Leighton Moss

Dabchicks

I had slept the sleep of one who was finally dozing off at three in the morning when they got a 'phone call from somebody saying they couldn't sleep. I wanted to get some birdwatching done before Storm Dave came out to play so I got me an old man's explorer ticket and headed for Silverdale, the idea being to do a hit and run at Leighton Moss before the weather turned iffy and take a circuitous route home to see what I could see.

There seemed to be a lot of pheasants and roe deer about as the train went to Preston. At Preston we had an interesting interlude where everyone decamped from the Barrow train and got onto the York train which became the Barrow train and everyone decamped from the York train to get on the Barrow train which became the York train. No, me neither. Anyway, we were only a few minutes late getting to Silverdale and we'd passed through the belt of pouring rain and the weather had become mild and gloomy, grey and misty.

Chaffinch

The hideout was busy with mallards and chaffinches. I hung about for a bit just in case a marsh tit might want to make an appearance but it wasn't happening. So I wandered round to Lilian's Hide where a little gull had been reported first thing.

Dabchicks

The black-headed gulls had settled their nesting territories on the rafts and islands. Their cries were drowned out by the hinneying calls of dabchicks as two pairs squabbled in front of the hide.

Dabchicks

Dabchicks

Dabchick, one of the males charging at the other pair

Dabchicks, a riposte

Dabchicks, a victory yell

The black-headed gulls were positively sedate in comparison. A few mallards and fewer teal dozed by the water's edge. A pair of shovelers dozed by the hide and I nearly missed a couple of redshanks asleep in the grass. The coots and pochards swam about in pairs, the tufted ducks in small groups of a handful of birds, a couple of greylags might have been a pair, a mute swan slept on its own by the far reeds. A few sand martins zipped about over the pool, mostly at tree top height, seldom coming in lower.

Black-headed gulls

Three marsh harriers floated over the reedbed, all females, one immature and two adults. High above the misty hilltops a buzzard was being harassed by crows.

Moving on, I decided I'd head for the Causeway Hide. I've only given it a cursory look so far this year, I should do better, and if the little gull wasn't on Lilian's it might be on there.

The boardwalk to the causeway 

I kept an eye out for marsh tits as I walked over to the causeway but had no luck. There were plenty of chiffchaffs and Cetti's warblers and a water rail squealed from the reedbed as I reached the causeway.

Powdered ruffle lichen

The causeway

The weather was getting gloomier and more sand martins drifted in to hawk over the reedbeds and pools. I decided I wasn't going to push my luck with a walk down to the Lower Hide, I'd spend half an hour at the Causeway Hide then make tracks back to the station for the train.

Mute swan. cormorants and great black-backs

The water was high on the Causeway Pool but the great black-backs were determined they were loafing on the island come what may. A loose herd of mute swans drifted about, cormorants loafed and tufted ducks cruised about in lines. Black-headed gulls passed to and fro rarely bothering to stop. Coots were busy nest-building, chugging about the pool with lengths of reed. A great crested grebe fished just in front of the pool, one time it emerged from the water just in front of a coot which dropped its bit of reed in a panic and silently bustled away. Had it not been in nest-building mode it would have made a hell of a racket.

Coot

Cormorant

Great crested grebe

Great crested grebe

On the way back I noticed some little Potentillas flowering in the wall by the road. It felt early for them to be barren strawberries. A chap passing by as I was taking photos checked on Google Lens and got the answer barren strawberry. And so they proved to be when I got home and checked the photos with my reference books. And it turned out that they weren't all that early, I've just not been noticing them until late in their season.

Barren strawberry

I got back to the station as the train to Corkicle got in (there's rail track work going on so it doesn't get through to Carlisle). I got on and got off at Arnside to have five minutes' look at the Kent Estuary before the Manchester train came in. The tide was high and the bank just upstream was littered with curlews and jackdaws.

Kent Estuary at Arnside

On the way back there didn't look to be a lot on the pools by the coastal pools. A few shelducks were disturbed by the train, a great white egret stalked a drain, some little egrets loafed on islands by feeding mute swans and I spotted a couple of avocets. I'll have to make a visit for a proper look here this month.

