The Fylde

Little egret, River Wyre

It looked like being the week's token fine day so I got me an old man's explorer ticket and went for a wander. I've neglected the Fylde this year, I had planned a visit to Skippool Creek but that got iced in favour of hospital visiting, so I thought I'd have a nosy round there, then get a bus somewhere and get back home somehow.

I got off the train at Poulton-le-Fylde and walked up the road to Skippool. I'd just crossed the new dual carriageway when, on a whim, I thought I'd look over the fence to see if there were any wagtails on the creek here. There were no wagtails, just a kingfisher sitting pretty as you please on a branch over the mud. The kingfisher's reactions were quicker than mine and it shot off down the creek like an electric blue bullet.

Wyre Road 

I walked down Wyre Road, the verges busy with large whites and red admirals and the trees busy with great tits and robins. Mallards dabbled and dozed in the creek and a little egret picked its way below the moored boats.

Skippool Creek 

It was low tide and when I looked between the banks of the creek where it ran into the river I could see hundreds of gulls and waders loafing on the mud. A crowd of herring gulls with a few lesser black-backs littered a high bank on the far side of the river, a couple of common gulls hiding in plain sight and a great black-back standing to one side. Black-headed gulls fussed about. Sleeping lapwings were distant dumpy silhouettes, the golden plovers amongst them catching the light as I changed position. A couple of curlews waded through the rills and puddles though it was a whimbrel I spotted first. The only green sandpiper of the day flew across the mouth of the creek and disappeared under a bank.

Curlew

By Wyre Road 

I walked along the road, keeping an eye on the river as I went. This involved a lot of peeping across the marsh between boats and jetties at distant objects. Crowds of redshanks fussed and fed by mud banks, a bar-tailed godwit strode across the mud, a distant line of brown lumps became sleeping curlews. The house sparrows, great tits and robins in the hedgerow by the road were vocal and noisy and kept well under cover. Southern hawkers patrolled the marsh. Occasionally a gigantic dragonfly would fly by and turn out to be two mating hawkers flying and hunting as they copulated.

Redshanks

River Wyre

River Wyre

At the sailing club I got a clearer view of the river, though most of the birds were still distant. There were hundreds of redshanks and dozens of curlews. Every bend in the mud banks had a little egret or two, a crowd of redshanks and a few oystercatchers, every rise on the other side of the river its loafing gulls and cormorants. Rooks and carrion crows fossicked about, a shelduck dabbled in a pool.

Spot the wren

I joined the Stanah Tramper Trail and followed the river downstream. The sea asters were looking blousy and the thistle exhausted but the bees and butterflies were finding enough to get by with. Charms of goldfinches twittered in the hedgerows and swallows twittered in the rigging of the boats moored on the marsh.

Swallows

Sea lavender 

Ordinarily, when I get to the fork in the trail I carry on down into Stanah and get a bus from there. Today, on a whim, I took the path to the right and walked round into the Wyre Estuary Country Park.

River Wyre

Stanah Tramper Trail 

The marshy gap between the path and the river got wider and soon it was out of view. Rooks and jackdaws clamoured in the fields between the path and Stanah. Goldfinches, linnets and swallows twittered over the marsh, chiffchaffs and dunnocks squeaked in the hedgerow and robins sang from small pathside trees. Speckled woods and red admirals fluttered about the hedgerow, a painted lady joined the large whites on the sea asters. More Southern hawkers patrolled the marsh, daring me to try and get their photos. A raven called from the heights of an electricity pylon and was answered across the river.

Painted lady 

Damsons

I followed the path through a glade of damson trees and got to the car park. A voice in the back of my head said I could carry on along the riverside path to Fleetwood. My knees suggested the voice in the back of my head has a screw loose. I decided to head into Stanah for the bus. The 24 to Blackpool was scheduled to arrive ten minutes before the 24 to Fleetwood so I waited for that and they arrived together, both running late. I headed to Blackpool for a bit of seawatching by the North Pier.

