Mersey Valley

Goosander, Sale Water Park

The weather forecast promised it was going to be a bleak morning turning nasty and wet by lunchtime so I judged it should be safe to go for a walk round Sale Water Park and nudge the year list along a bit.

Stretford Meadows

Even though it was lunchtime Stretford Meadows was fairly quiet, just a few people walking along the bridleway path and I had the open meadow to myself and the birds. As usual the magpies and carrion crows were most obviously kicking about with the blackbirds and woodpigeons quietly going about their business. 

I'd hoped to see the first kestrel of the year but was having no luck until I heard a kerfuffle over in the hawthorns beyond the rise. The pair of kestrels had taken objection to a buzzard which had landed for a bit of worm-hunting. Once they'd put it to flight a pair of crows escorted it over the motorway and off towards Ashton-on-Mersey.

Stretford Meadows' pair of kestrels after they saw off the buzzard
(Male in the left)

A family party of long-tailed tits fussing about the base of one of the electricity pylons was a hint of a mixed tit flock that never materialised until I'd passed under Chester Road where the hawthorn hedge was thick with great tits and blue tits. One of the taller hawthorns sounded like it was full of goldfinches, in fact it was full of chaffinches and blue tits and just three particularly vocal goldfinches.

Stonechat in the gloom of Stretford Ees

The rain eased as I arrived at Stretford Ees but it was still very gloomy. It took a while to spot the pair of stonechats. They shadowed me along the path awhile, all the time keeping their distance just in case I was a dog in disguise.

Sale Water Park was busier, unsurprisingly, but not silly so. There was a small raft of black-headed and common gulls on the water and a party of five dabchicks were feeding by the reeds. Broad Ees Dole was frozen over so the teal were confined to feeding among the drowned tree roots by the path. A small group of herring gulls and lesser black-backs loitered by the slipway with the Canada geese. There were a lot more gadwall than mallard, surprisingly enough, and half a dozen goosanders fed at the Cow Lane end of the lake.

I spent five minutes watching the feeders by the café and added willow tit to the year list. I walked on through Sale Ees as the light started to fail. The parakeets were going to roost as I passed Jackson's Boat and the first eighty-odd jackdaws were settling in on Hardy Farm. On my way home I spotted an empty bus going my way and took it, it would have been daft not to.

Kickety Brook passing under the tram bridge and the Bridgewater Canal aquaduct.

Mersey Valley

Sleeping heron, Sale Water Park

It was a bright, cool, Winter's morning so I decided to have a wander round the Mersey Valley once I'd made sure the cat and the garden birds had been fed. I'd barely put the lid on the peanut feeders before three great tits descended on it. Now the weather's turned I'll have to be careful to keep everything topped up.

Priory Gardens

Today I started my visit from Priory Gardens. I don't know why I don't do this more often, it's a nice walk and this morning it was dead quiet. Plenty of robins, blackbirds and magpies and a small tit flock in the trees by the path and plenty of noise from jays gathering the last of the acorns. The paths were a tad muddy so in the end I elected to take the bridleway path alongside the motorway and round onto Sale Water Park.

Black-headed gulls, Sale Water Park

A hundred or so black-headed gulls loafed on the water in the company of handfuls of common gulls and lesser black-backs and fifty-odd coot. A dabchick fished by the path and four great crested grebes fished over on the other side.

Walking round to Broad Ees Dole moorhens dashed to and fro across the path. A pair of mute swans and half a dozen mallards fed by the path on the "teal pool" and a dozen teal fossicked round the roots of the drowned willows.

This juvenile moorhen has earned its stripes but not its colours,
Broad Ees Dole

The pool in front of the hide was relatively quiet: a few mallard and Canada geese, a couple of dabchicks, a gadwall, a goosander and three shovelers.

The water park was getting busy with late lunchtime visitors now and I was wishing I'd brought a pointed stick with me. Five cormorants sat on the electricity pylons and a couple of others fished over by the water activity jetty. There were more ducks at this end of the lake, equal numbers of mallard, gadwall and tufties. A lone redhead goosander loafed and preened at the end of the lake.

Goosander, Sale Water Park

A chap was filling the feeders by the café, the birds not even bothering to wait for him to finish before diving in. Even the willow tits were on the bird table as he was filling the fat ball feeders a couple of feet away.

I walked through Sale Ees to Jackson's Boat. The ring-necked parakeets which had been screeching away in the background wheeled around the trees. More magpies and jays in the trees and a group of six carrion crows made a ruckus as they bounced about the treetops.

