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.

A day out

Cormorants, tufted ducks, gadwalls, mute swans and a great black-back, Leighton Moss 

The older I get the less I'm inclined to go out cavorting in the rain looking for birds that have the sense to stay indoors and play with jigsaws. Thus it was that when I saw the thunderstorm warnings on the weather forecast I decided I'd try and avoid the rain.

According to the Met Office radar maps Cumbria and North Lancashire were going to miss out on all the fun soI used up one of my cache of complimentary return tickets on a trip out there. I'd aimed at going up to Millom but there's still engineering work on that route and the connections at Barrow don't work at the moment. I worked through the options and decided to take the train to Ulverston, have a potter about for a bit, get the bus to Grange-over-sands, get the train from there and if the weather wasn't too dismal stop off for a quick nosy at Leighton Moss. 

It was a bit dismal when the train left Manchester. There'd been some problem at the airport so the train was setting off from Oxford Road so a normally jam-packed service was like the ghost train. The skies got gloomier and darker as we moved North. It was biblical rain in Lancaster. Then suddenly, as we passed over the Kent Estuary at Arnside, the sun came out. Cumbria had a sunny day. I noticed the first of the wigeons were back on the Eric Morecambe pools.

The salt marsh by the Kent Estuary 

The train slowed to a crawl, almost down to walking speed, on the approach to Grange-over-sands. New land drains were being dug into the salt marsh to try and avoid a repetition of the last few Winter floods. There were plenty of carrion crows and rooks about and two big flocks of Canada geese and greylags. In contrast the crossing over the Leven was much quieter with a small flock of black-headed gulls, a redshank and a mute swan.

I got off at Ulverston and had a potter about, including a visit to the Laurel and Hardy Museum, then got the bus back to Grange. This goes inland over the Leven at Greenodd then following the river to Newby Bridge near Lake Windermere. It's country I don't know so I wanted to check it out. Seeing a goosander sailing down some rapids near Backbarrow was a bonus and a hint that I should add this stretch to my ever-expanding list of All The Places I should have a wander round.

Grange-over-sands, looking over to Silverdale

I had the best part of an hour to wait for the train at Grange-over-sands. I decided to dawdle along the coastal walk and see what was out on Morecambe Bay. Everything was a lot distant, the tide was out and you could see why people are tempted to walk across the bay. Of course, if a tide goes out that far it's a sure bet it comes racing back in later.

Shelducks, Morecambe in the distance 

There were a lot of birds out there, at least half of them black-headed gulls. House martins twittered round the station chimney pots and swallows swooped low over the marsh. A small crowd of lesser black-backs bathed in a pool. Shelducks, mallards and a handful of wigeons dabbled in the mud with curlews, redshanks and crows. Little egrets scuttled about creeks and gullies. Large whites fluttered about, bees and hoverflies buzzed about the sea asters and Southern hawkers hunted midges in mid-air. It was all very agreeable.

Small tortoiseshell

I walked back to the station where the garden was awash with butterflies.

Painted lady 

The next train was the last one straight through to Manchester for a couple of hours. I decided I'd get off at Silverdale and spend that couple of hours having a look round. If the weather was still iffy I could stay in the hides. As it was the weather had perked up considerably.

We crawled past the engineering works again. Inland there were flocks of woodpigeons, jackdaws and Canada geese. I got another nice bonus, this time a kingfisher zipping up the straight cut of the River Winter. There were more Canada geese and greylags on the Kent Estuary together with more than a hundred redshanks.

Chaffinch

The season's change was apparent at Leighton Moss. The feeders were busy with a crowd of titmice and chaffinches, the argy-bargy providing plenty of spillage for the mallards and pheasants hanging about underneath. Nearly all the titmice were in fresh Autumn duds though a few late starters still had a lot of head feathers not quite unsheathed.

Blue tit, not quite finished the post-breeding moult

Coots and gadwalls

The pool at Lilian's Hide was still low but there was enough water for a crowd of gadwalls and coots to fuss about on. The drake gadwalls, all out of eclipse now, were practising their most seductive quacks and whistles to an apathetic audience. A panicky flight of black-headed gulls and mallards way over the reeds heralded the arrival of a marsh harrier which floated over the reedbeds and drifted off back to the causeway. Back on the pool, a great white egret stalked one corner while another loafed by the reeds in the middle of the pool in the company of a heron. In my experience this is quite unusual, herons seem to have no problem with little egrets but get very stroppy with great whites. Anyway, this time there wasn't a problem.

Great white egret 

I was watching a male marsh harrier flying over the distant reeds when the bare tree over by the great black-backs' osprey nesting platform caught my eye. There was a heron sitting on one of the lower branches, which isn't unusual, but the upper branches were festooned with carrion crows and jackdaws. I couldn't work it out until a chap on the other side of the hide said: "Osprey!" I could see there was something where he was indicating but a thick tree trunk was stopping me seeing what it was. I eventually got to confirm for myself it was an osprey when it got fed up of being tormented by corvids and flew off.

