Dreich

Recovering after doing my bit of Christmas shopping I thought I'd have breakfast and take advantage of the milder, sunny weather to get some exercise. The tea was hardly brewed in the pot when the sky went dark and it started pouring down. I decided I wasn't going to have a lot of fun in that and, eventually, wrote off the morning. Then the afternoon, despite the promises of the weather forecasts.

The garden was busy. Spadgers tended to arrive in groups of half a dozen or less, a couple of times there were a dozen of them on the feeders at one time as groups coalesced. Team Silver looks to have fractured, a handful of one- and two-year old males sticking together as one group and two groups of males and females. I suspect they're still roosting together though. Another matter of concern is the loss of the male coal tit, the female's coming in on her own lately. 

A bag of mixed dried insects brought in the starlings, though not in any great numbers. I think that's down to the generally mild weather, there's only been a couple of days when the fields of the Mersey Valley would have been hard work.

• Blue tit 2
• Carrion crow 1
• Chaffinch 1
• Coal tit 1
• Dunnock 1
• Feral pigeon 2
• Great tit 2
• House sparrow 14
• Robin 1
• Starling 6
• Woodpigeon 1

A couple of times this week I've had five goldfinches come in for a couple of minutes. I hope they become fixtures. Time was I'd be routinely getting a couple of dozen in at a time.

Black-headed gull numbers on the school playing field are fitfully creeping up. Strangely, although there were plenty of lesser black-backs flying about when I nipped round to the shop none of them were settling at the school. 

• Black-headed gull 22
• Carrion crow 1
• Common gull 1
• Feral pigeon 3
• Herring gull 2
• Jackdaw 6
• Magpie 7
• Rook 6
• Starling 1

All the woodpigeons were on the chimney pots of houses on Barton Road, every fourth house having its pigeon. By two o'clock all the gulls had gone, as if by magic.

I'm going to have to have a dig into my old records to see if I'm right to be so worried about the numbers of gulls and spadgers. It might turn out to be a seasonal thing I haven't registered before like the November woodpigeon gap.

Lazy day

Waxwings, Hyde

My joints spent the night making their opinion known to me about sliding about in mud on the highest point of the landscape for miles around in December wind and rain so I decided to have an easy time of it and went to take photographs of the flock of forty-odd waxwings in the trees on Talbot Road in Hyde. They were a tad skittish and spent a lot of the time I was there sitting at the top of a row of poplars but they came down to feed a few times, never stopping more than a minute or so each time. Sadly I couldn't get them against a dark background and a lot of the photos turned out as silhouettes. Still, it's nice to get a picture of a flock of them.

Wild goose chase

Pink-footed geese

A red-breasted goose had been lingering on Banks Marsh over the weekend. I would have hated myself if I hadn't had a go at seeing if it was still there, not least because it's the only goose on the British List I haven't seen.

I got ready to get the train into Oxford Road that would give me time to get my tickets, renew my monthly travel card and get a cup of tea. And it was cancelled. It's Northern's turn for the ASLEF strike on Friday, this was just Monday as usual. I decided to get the train into Urmston, sort out tickets and card there and hope to connect with the Blackpool train and change at Bolton for Southport. Then I realised that if I stayed on the train up to Liverpool South Parkway I could get the Northern Line train to Southport and get there about the same time. (In the event I got there half an hour earlier because that Southport train was cancelled). I bought a ticket to Liverpool off the guard and we were both amazed that a return from Manchester to Liverpool is two pounds cheaper than a return from Humphrey Park. So I got that. Travelling on our rail services is a lot like a large-scale puzzle game, The Crystal Maze without the sense of urgency. Once I settled into the sense that I was going on an adventure the journey went swimmingly.

I had half an hour to wait for the bus to Banks so I had a quick nosy at Southport Marine Lake. There were all the usual suspects — mute swans, mallards, coots, black-headed gulls and herring gulls with a raft of tufted ducks and a pair of greylags — but not in huge numbers unless they were all over the over end of the lake demanding breadcrumbs with menaces.

