Pennington Flash

Mute swan

The heatwave had arrived. I headed over to Pennington Flash, partly because there's plenty of tree cover, partly because if need be I could buy an ice cream, mostly because a couple of little terns had been reported there.

It was very quiet on the walk in from St Helens Road. I could almost hear the common blue damselflies zipping through the grass on the verge. A wren reassured me that I hadn't gone deaf. It was that sort of day so I stood on the bridge over the brook and watched the minnows swirling round in the brook.

Minnows 

Juvenile black-headed gull

Canada geese monopolised the shade on the car park, leaving the mallards and black-headed gulls to sit by the flash. More were offshore, drifting about in rafts to keep cool then charging onshore to have a peck at the grass before retreating back to the water. Not that there was much grass in any shape to be eaten: what hadn't been beaten down by the feet of people and waterfowl had been fried to a frazzle. A herd of mute swans cruised off the far bank, a small raft of mostly herring gulls with a handful of lesser black-backs spread itself across the midwater. A common tern flew over and started fishing over by the swans and a Cetti's warbler sang from the far bank, which I decided was a good omen because I was in the mood for wanting one.

Coots and mallards and Canada geese 

I wondered if I'd encounter the Egyptian geese back for their regular late Summer appearance. They honked as they passed by.

Egyptian geese

From the F.W.Horrocks Hide 

Even the F.W.Horrocks Hide was warm, but significantly cooler than outside so a definite relief. Mallards, coots and lapwings loafed about the near end of the spit, a few pied wagtails dashing about between them fly-catching. There were plenty of black-headed gulls about and much activity still on the nesting rafts off the end of the spit. The great crested grebes were still sitting on the nests beside the rafts. Woodpigeons and stock doves rummaged about in the grass and the usual motley assemblage of mallards, herring gulls, cormorants, coots and lapwings clustered at the end. 

I scanned round for anything that might be a little gull or black-necked grebe. All the small dark objects emerging off the spit were the heads of tufted ducks that had been diving for food. A common tern standing by a couple of black-headed gulls reminded me that though they're a similar length the terns always look very much smaller because they've got such short legs. A couple of small birds took flight from the crowd. At first I just saw a flurry of wings and thought they were waders, then as they rose above the crowd I could see they were terns and at that size could only be little terns. They did a quick circle over the end of the spit and disappeared back into the crowd. A brief and unsatisfying sighting but a tick all the same.

The Kidney Pool 

A mixed flock of great tits, blue tits, long-tailed tits and a chiffchaff bounced through the trees as I walked round to the Tom Edmondson Hide. A blackcap sang a phrase from deep cover and a sedge warbler scratched out a few riffs from the side of a small pool. A look at the Kidney Pool found me some mallards and a reed warbler not convinced that it wanted to sing its song right through to the end. It didn't, it ended in mid-riff and got back to the business of getting a beakful of insects for the kids back home.

The Tom Edmondson Hide was as quiet as the Kidney Pool, half a dozen near full-grown mallard ducklings skulked in the reeds with a family of coots.

The view from Ramsdales Hide 

Things were busier at Ramsdales but harder to see as the reeds have shot back up in the past couple of weeks. The lapwings had chicks running about pretty much fending for themselves while the adults kept a watchful eye from a distance. Mallards and Canada geese loafed. I could see no little ringed plovers, which doesn't necessarily mean they weren't there. Another mixed tit flock worked its way through the willows on the right of the hide then bounced through the reeds and into the trees to the left of the hide. A willow tit churred as it flew in the opposite direction.

Walking round to the canal from Ramsdales 

It was too warm for a long walk round. I found myself clinging to the shadows. I clung onto them all the way round to Plank Lane.

Female common blue damselfly 

Common blue damselflies were everywhere and swarmed about the pools, brown hawkers patrolled the pathways and the wayside was littered with red admirals and meadow browns.

Looking over towards the spit

I got to the gap in the trees giving the view of the end of the spit and looked for the little terns. My concentration on the task wasn't helped by the reed buntings and reed warblers singing beside me or the brown hawkers, black-tailed skimmers and red admirals flitting across my line of view. You get a good view of the end of the spit here but it is distant. What usually looks like a block of birds from the hide is actually a line of birds on the waterside and another line just offshore along a series of rocks and small mudbanks. From where I was standing today this latter looked like an orderly queue for the bus. A couple of cormorants, some mallards, a couple of tufted ducks, coots, more mallards, black-headed gulls, a common tern, two white blobs, a mallard… I looked again and tried my best to get a photo but it's too far away for this camera. The common tern looked half as tall as the black-headed gull standing by its right shoulder but looked nearly twice as tall as the little terns standing to its left. Both these looked like adults but at that distance I'd not be swearing to it.