Herring gull 

It had clouded over by the time we arrived in Blackpool and it was feeling decidedly cooler. I got me a seat on the steps by the North Shore and started looking round. The tide was coming in and the pigeons and herring gulls were tidying the beach of picnic detritus while they could. A pied wagtail flitted about the promenade. 

Lake District from Blackpool North Shore

Most of the gulls close to shore were herring gulls. Nearly all the lesser black-backs were juveniles and there were a lot more of them out to sea and all looking very dark against the water. Every so often, way out, a dark object would turn out to be a passing cormorant. I'd concluded that all the dark gull-shaped objects flying by in the distance were juvenile lesser black-backs when one about half a mile out caught my eye because it was a lot barrel-chested and the wings weren't quite right. I'd concluded that it was just another lesser black-back the victim of wishful thinking when the bird crossed a sheen of sunlight which caught pale patches on the bases of the flight feathers of an otherwise all-dark bird. A skua, barrel-chested and short-tailed, a great skua. "Bonxie!" I said to myself. 

Herring gulls and lesser black-back 

I looked in vain for shearwaters, though I suspect they were out there to be found by telescope. A couple of possible Arctic skuas would probably have been gulls through a telescope I told myself. Juvenile Sandwich terns chased after their parents. There was a crossing of ducks as three distant eiders flew left and an equally distant common scoter flew right.

Blackpool North Pier

I gave it an hour and decided to call it a day. I walked round to Blackpool North and got the next train home. I hadn't milked the full value out of the old man's explorer ticket but I'd had a full day's birdwatching and it had been very productive and I was ready for my tea.

Starr Gate

Seawatching
One of those days where the sky doesn't get lighter at the horizon.

It was another cool and dreary day. I decided against the planned adventure and checked out the other options. I didn't much fancy Martin Mere on a Bank Holiday Monday or half term so thought I'd head thataway today. If the weather got worse en route I could bail at Wigan, wait five minutes for the train to Orrell and have a quick dekko at Orrell Water Park without getting atrociously wet. Which would have been fine if the Southport train hadn't been cancelled.

So I got myself an old man's explorer ticket and played first train out bingo, the first train happening to be the one to Blackpool North. I decided not to hop off at Bolton for the Southport train from Victoria, if it was running, and I didn't want to push my luck any by going North of Lancaster… I've not been on the Fylde yet this year. I thought a bit of seawatching at Starr Gate would be a nice contrast to recent trips out. I changed trains at Kirkham and Wesham, having about quarter of an hour to wait for the Blackpool South train. 

It's difficult to imagine a bigger contrast than the big new trains going to the big terminus at Blackpool North and the two coach stopper terminating at not much more than a pretty halt. It's quite a nice run. Woodpigeons, rooks and jackdaws fossicked about in fields, hares and lapwings lurked in tall grass and the occasional swallow twittered past, which came as a relief because despite all the leaves on the trees there was an end of March feel to the day.

The beach by Starr Gate 

I got off at Squires Gate and walked down to the seafront by the tram terminus at Starr Gate. I was in luck, it was high tide. May isn't the optimum time for seawatching on the Lancashire coast but a high tide might tempt something to pass within the range of a pair of binoculars. (August and September are usually better when there's more birds on the move.)

Most of the gulls inshore were herring gulls. There were a few lesser black-backs and three great black-backs flew in to loaf on the sea. A common gull flew by, I had to look twice to be sure it wasn't a herring gull looking dark in the glum light. Offshore there were far more lesser black-backs and great black-backs than herring gulls. The great black-backs towered over the waves, a dozen or so lesser black-backs on the horizon seemed to have found a school of fish to prey on. A few cormorants skittered over the distant waves. Five shelducks flew South. Half an hour later a drake eider headed the same way. A distant common scoter flew low over the water heading towards Blackpool. And a swallow flew by. 

And that was it. 

Seawatching very often involves spending a lot of time searching for something you know not what that isn't there anyway, today's was one of the more extreme examples. Which is okay, an excellent day's birdwatching would have been wasted on me in that mood. The sun came out for quarter of an hour and it felt slightly warmer but nothing less than my adding a great auk to my life list would have dented my grumpiness and I wouldn't have bet the farm on that.

