Southport

Bewick's swan, Crossens Inner Marsh

It was another bright Winter's day so I decided to head off to Southport for a wander and to see if I could add the couple of Bewick's swans on Crossens Inner Marsh to the year list. 

The train connection I tried on Monday worked today, that bus replacement service was a hangover from weekend engineering works. The journey was pleasant enough with plenty of birds to see along the way. I was surprised how many buzzards there were by the trackside, including one very pale-headed bird as we passed by Chew Moor. The rookery at Burscough Bridge is in full swing now that it feels like Spring is here.

Arriving at Southport I had a bit of a wait for the next 40 to Marshside so I had a wander past the lake down to the Marine Drive. The lake was quieter than last visit — all the herring gulls seemed to be over the retail park — though the greylags and Canada geese seem to be settling down on the islands for nesting. A few dabchicks hinneyed and bobbed in the water between the islands.

Redshanks and dunlins, Southport

The tide was halfway out, leaving plenty of exposed mud for the waders and shelducks. The redshanks were the most obvious waders, it took me a while to pick out the ringed plovers from the dunlins as they skittered about between tussocks, and a couple of greenshanks were actively hiding in the long grass. One oystercatcher fed on the lawn of the Guelder Rose, there were hundreds out on the tideline. I was surprised to see a kestrel hovering over the mud by the salt marsh. 

Redshanks and dunlins, Southport

More black-headed gulls were scavenging round the car park than were out on the mud, accompanied by half a dozen herring gulls and a couple of common gulls. A couple of meadow pipits and a little egret were the only birds I could identify in the salt marsh. I bobbed over the road to the sailing club to see if any twite were about but it was obviously not my day for them.

Teal, wigeon and shovelers, Crossens Inner Marsh

I walked round and got the 40 bus into Marshside and got off at the cut up to the bund at the boundary between Marshside Inner and Crossens Inner Marsh. (I can't afford that house.) The marshes were busy with teal, wigeon, lapwings and black-tailed godwits and there were a couple of flocks of golden plovers a few hundred birds strong. The redshanks, dunlins, shovelers and snipe were a lot thinner on the ground. There weren't so many geese, either, the greylags hanging about in family groups and the Canada geese and pink-feet in ones and twos dotted about. I turned and looked out over Marshside, there was a flock of a few hundred pink-feet at the far end of the bund with rather a lot of wigeon.

Lapwings, shovelers and pintails, Crossens Inner Marsh

Black-tailed godwit and lapwing, Crossens Inner Marsh

Bewick's swans, Crossens Inner Marsh

The Bewick's swans were still on Crossens Inner on the open water over by the water treatment works. They spent most of their time dozing, waking up every so often for a scratch and a stretch then going back to sleep again. I wonder if they're two of the three that have been here the past couple of years about this time of year.

Crossens Outer Marsh 

Wigeon, Crossens Outer Marsh

I crossed Marine Drive for a walk beside Crossens Outer which was heaving with lapwings, teal and wigeon. One of the lapwing flocks included about forty golden plovers, they flew in from mid distance and settled a hundred yards from the road. The meadow pipits and skylarks stayed out on the mid distance with a big flock of starlings. Much further out was a dark grey line made up of Canada geese and pink-footed geese. At that distance I'd have my luck cut out finding any exotic goose that wasn't a barnacle or a snow goose so I spent a fruitless while looking for either.  Further along the road there were redshanks, little egrets and shelducks in the creeks and a few thousand pink-feet in the long grass of the ungrazed salt marsh.

Crossens Inner Marsh 

Lapwings and golden plovers, Crossens Inner Marsh

Black-tailed godwits and teal, Crossens Inner Marsh

Lapwings, Crossens Inner Marsh

I crossed back over the road and walked towards Marshside. This side of Crossens Inner Marsh was thick with black-tailed godwits, golden plovers, lapwings and wigeon. Marshside had more of the same but not so densely packed and there were a lot more mallards and shelducks. Approaching Sandgrounders there were pairs of pintails and shovelers and a small raft of tufted ducks. At Sandgrounders the waders were spooked by a great black-back and clouds of lapwings, plovers and dunlins billowed about until the threat had passed.

Lapwings, Marshside

A quick nosy at the Junction Pool brought the only pochards of the day, together with more shovelers, pintails and tufties.

