Southport

Hen harrier, Southport

At last some sun! It's been strange, getting to half-past January and not yet having visited Southport so I thought I'd best rectify matters. That's probably been what's been making me feel fidgety lately. The clouds rolled in and we had a sleety half-hour at Oxford Road Station while I waited for the Southport train but I didn't let that put me off and beyond Salford Crescent it was sunshine all the way.

There were odds and ends along the way to Southport including a flock of fifty-odd pink-footed geese alighting in a field just after Hoscar and a buzzard in a tree as we passed Jack Lane. I made notes as I went along, memory and energy willing I'll write them up into a blog post.

Mute swans, Southport Marine Lake

At Southport I headed straight for the marine lake. I was struck by how few gulls there were, relatively, in the town centre as I passed through: a handful each of herring and black-headed gulls. Usually it's like a busy aerodrome. There were a more about on the lake, though still a lot less than usual. There didn't seem so many coots about, either, nor any cormorants. A herd of mute swans was working its way through an old lady's shopping basket, aided and abetted by greylags, mallards and pigeons.

Southport beach: shelduck, black-headed gulls and mystery goose

I had a wander along the seafront South of the pier to see if the snow bunting was about. Unfortunately I coincided with a stream of dog walkers and had no luck. Snow buntings are pretty fearless of people but they don't like dogs at all. It had probably flown into the salt marsh for cover, leastways I couldn't find it on the beach or near the sea wall. Not to worry, it gives me the excuse for a return visit soon. The tide was low and there were plenty of shelducks and redshanks feeding on the beach with a few curlews and ringed plovers. A goose slept on its own at the edge of the salt marsh opposite Pleasureland, unfortunately its legs were hidden, its head tucked deep into its back feathers and while I could say for definite it wasn't a snow goose I couldn't put an ID to it at all. Odds are it was a pink-footed goose, there were plenty of them in the marsh North of the pier together with meadow pipits, pied wagtails and little egrets.

Blackpool and a snowy Lake District, shelduck on Southport shore

Pink-footed geese, Southport

I bobbed over to the sailing club to see if I could add twite to a year list that was bubbling away quite nicely today thank you but had no luck and returned to walking along the Marine Drive to check out the salt marsh. There were a few curlews with the redshanks and shelducks on the muddy fringes of the marsh and I was looking round for any more waders when something spooked the redshanks and a crowd of skylarks I hadn't seen in the long grass. A ring-tail hen harrier floated in low and close, I've never seen one this close before and I expect I said something that would make a maiden blush. It succeeded in creating a mass panic but didn't manage to catch anything and moved on after a few minutes.

Hen harrier, Southport

Hen harrier, Southport

Hen harrier, Southport

Hen harrier, Southport

I noticed that if I drifted over towards the golf course I'd be able to catch the 40 into Marshside, which I did. I got off at the bottom of Dawlish Road and took the cut onto the bund at the back of the marshes. The house next to the cut's empty and for sale and I was tempted to look at the asking price but it would only depress me and even if I could afford it I'd be spending most of my pension buttering the cat's paws.

Teal, Marshside

Black-tailed godwits, Marshside

Wigeon, Crossens Inner Marsh

Both Marshside and Crossens Inner were flooded and awash with wigeon, teal and black-tailed godwits. There were fewer lapwings, shelducks, shovelers and greylags and it took me a while to find any pink-feet or Canada geese. I didn't see any mallards at all until I looked in the drain next to the water treatment works. There weren't many gulls about, just a few dozen black-headed and a handful of herring gulls. As I walked along I noticed small groups of redshanks and ruffs feeding in the shallows. 

Snipe, teal and ruff, Crossens Inner Marsh

I spent a few minutes making sure a snipe was a snipe and not a jack snipe. It looked a bit small, even bearing in mind that if you can ignore the long bill snipe are surprisingly small birds. Eventually I got it, and its bill, in silhouette away from the teal and redshanks it was feeding with, and saw enough to conclude it was just a snipe, albeit on the small side. There were half a dozen easier to identify snipe further along.