Heron, jackdaws and carrion crows
The osprey the crows were tormenting is mostly hidden by the thickest of the tree trunks.

Guelder rose 

I wandered over to the causeway. Mixed tit flocks bounced their way through the trees by the boardwalk, a family of long-tailed tits fussed about in the willows by the causeway.

Causeway pool 

There were crowds of coots and gadwalls on the causeway pool, too. Here they were joined by mallards, tufted ducks and shovelers. There were a couple of teal about in odd corners but the garganey looked to have moved on. For once the great black-back wasn't the big presence on the island as it was dwarfed by a bunch of mute swans.

Cormorants, tufted ducks, mute swans and great black-back

Black-headed gull

Cormorants and gadwalls 

Great black-back, mute swans, cormorants and gadwalls 

Shovelers

There was a panic in the reeds over by the Lower Hide and another marsh harrier flew over the pool and headed out for the reeds beds by the coastal pools. I lingered a while, watching the ducks and gulls and finding a dabchick in the middle of a crowd of coots.

It occurred to me to check the time and it was as well that I did. I had just enough time to get the next Manchester train without having to cut it too fine. On the way back I found a marsh tit with that family of long-tailed tits in the willows, or rather it found me, sneezed in disgust and I saw its rear end disappearing into the leaves. A Cetti's warbler gave a quick explosion of song, the only one I heard all day.

The sun was setting as I got home. I had a scan round to see if the bats were flying around Humphrey Park but there was nothing doing tonight. I mustn't get too greedy.

Hodbarrow

Black-headed gulls and Sandwich terns

I had a pile of Go Anywhere On Northern return tickets burning a hole in my pocket with more on the way so I thought I'd best get one used up. I've been "going to Hodbarrow" since the end of March and have either been distracted or put off by the lousy train services between Lancaster and Preston, I thought I'd best get out there, have a nosy round, get it off my worry list. So off I went.

I set off early for me, the rush hour hell to be avoided of the weekday is a leisurely journey on a Saturday. I got the Windermere train to Lancaster and the Carlisle train from there. Swings and roundabouts, on a weekday this would be a lot less busy than it was today.

The birdwatching had been quiet on the way up. Even the coastal pools at Leighton Moss were quiet, a handful of avocets lingered with some black-headed gulls, little egrets and a great egret. A carrion crow chased a marsh harrier over the fields just beyond as a red deer hind and her two half-grown fawns watched on.

A grey and cloudy day got greyer and cloudier and distant hills became faded pedestals for rolling mists. The tide was coming in as the train went over the Kent at Arnside, the last redshank beating a retreat as we passed. A couple of dozen eiders bobbed about on the Leven by the viaduct in the company of a handful of mute swans and a couple of mallards.

We passed the gangs of herring gulls and lesser black-backs at Ulverston and Barrow and the great mass of large gulls at the waste management site just outside Barrow. As the train traveled up the Duddon Estuary dozens of black-headed gulls and oystercatchers shuffled closer together on the mudbanks as the tide rolled in with the brisk wind. I looked over to the old osprey nest on Arnaby Moss but saw no sign of its being in use.

I got off at Millom and walked the mile or so to Hodbarrow. It would have been a heavy and uncomfortable walk but the wind was so brisk it felt like Spring. House martins and swifts swooped about at rooftop height, beyond the houses swallows skimmed low over the fields and shot across the road at knee height.

Little egrets and cormorants 

The distant sounds of heavy machinery in need of a regiment of grease monkeys resolved itself into the grunts and croaks of nesting little egrets and cormorants. The cormorants had young in their nests, I think there were one or two juvenile little egrets but at the distance from the path across the lagoon to the trees it was impossible to be sure of it. A handful of herons lurked about the bank under the trees with a bunch of mallards and mute swans.

Walking towards the old lighthouse 

The wind was keeping all the small birds undercover but, mercifully, they weren't all for keeping quiet. Chiffchaffs and willow warblers sang in the trees, blackcaps, dunnocks and greenfinches in the bushes and blackbirds sang from both. The robins crept about silently and I was surprised to neither see nor hear any wrens.

Hodbarrow 

Out in the open whitethroats sang from the depths of gorse bushes, reed buntings from brambles and a lesser whitethroat claimed the biggest hawthorn bush as its own.

Common thyme

I remembered seeing bee orchid along this path in the past and I kept a look out just in case. There were no orchids that I could see but there was plenty else in bloom.

Kidney vetch

Centuary

At last I reached the corner of the lagoon and the start of the sea wall, I always trick myself by thinking the end of that North bay is the start of the sea wall when it's actually the three-quarter mark. A small group of Canada geese steamed out of this corner and headed for the crowds on the shingle beach. The tide was nearly in on the Duddon with just a tiny patch of beach yet to be invaded.