As I walked down Marshside Road for the bus the grassy marsh on my left was packed with grazing wigeon and loafing lapwings and godwits and there was a steady stream of pink-footed geese low overhead as they flew over to graze by the golf course. I only had enough time to register that there were forty-odd curlews in the school playing field before my bus arrived.

Pink-footed geese, Marshside Road 

There were even more buzzards on the train journey back to Manchester than there were on the way out. We passed a flock of whooper swans in a field before Bescar Lane and a flock of more than a hundred black-headed gulls just outside Burscough Bridge. My luck ran out when I got into Manchester and I had to get the bus home because the train was cancelled.

Marshside Road 

Home thoughts

Today's plan was to get a few errands done in the morning then go out for a wander. As it was, I caught up on the sleep I hadn't had for the past week. 

I'd refilled the feeders yesterday which normally results in a steady stream of spadgers in the garden but three squirrels monopolised the sunflower feeders most of the morning. I'm not sure what's happening there, there's definitely an established pair (I've no idea where their drey is, it's not in my garden or either of my immediate neighbours'), how the third fits in only time will tell. 

The spadgers got their chance at lunchtime when I went out to refill the fat balls (again!) and the cat went to her latrine. I've mentioned before how hard it's getting to be telling the two family groups apart, I was lucky today as the patriarch of the "silver" family made himself conspicuous. He must be at least three years old now, with his extensive black bib and white cheeks he can be mistaken as a great tit when he's moving about in the blackcurrant bushes. One of the younger males often makes me look twice as he's got pale cheeks but a nearly entirely brown cap (there's just a fine grey streak in the centre). Last year's males in this group have their bibs now but have steel grey cheeks and underparts, a couple with rich tawny flanks. The "tawny" family are still primarily sandy greys although a couple combining steely grey cheeks with sandy brown underparts suggest there's a bit of gene flow going on between the groups. I can't assign any of the females to families without having any of the males around for confirmation: most, but not all, of the females with bright white bellies are "silver."

It was surprisingly quiet on the playing field today, just a dozen black-headed gulls and a couple each of lesser black-backs and herring gulls. I was glad to see a common gull pass by, they've not been around for a few days.

---

I was chatting with a friend the other day about year list stats. He'd remarked on how quickly I'd added to the list then realised that at the beginning of January it should be pretty easy. And so it is. There are thirty or so species of birds I can virtually guarantee seeing in the normal course of any week's pottering about. By and large, after the surge in the first week or so of the year  there's a steady accumulation throughout January and into February. There's another surge in the latter half of March and April with the arrival of the first Spring migrants and the passage of Winter migrants, usually followed by another slow accumulation of Summer visitors and waders on passage. Late Summer tends to be the doldrums. Autumn is a time for catching up with the Summer visitors I missed as they pass through on the way back to Winter quarters. It's also the time for the unexpected as young birds turn up in unlikely places. And then, if I'm lucky, I can catch up with one or two Winter visitors I missed at the beginning of the year.

Species I recorded on BirdTrack in 2019 

2022 was an example of peaking early

Banks Marsh

Pink-footed geese, Hundred End
Including some individuals with white forehead markings.

It was a bright Winter's day, starting cold and frosty but boding well so I decided I'd go over to Martin Mere to see if I could get a photo of the yellow-browed warbler that's still there. I thought I'd managed to work out a connection to New Lane but it didn't work out so rather than kicking my heels in Bolton waiting for a bus replacement service I got a Stagecoach day rider ticket and got the 125 to Preston. The plan was to get the number 2 and get off at Hesketh Bank but we missed that due to roadworks and I only just managed to catch the X2 for Banks. Kicking my heels at Preston Bus Station would be even more miserable than at Bolton!

I got off at St Stephen's Church and instead of tracing the number 2 bus route out to Far Banks to get onto the marsh I thought I'd investigate Charnleys Lane which meets the end of Vicarage Road then runs down to the field next to the bund and then parallel to the marsh before looping down to the corner of Marsh Road by the bus stop. I thought it would be more interesting than walking through the village's housing estate. And so it was.

Big sky day on Banks Marsh 

There were plenty of blackbirds and robins in the hedgerows along Charnleys Lane and woodpigeons and collared doves sang from cottage rooftops. There were a few skylarks in the fields and a flock of a couple of dozen curlews skipped from one ploughed field to another. The first of the day's skeins of pink-footed geese flew over as I approached the bend at the bund. 

