Leighton Moss

Oystercatchers

It was a day of sunshine and thundery showers but at least the wind had calmed down a lot. I decided I'd visit Leighton Moss, if the weather turned dodgy I could shelter in the hides or get a cup of tea in the visitor centre and it wasn't a long walk for the train home.

I got the Barrow train and stayed on to Ulverston to have a look at the Morecambe Bay estuaries. As the train passed the coastal hides at Leighton Moss I could see there were plenty of mute swans and little egrets on the outer pools and a small flock of black-tailed godwits near the Eric Morecambe Hide. The pool by the Allen Hide is largely hidden from the train by trees, I could see bits of white islands which I guess would be the nesting black-headed gulls and it's likely there'd be avocets in there, too, as I didn't see any on the outer pools.

Small gaggles of greylags grazed in fields between Silverdale and Arnside. This time of year I'd expect to see plenty of swallows around Arnside, I just saw the one today. The salt marsh on the other side of the Kent was bone dry, a few jackdaws and carrion crows pottered about amongst the sheep. The salt marshes by the Leven were slightly wetter, a few pools had water and little egrets and greylags were dotted around.

A few pairs of eiders cruised on the Leven as the train passed over the viaduct, the drakes looking very spruce indeed. I wonder why the start of the year was so barren of them. The train startled a grey wagtail which flew up then returned to the rocks below, a flash of lemon yellow and grey. A couple of pairs of shelducks pottered about on the mud on the other side.

I had a quarter of an hour's wait at Ulverston. The station songscape was rich: blackbirds, robins and a song thrush did most of the work with a couple of wren solos; a blackcap and a chiffchaff sang further down the line. The lesser black-backs outnumbered the herring gulls but it was herring gulls that seemed to be sitting on nests, I'd seen a couple of lesser black-backs on nests on the edge of town on the way in.

There were about a dozen eiders on the inland side of the Leven viaduct on the way back to Silverdale, and also a common sandpiper on the mud. The first red deer of the day watched the train pass by just outside Cark, another was browsing the marsh by the Kent.

I got off at Silverdale Station where the house sparrows were bustling about their business and walked round to Leighton Moss. The weather was fine but some of the clouds upwind looked ominous. I kept my fingers crossed.

Though the feeders have been taken down by the Hideout there was still plenty of activity in the trees and bushes nearby. Chiffchaffs, robins and blackcaps sang and the mallards seemed to be getting by tidying up after picnics.

Getting a record photo of one of the little gulls (the white blob in the middle of the picture) would have been a challenge beyond my capability even before the camera's autofocus locked on the photo-bombing black-headed gull 

There was a clamour from the black-headed gulls nesting at Lilian's Hide. I'd barely sat down before I noticed there was a little gull amongst the cloud of black-headed gulls and swifts wheeling about the other side of the pool . In fact, there were two, both first-calendar-year birds. A few pairs of gadwalls, mallards and pochards pottered about and a shoveler dozed in the reeds. I also noticed that the great black-backs were back to nesting on the osprey platform in the distance. A big vote of thanks to the chap who spotted a bittern flying over the reeds over towards the causeway. 

Black-headed gulls on their nests

The willow scrub on the way to the reedbeds was quietly busy. The chiffchaffs gave way to the willow warblers, with backing vocals from Reed warblers and just the one Cetti's warbler, and a sedge warbler sang in the willows behind the seat at the corner. Great tits and robins fossicked about the pathside, blue tits bounced about in the trees, all were quiet and too busy to be bothered with people.

Heading for the reedbeds

The weather's been so cool lately it's been dismal for dragonflies and butterflies. I'd only seen the one damselfly so far this year, a blue-tailed damselfly at Pennington Flash. I added a couple more to the tally today, and was as slow on the uptake at identifying what I was looking at as I had been then.

For all that the swifts were swarming over the pools and drains there weren't many hirundines about, just a couple of swallows and a house martin. Perhaps they were all over at the causeway pool. Looking at the train times and the big black cloud looming over the horizon I wasn't going to be going that way today. Reed buntings, reed warblers and greenfinches sang in the reedbeds. I was struck by how dry the ground was, the margins by the path were hard-baked mud despite the cool weather. I thought I could hear bearded tits but concluded it was wishful thinking and dried reed stems cracking in the breeze.

The main drain through Leighton Moss 

A chap walking back enthused about the good views he'd been having of bitterns at the Griesdale Hide so i headed that way first. It was heaving, standing room only, I didn't linger. A few red deer hinds grazing by the side of the hide were the highlight. A couple of rolls of thunder reminded me to watch the time for the last reliable train home of the afternoon.

Oystercatchers
The changing of the guard on the nest.