Pintails

I got off the bus at the corner of New Lane Pace and Marsh Road and immediately wondered if I was being entirely sensible. Although it was a mild day it was heavily overcast, the rain was light but steady and there was a bitingly cold wind blowing in from Preston. There didn't look to be a lot about on the fields as I walked up the road. I disturbed a red-legged partridge which spent the next couple of minutes clucking alarm calls at me from the security of a harvested cabbage patch. A few mallards and shelducks browsed a ploughed field that was being patrolled by a kestrel while lapwings, woodpigeons and greenfinches flew about overhead. Small flocks of mallards and shelducks flew to and fro and a skein of pintails flew inland from the marsh. A patch of white at the end of one of the drains caught my eye. At first I thought it was a whooper swan then I realised it was more than one bird. They looked too small for either whooper or mute swans but that could have been the angle I was seeing them at. Then they noticed me and five necks were raised to have a look to make sure I was harmless. The short, goose-like necks of Bewick's swans.

Marsh Road

At first sight the marsh was very quiet. A few hundred wigeon and a similar number of teal dabbled in the pools and drains. Further out there were small flocks of dunlins, redshanks and lapwings and a few curlews probed the marsh. Three pink-footed geese flew out towards the estuary and that was it, no more geese in sight. Admittedly the light and visibility were lousy but there were no signs of the usual crowds.

Banks Marsh 

Rather fearing I was on a fool's errand I trudged along the bund towards the pumphouse. The freeze and thaw of the weekend made the going a bit heavy and slippery and my stealth squelching made the wigeon and teal move out of the drains and over onto the pools. Little egrets bounced about the marsh, meadow pipits fussed about the bund.

Pink-footed geese

As I approached the pumphouse I could start to see flocks of pink-footed geese grazing the marsh further along. By the time I got to the Pumphouse I was in line with the first few family groups. They kept an eye on me as I passed, as did the flock of wigeon grazing alongside. By and large the geese were fine with the idea of my walking by but got fidgety whenever I stopped to have a scan round. There were hundreds, perhaps a thousand, geese grazing in the gloom and as far as I could see they were all pink-feet. Some of the young birds were very dark and looked as if they had a bit of growing to do yet and I found myself double-checking every time I caught sight of one. A flash of orange beak caught my eye and I found myself a consolation tundra bean goose. And promptly lost it again as that group of geese got their heads down to graze and shuffled about behind a small mound. Further out a couple of tall white posts started moving and stalking the marsh and I realised I'd been missing a couple of great white egrets.

Pink-footed geese and red-breasted goose (furthest right of the flying birds)

I was having no luck finding a red-breasted goose but I wouldn't have been happy with myself if I hadn't tried. And there were more geese further along. A small, dark goose caught my eye but it disappeared into the crowd and I concluded it was one of the young pink-feet. There were small groups of geese further out in the marsh and one of these took flight and flew over to the crowd I'd been checking out. I only glanced at first then realised that one of the geese wasn't a pink-foot. It was slightly smaller and much more compact even than a pink-foot, and it was black on the upperparts. The geese wheeled and I got a good, though still fairly distant, view of the red-breasted goose. In the gloom the dark red of the breast and side of neck looked black but I could just make out a white line at the side of the neck and a white spot by the bill. 

The geese disappeared into the distant crowd. I was heading that way anyway so I kept an eye on them as I walked along. I was having no luck finding the red-breasted goose on the ground but the group it was in had landed in a far corner so I wasn't losing hope yet. Then a jet fighter shot down the estuary a couple of times. The second sonic boom brought every goose on the estuary up and any chances of reconnecting with my quarry vanished as they settled on the far distant marsh.

No matter, I had my goose. I just needed to get back home now.