As I picked my way along the mud of the bund I was accompanied by a small flock of wagtails and pipits which were feeding in the flooded grass at the base. Every so often they'd notice I was there and fly ahead, or else notice I'd passed them and they'd catch up and fly ahead. In the end I concluded it was five pied wagtails, just the one grey wagtail and half a dozen meadow pipits. I double-checked the latter several times, it wasn't to be assumed any pipit had to be a meadow pipit.

Meadow pipit, Crossens Inner Marsh

I crossed Marine Drive and started walking back to Marshside, checking out Crossens Outer as I went. There were scores of teal and wigeon on the banks of the brook and more out on the marsh with a few hundred lapwings. The geese were quite a way out, beyond the grazing shelducks, and it wasn't until I got to the wildfowlers' pull-in that I could start to identify any of them. There were hundreds of Canada geese to my left, heading towards the salt marsh, and at least as many pink-feet to my right stretching out towards Banks Marsh. Beyond that were thousands I had no chance of identifying with binoculars but would guess at being mostly pink-feet. One group caught my eye amongst the pink-feet because they looked different but I couldn't pin down why. As I walked further along the change in angle and light helped, they looked bigger than the pink-feet but I still couldn't ID them. It was only when the sun went behind a cloud and I could only see the geese as distant dark grey shapes that I realised that one of them, at least, was a white-fronted goose. The sun came back out and I wondered why I hadn't identified it as a Russian white-front more easily than that. There might have been three or four others but they were keeping their heads down grazing and I couldn't be sure. As I was staring at them hoping for enlightenment a great white egret popped up in the marsh behind them.

The sun went in again, this time for a few minutes, and I was surprised both by how much colder it suddenly felt and by how inconspicuous the few hundred golden plovers were now there was no sun to catch their highlights. The weather was providing some spectacular skyscapes along the way.

Crossens Inner Marsh 

Crossens Inner Marsh 

Marshside Outer wasn't so obviously busy though there must have been hundreds of pink-feet in the long grass. A few mallards and shovelers bobbed about in pools and a couple of little egrets foraged at the margins. I wouldn't have spotted the shelducks and skylarks had a low-flying marsh harrier not spooked them.

Lapwings, Marshside

Marshside Inner was as busy as Crossens Inner with much the same species though there were a lot more greylags and a lot fewer redshanks. I had a shufti by Sandgrounders and added a few moorhens to the tally. The pools by Marshside Road were covered in gadwall and shovelers while the Junction Pool was littered with Mallards, shovelers and pintails.

A twilit ruff, Marshside

I walked up to the bus stop admiring the sunset and stopping every so often to watch the lapwings, godwits and ruffs coming in and the greylags flying between fields. It had been a lovely day's birdwatching even though my bones were feeling the cold and the year list is now a nice round ninety.

Marshside 

Mersey Valley

Magpies, Chorlton Water Park

The weather was looking OK-ish so I decided on a walk round Chorlton Water Park. I went for the 23 to Southern Cemetery, which I just missed as it arrived early then spent ages in the drizzle waiting for the next one, which was late (this is an inviolable rule of public transport). I was tempted to jack it in but after giving myself a good talking to it was half an hour later I walked into Chorlton Water Park.

The car park was teeming with bird life despite its being busy with people driving home in the rain. A dozen magpies chattered in the trees, a pair of ring-necked parakeets screamed around the treetops, spadgers and great tits fed on the feeders and a cloud of black-headed gulls wheeled high overhead.

Coots, Canada geese and black-headed gulls, Chorlton Water Park 

Black-headed gull. Chorlton Water Park

Pigeons, Canada geese and more black-headed gulls mugged passersby on the slipway of the lake while coots, mallards and mute swans drifted round the edges soliciting bits of bread and stuff. A small raft of tufted ducks floated just beyond, a couple of them not beyond nipping in quick for a bit of floating bird seed. It was very busy, it being the first Sunday afternoon navigable without the use of gopherwood, so there wasn't much about in the trees bar a few robins and blackbirds. Every dog had a plimsoll line amidships; it didn't matter how big or small the dog was, the mud started just above the armpits. I was surprised to see a redhead goosander emerge from a small clump of reeds near the creepy doll tree, I don't often see them on here. There were gadwalls and shovelers with the mallards feeding round the island at the Barlow Tip end.