Hardy Farm

The river at Jackson's Boat was running quietly but there was no sign of any ducks or wagtails around. I decided to walk through Hardy Farm and thence home.

Elton Reservoir

Ruddy duck, Elton Reservoir

I was only half in the mood for a walk today. In the end I decided to spend an hour or so at Elton Reservoir to see if yesterday's common scoter had decided to linger (there have been a few dropping in on reservoirs around Greater Manchester and I keep missing them). I decided I'd just have a wander along the South shore (I didn't fancy a mud bath) then get the bus on Bury Road; if I felt energetic I could take it to Ringley and have a walk through Outwood and if not I could get off at Radcliffe tram station.

I decided that the first garden dragonfly of the year — a common hawker in the back garden — was a good omen. Seeing a kingfisher shooting across the Irwell as I was passing on the tram was another.

Mute swan and cygnets

The usual suspects were on the reservoir: a couple of dozen mallard, the mute swan family, twenty or so black-headed gulls and the best part of a hundred coot. Pied wagtails skittered about the water margins and house martins hawked over the water. The juvenile great crested grebes are nearly full-grown now. A couple of common terns spent more time noisily flying about than fishing.

Juvenile great crested grebe

Great crested grebe

There are much worse things in this world than having a sit down by a picturesque reservoir on a sunny afternoon. I was thinking this as I was concluding that all the black dots on the reservoir were coots. Then a few more dots floated into view as they swam out into the water from a small bight on the North shore. A few more coots and half a dozen tufted ducks. And something else.

First sighting: ruddy duck, coot and tufted duck

My first ruddy duck for eleven years!  It drifted slowly closer, diving for food every so often along the way.

Common tern

The terns also came in closer as they did circuits of the reservoir. In the end the ruddy duck kept about a third the way out from shore. A fine male showing very well.

Coot and ruddy duck

I was of two minds about logging the sighting (I'm not convinced of the need to cull this species). I did in the end, leaving it to the judgement of site moderators whether or not to suppress it.

Back home on the tram desperate for a pot of tea.

Martin Mere

The strong winds brought some funny weather today: it started off sunny with occasional bursts of rain or hail then over lunchtime it turned filthy with occasional bursts of sunshine. I decided to take my chances and go out to Martin Mere for the day.

Along Marsh Moss Lane, just before it started hailing

Walking down from New Lane Station the fields and trees were chock full of fieldfares and woodpigeons. The lack of swans or geese on the fields was made up by the number of little egrets and shelduck on the field between Martin Mere and Marsh Moss Lane.

Whooper swan

The water on the mere was very high. Although there were plenty of whoopers, pintails and wigeon about the most numerous wildfowl by a long chalk were shelduck. On the far side of the mere cormorants, greylags and lapwings loafed at the water's edge. The lapwings were spooked by a flock of lapwings that in turn had been spooked by something in the field beyond, which brought along with them half a dozen black-tailed godwits, a handful of ruff and a single green snadpiper. A flock of twenty-odd avocets flew in but didn't settle.

There weren't many tree sparrows along the path to the Kingfisher Hide, it turned out they were all in the brambles there waiting their turns on the feeders. A buzzard floated in low and looked like it might settle, which upset the woodpigeons that were monopolising the feeders and gave the sparrows the chance to get in there.

Tree sparrows

Shovelers were the most numerous ducks at the Ron Barker Hide. As the weather closed in it became easier to pick out the five avocets feeding far out on the water. It's surprising how easily avocets disappear into choppy water in high contrast light. The wigeon, teal and gadwall were keeping to the water's edges and the ditches. There was a brief flash of pale grey wing with a black panel — a male hen harrier! I've only ever seen ringtails at Martin Mere. That's as much as I saw of it: the sky went black and a torrential hailstorm put paid for any hopes of seeing any raptors flying about.

After a cup of tea I wandered over to the Janet Kear Hide. It was nice to see the willow tit's still there.

Martin Mere

The plan for today involved a day out at Martin Mere. Unfortunately, today the Met Office forecast was spot on: the wind picked up as I was walking from New Lane Station to Martin Mere and in the time it took me to get my membership card swiped at the entrance a few spots of rain turned into something a bit nastier. I could have coped with the wind or the rain, the combination was too much for me. Taking shelter in the Discovery Hide I just about managed to see the tundra bean goose that's been staying the week and there was a very nice Mediterranean gull amongst the black-headed gulls. After an hour I decided I'd had as much fun as I was going to get there today and wandered off to catch the train at Burscough Bridge.