Lytham St Anne's Local Nature Reserve
(There's a lot more of it over the top of the dune)

The tide started to retreat and the beach filled with people walking their dogs. I had a wander into the dunes on the nature reserve. A couple of sand martins hawked over the dune tops, a couple of jackdaws rummaged in the hollows, house sparrows and magpies flitted to and fro across the main road. Linnets, meadow pipits and skylarks were notable absentees. On the plus side, there were some delightful drifts of dune pansies.

Dune pansies 

I had thought to get the 68 bus back to Preston to spec out the way to Warton Bank but I just missed it. I had a longer than advertised wait for the next one so gave up and got the train back. I had an old man's explorer ticket burning a hole in my pocket so I checked out the various permutations for moving on to someplace else then checked the listed cancellations then got the train back to Manchester then the bus home because the train back was cancelled.

Not one of my good days.

Xanthoria lichen

Wirral

Linnet, Hoylake

It was scheduled to be a bright and blustery day so I headed out to the Wirral to see what might be blown in.

Herring gulls, Kerr's Field

It was a dead straightforward run to Liverpool and I got the West Kirby train as far as Moreton and toddled off down to Kerr's Field. The hedgerows were busy with long-tailed tits, blackbirds and goldfinches while wrens and robins sang their heads off. The horses in the first paddock were accompanied by a flock of woodpigeons together with blackbirds and mistle thrushes. The two big fields had a lot more woodpigeons together with refugees from a high Spring tide: a few dozen herring gulls and a couple of dozen oystercatchers. The gulls loafed and squabbled, the oystercatchers kept on feeding. All the wagtails were pied and there were no wheatears about but it's early days yet.

Oystercatchers, Kerr's Field

A chap I bumped into said he'd seen wheatears in the paddocks by Leasowe Common. I was heading that way anyway to see if any warblers were about and was glad of the tip. I had no luck, perhaps they'd been moved on by the crowd of carrion crows bouncing about in there. All the warblers in the trees were chiffchaffs, and very vocal they were too. As were the crowds of goldfinches in the treetops though the great tits were unusually quiet.

Leasowe Common 

A moorhen lurked in the reeds by the pond while a coot cruised about in the open water. I thought I heard a Cetti's warbler starting its engine but nothing came of it so I concluded I was mistaken. As I walked across the common towards the sea flocks of curlews, oystercatchers and black-tailed godwits flew inland to feed in the fields as they waited the tide.

Leasowe Common 

Meols groyne

The high tide was lashing the top half of the sea wall when I joined the revetment. Gulls — mostly herring gulls with a couple of lesser black-backs — sailed by in the distance tacking into a strong wind. A couple of great black-backs bobbed around on the sea in the mid distance. I scanned round to see if anything else was about and found a couple of drake common scoters a bit further out. Any other time I've seen scoters here they've been dark shapes flying past the turbines of the wind farm. As I walked down a steady stream of common gulls began to drift by in ones and twos. 

Redshanks, Meols

At first sight I thought the groyne was deserted. I was very much mistaken. The waders had elected en masse to roost on the windward side. There was a hundred or so redshanks and handfuls of knots and turnstones. A couple of oystercatchers flew in and settled as best they could amongst the crowd. I fought the wind to try and get photos of the birds, taking rather a lot as I thought the wind shake would ruin most of them. As it turned out I mostly got away with it, less than a dozen were complete write-offs though a similar number had dodgy composition due to the buffeting of the wind. I've not been doing well with the photography lately, it's nice when it works.

Redshanks, Meols

Redshanks and greenshank, Meols

I walked past the groyne, looking back every so often to see if I'd missed anything. Sure enough, I'd missed a sanderling and a greenshank.