Chorlton Water Park 

Barlow Tip 

I decided to stick to the metalled path on my wander round Barlow Tip. It was awash with water but at least was firm underfoot most of the way. It was difficult to find much about that wasn't a robin, woodpigeon or carrion crow until I bumped into a mixed tit flock, including a goldcrest, by the exit to the river.

River Mersey at Jackson's Boat, a bit different to Thursday 

The river was high but appreciably lower than on Thursday. The lower path had re-emerged but only passing spaniels were risking the mud. Mallards pottered about the banks while flocks of gulls — black-headed and common gulls — barrelled around between the river and Sale Golf Course. A jay flew over and sang from a willow tree while a song thrush sang by the tramway bridge.

More parakeets screeched and robins and song thrushes sang in the trees by Jackson's Boat and the path through Sale Ees. The going was decidedly muddy, which resolved me to sticking to Cow Lane when I got to Sale Water Park.

Mute swan cygnet, Sale Water Park

The first thing I saw at Sale Water Park was a Hawaiian war canoe being launched with a full crew of youngsters in waterproofs. The mute swans took it in their stride but the mallards and coots kept their distance and gadwalls were notable by their absence. Some of the fifty-odd black-headed gulls investigated it as a potential source of food and screeched their disappointment as they headed back to the car park over by the watersports club. The majority of gulls, mallards and coots were lurking in a crowd over by the reeds near Broad Ees Dole in the company of a few dabchicks and a redhead goosander.

Herons, gadwalls and wigeon, with goosander in the background, Broad Ees Dole

The hide pool on Broad Ees Dole was busy with gadwalls and herons. A dozen gadwalls loafed and preened with half a dozen herons and a lone drake wigeon on the island. Beyond them half a dozen goosanders, including two drakes, drifted about on the water. A dozen or so teal lurked in the reeds on the far side of the teal pool while half a dozen mallards did a very good job of looking inconspicuous in the willows. I had a speculative look round for any signs of the jack snipe that had been reported as being about during the week but wasn't especially surprised not to find it.

I walked back into Stretford through Stretford Ees with the background music of jackdaws and ring-necked parakeets going to roost.

I'm glad I had that little talk with myself.

Dreich

Lostock School playing field
Black-headed gulls, jackdaws, lesser black-backs, common gulls and a herring gull

When I woke at twenty to five the robin was already singing, my first dawn chorus of the year although dawn's officially just after eight o'clock today. I'm a bit bored of rain, I've reminded myself — at length — that I'll be spending July and August complaining about the heat and lack of rainfall. According to the weather forecasts today's showers should be the last for a few days, we'll see how that goes.

I really couldn't be bothered today. It was fairly quiet in the garden, despite my having filled the feeders. Over on the school field twenty-odd black-headed gulls drifted in for the lunchtime bonanza and left en masse once they realised there wasn't going to be one. Mid-afternoon fifty-odd floated in to loaf with a few herring gulls, lesser black-backs and common gulls.

I dragged myself out for a walk in what was threatening to be sunshine. I wasn't convinced I was sure where I was going and drifted off in the direction of Cob Kiln Wood. If the weather held I could move on to Banky Meadow or Kickety Brook, if not I could beat a retreat and off home. In either case I wasn't going to head over to Urmston Meadows from this direction, the paths are atrocious at the best of times.

I'd passed Humphrey Park Allotments with its gathering starlings when it started raining. The clouds parted, the sun shone and the rain got worse. I carried on towards Cob Kiln Wood as the wind picked up and drove sleety rain into my face. And I gave up. It had been a half-hearted attempt at a walk and there was no point in being silly about it.

Urban birding: Salford

Broughton Park 

Another day full of grim weather. The school playing field was busy with gulls waiting for the lunchtime banquet. There were seventy-six black-headed gulls together with ten herring gulls, three common gulls and, for a change, four adult lesser black-backs.

I've hit that middle of January feeling where I start fretting that I've not been to All The Places and seen All The Birds. It's a nonsense, of course, but given the weather and the available daylight there's limited scope for doing anything spectacular. I've dispelled this mood in the past by doing a bit of proper urban birding on dreary days, making random visits to places that can be covered in less than an hour and are within five minutes' walk of a bus stop or train station. I can use my monthly County Card so it doesn't cost me anything extra and it's not like there's any shortage of parks, tiny bits of woodland and the like in Greater Manchester. A quick wander to see what's about and job's a good 'un. It keeps things ticking over so I don't feel in the doldrums. So I gave it a go today.