Whooper swans and shelduck from Marsh Moss Lane

Most of the whooper swans were outside Martin Mere feeding on the fields with shelducks and black-headed gulls. A flock on one of the carrot fields included a single Bewick's swan (back in the 90s they were as common as the whooper swans but these days they're pretty scarce in Lancashire).

I was struck by how little yellow this whooper had on its beak

The wind and rain kept most of the small birds under cover or on the ground. The stubble fields were full of fieldfares and redwings and a bit more persistence than was sensible in the circumstances got me a few corn buntings amongst the meadow pipits. One of those odd days where you feel you've given up early but it turns out you saw fifty-six species and added six to the year list.

Hope Carr

Sketch map: Hope Carr

Hope Carr local nature reserve in Leigh is the remnants of the settling beds used by the local water treatment works. On the South and West it's bound by Pennington Brook, there's an industrial estate to the East and the water treatment works form the Northern boundary. It's largely overgrown these days so it's hard to see the original checker board pattern of the beds.

Hope Carr

The main entrance to the reserve is at the end of Hope Carr Lane, off Warrington Road. The 19 and 28 buses between Leigh and Warrington are roughly every half hour, the bus stops on either side are just to the north of the junction with Hope Carr Lane. Coming up from Warrington, the bus stop is the second after the big roundabout for the East Lancs Road; you know you're coming to this stop when you cross Pennington Brook. Coming down from Leigh the bus stop is the second after you turn into Warrington Road. Once you get to the end of Hope Carr Lane there's a sharp right turn and a rough car park dead ahead. The paths leading from this take you round the reserve.

Hope Carr

The path going to the left passes by a fairly big pool that's largely hidden by a bank and large trees. There's a very rough path that gets you to the water's edge. The other pools in the reserve are much smaller and either very overgrown or well behind fencing. Ducks on the pools include shovelers. gadwall and teal, and green sandpipers are fairly regular passage visitors. The scrub covering most of the reserve attract good numbers of warblers, including Cetti's.

Hope Carr

The path going to the right takes you to the edge of the water treatment works. Keep an eye out for sparrowhawks, kestrels or one of the peregrines that nest in Leigh town centre. The big bramble patch along here hosted a Blyth's reed warbler last Winter.

Blyth's reed warbler

Blyth's reed warbler

Blyth's reed warbler

Alternatively, you can come into the reserve from the west, either walking in from Warrington Road (the 10 and 34 are very regular, you want the Mill Bridge stop then walk down Chestnut Avenue) or get the hourly 596 bus from Leigh Bus Station that goes round the houses then goes down Chestnut Avenue, the Wigshaw Close stop is the third one down the road. Just before this bus stop there's a little cut between the houses that leads to a bridge over Pennnington Brook and into the reserve.

Marshside and Crossens

Marshside
One of those days when the sky's a painted backdrop

Keen to take advantage of the cool, wet weather and get away from the news of the day I went for an afternoon wander round Marshside and Crossens.

Aside from a couple of dozen low flying house martins the approach along Marshside Road was very quiet, picking up only near the end with ten mallard and a heron. Junction Pool was even quieter but that may be because there's been work going on recently to improve the ditches here.

Junction Pool, as quiet as I've ever seen it

Things changed dramatically at the Sandgrounders Hide. A flock of black-tailed godwits were busy feeding in the company of a few teal. Tucked away in a far corner were a couple of snipe and a curlew sandpiper. While I was trying — and failing — to identify a couple of small brown birds that were being chased by a pied wagtail a very bright female wheatear flitted across my eye line. Just as I was about to leave a common sandpiper flew in.

Black-tailed godwits, Marshside

Black-tailed godwit, Marshside

Black-tailed godwit, Marshside

Black-tailed godwits, teal, a curlew sandpiper and a snipe, Marshside

Black-tailed godwits, teal, and a curlew sandpiper, Marshside

A ruddy shelduck could just be seen from the hide. It obligingly swam close by as I was walking down the path towards Crossens.

Ruddy shelduck, Marshside

Ruddy shelduck, Marshside

Crossens Inner Marsh was very quiet, a combination of the time of year and work being done on the ditches now that this area's been added to the nature reserve.

Information board for Crossens Inner Marsh

Thirty or so curlew feeding amongst the greylag geese gave a hint of the Autumn to come.

Crossens Outer Marsh was similarly quiet, save for a large flock of swallows around the wildfowlers' pull-in and a couple of kestrels hunting over the rough sedge. A dark shape quickly skimming low over the salt marsh turned out to be a very fine adult hobby.

