Pennington Flash

Lapwing

I had a teatime stroll round Pennington Flash, the idea being to get some exercise in the relatively cooler hours before the heatwave kicks in in the latter part of the week. While it was distinctly cooler than at lunchtime it was still warm and I was glad of the long shadows to hide in.

The walk in from St. Helens Road was exceptionally quiet, had a wren not flown across the path I'd have seen nothing. There was a delightful counter to the idiot cyclist of the other day: the first I heard of the family of young cyclists coming up behind me was a tiny voice shouting from fifty yards away: "Ring! Ring! My bell's broken!"

Juvenile lesser black-back

The flash was busy with canoeists and people and dogs splashing round the edges. About a hundred mallards — including a duck with young ducklings — and a similar number of coots congregated at the car park, the Canada geese and black-headed gulls on the spit at Horrocks Hide and a pair of mute swans with their cygnets cruises the water margins hissing at passersby. A diffuse raft of fifty-odd lesser black-backs and a few herring gulls blithely ignored the canoeists. A rather tatty young lesser black-back was trying to make a living pinching food off the ducks in the car park.

Pennington Flash 

The hides were still open despite its being teatime. There were a lot of lapwings with the mallards, coots and Canada geese on the spit. A hundred or so black-headed gulls loafed in the channel at the end of the spit with a few herring gulls and a couple of cormorants.

The walk to the Tom Edmondson Hide was eerily quiet save the calls of a couple of chiffchaffs and some coots on Pengy's pool. It was by pure dumb luck I spotted a reed warbler silently hunting in the reeds.

Pennington Flash 

The selection of ducks at the Tom Edmondson Hide highlighted why this time of year is hard work. Eclipse plumages are tricky enough, add to that a variety of sizes of young ducks with not quite full-grown juvenile mallards having a very gadwall-like look to them. Of course you can always rely on the white and brown speculum on the wings of the gadwalls as an identification feature. Except for the week or so when those feathers have moulted and the new ones aren't showing through yet. The differences in bill shape and colour between a gadwall and a young mallard are subtle and not always wholly convincing.

There were a few teal with the moorhens and lapwings at Ramsdales. The only great crested grebe of the day was cruising around the raft of a dozen tufted ducks in the bight.  

Walking back to St. Helens Road 

After nearly a couple of hours of wandering about I called it quits and headed for the bus on St. Helens Road. The walk back would have been as quiet as the walk in but for a very noisy juvenile sparrowhawk in the treetops.

Martin Mere

Cattle egret and carrion crow

I had more luck with yesterday's planned walk today. The trains were busy but punctual so I got to New Lane without any hassle. It was a relentlessly sunny day so I headed straight for Martin Mere via Marsh Moss Lane where there was occasional shade from wayside trees.

Bullace (wild damson)

The trees and bushes along the path from Marsh Moss Lane were busy with invisible birds. A couple of robins sang, great tits and blue tits called as they bounced around in the branches and blackbirds heaved leaves around in the undergrowth. Most of the movement catching my eye was butterflies: there were a lot of large whites about for no apparent reason and speckled woods were kept busy chasing them and any passing meadow browns out of their territories.

Common hawker

The mere was busy, mostly with black-headed gulls, cormorants and lapwings. A few herons lurked on the far shore and coots and moorhens fussed about by the Discovery Hide. The raft of juvenile shelducks and the solitary adult were still about and mallards loafed on the islands. The absence of any waders other than lapwings was striking. There hadn't been any geese about either but that was soon rectified as a couple of dozen greylags flew in noisily and a dozen Canada geese flew in relatively quietly. 

I don't know why this cormorant was so taken with this stick

Black-headed gulls

The gulls were all in post-breeding flocks, a couple of common terns were still feeding full-sized juveniles. High overhead a soaring buzzard got too close to a soaring sparrowhawk which took a few swipes at it before flying off.