I got the bus to the Trafford Centre in the rain and got the next bus out, which happened to be the 52 that goes through Salford to Cheetham Hill. The rain calmed down as we went through Eccles and the weather settled into being very grey with occasional heavy showers. I decided I'd be pushing my luck a lot getting off at Castle Irwell for a wander round the Kersal Wetlands so hung on a few stops and had a stroll through Broughton Park.

Broughton Park 

Depending on which gate you go through its Broughton Park or Clowes Park but it's all the same park in the end. It's about the same size as Lostock Park, my local, but has the advantage that half the acreage is a pond fringed on one side by mature trees, on the other by mown grass. So it has waterfowl. It's always worth checking the waterfowl on a park pond. There's nearly always Canada geese, mallards, moorhens and coots, plus some things else. Today's some things else were three goosanders — two drakes and a redhead — and a heron. A couple of jays were busy retrieving acorns from their caches, robins sang, magpies and blackbirds foraged, a flock of long-tailed tits bounced around in the trees.

Broughton Park 

I did a circuit of the lake then it started raining heavily again so I wandered over to Bury New Road to get the 98 into town. Besides the waterfowl I'd seen most of the species you'd usually expect in a suburban park or garden. Not spectacular, but it's worth bearing in mind that I saw as many species today with a half an hour round the park as I saw in an hour and a bit's wandering round Ivy Green and Chorlton Ees yesterday. Small parks are always worth a quick nosy in Winter.

Mersey Valley

Heron, Chorlton Ees

Another dreich day. A bad night's sleep and an update on the weather persuaded me to postpone the planned adventure in favour of a lie-in. It was a fairly quiet morning in the back garden, even the spadgers were coming in in ones and twos. Over on the school playing field seventy-five black-headed gulls loafed in the company of a couple each of herring gulls and common gulls as they waited for the banquet at lunch break.

Not walking down to Turn Moss 

At lunchtime I got the 25 bus and got off at Ryebank Road. The plan was to start at Turn Moss and wander down to Chorlton Ees then on to Chorlton Water Park. That plan was immediately amended once I saw the state of Hawthorn Lane. I wasn't getting onto Turn Moss that way so I wandered round and got into Ivy Green from Kingsmill Road.

Ivy Green 

I took a meandering path through Ivy Green. A couple of mixed tit flocks, both made of a couple of dozen long-tailed tits with a dozen or more blue tits and great tits, bounced around in the trees. There were plenty of robins, blackbirds and woodpigeons while jackdaws and ring-necked parakeets seemed to be having a competition for the noisiest birds in the treetops. It took me an age to find the willow tit churring in a holly bush, not helped by its sharing the bush with a couple of very mobile and vocal great tits.

Chorlton Brook 

I walked down Chorlton Brook which was very high and pretty much deserted save a couple of magpies and grey squirrels so I crossed over the first bridge into Chorlton Ees. Oddly enough I didn't see a single tit flock of any kind here, a first for me. Robins sang, magpies made a racket and parakeets made an even bigger racket. It started to rain, which literally put a damper on everything. I scoured the damp edges of the hay field for any signs of woodcock and was so intent on this forlorn quest it was a long time before I noticed there was a young heron standing right in front of me.

The Mersey at Jackson's Boat was gob-smackingly high and flowing very fast indeed. 

River Mersey
The blue structure on the right is the sluice gate that empties into the Sale Water Park basin when the river floods.

Looking upstream to the tram bridge from Jackson's Boat 

A few mallards managed to tread water in the lee of some driftwood and a couple of carrion crows foraged on what little of the bank that wasn't underwater. 

By this stage it was pouring down and nobody was having fun. The options were to walk up to Chorlton through Barlow Moor Road and wait twenty five minutes for the 25 back home or walk down Rifle Road past Sale Water Park and under the motorway and wait five minutes for the 18 to the Trafford Centre (it's roughly the same distance either way from Jackson's Boat). The sun threatened to come out as the 18 got to Urmston and I was tempted to get off for a quick wander on Urmston Meadows but common sense and a deep distrust of this weather prevailed in the end. I suspect I'll be doing a few more half walks like this before the month's out.