There was a very tempting stile up to the bund at the other end of the field and a very big "Trespassers will be prosecuted" sign at the entrance by the path. In between was a heron fishing in the land drain and a flock of about fifty skylarks with a dozen each of linnets and meadow pipits tagging along for the ride. Every so often they'd rise up as a cloud and settled back down all of ten yards further along the field, which didn't strike me as energetically efficient. A little further on I bumped into my first pair of stonechats of the year as they fossicked about in the dry grass by a drain. I followed the path round to Marsh Road, congratulating myself on finding a good walk for a nice day with the weather for a big sky.

Meadow pipit, Banks Marsh

A tractor was ploughing the remains of a field of cabbages on Marsh Road, eagerly followed by a flock of black-headed gulls. The nearby field margins were awash with meadow pipits and pied wagtails, fidgeting and taking flight every time the tractor approached and pretty much impossible to count. At a guess, more than fifty of each and possibly less than a hundred. Meadow pipits are quite attractive this time of year as they go through their pre-breeding moult. Some have fresh, almost glowing golden olive backs and wings, others are browner and duller. Every so often I'd spot a pipit that was bright olive brown with a whitish throat and breast without any gold or buff colouring but they turned out to be meadow pipits all the same. I'd be no good at finding any exotic species of pipit.

Banks Marsh 

Wigeon, Banks Marsh

Banks Marsh was relatively quiet with the wigeons, teal and lapwings in their hundreds. There were small groups of pink-footed geese, none more than a few dozen, close to the bund. Out in the estuary there were thousands. It's impossible not to skyline as you walk along the path at the top so I was constantly spooking wigeon and teal, when I wasn't tripping over an abundance of meadow pipits. The marsh was littered with little egrets and shelducks, the curlews and redshanks hung around in groups. 

Whooper swans, Banks Marsh

The large white bird a hundred yards down the drain turned out to be a little egret and its reflection. The huge white bird flying in from the fields to the North turned out to be three whooper swans. I eventually found a pair of great white egrets, both of them playing the game where they disappear into a creek with just their outstretched necks as periscopes.

Walking down to Hundred End 

Tundra bean goose (centre) with pink-footed geese
Note the "duck" bill compared with the pink-feet's stubby bills. The orange legs are hidden by the grass.

I got to the stile that drops down to the bund path to Hundred End and I walked down this to get the bus either to Preston or Southport, whichever came first. A distant flock of whooper swans flew from the fields by Hundred Lane End over onto Hesketh Bank. The thousands of pink-footed geese on the field by the path mostly stayed put as I tiptoed my way past the sheep on the bund, only the very nearest took flight and they only moved down to the middle of the field. By the purest of luck I found a single tundra bean goose in the throng. The geese were between me and the setting sun so I assayed a few artistic photographs.

Pink-footed geese, Hundred End

I must be out of condition: I didn't have it in me to walk down to Hesketh Bank to check out the swans so I waited for the Southport bus and got the train home.

Banks Marsh 

Mosses

Little Woolden Moss 

It was more than high time I had the first visit to Little Woolden Moss of the year. I decided on a late afternoon stroll, there wouldn't be much of a day shift this time of year and there's always the possibility of bumping into an owl in the twilight (I haven't yet but keep seeing reports of them so it's worth a go).

I got the train into Irlam, picked up a 67 into the Glaze Estate in Cadishead, nipped over the bridge and walked up to Little Woolden Moss from Glazebrook. It was a grey, mizzly afternoon that kept threatening to pour down but never got round to it. It had also become surprisingly mild and I felt distinctly overdressed. The gardens and hedgerows of Glazebrook were busy with spadgers, dunnocks, blackbirds and robins, collared doves and woodpigeons were liberally scattered about the rooftops and a couple of big trees were thick with goldfinches and greenfinches.

As I got to the road to Little Woolden Hall I looked down Holcroft Lane to see if any birds were in the field of sheep. A few carrion crows were obvious enough but it took me a while to realise the dark tufts of "grass" bobbing up and down on the crests of the drumlins were feeding lapwings.

Little Woolden Moss
The grazing and river North of the hall 

I walked down the road past the hall and into Little Woolden Moss nature reserve. Half a dozen Canada geese grazed on the Cheshire side of the Glaze while teal, mallards and a pair of goosanders floated upstream. It was a bit late in the afternoon so any skylarks or meadow pipits would have settled down for the night. Small flocks of fieldfares, stock doves and woodpigeons had one last fly round before settling down to roost in the copse upstream of the hall. A flock of twenty-odd long-tailed tits bounced around in the trees by Little Woolden Hall before joining a few starlings as they flew off to roost in the wood on Great Woolden Moss.