Cattle egret and carrion crows

A cattle egret had been reported as being with the Longhorn cattle feeding on the meadow in front of the Gladstone Hide. I've had no luck with cattle egrets this year so I had a wander over to see if I could find it. The grass was as high as a Longhorn cow's eye so I didn't think I'd have much chance of seeing the egret and after a few scans round I hadn't had any joy. Then I glanced over to the fence by the drain. A nice adult cattle egret enjoying the company of a couple of carrion crows.

A wander down to the Ron Barker Hide was a nice walk. Nearly everything that moved was a bee, a butterfly or a dragonfly so it was nice to see a couple of juvenile robins by the wayside. There were lots of mallards and lapwings on the marsh in front of the hide. A few greylags, moorhens and gadwall loafed on the bank of the drain and a pair of whooper swans slept by the far gate. A marsh harrier perched in a distant tree was the only one of the day. Further out a couple of kestrels were hovering over a field looking to catch anything escaping from a combine harvester.

Yellow wagtails, Curlew Lane

I walked to Burscough Bridge for the train accompanied by flocks of swallows and house martins most of the way. The rabbits were out in force again in the donkey's field at Brandeth Barn but there was no sign of the flock of collared doves. At the junction with Curlew Lane a couple of yellow wagtails flew over the field, which was nice as they've seemed very thin on the ground here this year. As they flew left a corn bunting flew right and over towards the paddocks on Crabtree Lane. As I walked past the barn a movement caught my eye, four juvenile yellow wagtails were fussing about on the roof.

The rest of the way down Red Cat Lane was pretty quiet as the barley was being harvested. I got to the station with ten minutes to spare and for once the trains behaved impeccably all the way home.

Elton Reservoir

Juvenile goldfinch, Withins Lane

The plan was to have an afternoon out at Martin Mere the plan was. The train services being as the train services are I had a trip out to Elton Reservoir.

The day had started pretty well, with the first coal tit of Autumn joining the crowd of house sparrows on the bird feeders in the back garden.

I'll skip over my attempts to connect with the Southport train to get to Martin Mere, it was wearisome at the time and more so with the retelling. So I went to Elton Reservoir.

Elton Reservoir 

Despite the long, dry weather the water was well higher than it had been on my last visit. Canada geese and mallards loafed about the edges, a couple of large rafts of coots bathed and quarrelled with each other. A few lesser black-backs jockeyed for positions on buoys while black-headed gulls bathed in the deep end. A small duck in midwater puzzled me a while, it was only when I moved round to near the creek that I could confirm it as an eclipse male teal. Half a dozen great crested grebes dotted about took a bit of finding. 

A small flock of sand martins hawked low over the water at the sailing club end, joined by a couple of swallows. A few more swallows and half a dozen house martins were at the Withins end.

Purple loosestrife, Elton Reservoir

There were no waders about, a morning full of dog walkers and runners had probably put any up. A couple of walkers made a point of walking along the shore line to the wader point and getting a bit to close to a family of mute swans.

There were small birds aplenty but they were hard work to connect with, except the noisy families of willow warblers hopping about in the willows by the creek. It felt odd not to see or hear a single blackcap or whitethroat, all the robins were in ninja mood betrayed only the the occasional calls of youngsters.

I had a narrow squeak on one of the blind bends on the path leading away from the creek with a cyclist who thought he was on the velodrome rather than a two foot wide dirt footpath. I expressed my appreciation of his art. It's not as if he was a kid, he was my age if a day and had helmet and goggles and pads on his elbows and knees to keep him safer than any walker he happened to hurtle past. I have a downer on cyclists and it's because of the likes of him and a similar article who scythed through a family group on Stretford Meadows the other day as the father was making sure the youngest child hadn't hurt herself falling off her bike. It's entirely unfair: for every one of these arseholes there's a hundred entirely polite and considerate cyclists but it's the ones that nearly hit you that colour your memory.

A few more coots, mallards and Canada geese loafed about the shallow end of the reservoir over near Withins together with a small raft of tufted ducks.

Radcliffe from Elton Reservoir 

There was a lot of meadow browns and large whites in the grass by the path, and speckled woods aplenty feeding on blackberries in the hedgerows. Common hawkers patrolled the creek while brown hawkers whizzed around the reeds and willows by the reservoir edges.