A merlin quartering a potato field alongside the railway line a couple of minutes outside Meols Cop was the icing on the cake. I've seen a report that I missed out on a peregrine about half an hour after I left Sandgrounders, a shame as it's always nice to get a full set of falcons in one day.

Martin Mere

Sketch map of Martin Mere, New Lane and Red Cat Lane

Martin Mere is a very popular nature reserve surrounded by farmed moss lands. Getting there involves a decent walk but the effort's always worthwhile. Trains from Burscough Bridge are usually every half hour, those from New Lane are more irregular: every one, two or three hours and subject to radical change with each new timetable. There's a network of footpaths between Burscough and Martin Mere, these notes are limited to a few of the more direct routes between the stations and Martin Mere. So far my tally for the area covered in this post is 147 species.

Whooper swans, Martin Mere

Winter is the best time for seeing spectacular numbers of wildfowl but a visit at any time of the year will provide a wide selection of birds. The Martin Mere website includes very regular updates on bird sightings.

Starting from Burscough Bridge Station, go up the steps or walk round through the car park and turn left onto the main road (Moss Road). The next left turn takes you onto Red Cat Lane. This takes you straight to Martin Mere. Once you leave town there's a footpath on one or other side of the road for the full length. If you're a brisk walker it's half an hour's stroll. If you're like me and spend half your time trying to identify distant bodies across the fields you can stretch it out to an hour.

Fieldfare, Red Cat Lane

This can be a very rewarding walk for traditional farmland birds: there's a mixture of horse paddocks, arable fields and farmyards along the way. This is the most reliable place I know for corn buntings, sometimes you'll find one singing from the telegraph lines. Strangely enough I only see grey or red-legged partridges: if I see the one I don't see the other this time. No idea why that should be, it's a rule God came up with.

Red-legged partridges, Tarlscough Lane

About two-thirds of the way a road — Curlew Lane — branches off to the right and goes on to the nature reserve at Mere Sands Wood. This is also the point where Red Cat Lane becomes Tarlscough Lane. Curlew Lane is a good place to look for yellow wagtails.

Tarlscough Lane, opposite Martin Mere

Carrying on down Tarlscough Lane it's a short walk to Martin Mere. The road on the left is Marsh Moss Road which goes down to New Lane Station. Just after this on the same side of the road there are a couple of houses, immediately after the last there's a footpath running parallel to the road which leads to Martin Mere.

Martin Mere

In Winter there are huge numbers of wildfowl with a supporting cast including ruffs and black-tailed godwits, in Summer nesting black-headed gulls and shelducks with common terns and avocets. Buzzards, kestrels and marsh harriers can usually be seen and it's always worth checking out the fence posts on distant fields to see if any peregrines or barn owls are perched on them. You may strike lucky and see a merlin or a hen harrier on a Winter visit. The usual woodland species, together with a good population of tree sparrows, can be found along the paths and on the feeders by the Janet Kear Hide. The Reedbed Walk is a relatively new addition to the reserve and has already attracted bearded tits and even the occasional bittern.

(The bird gardens can be useful for familiarising yourself with exotic wildfowl that you might bump into in future.)

Leaving the visitor centre follow the path bearing right to get to the first set of hides. It's a good idea to check the board outside the smaller In Focus hide to see if anything interesting's been reported today. The Discovery Hide is the best place to start: it overlooks the main mere and lets you get your eye in as many of the birds will come very close to the hide.

Ruff, Martin Mere

The most obvious wildfowl in Winter are the whooper swans, greylags and pink-footed geese; the ducks include large numbers of mallard, teal, wigeon and pintail.

Pintail, Martin Mere

You have a choice now: follow the path to the right down towards the Ron Barker Hide or go left and follow the path towards the United Utilities Hide and the Reedbed Walk.

Towards the Ron Barker Hide

This is a lightly wooded path with a few hides along the left-hand side. The first is the Raines Observatory, a small glazed hide which used to be the best place for getting your eye in on the mere in a warm place (the enclosed half of the Discovery Hide.has taken over this rôle). Look out for tree sparrows, they use the nest boxes in this area.

The next hide is the Hale Hide. This overlooks a small pool  by the mere. This can be a good place for getting close views of passage waders, particularly green sandpipers.

Green sandpiper, Martin Mere

Past the duckling nursery the path branches: the path to the left loops round to the Kingfisher Hide and rejoins the main path further down.  The Kingfisher Hide overlooks a couple of small pools and is on slightly higher ground, giving a good overview of this part of the reserve.