It was considerably calmer at the Tim Jackson Hide. Gadwalls dabbled and bathed, mallards and coots sat on nests and kept beady eyes on a heron stalking round. The oystercatchers were back on their usual nest stop the sand martin nest box, one feeding on the mud and one sitting, until the time came to swap places. My only marsh harrier of the day, a female, drifted over from the coastal hides and headed towards the Griesdale Hide.

Walking back through the reedbeds 

On the walk back I could definitely hear bearded tits. I wondered where they were then a female flew across the path right in front of me and disappeared into the reeds. A fleeting view but it's always gratifying to get a close encounter with them away from the grit trays.

The sparrows were still busy at Silverdale Station, as was a coal tit ferrying food to its nest. The wind suddenly blew up and the sky went black. It started heaving down a couple of minutes before the train arrived. I couldn't complain, I'd struck very lucky with the birdwatching.

Leighton Moss

Shovelers 

There was a good start to the day today with an adult yellow-legged gull landing amongst the assorted herring gulls on the school roof. It was the light catching the bright yellow of its legs as it landed that caught my eye. It's a shame it didn't turn up yesterday when it would have been okay for me to point my binoculars that way for a more detailed look at the bird. I wouldn't be surprised if it was the same bird that keeps turning up at Clippers Quay on Salford Quays.

I thought I'd risk it and try and use up one of my complementary return tickets and head up North to see what was on the Morecambe Bay estuaries and have a nosy round Leighton Moss which like as not was going to be awash after the recent heavy rains.

The trains behaved impeccably. Which is atypical on a Monday. I got the Barrow train as far as Ulverston. Along the way I noticed the woodpigeons were drifting back here and there, nothing like their usual ubiquity but there were a couple of flocks of half a dozen between Bolton and Chorley. Jackdaws, rooks, carrion crows and black-headed gulls were far more in evidence.

Kents Bank

I was sitting inland, passing a huge flock of pink-footed geese on the fields below Warton Crag, mute swans on the pools by the coastal hides at Leighton Moss and both little and great white egrets roosting in the trees at Meathop. The incoming tide seemed to have driven the waders on the Kent Estuary upstream but there were plenty of black-headed gulls and mallards, all the eiders on the Leven were first-Winter and eclipse drakes. A fly-by merlin over the river Eea outside Cark was a nice trainbound tick.

River Kent at Arnside

Heading back to Silverdale there were a few little egrets on the salt marshes. There were more mallards than eiders on the seaboard side of the viaduct over the Leven. Scores of black-headed gulls loafed on the beach at Grange-over-sands and on the Kent at Arnside where the curlews waded thigh-high in the water and a drake red-breasted merganser drifted down the river.

The blue tits that got away

The floods at Leighton Moss had drained as quickly as they came and all but the Lower Hide could be negotiated in sandals. I went straight to The Hideout where the titmice and goldfinches were giving the feeders some hammer. Robins, chaffinches and dunnocks flitted about while mallards, pheasants and moorhens jostled for the spillings, which were copious as the goldfinches were at their most quarrelsome. I could hear a marsh tit but didn't actually see it until I was walking round to Lilian's Hide.

Coal tit

Dunnock

At Lilian's Hide 

Although the paths were dry the water was high. At Lilian's Hide all the ducks were scrunched up onto the bits of bank in front of the hide. For once there wasn't a single bird out on the open water.

Shovelers 

Shovelers 

There were scores of shovelers, teals, mallards and gadwalls and dozens of pintails. A few snipe scuttled about amongst the ducks.

Teal, shovelers and a snipe (centre left, about ten o'clock from the teal)

Shovelers 

Teal and gadwalls

Teal

Shoveler duck

first-Winter drake shoveler 

Moorhens pottered about in the drowned willows by the hide. A water rail squealed in the reeds and a Cetti's warbler had a short explosion of what I would say was half a song. It tried again and still didn't sing the full phrase.

Reedbed path

Robin
I'm going to have to carry a bag of mealworms or something, it gets embarrassing having to keep apologising to mendicant songbirds.

The reedbed paths were surprisingly quiet, occasional great tits, blue tits or robins in the trees and a few woodpigeons and black-headed gulls overhead. It was so quiet I kept hearing the metallic "pick" calls of bearded tits in the depths of the reeds though I didn't see a single one.

At Tim Jackson's Hide 

Tim Jackson's Hide was busy with people and the pools were busy with gadwalls, mallards and shovelers.

At Griesdale Hide 

The Griesdale Hide was just as busy with people but significantly quieter of birds, there wasn't even the usual crowd of crows and jackdaws on the fields beyond the reserve. Half a dozen cormorants loafed in the trees amongst the reeds and a buzzard soared over the hillside. A female marsh harrier floated by and disturbed a few starlings in the reeds.

