I've thought I'd found a distant snow goose only to find it's this fellow. I didn't find anything else unusual amongst the waterfowl today. Over the road the flock of golden plovers amongst the wigeons and lapwings on the inner marsh were distant dark lumps until the sunlight caught them just so, in which case they glowed dark amber.

I debated walking down the bund at the back of the marshes back to the bus stop on Marshside Road. I decided against though it looked like it would be productive. I was already feeling the effort of the walk despite having had a strong wind at my back, I didn't fancy walking into it. Any more than I fancied the ten-minute shower blowing in from that direction. I called it quits and walked up to get the 44 bus back to the station.

On the way back it looked like somebody had been busy emptying coveys of red-legged partridges onto the damp fields of West Lancashire.