I'd nearly reached the gate to the bund that stretches down to Hundred End Lane when I spotted a few ducks on the marsh. There were a few mallards and some wigeon. One of the wigeon sitting on the bank of a drain didn't quite look right. I moved along a bit and managed to get a better look at it and took a full minute to realise I was staring at the straw yellow head and broad green eyestripe of an American wigeon. A dead jammy bonus which confirms that fortune favours the daft.

Cabbages

The walk down the bund to Hundred End Lane was even more treacherous and slippery: as well as the freeze and thaw it had had a flock of sheep running about on it, chopping up the ground with their tiny, pointed hooves. They seemed an amiable bunch, though. The hedgerows down the bottom were busy with blackbirds and fieldfares and the field beyond was full of whooper swans, shelducks and greylags.

Whooper swans, pink-footed geese and greylags

We didn't have a sunset so much as a fade to darker grey as I waited the quarter hour for the bus back to Southport. I was dead knackered but it had been a surprisingly good day's birdwatching.

Home thoughts

An overnight very light dusting of snow was a herald of Winter. And with the first snow in the garden came the arrival of the first chaffinch of Winter, a male. I don't know why they're only Winter visitors. Similarly the goldcrest, usually a distant dot in the trees came in close to glean from the rose stems.

• Blackbird 1
• Blue tit 2
• Carrion crow 2
• Chaffinch 1
• Dunnock 2
• Feral pigeon 2
• Goldcrest 1
• Great tit 2
• House sparrow 13
• Robin 1
• Starling 9
• Woodpigeon 1

Thwarted

Another crisp, cold day, this time in December, and the sparrows and starlings were very busy in the back garden from the moment sunlight hit the bird feeders. There were a couple of common gulls on the school playing field with a couple of lesser black-backs and a herring gull while more lesser black-backs sat on the roof of one of the school buildings with nine black-headed gulls.

Nine waxwings were reported from Warrington, in the housing estate just outside the town centre on Battersby Road and less than quarter of an hour's walk from the station, so off I went. I arrived at the rowan trees at the junction of Battersby Road and Forshaw Street to be told: "There were nine of them, showing really well in that rowan tree with the pale berries. A sparrowhawk chased them off a couple of minutes ago."

I lingered on the off-chance they'd be back to feed up before going to roost. Sixty-odd starlings flew about in one flock while groups of three or four flew by, raising and dashing my hopes. Half a dozen blackbirds dived into the rowans for a scoff and a dozen woodpigeons dipped in and out for a running buffet.

I waited until it was time to set off for the last daylight train back home. No waxwings for me today. I hope other people have more luck tomorrow.

Sunset at Humphrey Park Station 

Appley Bridge

It was another bright, crisp day and if I'm being honest the idea of staying inside and enjoying it as a spectator sport had its appeal. The spadgers were making inroads on the freshly filled feeders and a dozen starlings came in to attack the fat balls. Both the families of spadgers were in, though Team Silver looked sorely depleted, never more than five at a time flying in from that direction. The woodpigeons are drifting back to gardens and rooftops (I wonder how many, if any, are the local breeding population) but aren't settling in the fields for any great length of time. The school playing field is starting to approach double figures of black-headed gulls amongst the playtime melee.

I appear to be in a filling in the gaps mood lately. I got the lunchtime train into town with a view to make my way over to Chisworth to see if the flock of waxwings was still about. (It's a straightforward journey on paper but making the connections with the bus between Glossop and Marple is an art.) Arriving at Oxford Road the Southport train was sitting there ready to leave ten minutes late. I took this as an omen and got on. I wouldn't have had much time for birdwatching at Southport or Martin Mere so I got off at Appley Bridge to explore the quarry lake just down the road from the station.

Most of the time when I indulge in these speculative forays I get a decent walk out of it and often find a gem that I've been missing. It's not very often I find a dud, today was one of them. You can only approach it from a distance on the main road and it's just a small drowned quarry with no surrounding vegetation. The birdwatching cupboard wasn't entirely bare: a flock of more than a hundred black-headed gulls loafed on the water in the company of a dozen common gulls, half a dozen lesser black-backs, a few herring gulls and a pair of coots. It's the sort of site you keep an eye on if it's local but you wouldn't make a special trip without good reason.