Walking back to the visitor centre 

Walking back I heard a mistle thrush singing from a tree by the railway line, the weather wasn't anything to write home about but I hadn't expected it to provoke a stormcock into song. The trees between Lilian's Hide and the visitor centre were busy with titmice, chaffinches and goldfinches. I spent some time trying and failing to get photos of a pair of bullfinches extracting and eating the pips from guelder rose berries before I noticed the time and had to do a quick toddle for the last train back to Manchester for a couple of hours.

It was one of those odd sort of days where the birdwatching feels quiet but a substantial day list gets racked up.

Leighton Moss

Snipe

It was a cold and sunny morning so I thought I'd push my luck, get myself an old man's explorer ticket and have a look round Leighton Moss.

The train journey up was mercifully uneventful. As the train slowed down for Silverdale I could see that most all the pools at the coastal hides were frozen over but the fields were heavily frosted rather than snow-covered.

By Silverdale Station 

Walking round to Leighton Moss from the station I headed straight for the Hideout to see what was at the feeders. 

Moorhen

Robin
I should have used the macro setting on the camera for this character but it would still have been out of focus because it kept hopping closer.

Female bullfinch 

Blackbird

Chaffinch 

Robin

Mallard

Blackbird 

The chaffinches and goldfinches kept getting barged off the sunflower feeders by bullfinches and robins; dunnocks, coal tits, siskins and greenfinches squeezed in when they could. Underneath the feeders half a dozen mallards, a couple of pheasants and three moorhens jostled for the spillage. A blackbird, a robin and a couple of mallards had taken up residence in the Hideout and mugged shamelessly for scraps. I felt guilty I didn't have anything on me.

From Lilian's Hide 

Snipe

Marsh harrier 

The pool at Lilian's Hide was frozen over, a dozen teal and a few snipe loafing and feeding as best could on the bank by the hide while a heron stalked the reeds on the far bank. A couple of marsh harriers kept floating up from the reeds near the causeway before dropping back down like a stone. I couldn't see that any of the hunting was successful.

Walking to the reedbed hides

The walk down to the reedbed hides was eerily quiet, almost like the morning after a heavy snowfall despite the fact there was no snow to be seen. The small bird noises were mostly falling leaves or the thawing of icy reed stems. A water rail calling by the path came as a shock. Every robin on the path begged for food. I felt awful. Especially when one flew up onto the tree trunk by my face and stared me in the eye. Girding my loins and hardening my heart I carried on walking, bumping into wrens, blue tits and great tits along the way. It was too late in the day to expect bearded tits but I kept an eye and ear peeled on the off-chance.

Reedbeds 

At the Griesdale Hide 

The pools were mostly frozen, a mute swan filling the patch of open water at the Griesdale Hide. Shovelers flew about without landing. A pair of cock pheasants sparred on the field beyond the reserve while a couple of carrion crows stopped by to watch. As I left the Griesdale Hide a cronk heralded the passing by of a low-flying raven.

Walking back into the reedbeds

Walking back to the visitor centre the thawing of the reeds sounded noisier. Upon investigation I found a few blue tits pecking stems open for insects and a pair of reed buntings feeding on seeds. I'd almost arrived at the corner where the reedbeds meet the willow scrub when I heard something else. At first I thought it was the tutting of the wren having a bath at the base of the reeds but it didn't sound right. I heard it again, if the wren wasn't a ventriloquist it must be another bird. Then a bearded tit flew out of the reeds by the first of the drowned willows and disappeared into the depths of the reedbed. I could still, just, hear it but couldn't find it to see again.

There were more robins, wrens, blue tits and water rails and a great spotted woodpecker pecked away at one of the big oak trees. I checked out the goldfinches and siskins feeding on the alder cones just in case any redpolls were in there with them.

The clouds rolled in and the moment they covered the sun there was a sudden drop in the temperature. I'd timed my visit right for taking advantage of the warm snap. I'd reconciled myself to having another visit without seeing a marsh tit so it was nice to meet one by the Hideout as I walked back to the visitor centre.

Leighton Moss 

The plan was to get the Barrow train to Ulverston so I could check out the bird life on the estuaries then get the Manchester train back from there. The plan was. The Manchester train was cancelled. The next train South was an hour later and arrived at Lancaster a few minutes after the train to Manchester left so there was a fifty-seven minute wait for the next Barrow to Manchester train. Earlier in the year I'd have spent that time at Leighton Moss but I wasn't going to rummage about there on the dark on a cold night. I idly looked at what was happening further down the line (I was trying to cobble together some other route home). There'll be a lot of people putting in Delay Repay claims this day.

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