Duddon Estuary 

The tern and gull colony in the lagoon

It was late in the season and there wasn't the frenetic feeding activity on the tern colony. Earlier in the year I'd have been ducking my head as terns flew low over the seawall between estuary and nests. A few black-headed gulls flew over, a few lesser black-backs flew by. I was wondering if I'd missed the boat but every so often the wind dropped slightly and I could hear terns calling.

Sandwich terns and black-headed gulls 

As it happened I hadn't missed the boat. There were still lots of Sandwich terns and common terns out on the shingle beach, together with crowds of black-headed gulls. A lady in the hide said that the little terns had gone, they'd been crowded out by the black-headed gulls and hadn't had a good season. The black-headed gulls had had a good season by the looks of it, some nests having half-grown youngsters, many of the older juveniles being capable of flight. Whatever their stage of development, God help them should they stray into another bird's territory. Some of them got a serious pecking until their parents intervened. The Sandwich terns seemed more sedate but they were at least as noisy. Many of the juveniles were flying with their parents, begging as they went. The common terns were more thinly spread and it took me a while to start picking up the juveniles in the crowds of Sandwich terns and black-headed gulls. A few pairs of oystercatchers with chicks were dotted about in the grass, a ringed plover with a near full grown youngster lurked near cover at the front of the shingle beach. A great crested grebe sat on its nest in the middle of a crowd of juvenile gulls and terns bathing in a tiny inlet by the beach.

Common tern

Sandwich terns and black-headed gulls 
A juvenile Sandwich tern just scuttled into the grass on the left.

Canada geese, oystercatchers, black-headed gulls and Sandwich terns

Common tern

Juvenile black-headed gull and ringed plover
Two different plumage strategies for merging with a gravel beach.

Black-headed gull and Sandwich tern 

Sandwich terns and black-headed gulls
Juvenile Sandwich tern limbering up at the front.

Millom from Hodbarrow on a grey and gloomy day

Black-headed gulls 

Crowds of Canada geese were everywhere. Eiders, all the drakes in eclipse plumage, loafed on the water's edge while a couple of dozen red-breasted mergansers sat offshore with a few greylags and mute swans cruised about aimlessly. A cloud of black-headed gulls shot in the air as a great black-back passed over ominously low and settled back down the moment it had gone on its way. All in all it was a lazy June day on the colony more befitting a sunnier sort of day. A flock of sand martins flew in to join the swifts hawking low over the lagoon to make the picture complete.

Mute swans, Canada geese, greylags and red-breasted mergansers

Duddon Estuary 

I walked back and watched the breakers hitting the rocks on the estuary. It had been good walking weather so I decided to take the path that loops round away from the lagoon before returning to the car park. Most of this path runs through the trees and I thought I might hear and see more birds with a bit of cover from the wind. I was rewarded with more blackcaps, blackbirds, willow warblers and chiffchaffs and a family of long-tailed tits bouncing through the willows.

There was about ten minutes to wait for the train back to Lancaster. We passed Green Road and I kept an eye out for the abandoned osprey nest and was astonished to see an osprey standing on it. The eiders had been pushed upstream of the viaduct on the Leven with the tide. Redhead goosanders dozed with the mallards and black-headed gulls on the last remaining mudflat at Arnside.

I got off at Silverdale. I had the choice of mooching around for an hour at Lancaster for the Manchester train or mooching around for an hour at Leighton Moss for the same train and it was an easy decision. And the birds were a lot closer to hand.

Robin

Robins and blue tits rummaged about the hideout while more blue tits jostled with the great tits, chaffinches, greenfinches and goldfinches on the feeders. The jostling about was providing easy pickings for half a dozen mallards and a pair of crows.

Carrion crow

As I walked through the trees to Lilian's Hide blackcaps, chiffchaffs, wrens and a Cetti's warbler sang in the undergrowth.

Chaffinch 

I had Lilian's Hide to myself, a pleasant novelty. The black-headed gulls were noisy and fidgety and will soon be taking their kids further afield. The coots crowded in their corner, the mallards and gadwalls skulked by the reeds. Greylag geese, a great crested grebe and a shelduck cruised about. In the distance I could see the great black-backs have two youngsters in their platform nest.

Mallard and juvenile black-headed gull 

Did I have time to go and have a nosy at the Causeway Hide? I checked the trains as I left Lilian's Hide. I had time enough to walk to the causeway (but not the hide) and back then on to the station without having to rush. If I missed that train I'd be stuck here for two hours after closing time and it was looking like rain. So I walked down to the causeway and back. I was rather hoping to bump into the marsh tits having had no luck on the previous couple of visits. I had no luck today, either. I did hear a booming bittern and watched a marsh harrier floating over the reedbeds.

I got back to the station with seven minutes to spare for the train back as it was running four minutes late. A Cetti's warbler sang in the rain from the reserve car park as the train pulled in.