There was almost nothing on Withins Reservoir, just a heron and a couple of moorhens. There was more happening in the bushes along the feeder stream. A family of willow warblers fossicked away in a pile of willow prunings just an arm's length from me, giving me the opportunity to add to my portfolio of "there was a warbler there a moment ago" photos. I had more luck when they moved into the willows and joined a mixed tit flock — blue tits and long-tailed tits — and a noisy charm of goldfinches. A juvenile blackcap was an unexpected and accidental bonus.

Willow warbler, Withins Reservoir

The common hawkers patrolling the hedgerows were joined by common darters along the feeder stream. 

Another charm of goldfinches, mostly juveniles, fed on the patch of thistles by the farmyard on Withins Lane. The hay in the fields between the farmhouses and the canal was being cut and turned, much to the delight of a flock of jackdaws. A couple of brown hawkers patrolled the hay fields.

Hay-making

There wasn't much doing on the canal and I'd had had a good couple of hours' pottering about so I walked into Radcliffe for the bus. I got the 513 into Farnworth to get the 22 to the Trafford Centre, saving me going into the city centre in the rush hour and only ten minutes longer to get home.

Mersey Valley

Long-tailed tit, Broad Ees Dole

It was good weather for walking so I decided to take a stroll down to Stretford Meadows and on through to Sale Water Park. In the event I carried on through Chorlton Water Park and on to Kenworthy Woods.

It was cloudy with the promise of getting sunny later on and there was a fresh breeze which kept it comfortable. I was barely halfway across the garden centre car park at the bottom of Newcroft Road when a young buzzard flew low overhead heading towards Urmston.

The path onto the meadows was reassuringly muddy, I'd scarcely negotiated the puddles when I noticed something flitting about the tops of the young trees just ahead of me. My first thought was a sand martin but it was fluttering rather than swooping about the treetops and seemed to be gleaning insects from the leaves. As soon as I had my binoculars on it it was obviously a bat. It wasn't any bat I could recognise: it was too big for any of the pipistrelles but way too small for a noctule, definitely not one of the long-eared bats, or horseshoe bats either, and Daubenton's bats don't feed like that. By a process of elimination it was either a Brandt's bat, a Natterer's bat or a whiskered bat. I watched it for half a minute before it disappeared into the tall trees. I then spent quarter of an hour looking at bat identification pages. The feeding method fitted Natterer's or whiskered best but it looked too dark to be a Natterer's bat so I'm pretty sure it was a whiskered bat. I was surprised — to put it mildly — to see one out at this time of day but I suppose if it was hungry or had hungry mouths to feed it had no choice. Or it might have been disturbed and decided that while it was up it might as well get something to eat.

Stretford Meadows 

There's a new information sign at the car park and I'd been scoffing at the decision to depict a great spotted woodpecker instead of a whitethroat or a reed bunting. I had to take it back after seeing no buntings, hearing just the one whitethroat and seeing a great spotted woodpecker fly out from the cricket pitch and off over the motorway. 

Stretford Meadows 

There were plenty of carrion crows and magpies kicking about and a steady traffic of woodpigeons overhead. Half a dozen linnets joined the charm of goldfinches feeding on the thistledown. A painted lady and a couple of meadow browns were busy on a patch of knapweed.

Painted lady, Stretford Meadows

I walked down along Kickety Brook to Stretford Ees. It had become sunny and the butterflies (large whites and speckled woods) were busy and squirrels dozed on branches in the hedgerows. Here and there there'd be the rustle of great tits or robins in the undergrowth or woodpigeons feeding in the hawthorns. A migrant hawker gave me the once-over then zoomed off on its way.

Hornet hoverfly, Stretford Ees
I never realised they had such jolly bottoms

Stretford Ees was very quiet, odd pairs of woodpigeons passed overhead, a couple of magpies fed on the grass and a chiffchaff, a wren and a blackbird called in the trees by the tram lines in response to passing cyclists.

