Home thoughts

It's encouraging to see that the pair of coal tits are still visiting the garden and haven't moved on now the weather's becoming like Spring. The male's been singing a lot from the little tree by the station so I'm hoping they'll stay to breed. A pair of long-tailed tits, with a hanger-on, pass through the garden three or four times a day but the pair of great tits, though still around, seem to go missing for days on end. The blue tits aren't hanging around long either. I heard the first blackcap song at the station the other day. This was the first blackcap of the year for me, the last wintering blackcap in the garden was on New Year's Eve.

One of the local starlings has an excellent imitation of a blackbird in its repertoire, finishing it off with a pitch-perfect common gull squeal. Another seems to have heard an oystercatcher on its travels and liked the noise it makes, sticking it incongruously into the middle of its most ardent bubbling and squeaking.

The change of seasons is most apparent on the school playing field opposite. There's usually been a few dozen black-headed gulls and a handful each of common and herring gull throughout the Winter, lesser black-backs being pretty infrequent. Last week there were a couple of days when there was a hundred or more black-headed gulls on the field, this week it's just odd ones and twos. On the other hand there's a definite passage of lesser black-backed gulls going on though they're mostly flyovers with just odd ones and twos stopping for a short while before moving on.

Martin Mere

Black-tailed godwit, Martin Mere

The weather, and the birdwatching, was good for a final fling before birdwatching purdah.

From Marsh Moss Lane

Skylarks, reed buntings and goldfinches were singing along Marsh Moss Lane and a small flock of fieldfares flitted between the trees. Walking along the path by the side of Martin Mere (a lot drier than on my last visit!) a pair of greylag geese in the field honked their disapproval of me, a chiffchaff sang from the entrance to the reedbed walk and I was surprised to find a pair of stonechats in the rough near the ditch.

Martin Mere itself was showing signs of transition, with fewer whooper swans than last time and more avocets and ruffs. Most of the geese were greylags though there were a couple of small flocks of pink-footed geese in the fields beyond. The long-staying tundra bean goose eluded me completely. Plenty of pintails and wigeon about and quite a few pochard on the mere.

Female pintail from the Discovery Hide

Pair of pintail from the Discovery Hide

Ruff,  from the Raines Observatory
Not often I see one swimming

Female chaffinch by the Kingfisher Hide

Blackbird from the Kingfisher Hide

Wigeon and greylags from the Ron Barker Hide

Walking back from the Ron Barker hide I thought I'd have a look to see if the tawny owl was roosting in "the usual tree" at the corner by Tarslcough Lane. Much to my astonishment, it was, albeit tucked well into the ivy so that only a bit of its belly and a foot could be seen. I think the tree sparrows must have been busy nest building as they were heard far more often than they were seen.

Leaving Martin Mere there was a group of lesser black-backed gulls pretty far out in one of the fields along Tarlscough Lane. One bird was a good candidate for intermedius, with no contrast between the black on its wings and the wing tips even when it stretched its wings out.

Winter Hill from Red Cat Lane

Winter was still lingering on with flocks of fieldfares in the stubble fields, redwings in one of the horse paddocks on Red Cat Lane and a small herd of whooper swans on one of the distant carrot fields. Lots of skylarks and starlings but no corn buntings to be seen. A pair of red-legged partridges ran off from the roadside as I passed the last of the houses before the approach into Burscough.

Red-legged partridges, Red Cat Lane

Not saying the C-word

Well, given the state of things I've decided that I'm going to have to curtail my birdwatching rather a lot. (It's been pointed out to me that I'm technically more at risk than my elderly father). I've seen this coming, which is why I've been doing a bit more than usual lately. So the plan is to have one last trip out tomorrow then that's that for the duration I'll only be visiting sites within walking distance. If I have to get the bus to the shops I'll stay on a couple of stops, get a bit of birdwatching in and get the shopping done on the way back. A pain in the arse but it's the responsible thing to do.