Little Woolden Moss 

At first sight there was nothing about on the nature reserve. The pools were conspicuously empty. I noticed a few birds flying over the moss on the inaccessible North side: a couple of crows heading off to join the pigeons and a pair of female/immature marsh harriers, all dark with glowing golden crowns, flying in to roost in a distant bare tree. 

Turkey tail fungus 

Little Woolden Moss 

It was thin birdwatching, the day shift had largely settled down to roost and the night shift hadn't really kicked in. Robins, blackbirds and carrion crows sang in the trees and great tits and wrens let me know I was unwelcome as I passed by. I scanned the open ground for any signs of movement but it wasn't my day for short-eared owls. They'd probably heard I was coming and stayed away.

I decided to walk into Irlam via Twelve Yards Road rather than Astley Road. It feels like a shorter walk even though it's actually slightly longer and if I was going to end a walk in twilight I'd better fancy my chances on Cutnook Lane than the bottom of Astley Road. Song thrushes, robins and blackbirds sang while great tits, blue tits and greenfinches called from the trees at Four Lanes End. A kestrel sat on the telephone wires of the farmhouse.

Twelve Yards Road 

Further along I surprised a female sparrowhawk which shot out of the drain and disappeared down the road. I don't know what it had caught but there was a lot of long straw sticking out from its claws. Robins, wrens and blue tits fidgeted around in the drains and hedges beside the road. The surprise of the day was a willow tit in the thick hedgerow by the field with the kestrel nest boxes. 

I had no more luck finding owls on Chat Moss than I had on l had on Little Woolden Moss. I walked down Cutnook Lane accompanied by the calls of blackbirds in the trees and the gentle quacking of mallards dozing on the fishery.

Cutnook Lane 

Leighton Moss

Marsh harrier

After another bad night's sleep I couldn't decide which of the various day's birdwatching options to choose and pretty much sleep-walked into heading off to Leighton Moss on a very gloomy day to see if I could add the female ring-necked duck that arrived last night to the year list. The first conscious acknowledgement that this is what I had decided to do was when I heard myself asking the chap at reception: "Is the duck still here?" Which is one of the more redundant questions to be asked at Leighton Moss. The chap took pity on a befuddled old man and said yes, it was still here.

The view from the Sky Tower, looking westwards. Patches of the reedbed are cleared each Winter to generate fresh young reed growth so that there is a variety of habitats and to stop the reserve drying out and becoming entirely willow scrub. This year it was the turn of the stretch along the main drain between Lilian's pool and the bridge.

The duck had been reported as showing well at Lilian's Hide. I didn't fancy joining a crowd in the hide so tried my luck finding it from the Sky Tower which overlooks the same pool. There were plenty of mallards, shovelers and teal around the pool margins and in the channels of the newly-opened stretch of reedbed along the main drain. Out on the water there were dozens of coots, gadwalls and tufted ducks, a few very noisy black-headed gulls and a female goldeneye. I worked my way through the rafts of tufted ducks and had no joy, so headed for the hide.

Ring-necked duck (centre) and gadwalls

There was a couple of dozen people in the hide, which is very busy but not excessively so. The ring-necked duck was surprisingly easy to spot in a small group of coots and gadwall on part of the pool you can't see from the tower because of the trees. She was very active, spending more time underwater than atop, and steamed across the water at a rate of knots, easily outpacing the other waterfowl. I spent a while reminding myself of the ID features — the more female pochard-like plumage compared to the tufties, the long beak and the peaked shape of the back of her otherwise rounded head — and took a few unsatisfactory record photos through the glass window and toddled off. I'm never comfortable in a busy hide, the more so since the pandemic hit.

Willows on the way to the Griesdale Hide 

The reedbeds were surprisingly quiet of birds given that there weren't many people walking about. The closest to the usual mixed tit flocks were a pair of great tits and a blue tit. Even the robins weren't about. Overhead there was a steady, though thin, traffic of passing black-headed gulls and the occasional small party of greylags.