Stretford Ees

Sale Water Park was busy with jet skis, kayaks and swimming competitions so all the birdlife on the big lake hugged the water margins or else joined the mute swans mugging passersby at the car park. The herd of swans is two dozen strong now. There were similar numbers of Canada geese, coots and mallards and a few black-headed gulls. A couple of great crested grebes kept to the reeds with the families of young coots.

Canada geese and mallards, Broad Ees Dole

Broad Ees Dole was busy with birds. A couple of dozen mallards loafed on the Teal Pool. I was checking that they were all mallards when a kingfisher shot by at close quarters. Try as I might I didn't find where it went. More mallards loafed with the coots, Canada geese, herons and gadwalls on the islands by the hide. Moorhens fussed about, black-headed gulls fidgeted and a stock dove came down for a drink. It took me a while to find any dabchicks, one of the adults was supervising a youngster's fishing expeditions in the duckweed. All the while I kept getting distracted by long-tailed tits bouncing round in the vegetation in the ditch in front of the hide.

The path around the lake was littered with damselflies, mostly common blue damsels with a few blue-tailed damsels. A brown hawker patrolled the tops of the hedgerows. There wasn't a lot of food put out on the feeders by the café but there was enough to keep a nuthatch interested while great tits, coal tits and a robin flitted in and out.

Ring-necked parakeet, Jackson's Boat

I walked up to Jackson's Boat unsure whether to call it quits and walk through Hardy Farm to get the bus or carry on to Chorlton Water Park. While I was being busy being indecisive a ring-necked parakeet made a racket just above my head. It took a few minutes to find it despite it's being big and noisy and just twelve feet away. It's amazing how well they blend in with sycamore leaves.

I crossed the bridge and found myself walking down the river on autopilot. There was a total absence of ducks or wagtails on the water. More woodpigeons passed overhead, a couple of crows called from the tops of trees by the golf course and chiffchaffs, blue tits and greenfinches foraged in the hedgerow. I was almost at Chorlton Water Park when a flock of swallows flew in to feed over the river, the only hirundines of the day.

Chorlton Water Park 

Chorlton Water Park was understandably busy so I just had a quick turn around the lake. The black-headed gulls were back in numbers, the Canada geese and mallards crowded round the runways where people might have some food for them. There weren't many mute swans on the lake today and no obvious reason why not .The trees were quiet save for the occasional chiffchaff and a couple of parakeets.

Grey squirrel, Kenworthy Woods

I didn't fancy traipsing up to Southern Cemetery for the bus home so I crossed the river and walked through Kenworthy Woods for the 101 into Manchester. For a change I followed the road straight through and was rewarded by jays, magpies and goldfinches feeding on the roadside while blackbirds, a mixed tit flock and some chiffchaffs fed in the hedgerows. Squirrels fed in the hawthorn bushes and a great spotted woodpecker called from the tall trees just behind.

Chorlton Water Park 

I'd intended this to be a short dawdle but ended up spending four hours wandering about. It had been a good walk, the birdwatching had been pretty good for this time of year and how often do you see a bat feeding in broad daylight?

Leighton Moss

Heron

I decided to risk it with a visit to Leighton Moss and, for once, the trains behaved themselves. It was a relatively quiet day's birdwatching but there was enough about to keep me on my toes and the weather made for pleasant walking.

As the train approached Silverdale I could see that there was more water on the pools by the coastal hides, but rather a lot less birds, just three mallards.

Things picked up at Leighton Moss. Goldfinches, nuthatches and bullfinches were calling in the garden but the only birds showing themselves were the usual gang if mallards in the picnic area and the titmice and chaffinches on the feeders. A couple of chiffchaffs called from within the willows but I couldn't pin them down.