Leighton Moss

 A day out at a very damp Leighton Moss while the weather's behaving itself.

The path to the Griesdale and Tim Jackson Hides.

After fairly quickly abandoning Lilian's Hide — lots of teal, tufted ducks and gadwall, a surprising number of pochard, three goosander flying over the reedbeds and a few too many people who prefer to use the hide as a picnic site — I took the path down to the Griesdale and Tim Jackson hides. The going was extremely wet. A couple of mixed tit flocks, including a very vocal pair of marsh tits and a couple of camera-shy treecreepers, worked their way along the willows, stopping off at the informal feeding stations people have set up for photography (too crowded for me). On my last visit this stretch was dry and the lower path, amongst the reeds, was under six inches of water. As the water got deeper I took the hint and turned back when a pair of mallard swam past.

There are some photogenic bits of tree along the path

There was fresh frogspawn by the sides of the boardwalk leading up to the causeway and the first Cetti's warbler of the day gave a short, sharp blast of song and scuttled off into the undergrowth. Three buzzards and a sparrowhawk soared overhead.

The public causeway.
Only a couple of inches underwater.

A couple more Cetti's warblers were calling and singing along the causeway and all the way down to the Causeway Hide was accompanied by the snufflings and gruntings of water rails as they foraged in the reeds.

I had wondered about the wisdom of splashing my way down to the hide but it was worth it. A male marsh harrier gave a prolonged skydance over the reedbeds opposite. A couple of females were in attendance and didn't take kindly to each other's presence.

Male marsh harrier

Male marsh harrier

Female marsh harriers dogfighting

Female marsh harrier

Then, to cap it all, the bittern that I'd been hearing booming throughout my visit made a very brief appearance, flying up out of the reedbed and going back down again as quickly again.

Merseyside

The weather forecast said it was going to be unsettled at first then sunny by lunchtime so I thought I'd get an old man's explorer ticket and take a meandering route over to Crosby beach and then have a mosey round Lunt Meadows.

High tide on Crosby beach

The spotted redshank and long-tailed duck that have been kicking around the boating pond at Crosby Marina were notable by their absence today. Any disappointment was put aside by my finding a juvenile shag swimming in the pond, the identification being tricky at first as it was spending most of its time underwater and bobbing up only for a second or two to take a breath. Eventually it hauled itself out and spread its wings out to dry, at which point a pair of carrion crows decided it would be fun to try and pull out a few of its primary feathers. Quickly exit stage right a very disgruntled shag.

Skeins of pink-footed geese passing overhead gave a hint of season's passing and when the clouds finally parted and the sun came out it started to feel like Spring. Then I got over the dunes and onto the beach and into the teeth of a strong, cold wind. It was an unusually high Spring tide so there weren't any waders on the beach, though plenty of gulls passing by, including an adult kittiwake blown close to shore. There were some biggish flocks of gulls flying far out amongst the wind farm turbines and a few smaller, darker birds flying low over the waves out there, neither were recognisable at that range.

Crosby beach

I finished the circuit of the marine lake by walking along the perimeter fence to Seaforth Nature Reserve. Lots of Canada geese, shelducks and black-tailed godwits and a hundred or more gulls loafing about, mostly herring gulls with a few lesser black-backs and common gulls and a couple of great black-backs. In a week or two there'll be wheatears on this grass and a couple of weeks on there'll be yellow wagtails.

A singing chiffchaff by the Adventure Centre was a nice end to this stage of the day out.

I got the 133 bus from Waterloo to Lunt and wandered down to Lunt Meadows.

Lunt Meadows

There was a good variety of waterfowl on the pools. Greylags significantly outnumbered Canada geese. Mallards, teal and shelduck were the most numerous ducks, with a couple of dozen each of shelduck, wigeon and shoveler. Gadwall were thinner on the ground and there was just the one dabchick. It looked like slim pickings for waders, too, just half a dozen black-tailed godwits and a couple of oystercatchers then I noticed that the reeds and the thick grass at the water margins were teeming with snipe.