The tide started to turn and the redshanks were getting restive. It wasn't long before small parties of them started to head off for the emerging mud at Hoylake. The wind was getting stronger and like me they made heavy weather of it at times. More gulls passed by including a first-Winter kittiwake which had me puzzled for a bit because the black 'W' across its wings wasn't as clean as I would have expected and at first I took it for a common gull. I don't see enough subadult kittiwakes for them to be on my radar when I see unusual middle-sized gulls.

Redshanks, Meols

Redshanks, Meols

When the tide goes out at Meols it goes out quickly. Within half an hour it was a distant memory and as I joined the parade the mud was littered with redshanks. Further along they were joined by increasingly large groups of dunlins and strings of knots while the mud banks were busy with shelducks and curlews.

Knots, Meols

Dunlins, Meols

At the lifeboat station a flock of linnets was doing an excellent demonstration of the art of disappearing in plain sight amongst the seaweeds and sticks of tidal wreckage. A couple of the males ruined the illusion by stepping out into the open to sing.

Linnet, Hoylake

Linnet, Hoylake

The beach at Hoylake was strangely deserted, usually the linnets are joined by pied wagtails and ringed plovers but not today. I kept an eye out for movements in the sky just in case the Alpine swifts that had been reported in the morning were lingering. I wasn't surprised not to find them, the wind would have blown them into the Lake District by now.

Hoylake 

I debated whether or not to carry on to West Kirby but decided against and headed to the station for the train. I almost changed my mind in the shelter of the houses as I walked down the King's Gap but quickly reconsidered as the wind howled down from the golf course as I crossed Stanley Road. I'd had an excellent few hours' birdwatching, there was no reason to knacker myself by being greedy.

Redcar

Eiders

Transpennine Express have got a promotion on at the moment where old folk like me can buy tickets to distant parts for £20 if bought online before the day of travel. I thought I'd give it a go. There's a direct train to Redcar from Oxford Road which is very straightforward so I decided I'd go for a couple of hours' North Sea seawatching.

I got the train and we chugged along without incident. It was ferociously busy between Huddersfield and York, as usual, but I'd managed to get myself a window seat and I was settled down watching the landscape roll by. One thing's for certain, whatever's been going on in Greater Manchester there's no shortage of woodpigeons in North Yorkshire.

It had been grey and a bit misty in Manchester, I had an attack of optimism when the clouds parted over the Pennines with a milky sun, then it became grey and misty again after York. I didn't hold out much by any seawatching as I walked down to Redcar Beach from the station.

Redcar Beach 

The first thing I spotted on the beach, besides the passing black-headed gulls and herring gulls, was a knot of birdwatchers a couple of hundred yards beyond the seafront cinema. I looked over to where they were pointing and saw a raft of eiders bobbing round in the surf. I kept an eye on them both as I walked down, scanning round every so often to see if anything else was about and being rewarded with cormorants, oystercatchers and a passing razorbill. I wasn't far off the crowd when I found what they were looking at: a female long-tailed duck amongst the eiders. I'm rather tripping over long-tailed ducks at the moment, which is nice as they've been noticeably lacking the past couple of Winters. 

Eiders

Long-tailed duck

There were lots of herring gulls on the sea as well as a bunch of smaller, dark gulls which had me baffled for a few minutes. Luckily there were a couple more amongst the black-headed gulls and common gulls on the beach. There's hardly an Autumn these days where I don't get myself confused over first-Winter common gulls. A noisy bunch of oystercatchers joined the gulls and started feeding at the tideline. Sanderlings and redshanks flew by but didn't settle.

Common scoters

I walked further up, keeping an eye on the sea all the while. The distant flock of gulls in the mist around the wind turbines became a flock of herring gulls and a couple of rafts of common scoters as I got a closer look. The scoters seemed all to be female-type birds, I couldn't see any black drakes unless they were in the misty distance. A couple of the scoters were slightly set apart from the rafts and were bigger and broader of beam. It took me a while to be sure they were velvet scoters, I've only ever seen one before and that was on a bright, sunny day some years ago. 

Divers. The bird on the right is definitely a red-throated diver, the one in the middle is probably a red-throated diver, I'm not sure of the one on the left.