Shoveler on a stick

Gadwalls

Redshank and greenshank

The hides tended to be busy but there were enough birds about to distract from the chatter. There were only a handful of young black-headed gulls on at Lilian's Hide. On the other hand there were fifty-odd coots, a similar number of mallards and a couple of dozen gadwall. The supporting cast included a few drake pochards in their leaden eclipse plumage, a couple of dabchicks, a dozing mute swan and a shoveler dozing on a stick. I noticed a greenshank walking over one of the nesting rafts, grabbed my camera and it had turned into a redshank. The greenshank had sat down on the raft and the redshank walked up and sat down in front of it.

Heading for the reedbed hides 

The walk down to the reedbed hides was very quiet. A couple of juvenile robins flitted about the undergrowth and a chiffchaff called from the treetops. Some furtive rustlings by one of the drains turned out to be a water vole heading for cover.

Just outside the Tim Jackson Hide a mixed tit flock — long-tailed tits and blue tits — bounced silently about through the willows. There weren't a lot of birds at the hide: a heron, a handful of dozing mallards, a couple of dabchicks and a family of moorhens. Most of the activity was broad-bodied chasers chasing each other over the pools.

At the Griesdale Hide 

A couple of willow warblers called from the trees on the way to the Griesdale Hide. Unusually I didn't see or hear any reed warblers, sedge warblers or Cetti's warblers here today. The sky was even quieter than the reeds with just a handful of swifts flying very high overhead. Again dragonflies provided the main action with brown hawkers patrolling the reeds at head height.

The great black-backs that had nested on the osprey platform at Griesdale had been and gone. There were a few coots, mallards and gadwall on the pool. Common hawkers and brown hawkers were laying eggs at the water margins while a couple of emperor dragonflies patrolled the reeds.

Leighton Moss looking towards Warton Crag

As I walked back to the visitor centre I checked the trains. The afternoon cancellations meant that if I decided to visit the Causeway Hide I'd have at least a two hour wait for the next train and an uncertain connection at Lancaster for a train back to Manchester, so I decided against.

As I arrived at the visitor centre a juvenile treecreeper detached itself from a charm of goldfinches to sit and preen on a tree trunk by the path. A quick check of the feeding stations found one of the marsh tits I hadn't seen by the wooded path.

Juvenile treecreeper

It had been a relatively quiet visit, it's not often you only see thirty species of birds in two hours here. It seemed odd not to see a single marsh harrier.

I was tempted to stop off at Lancaster and get the bus out to Confer Green to try and connect with the Temminck's stint that's been there the last few days but I lost my bottle when I looked at how the trains were running and headed off home.

Mosses

Kestrel, Chat Moss

Today's plans were derailed by cancelled trains again so I decided on a wander across the Salford Mosses.

I got the train to Irlam and walked up Astley Road. It seems odd to be saying it was very, very quiet when there were literally hundreds of woodpigeons about and probably a hundred swallows. A couple of small flocks of goldfinches twitted in the trees near the Jack Russell's gate, I disturbed a couple of blackbirds and wrens, a greenfinch flew over, a chaffinch bathed in one of yesterday's puddles. And that was pretty much it. 

Chat Moss 

There weren't even many butterflies, and nearly all those were large whites (the other two were speckled woods). The only bird of prey was a kestrel hovering over the stables near Four Lanes End. Even for this time of year it was very, very quiet.

Kestrel, Chat Moss

As I approached Little Woolden Moss I heard the contact call of a whitethroat from deep in the willowherbs in the drain by the path and a willow warbler calling from the willows by the car park. A mixed flock of swallows and house martins flew low over and headed over the moss. The only buzzard of the day flew low over the trees and headed off towards Astley Moss.

There was a handful more willow warblers to be heard and seen on Little Woolden Moss. A few linnets flew about, a couple of reed buntings fossicked in the scrub, more woodpigeons flew overhead and the family of carrion crows were bouncing round on what little damp mud was left after the dry weather. It took an age to find the one and only pied wagtail, a youngster still looking a bit brown about the wings. At one point three kestrels hovered over the moss, at least one of which was a juvenile bird. They went their separate ways, two flying towards Glazebury, the third heading for Astley Road. I walked round to Little Woolden Hall without adding to the day's tally. 