The little backwater, I'm sure it must have a name

Further along the little backwater was awash with common blue damselflies. A couple of emperor dragonflies hunted over the pool, giving me some opportunity to get photos of the airspace they'd been in a moment ago. Every so often there'd be a moment where a sound like the crushing of dry parchment indicated that individuals of our two biggest dragonflies — emperor and brown hawker — had almost collided and were squaring off in midair. Each time they'd hover a moment, fly in synch for less than a second as if sizing each other up then zip off in opposite directions. It would have been curtains for any smaller dragonfly.

The rucks

I got to the rucks and looked at the path rolling over the tops towards the canal and for some reason thought of John Wayne in "Genghis Khan." I decided to stick to the path through the trees by the flash.

Wild carrot

Tufted duck and ducklings

I kept looking out for any black-necked grebes but found mallards, coots, great crested grebes and tufted ducks. A couple more of the grebes were sitting on nests. I was surprised to see a tufted duck and her ducklings nesting out in the open.

Great crested grebes
The grebe steaming in from the right was doing running repairs of the nest on the left.

Pennington Flash 

A family of willow warblers dashed about in the trees on the bankside, the youngsters having their attempts at flycatching supplemented by their parents. I hadn't heard or seen any chiffchaffs and didn't until I got to the car park on Slag Lane.

I checked the bus times. I had ten minutes for the five-minute walk to the stop in Plank Lane for the bus back to Leigh. I spent a minute of that checking that all the common blue damselflies on the yellow waterlilies in the marina were all common blue damselflies, just in case.

Pennington Flash

Little ringed plover

Another showers and sunshine day boded slightly better late afternoon so I took a roundabout route to Pennington Flash to avoid the blackest clouds of the afternoon and struck lucky with bouts of sunshine. It's nice when the trick works.

Ragged robin

Even though it's still only the beginning of June the walk in from St Helens Road was a lot quieter than on my last visit. Robins, like the titmice, tended to be noises in the shadows or hinted at by leaves moving against the wind. Blackbirds, blackcaps and wrens sang fitfully to put placeholders on territories while they got on with the business of feeding hungry mouths.

Bradshaw Leach Meadow

Pennington Flash 

The wind was strong so most of the waterfowl were keeping to the banksides, a raft of coots by the near bank and a herd of mute swans over the other side. A few mallards and Canada geese lurked by the car park, kettled into one area by the fencing that's been put along the flash in preparation for the Iron Man swimming competition. It's occasionally easy to forget this is a National Nature Reserve.

Little ringed plover 

The F.W.Horrocks Hide can be a cold and windy place at the best of times, if it's a cool and windy day you definitely feel it. The spit was in one of it's quiet moods, the usual congregation of cormorants, herring gulls and lesser black-backs loafed at the end, mallards dozed, a pair of lapwings supervised at least one chick, and a little ringed plover skittered about the waterside near the hide.

Little ringed plover 

The black-headed gulls on the raft at the end of the spit were very active and made plenty of noise but it wasn't possible to see how productive they might have been being.

It was such a quiet walk to the Tom Edmondson Hide that it came as a relief when a chiffchaff started singing. A reed warbler riffed quietly from the Kidney Pool opposite the hide as though singing to itself. The pools at the hide were quiet, pairs of coots fed youngsters, a couple of gadwalls and mallards pottered about in the reeds. A young heron fished from the reed margins but seemed to be mostly catching insects off the surface and the occasional leaf. It's a rough learning curve once they leave the nest.

The Kidney Pool 

At Ramsdales 

It was quietly busier at Ramsdales, with the occasional burst of song from the Cetti's warbler in the usual corner. Canada geese loafed on the islands while mallards and gadwalls dabbled along the channels. I was surprised to see a drake teal out in plain sight, the teal are in deep cover this time of year. I very rarely see teal ducklings until they're nearly full grown. Lapwings fussed about well away from where their chicks were foraging. One pair made a big fuss of a little ringed plover walking too close to them.

Pennington Flash 

I decided I'd walk round to Plank Lane for the bus into Leigh. Scanning the flash from the North, to a background of singing reed buntings and reed warblers, there was a line of a couple of dozen great crested grebes cruising by the end of the Horrocks spit. It was a very orderly queue, I couldn't work out what it was about. Swifts swarmed low over the flash, oddly I couldn't see any hirundines whatever. It seemed good hunting weather for sand martins, perhaps it's just too far away from their nesting grounds.

Walking between the rucks and the canal, the canal bank's on the right

Willow warblers sang in the scrub on the rucks. I listened in vain for any whitethroats.

Greylag and goslings

Mallards and greylags cruised about on the canal. The greylags had plenty of well-grown goslings in tow. In contrast, the Canada geese still had downy yellow goslings with them on the towpath. A drake mandarin duck pottered my way then steamed off in the other direction when the camera appeared.