Chat Moss

Buzzard

I thought I should take advantage of the interlude between rainfalls and get a walk in. I also thought it would be wise to stick to somewhere with metalled roads after yesterday's downpours. So I got the 100 from the Trafford Centre into Irlam and strolled up Cutnook Lane into Chat Moss.

It had been a grey but dry morning and a lot of the wet on the road had been blown dry by the wind. Despite the wind there was plenty of small bird activity in the hedgerows. I couldn't work out if there were two mixed tit flocks or one very extended one. A dozen long-tailed tits bounced around in the company of half a dozen blue tits in the trees and bushes just after the riding stables while another dozen or more long-tailed tits flitted about round the entrance to the fishery with a couple of pairs of great tits and a pair of bullfinches.

Chat Moss 

The wind got up as I passed the fishery and brought the rain in with it. I didn't fancy walking headfirst into it down Twelve Yards Road so I carried on up the path by the pools in the shelter of the trees. I had a clearish view of most of the pools through the bare birch saplings but couldn't see anything about. It wasn't much better in the open ground between the path and the railway line to the North, just a couple of carrion crows and a lesser black-back. 

Chat Moss 

The wind calmed down as I carried on though the rain carried on pouring down. I could hear teal whistling on the pools but only managed to see one of them. Past the pools and the scrap of woodland I stopped and scanned the fields next to Twelve Yards Road, expecting to see nothing but a couple of carrion crows. I was right about the crows but there was also a merlin that had obviously decided to sit out the rainstorm.

Merlin

The original plan had been to carry on down to Astley Road then on to Irlam but I decided I just couldn't be doing with it, there's no merit in being wet and miserable and I'd added the merlin to the year list. So I headed down Twelve Yards Road back to Cutnook Lane. I was about halfway down when the sun came out out of spite and it was a bright sunny afternoon for the rest of the walk.

Twelve Yards Road 

Kestrel

The sunshine brought the birds out of cover. I was watching a buzzard digging for worms a couple of fields away when a pair of kestrels flew past, heading for Little Woolden Moss from the farm with the nest boxes. A bunch of birds including a couple of fieldfares and a yellowhammer flew off from the next stubble field along. Turning back after watching them go I noticed a buzzard flying into the trees over by the pools. We checked each other out and I moved along. I was just adding a pheasant to the year list when another kestrel flew in, a streaky first-Winter bird this time. It made a few forays around the fields and telegraph poles before flying off towards the fishery.

Kestrel

I was tempted to carry on walking into Barton Moss but there was a pot of tea calling my name back home. Besides, I didn't want to push my luck.

There was a tremendous racket as I turned into Cutnook Lane, a pair of buzzards display flying low over the patch of birch heath on the other side of the trees. I watched a while as they drifted off towards Barton Moss. There's a healthy buzzard population hereabouts these days.

Cutnook Lane 

One last mixed tit flock — long-tailed, blue and great — and a bunch of magpies and a jay in the trees by the stables then over the motorway bridge for the bus home. Definitely a walk of two halves.

Twelve Yards Road 

Chelford

A distant white nun
Cormorant, wigeon and drake smew, Lapwing Hall Pool

For the first train trip of the year I thought I'd have a go at seeing the drake smew at Lapwing Hall Pool that was causing excitement last week and into the weekend. My last sighting of a "white nun" was sometime before the millennium. I decided that a goldcrest almost landing on my hand while I was refilling the fat feeders first thing in the morning was a good omen and so it proved.

Jackdaws, Lower Withington

I got the train from Piccadilly to Chelford and walked down to Lapwing Lane. There were hundreds of jackdaws and woodpigeons in the fields along Holmes Chapel Road but not a single Winter thrush. It was the same down Lapwing Lane, the fields that had scores of redwings last Winter had a couple of blackbirds.

Lapwing Hall Pool 

Going through the gate onto the path to Lapwing Hall Pool the first thing that struck me, after the twitterings of tree sparrows in the thick hawthorn hedge, was a flock of at least three dozen blue tits working its way through the alders along the path. A couple of pairs of great tits tagged along while chaffinches and bullfinches hung back to feed on the pips of the brambles.