Kingfisher Hide, Martin Mere

In Winter it's a good idea to check the ivy-covered trees in the corner of the reserve as the lower path loops round. Most days there'll be a tawny owl roosting deep under cover.

Finally, we get to the Ron Barker Hide which overlooks two fairly large, shallow pools and a sluice channel. This is probably the best hide for passage waders such as wood sandpiper. In late Spring you can get good comparison views of both little ringed and ringed plover. The large numbers of wintering teal sometimes include a green-winged teal. The sluice is a favourite hunting ground for kingfishers. In Winter and early Spring barn owls hunt over the fields to the right of the hide, sometimes coming quite close. A few years back a pair of black-winged stilts lingered in the field by the hide and teased us with the hopes that they might breed before moving on to parts unknown.

Kingfisher, Martin Mere

Towards the United Utilities Hide

The bank to the right of the path here is fairly new, this is where the old Swan Link Hide used to be. This was a very long hide giving an excellent view of the whole length of the mere and is sadly missed, even though it was getting a lot ramshackle towards the end of its life. A couple of viewing points are all that remain but they give decent views of this side of the mere.

Ross' goose, Martin Mere
All Ross' geese are treated as escapes but who knows, records like this may get reassessed by the Rarities Committee some time in the future.

I tend to skip the Gladstone Hide and go straight down to the Janet Kear Hide. This might be doing it a disservice but it's been a long while since I found it productive. The feeding station at the Janet Kear Hide attracts good numbers of tits and finches, including bramblings in Winter, and great spotted woodpeckers are regular visitors. The small pool here usually has a pair of nesting moorhens.

Great spotted woodpecker, Martin Mere

The Janet Kear Hide is at the corner of a path running by the Harrier Hide, looping around the Reedbed Walk, past the United Utilities Hide and back to this corner.

The United Utilities Hide is on a slight rise that gives you a panoramic view of the reserve. As you go in the main mere is to the right of you, the Ron Barker Hide is a quarter of a mile dead ahead of you,  the Harrier Hide and Reedbed Walk are behind you and to your left. The fields to the left of the hide host hundreds of pink-footed geese in Winter and sometimes you may find barnacle geese or white-fronted geese amongst the crowd.

The path next to the United Utilities Hide takes you anti-clockwise around the Reedbed Walk. You can get a better view of most of the pools from the hides as they have elevated views but the walk's worth it, especially in Summer when you've a very good chance of hearing eight or nine species of warbler as well as cuckoos. The reedbeds also host a variety of damselflies and dragonflies.

Reedbed walk, Martin Mere

The path eventually leads to the Harrier Hide. This hide looks good but is hard work to use. It overlooks a large, reed-lined pool that is quieter than the main mere but still worth checking out. Pochards and great-crested grebes seem to prefer this pool to the main mere.

Sunset, Martin Mere

Leaving Martin Mere you can go down Tarslcough Lane back to Burscough Bridge or you can take one of the paths that lead to New Lane. Check the train times before aiming for New Lane; I generally allow forty minutes for the shorter walk (it invariably takes less than that but better safe than sorry given the frequency of trains here) and add another good half hour if I'm taking the long walk. If you miss the train there are footpaths to Burscough Bridge or you may strike lucky and be able to catch a train going the other way and change further down to come back up again.

Martin Mere to New Lane

Going back along the footpath by Martin Mere, when you reach the houses turn left and follow the path along the field boundary (this gets quite muddy at times). There are usually a few geese or shelducks in the field, possibly a little egret and if you're dead lucky in Winter you may disturb a woodcock (or it might disturb you as it flies off unexpectedly from under your feet). At the end of the field you have a choice: go through the gate and do the long walk skirting Martin Mere's reedbed or turn left for Marsh Moss Road. 

The long walk skirts round the southern boundary of Martin Mere then heads West. You then go round three borders of a field before crossing the railway line and joining the path running by the line that goes down to New Lane Station. It won't be long before you realise you've reached a point where you're about ten yards away from the start of the walk around that field! That frustration aside this is a pleasant enough walk on a Summer's day.

The short walk takes you through a small patch of woodland through to a gate onto Marsh Moss Road. Be careful here: it's a small road but a busy one with lorries and tractors using it and no footpath beside it. On the opposite side of the road to the gate is the start of a path over the fields that eventually gets to Burscough Bridge Station. This is another nice walk on a Summer's day. Turning right from the gate and following the road down we get to New Lane Station. There are a couple of corners that you need to be careful about because of limited visibility but once you get to the houses it's pretty plain sailing to the station.

Along Marsh Moss Lane