On the way back to the station the hawthorn hedgerows were thick with hungry blackbirds that didn't pay any heed to passersby and song thrushes which dropped down to the floor behind the hedge if anyone got within arm's length.

There's a train every half hour so it was no hardship getting back though I'd have been better advised waiting half an hour for the train home rather than getting the bus, the rush hour traffic jam down Chester Road seems to kick in before the school run these days.

Canal walk: Leigh to Astley Green

House sparrow

It was a very misty morning and there didn't seem a lot of point setting out birdwatching as I was struggling to see the starlings that turned up in the sycamores on the railway embankment until they descended on the fat feeders. The sun finally blazed through the mist at lunchtime, by which time I'd settled into the usual comfortable trap of spending more energy thinking where I should go for a walk than actually putting my boots on.

In the end I set out aimlessly, caught the first bus going out of the Trafford Centre and found myself heading out to Leigh. On a whim I got off at Butts Bridge with the intention of walking down Warrington Road for a nosy round Hope Carr. On another whim I found myself descending onto the canal towpath and heading off towards Astley. I've not walked the stretch between Leigh and Astley Green before so I went along with the whim.

Bridgewater Canal, Leigh

A couple of pairs of mallards and a pair of mute swans cruised the canal by the bridge. House sparrows chattered in the hedgerows and pigeons flew about the rooftops. The houses by the towpath on the gave way to the farmed mosslands that lie between the canal and the East Lancashire Road. Jackdaws, magpies and carrion crows fossicked about in the fields and woodpigeons started to fly into the trees to roost.

Fields by Bedford Brook 

Jackdaws

The hedgerows were lively with blackbirds and house sparrows, there was a surprising abundance of hips and haws still available for them to have a go at. A couple of mistle thrushes split their time between a couple of tall oak trees and the fields by the path. Houses and gardens line the other side of the canal at Marsland Green and these were busy with sparrows and woodpigeons. Small groups of mallards and a family of mute swans lurked by odd corners of the bank.

Mute swans 

Marsland Green 

A lady passed by with her dog and asked if I'd seen much. This is the standard opening gambit I get nearly every day. Yesterday I was lending my binoculars to a lady so she could see there were three different kinds of waders on the pontoon at West Kirby, today a lady was telling me where to keep an eye out for kingfishers. I didn't get to see them today but I know to keep an eye out for them if I'm round here again. I mentioned that there were a couple of bullfinches with the greenfinches and spadgers feeding on the bramble pips in the hedge behind us.

Pheasants on the hoary stubble

Passing Marsland Bridge and heading out for Astley Green I started seeing pheasants in the fields with the jackdaws and magpies. The hoar frost that had lingered in the deep shadows by the houses became a fixture in the more open landscape. A buzzard sat on a fence post a couple of fields away, another sat on a lamppost on the East Lancs Road bridge and flew off as I approached. Over the other side of the canal a couple of blackbirds and a jay chased a flock of redwings off a stand of hawthorn bushes.

Blackbird

Bridgewater Canal between Marsland Green and Astley Green 

Approaching Astley Green 

Approaching Astley Green as the sun set behind the clouds I spent a few minutes trying to pick the runners and riders out of the mixed tit flock in the trees on the other side of the canal. In the end I had to concede that they were all long-tailed tits and blue tits, there were a couple of great tits in the trees by the towpath a little way further along where I also accidently disturbed a grey wagtail that was settling down for the night in the hedgerow.

Astley Green
The pit wheel in the background is the mining museum.

The sun was setting and the path was icing up as I reached Astley Green. The 129 bus was sat at its terminus on the other side of the canal and was due to set off in five minutes' time so I took the hint, called it a day and took the bus to Boothstown where I picked up the 132 back to the Trafford Centre after an unexpectedly pleasant afternoon.

House sparrows

South of Marsland Green