The rain kept off until I got home. I made a pot of tea, drank half a cup and crashed out asleep. Still, it had been a very good day's birdwatching in very uncertain weather.

Leighton Moss

Bearded tit

It was a grey day and the rain was persisting down but I needed to get some birdwatching done before I forgot what they look like so I headed off for Leighton Moss which has the advantages of plenty of hides for shelter and being two minutes' walk from Silverdale Station.

Before I left the spadgers and titmice brought my attention to the state of the feeding stations, the suet feeders being empty and there only being a day's left in the seed feeders at current rate of consumption. I've had to buy new seed feeders after the squirrels finally managed to bend the wires enough to be able to quickly fill their boots, cache it and come back to plunder the rest, emptying a feeder within two hours.

It was a straightforward trip up to Silverdale with my Old Man's Explorer Ticket and the rain abated to a steady light rain. Flocks of wigeon and teal littered the coastal pools, there was just the one great white egret this time. As I turned the corner and crossed the bridge into Leighton Moss a small flock of fieldfares flew low overhead into the trees somewhere over the causeway.

There was nobody at the Hideout when I arrived so I spent a few minutes watching the to and fro at the feeders. There were plenty of coal tits about with the other titmice and the dunnocks were giving the mallards a fair contest for the seeds that had dropped to the ground.

Teal

The pool at Lilian's Hide was busy with ducks. A crowd of gadwalls were with the coots on one side of the water, a dozen shovelers and a few dozen teal lurked by the hide, the shovelers dozing and the teal busy a-bobbing and courting. The gadwall seemed to have settled into pairs, as had the few mallards that were dotted about. A raft of half a dozen tufted ducks out in the middle of the pool with half a dozen dabchicks were the only diving ducks today.

Teal

The walk through the reedbeds was fairly quiet. The robins, wrens and titmice quietly rummaged in the trees and it was a pair of goldcrests of all things making most of the noise. The titmice don't seem to have established mixed flocks here yet, I saw pairs of great tits and blue tits and a family of long-tailed tits.

Walking through the reedbeds 

The pool at the Tim Jackson Hide was heaving with shovelers, teal and pintails. I thought the hybrid shoveler wasn't about today, it was only as I was packing my bag to move on that I realised it was asleep in front of the hide with its head stuck firmly in its back feathers.

Bearded tits

It was lunchtime so it was far too late to be seeing bearded tits on the grit feeders on the path to the Griesdale Hide. A pair reminded me that birds run to their own whims and rules. If you're lucky enough to see bearded tits on warm, sunny days they're sleek, streamlined little bodies. On cool, gloomy days like today they fluff themselves up and look like balls on sticks.

Teal

There were more teal, shovelers and pintails on the pool at the Griesdale Hide but half as many of them spread thinly over this larger pool.

Walking back there were more of the same though the bearded tits had moved on by the time I got to the trays. I walked past Lilian's Hide and followed the path round to the visitor centre. The alder trees were fizzing with goldfinches, chaffinches and siskins. It's always nice to see siskins at eye level, usually they're hanging upside down at the other end of a tall tree.

Siskin

I had one last look at the feeders at the Hideout and was rewarded by the appearance of one of the marsh tits, I'd had no luck in the willows by the reedbeds.

Checking the trains I found if I got the Barrow train to Arnside I could have ten minutes' nosy on the Kent Estuary before getting the train back to Preston. It was low tide and the estuary looked bleakly lovely. Redshanks and black-headed gulls foraged the nearby muds with a couple of curlews and a rather forlorn looking little egret. A small object dash-stopping in the mid distance turned out to be a ringed plover. Further out a dozen lesser black-backs loafed in a channel with a great black-back and shelducks dabbled by its bank.

Kent Estuary, Arnside 

On the train back I checked out the coastal pools again at Leighton Moss. No sign of any egrets this time but a couple of immature red-breasted mergansers were cruising about near the embankment.

I didn't fancy waiting the best part of an hour for the next train back to Manchester from Preston so I caught the Colne train and changed at Blackburn and got into Manchester ten minutes quicker than I would have done. There are advantages to the flexibility of the old man's explorer ticket.

Kent Estuary, Arnside