The mandarin duck didn't want to know

As I was taking photos of the yellow waterlilies in the marina another family of goslings rushed over in the expectation of a free meal. I made my excuses and left for the bus stop.

Yellow water lily

Leigh bumper bundle

Buzzard, Byrom Hall Wood

I really wasn't in the mood for doing anything at all today, it was even an effort to make a pot of tea. I saw the reports of an osprey at Pennington Flash. I wondered if I should go and see if I could see it. According the the reports the bird was at the West End in the area where Hey Brook runs into the flash. I could walk in from Slag Lane along the path past Mossley Hall then onto Byrom Lane to the sailing club, a very different type of walk to the usual one around the hides on the East side. After passing through the woodland edge by Slag Lane there's a long stretch of meadows and reedbeds which give views of the flash between the trees. If the osprey was in one of the trees along here or fishing over this end of the flash I might have a chance of seeing it. It would be hard luck if it was in the trees on the private land around Mossley Hall though in that case I might strike lucky from near the sailing club. And I had every expectation I'd be unlucky anyway, there hadn't been any reports of it since early doors and it had probably moved on.

So off I went.

I got the 588 to Plank Lane, got off just after the canal bridge and walked down Slag Lane and joined the path opposite the recycling centre. Robins, blackbirds, blackcaps and chiffchaffs sang by the roadside and willow warblers and song thrushes could be heard in the trees beyond. There were plenty more in the trees as I walked down the path.

The path to Mossley Hall 

The path crossed Hey Brook and I soon came out into more open meadow landscape and I caught my first sight of the flash, largely hidden by trees and reeds. The songs of a couple of reed warblers drifted over the meadows. A sedge warbler belted out a number from a bramble patch next to the path. Some angry words from passing jackdaws were directed at a sparrowhawk rising on the thermals above the meadows.

Pennington Flash 

I wasn't seeing anything larger than a woodpigeon in any of the trees by the flash, and not many of they. A few lesser black-backs and black-headed gulls flew by and jackdaws passed to and from overhead. I reached a large meadow with an open view of the flash and had a scan round. I couldn't see anything in any of the trees on either side of the flash. On the water there were mute swans by the near bank with pairs of gadwalls and tufted ducks. Further out, pairs of great crested grebes cruised about. A moment's flutter as a large white shape flew in was caused by a young great black-back.

Meadows by Pennington Flash 

I spent a few minutes allowing myself to be diverted by the orange tip butterflies skittering about the meadow before returning to the search. If I had no joy I'd walk on to the sailing club and try my luck. A few herring gulls flew past to join the raft of large gulls I could see in the distance. A heron flew into the mouth of the brook. Then I noticed something large rising above the rucks over on the other side of the flash, a big pale bird doing lazy circles as it rose on the thermals. I had a look through my binoculars fully expecting it to be another great black-back. It wasn't. Even at this distance it was obviously the osprey, luckily for me there's not a right lot looks like an osprey that isnt one. It came closer to the flash as it circled and I had a moment's hope it might be coming this way but it headed back and it soon became apparent that the circles were drifting over towards Plank Lane. I kept watching, just in case, but it kept its distance. Ah well, I'd had my bit of luck and seen it.

As I stood wondering what I wanted to do next a bird shot over at treetop height. "That's a dark-looking kestrel," said the boy birdwatcher looking at a hobby through his binoculars. In my defence, I'd had my surprise of the day with the osprey and wasn't expecting a bonus bird within a few minutes. Luckily it was a big open area so the bird kept in view long enough for the penny to drop.

Helmeted guineafowl

I'd learned my lesson and was on as close to an alert as I can manage these days as I followed the path past Mossley Hall and on to Byrom Lane. I was watching swallows zinging about when I realised there was a soft chuckling noise coming from the field behind me. The flock of guineafowl were almost hidden in the grass.

On reaching Byrom Lane I decided not to head for the sailing club then walk round to St Helens Road. Instead, I turned and walked back to Slag Lane, crossed the road and walked through Byrom Hall Wood into Lowton. 

Heading for Byrom Hall Wood 

It was a nice day and a nice walk. Swallows flitted about the farm buildings at Byrom Hall. A buzzard called as it floated by and off towards Abram. Three lapwings looked to.be headed for Pennington Flash. Greenfinches and whitethroats sang in the fields and hedgerows. Blackcaps, robins, chiffchaffs, willow warblers, blackbirds and wrens sang in the woods. Titmice quietly bounced through the trees, goldfinches twittered, and young magpies rattled at parents that expected them to get their own dinners by now.