Teal, black-headed gulls and snipe, Lunt Meadows

Dabchick, Lunt Meadows

Lungwort, Lunt Meadows

Oystercatcher, shelduck and teal, Lunt Meadows

133 bus to Kirkby and problems with the trains that meant no chance of stopping off at Orrell on the way in to Wigan for a nosy round the water park before it got dark.

Lancashire meander (with a bit of debatable Yorkshire)

Grey wagtail in the gloom and rain, Todmorden

The weather being utterly bloody awful again today I wasn't much inclined to go out and get drenched again but I was feeling a bit fidgety so decided to get an old man's explorer ticket and see what the possibilities are along the loop through Rochdale and Todmorden, through Burnley and Blackburn and back again. The way the trains were working it was easiest to get the Leeds train from Victoria, getting off at Todmorden then picking up the stopping train to Blackburn. That gave me an hour for toddling round Tod.

Just after the train passes through Mills Hill Station there's a flooded field by the canal that I always used to check out on my way into work. Time was there was just a dip in the field that flooded in wet weather (a lot of the new building work has wiped over a classic bit of "basket of eggs" drumlin topography round here) but about ten years ago it became a more or less permanent pond. Usually there'd be a few Canada geese and moorhens about, occasionally there'd be a couple of goosanders. Today there were forty-odd Canada geese and six goosander.

I wasn't inclined to move far from Todmorden town centre, though the rain was lighter than it had been along the journey. It was nice to see a grey wagtail skittering along the brook besides Water Street.

The stretch from Todmorden to Blackburn is new to me. The hilly country on the way to Burnley is lovely to look at and I'm wondering if some of those woodlands may hold a wood warbler or redstart or both. It was interesting to note that the train actually passes over Rishton Reservoir and a few more goosanders.

I then got the train from Blackburn back into Manchester, with a close past by an unusually empty Wayoh Reservoir just past Entwistle Station.

Southport

Another nice day so I thought I'd go over to Crossens and Marshside on a late-Winter goose chase.

Although it provides a nice unbroken backdrop for backlit daffodils I'm still not altogether sure of the point of grubbing up nearly all the hawthorn hedging along Marshside Road.

As usual walking down Marshside Road this time of year there were large numbers of teal and wigeon, with plenty of shovelers and both Canada and greylag geese. Gadwalls and tufted ducks were less obvious and pintails were notably thin on the ground. A couple of small islands were thick with black-tailed godwits and near the margins of the Junction Pool were the first couple of avocets I've seen here this year.

Black-tailed godwits, Marshside

A couple of hundred pink-footed geese flew in and landed on the marsh. A male kestrel hovering over the car park was the first raptor of the day.

I didn't spot the golden plovers on Marshside until something, probably a merlin, spooked them.

I couldn't see what was spooking the plovers, whatever it was did it four times over the space of an hour. The only merlin I could see was a large female sat on one of the fence posts over the road on Crossens Outer Marsh. A buzzard was perched on a post quite far out in the salt marsh and a female kestrel flew along the road and over towards the waterworks.

Merlin, Crossens Outer Marsh

Pink-footed geese, Crossens Outer Marsh

All told there were a thousand or more pink-footed geese scattered across Marshside and Crossens Marsh. A couple of pink-footed geese on Crossens Outer Marsh had orange tones to their legs that made me look at them twice in the hopes I could turn them into bean geese. They weren't but I found a tundra bean goose a couple of minutes later a bit further out in the long grass. I also managed to spot a couple of barnacle geese amongst a distant group of Canada geese but I had no joy finding any flavour of either brent or white-fronted geese (the Facebook groups have had some nice photos of grey-bellied and dark-bellied brents and both Greenland and Russian white-fronts this week).

A rather fidgety water pipit amongst the meadow pipits and pied wagtails near the wildfowlers' pull-up brought the year list up to 123.