Lapwing Hall Pool 

Taking my first look at the pool I could see a couple of Canada geese and a few wigeons but I could hear the whistling of plenty more. I scanned the far bank and I found hundreds of wigeons nestling in the reeds with a few dozen cormorants. As I walked down the path I saw more of the lake and more wigeons. Way over, by the path into The Mosses, half a dozen goosanders hugged the shore. Out in midwater a couple of pairs of pochard were difficult to identify as the grey of the drakes' backs blended into the water. Closer by, coots and tufted ducks bobbed around or dived for shellfish.

Tufted duck, Lapwing Hall Pool

I was taking photos of tufted ducks when a voice made me jump. "There's a redhead smew in that bit of rough behind the coots," said a chap whose approach I hadn't heard. I spent ten minutes trying and failing to spot it, in the end giving up and hoping I might have better luck with a change of angle on the North shore. It took five goes and, just when I'd come to the conclusion I'd been wound up, a walk down to the end of a tiny path through the trees gave me just the right angle to see the smew swimming about between two distant patches of drowned reeds and willow. I mentally apologised to the chap and moved on.

Drake and redhead smew flying in, , Lapwing Hall Pool

As I walked round amidst the fast-gathering gloom of rainclouds I wondered about the peculiarity of this pool. It attracts hundreds of wigeon, a grazing duck, but offers no grazing. Acre Nook Quarry, just down the road, has acres of grazing but no wigeon. I've never seen a raft of gulls here either.

Perhaps it was the thought of gulls that made me spot a very distant white shape in the reeds. A quick look confirmed it wasn't a gull but some kind of duck but at that distance I was struggling to get any sense of scale as it swam around the edges of the reedbed and I could be mistaking a farmyard mallard for a smew. Then I had a stroke of luck as it and a redhead smew flew out into open water. The views were always distant. I took a lot of unsatisfactory record shots, most of which I deleted instantly. 

Drake and redhead smew, Lapwing Hall Pool

Cormorant, wigeon and drake smew, Lapwing Hall Pool

I carried on walking round the pool. The path along the Eastern shore brought me closer to the goosanders but though I knew I was a lot closer to the smew they were entirely hidden by the reedbeds. Still, I'd seen them well, if distantly, and I wouldn't have bet the farm on it when I set out.

Goosander, Lapwing Hall Pool

I followed the path into The Mosses. Here the mixed tit flock was a large group of long-tailed tits with coal tits and treecreepers. A couple of jays screeched in the tall trees and woodpigeons clattered about in the treetops. 

The Mosses 

I had a chat with one of the dog walkers who asked if I'd had any luck with the smew. He reckoned there were sixty cars parked along Lapwing Lane on Saturday, much to the annoyance of the locals. I can't say I blame them, there isn't space for more than a dozen cars, I'm glad I missed it.

The Mosses 

The sun came out as I reached Lapwing Lane. I had a wander down to the end for a look at Acre Nook Quarry. At first glance there was nothing on but the scale's deceiving from this viewpoint, the pool's much bigger and everything's further away than it first seems. A dozen cormorants loafed on drowned branches while ducks, mallards, shovelers and teal, lined the banks. I could hear a lot more teal from the distant banks opposite but the light was against my seeing them. A raft of a few dozen black-headed gulls noisily loafed and bathed in one of the bays. I wouldn't have spotted the herons opposite had a great white egret not flown in and been chased up the bank by one of them.

Acre Nook Quarry 

I bumped into the big flock of blue tits down the lane as they barrelled along the hedgerows and joined the tree sparrows and chaffinches on the bird feeders in one of the yards. A great spotted woodpecker struck a classic pose on a dead tree limb long for me to reach for my camera but not long enough for the photo to be taken.

As I walked back up Holmes Chapel Road I checked the train times. If I put a shift on I would get to the station just in time to wave goodbye to the next train back. Then I noticed that I'd only have five minutes' wait for the 88 to Altrincham from the bus stop at the garage. Rather than hanging round for an hour for the next train I could get the bus, have a tour around bits of Cheshire I don't know and have ten minutes to catch the train further up at Wilmslow. Which I did, and was very glad I did when the heavens opened as we arrived at Knutsford.

Sweet chestnuts, Holmes Chapel Road