Byrom Hall Wood 

A nice gnarly oak

Thinking I was taking a route straight through to Wigan Road I took a meandering footpath that seemed to go round the back of every house on the estate. I eventually got to Wigan Road and didn't have long to wait for the 610 and the start of the long journey home.

Pennington Flash

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.

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. 

Pennington Flash
We're early into the butterflies and landscape photography phase of the year.

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.

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.

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.

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.

From the Tom Edmondson Hide 

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.

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.

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.

Pennington Flash

Mallard duckling

I tossed a coin for today and had a wander round Pennington Flash. Yesterday, by some miracle, I missed all the rain and hail and had nearly unbroken sunshine. Today was cool and dreich. Still, April showers and all that.

The 610 left Leigh Bus Station just as our 126 pulled in so I got the 588 to Plank Lane and walked into Pennington Flash from there. The trees by the little car park were noisy with the songs of willow warblers and robins, anything else barely got a look-in, even the wrens struggled to be heard.

Walking in from Plank Lane 

Dropping down to the flash

The willow scrub on the rucks (the old mining spoil heaps) was even busier with willow warblers, there must have been a fall of them overnight, most will move on to less highly-contested territories.

Blackcap

Dunnock

I dropped down to the North side of the flash where blackcaps and chiffchaffs joined in the songscape. Blackcaps struck poses, always careful to have a twig or two between them and the camera, dunnocks were more obliging. I kept hearing a whitethroat in the background but couldn't see it, I could only pin it down to a stand of hawthorns. When I got to the reedbeds by the flash a reed warbler struggled to be heard over the others, especially once a Cetti's warbler decided to join in.

There's a whitethroat and two willow warblers singing behind me, a chiffchaff over to the left, a blackcap in the green bush centre-left, another blackcap over to my right, a Cetti's warbler behind that green bush and one, possibly two, reed warblers singing in the reeds. Otherwise it was a bit quiet.

Heading for Ramsdales Hide

As the path curved round towards Ramsdales Hide goldfinches twittered, chaffinches sang and there were more chiffchaffs though they were still outnumbered by willow warblers. There was a Cetti's warbler singing at the usual corner by Ramsdales Hide, a  welcome return to the usual state of affairs.

Lapwings

Lapwings

At first glance it was quiet at Ramsdales Hide. At first glance. Canada geese and pairs of gadwalls loafed by islands, pairs of mallards pottered about and pairs of teal dabbled over on the far side. The only waders I could find were the half a dozen lapwings dotted about the main island. I couldn't work out if one female was egg-bound or just desperate for naughty lapwing action. In the end I concluded the latter though there were a couple of times I was convinced she was going to lay an egg, in a different place each time. One of the males approached, they displayed at each other, then she pecked him and went back to her come-hither displays on the other side of the island.

At the Tom Edmondson Hide 

 It was quiet at the Tom Edmondson Hide, the coots and gadwalls took some finding and the Canada geese would have been inconspicuous had they not taken offence at a passing heron. I noticed a pair of great crested grebes in the reeds at the top of Pengy's Pool but couldn't see any signs of a nest. Which is sort of the point, I suppose. It's only dangerous lunatics like corvids that go shouting out: "Hey! Look at this nest!"

The shovelers were quietly a-courting on the pool opposite Tom Edmondson's.

Mallard duckling

The F.W.Horrocks Hide can feel cold on a Summer's day so this afternoon it was a bit bracing. Most of the birds were, as usual, at the far end of the spit though this time of year it's not much of a crowd scene, most of the lapwings are busy elsewhere on the reserve and most of the herring gulls have moved out of the area. The oystercatcher was noisy, as were the black-headed gulls. Woodpigeons grazed on top of the spit, a redshank and a common sandpiper pottered about the waterside. And a mallard tried to marshal more than a dozen ducklings safely from the flash to the pool by the side of the hide and more than a dozen ducklings demonstrated why there's such a high mortality rate amongst mallard ducklings. It's like herding cats. Just when I thought she'd got them all onto the stream onto the pool a couple more scrabbled over the spit. Then another. Then another. One was only saved from violent death by a magpie's reluctance to get its feet wet but it was a close-run thing.

Black-headed gulls

Common sandpiper

There were small rafts of lesser black-backs out on the flash, never more than a dozen birds, a few herring gulls tagged along. Tufted ducks swam in lines, a dozen young adult great crested grebes congregated midwater, and the whole flash was covered with a seething mass of sand martins. Hundreds of sand martins hawking for midges inches above the water's surface. I looked in vain for swallows or house martins then spent a while just watching the birds swirling about like sand blown across a beach.

I called it quits and headed for St Helens Road and the bus back to Leigh. Halfway across the car park a harsh call caught my ear and I turned round to find a common tern hawking with the sand martins out on the flash, my first of the year. Not a bad end to the visit.