Female common darter, Little Woolden Moss

Although there weren't many butterflies about there were plenty of dragonflies. It was slow going at first, just a few black darters buzzing round the path. Things picked up a lot when I got to the junction with the path to New Moss Lane. Brown and common hawkers patrolled the tops of the bracken. A couple of common hawkers came up and gave me the eyeball, it's very unsettling to have a large dragonfly hovering at the tip of your nose. One settled on my chest for a while like some mad art deco brooch. Common darters joined the black darters along the path, when they weren't chasing each other round the heather. A female common blue damselfly had me puzzled for a bit, I usually identify them by the company they keep and I'm not good at picking up the ID points quickly.

Male common darter, Little Woolden Moss

Walking past Little Woolden Hall I kept one eye on the trajectories of the model aeroplanes doing spins and stalls over the field by the path and the other on the flock of swallows hawking over the fields and returning to nests in a disused stable. Linnets and goldfinches fed on thistledown and a handful of pied wagtails bounced and chased each other around a field of horses.

By Little Woolden Hall 

I walked down to Glazebrook — more woodpigeons, swallows and house martins — and got the train home. It had been a very nice three hours' walk, albeit with a less than spectacular bit of birdwatching.

Little Woolden Moss from Holcombe Lane 

Flixton

Robin, Fly Ash Hill

I thought I'd ease myself into the week with a local toddle within a bus ride away, the wisdom of which became apparent when I saw the local train into Manchester hd been cancelled. So I had an early lunch and got the 256 for an afternoon's dawdle round Wellacre Country Park.

Wellacre Wood was as deceptively quiet as my back garden (where something has eaten a pound of suet pellets in a day and a half). I eventually started finding the starlings feasting on blackberries and the spadgers rummaging about in the brambles for greenfly. The long-tailed tits and blue tits were shadows in the undergrowth, the great spotted woodpecker a call in the treetops and the robins and wrens just bad-tempered scoldings from deep in the ivies. A great tit took pity and came out in the open long enough for me not to be just not quick enough to get its photo.

The butterflies considerably outnumbered the birds. Most were large whites and gatekeepers, a few commas fed on blackberries and a common blue flitted by the bramble patch. Speckled woods flitted about within the wood, appropriately enough.

Wellacre Country Park 

Out on the fields it was dead quiet: a couple of magpies fossicked around in a far corner. There was a constant stream of woodpigeons flying to and fro overhead. A few spadgers called from the hedgerows on Jack Lane and a couple of swallows flew by.

Jack Lane 

Jack Lane nature reserve was quietly busy: I knew there were birds about by the occasional calls or the sight of some unidentifiable something disappearing behind leaves. A reed warbler sang deep in the reedbed while a couple of sedge warblers sang by the path. A reed bunting practised it's song, making a bit of a start then burbling into subsong.

The small dark object that silently hopped into the reeds may have been anything. While I was trying to find it I spotted a couple of brown hawkers laying eggs in the small pool. It's not often I see brown hawkers slow down enough to see properly. Usually I just see a panatella cigar whizzing past before zigzagging its way across the landscape. Today I got the chance to be reminded that they have green markings on the thorax.

Brown hawker, Jack Lane

Dutton's Pond was full of mallards today, a couple of dozen of them all told. The young moorhens are all full grown now but still pretty noisy.

I walked under the railway through to Fly Ash Hill. Blue tits, chiffchaffs and robins flitted about in the bit of woodland by the houses. There was a great spotted woodpecker in there somewhere but I couldn't see it. The open ground was very quiet of birds, just a few woodpigeons flying overhead. There were lots of meadow browns and peacocks feeding on the knapweeds by the path.

There was nothing on the river by Flixton Bridge. One of the crack willows had split and half the tree had fallen into the river. I rather hoped something might have been perched in there but no luck.

I decided to call it quits, it had been a decent couple of hours' birdwatching and with Arriva buses still being on strike there was no point in setting out for a stroll across Carrington Moss (I'd end up having to carry on walking over to Altrincham to get the tram back to Stretford).