Then I spotted three larger birds a few hundred yards further out. It didn't take me long to be sure they were divers but which one(s)? I struck lucky as they floated in a bit. One was definitely a red-throated diver. One might have been one. One looked slightly bigger but I wasn't sure if it wasn't just a trick of perspective. I lost them in the swell of the waves and while I was trying to find them again I spotted yet another diver a bit further along and further out that was definitely bigger than a red-throated diver and a lot more black-and-white. A black-throated diver, I've never seen one close to and this one wasn't for coming any nearer to shore and soon disappeared into the mists at the base of the wind turbines. I'd have had more luck with a telescope but I concluded a couple of years ago that I'm too old for lugging a telescope with me on public transport. A chap with a telescope came by and I pointed out where I'd been seeing the divers and between us we found a couple of red-throated divers which might have been two of the trio I'd been looking at before.

The mist rolled in some more and the light got worse. I'd had a couple of hour's exercise and birdwatching and added a couple more to the year list so I called it a day and managed to get back to the station with five minutes to spare for the next train back to Manchester. All in all, not a bad trip out on a gloomy sort of day.

Redcar Beach 

New Brighton

Common gull, Wallasey Dunes

I thought I'd go over to the Wirral for a seaside wander and it turned out to be an excellent idea as the weather decided to be glorious.

I arrived in New Brighton ready for the lunchtime high tide. The weather was all wrong for serious seawatching (the best birds get blown close to shore by filthy weather) but there was a chance that the dead clear visibility might work my way. I've not seen many reports of Leach's petrels in Liverpool Bay this Autumn so I wasn't optimistic about seeing one today.

Cormorant, New Brighton

Lunchtime on the promenade was predictably busy but cheerful and not unpleasant. It was too busy for there to be a wader roost on the marine lake pontoons. The high tide had brought lots of cormorants in, those that weren't hanging out to dry on buoys and storm cones were fishing in the river in packs. There weren't many lesser black-backs about, for the most part any gull that wasn't herring was black-headed. Which didn't stop me staring at them just in case something unusual had slipped into the crowd. 

Cormorants, New Brighton

Herring gulls, New Brighton

The grey shape bobbing up and down near the lighthouse turned out to be the nose of a grey seal. It lifted its head above the water for a deep breath then dived out of sight. Which is what a black and white bird out in the middle of the river did. Luckily it bobbed back up a few times and I was able to identify it as a red-throated diver.

Red-throated diver, New Brighton

I strolled along the promenade, looking out to sea nearly all the time. The starlings and gulls in Morrison's car park were joined by pied wagtails and a skylark. Out to sea there was an occasional passing herring gull or cormorant. A couple of juvenile great black-backs steamed by in the distance. I spotted probably the same diver half a mile out to sea. I tried keeping track of it which was easier said than done as it was underwater more often than not. At one point I thought it had bobbed back up fairly close to shore but it turned out to be a passing great crested grebe.

Great crested grebe, New Brighton

Approaching the lighthouse station the herring gulls on the sea wall gave way to black-headed gulls and then to carrion crows. The gulls were busy dancing for worms on the traffic island while the crows broke cockle shells on the concrete wall.

The tide was starting to ebb as I reached the revetment and walked down by Wallasey Dunes. A handful of common gulls dabbled on the shore. They're something else that's been in short supply so far this Autumn.

Common gull, Wallasey Dunes

I walked as far as Leasowe Bay then walked back into Wallasey for the train, going through the North Wirral Coastal Park and failing to get artistic photos of carrion crows in the boughs of white poplars.

Leasowe Bay

I'd bought an all areas Saveaway to get to New Brighton so I decided to get the use of it and headed up the Sefton Coast. I'd hoped to be early enough to just miss the crowds but miscalculated badly. I didn't have the energy to add a late afternoon walk to the day so I stayed on to Southport and got the train home from there. The hundreds of pink-footed geese in the fields between Hall Road and Hightown were a reminder that I'll be spending a lot of next Winter on the Sefton Coast.