Pink-footed geese

Mallards and teal

The pintails, mallards and teal were still on at Tim Jackson's. There was no sign of the hybrid shoveler today, his place being taken by a pair of wigeon. The noise from a shooting party at Paint Mine Woods spooked the geese off the nearby marsh, dozens of greylags flying into the reserve towards the causeway, hundreds of pink-footed geese flying out into the salt marsh.

Coot and snipe

The usual view of a pintail

Things were more leisurely at Griesdale's with teal, coots and mallards dotted around in small groups and snipe quietly dozing in the reeds. All this changed suddenly when a male marsh harrier came floating in, giving brilliant views from the hide for a few minutes before drifting round and back towards the causeway.

Marsh harrier

Marsh harrier

The walk back out through the reedbeds was almost as quiet as the walk in. Every so often noisy parties of greylags flew low overhead back to the marsh.

Greylags, Griesdale Wood in the background 

 I thought I was going to have no luck with marsh tits today until I bumped into a pair back at the visitor centre. All the mixed tit flocks appeared to have congregated at Silverdale Station, the bushes and trees were very busy while I waited for the train back. 

Despite it still only being mid-afternoon and my having a ticket that made the Western half of the Northern Rail network my oyster I went straight home, I was too tired to do otherwise. I'd had a couple of hours'walking round and for all that it seemed quiet and I was dozy I'd recorded 41 species of bird on the visit so I hadn't done too badly.

Hindley

Amberswood

I had a lazy day off yesterday, more than a hundred black-headed gulls on the school playing field first thing in the morning suggested that the blue skies were misleading and transient and so it came to pass. So I had a lazy day. Today's weather wasn't scheduled to be any better but I'd recharged my batteries enough for a toddle about. Today we were down to seventy-odd black-headed gulls though there were a lot of large gulls: a dozen herring gulls and half a dozen each of lesser black-backs and common gulls. I took this as notice that the sullen grey skies were going to be a feature of the day. This didn't dampen the ardour of the two dozen magpies courting in the back garden much to the disgust of the cat.

At lunchtime I set off for Pennington Flash, getting the 132 from the Trafford Centre. At least that was the original plan; battling the wind on my way from home to the bus stop and then hanging round the bus station for the 132 it occurred to me that I didn't fancy having that coming at my bladder from across the flash. I had a think about where would be sheltered and not too muddy and elected to stay on the 132 and have a wander round Amberswood. It's a nice walk and I'm still taken with the novelty of it.

Amberswood

I started down the path into Amberswood, watched the wind whipping round the treetops from the shelter of the avenue of brambles and gorse bushes and concluded that it had been a good decision. There were a lot of robins, dunnocks and blackbirds feeding along the path and mixed tit flocks and finch flocks met, merged and moved on. The long-tailed tits and goldcrests were the most conspicuous components of the tit flocks, the blue tits and great tits were unusually self-effacing. I looked in vain for any willow tits. The finch flocks were predominantly goldfinches with a few greenfinches and chaffinches tagging along. I found a pair of willow tits further along in the clearing where the path splits in two to go through the wood and round the lake.

Amberswood

Captive breeding release project at Amberswood

Leaving the shelter of the woods into the clearing around the lake came as a shock. The wind was blowing a hooley and had a nasty cold edge to it. Forty-something black-headed gulls loafed on the water with a herring gull and half a dozen common gulls. There were small groups of coots and pairs of tufted ducks and a pair of gadwall and a couple of dozen mallards lurked in the shelter of the reeds. 

Amberswood Lake

I carried on down the path to Liverpool Road and had a quick nosy at the pond on Low Hall (I'd noticed the 559 was due in quarter of an hour and that would save me walking down into Platt Bridge for the bus to Leigh). There were more blackbirds and robins feeding on the paths and great tits and coal tits in the trees. The pair of mute swans were obvious enough but I couldn't see any ducks at first. In fact, I saw a little egret on the far bank before I saw the pairs of gadwalls and teal swimming beneath it. Oddly enough there weren't any mallards about.

Low Hall 

I got the 559 into Ashton-in-Makerfield and made the connection for the 10 to Leigh, where I'd have ten minutes' wait for the 126 back to the Trafford Centre. As we were going through Lowton it occurred to me that there was still an hour or so of useful light that could be employed by a quick skip round Pennington Flash. We stopped at a traffic light and I watched two hornbeams dance the Watusi in the rain. For once I had the sense to stay on the bus as we passed by the flash.