Pennington Flash

Cormorant

We're all made different, in my case the days where I can't be bothered going out for a walk are the days when I need to go out for a walk. Days like that I need the exercise and whatever sunlight's going. And so today I set out later than intended for Pennington Flash.

As I waited for the bus to Tyldesley at the Trafford Centre (I'd missed the Leigh bus) I was joined by Hoppy the pied wagtail who turns out to be female (last time I saw her she was still in juvenile plumage) and possessor of two legs. But no toes. Whether by disease or happenstance I don't know but she's lively enough.

Hoppy the pied wagtail objecting to having her photo taken

It was sunny when I arrived at Pennington Flash but was spitting with rain ten minutes later when I got to the car park. This cleared quickly but the weather stayed unsettled all afternoon.

The usual suspects were out on the water though there were a lot fewer large gulls than usual, just a couple of dozen lesser black-backs. The water was high: most of the spit by the Horrocks Hide was underwater. A couple of lapwings flew off just before I got to the hide (well, the side of the hide, they're all still closed), nothing else was on the spit, even the cormorants roosted higher up. A kingfisher shot by, the only one I saw this visit.

The spit by the Horrocks Hide was largely underwater

As I walked down the path between the Horrocks Hide and the Tom Edmondson Hide a small mixed tit flock flew across about ten yards ahead. A couple of great tits, some blue tits, some "probably blue tits," I didn't think much about it until I heard a strange call. A small green bird, larger than a goldcrest, smaller than a coal tit, disappeared into the bushes. Try as I might I couldn't find it again. If I hadn't heard it calling after it had disappeared I'd still be wondering if it was a yellow-browed warbler. That two syllable slightly metallic squeak clinched it for me. I'm still on the nursery slopes of my learning curve with this species, it's nice to get even an irritatingly fleeting encounter with one.

Buzzard

A little further on a buzzard sat in one of the willow trees disdaining even to acknowledge a carrion crow's attempts to mob it.

More mallards and shovelers on the pool opposite the Tom Edmondson Hide and a dozen gadwall on the pool by the hide. The water was too high at Ramsdales for anything but shovelers and teal, there was no exposed mud for any waders to use.

An uncooperative oystercatcher

I sat and had an ice cream in the company of the car park oystercatcher, which is as bad as the cat for not cooperating with having its picture taken.

On the way out I bumped into a slightly larger tit flock which included a couple of goldcrests.

A reluctant couple of hours' walk cheered me up a bit and brought the year list up to 172.

From Ramsdales Hide

Leighton Moss

Ring-necked duck with Shovelers and gadwall

My main takeaway from the pandemic is that I'm not family-friendly.

It was a bright sunny morning in Manchester but dull and threatening rain by the time I stumbled off the train at Silverdale Station. Leighton Moss was reasonably quiet and most people were sensible and considerate.

Three skeins of pink-footed geese overhead as the train passed Barnacre was a good omen. As the train approached Silverdale a marsh harrier was busy spooking a flock of teal on the pool by the Eric Morecambe Hide and half a dozen little egrets worked around the edges of the islands.

Young male chaffinch

I spent a few minutes checking out the feeders by the "Hideout." The chaffinches were busy chasing each other round the trees which gave a couple of goldfinches the chance to monopolise one of the peanut feeders. A marsh tit arrived almost immediately, I'd managed two of my target species with barely any effort.

Teal

There was a queue for the Sky Tower so I went straight to Lilian's Hide. The reeds in front of the hide had been strimmed, providing a relatively dry spot for a few dozen teal to loaf around on while a male pheasant fossicked round for seeds. Out on the water were a few mallards and a couple of rafts of thirty-odd each of gadwall and shovelers. Half a dozen wigeon fed over on the far side of the water with a couple of drake pintails.

The path from the hide to the road was busy with chaffinches and house sparrows. Goldfinches bounced around high up, feeding on ash keys. Pairs of marsh tits and great tits fed on the seed someone had left on one of the gateposts.

A Cetti's warbler sang from the reeds by the boardwalk and a couple of others made sporadic bursts of song along the causeway. There were tantalising noises that might have been bearded tits but the wind rustling through the reeds made it impossible to be certain. Four skylarks flew over, heading North. A couple of finches flew high overhead, they sounded like lesser redpolls but I couldn't positively be sure, it's not a call I'm confident with. Approaching the Causeway Hide a couple of marsh harriers floated over and on over towards the Griesdale and Tim Jackson hides.

Gadwall, shoveler and, in front of the mute swan, ring-necked duck

The Causeway Hide was reasonably quiet so I didn't feel selfish lingering awhile. Half a dozen cormorants loafed on the little island with a couple of shovelers. Out on the water there were a family of mute swans, a drake pintail swimming to and fro and, over on the other side to the hide, a large raft of gadwall and shovelers with half a dozen wigeon. A young male sparrowhawk, still more brown than blue, shot low over the ducks, none of which paid any attention to it. 

Pintail

As I watched the sparrowhawk I noticed a couple of pochards sleeping in the middle of the pack. Then I noticed another bird, the first tufted duck of the day. Except it wasn't. A bit too square in the body; the head a bit odd: a peak rather than a tuft; the underparts bright common gull grey with a bright white vertical stripe by the breast. A drake ring-necked duck! A shoveler barged into it and woke it up, and there was the clincher: a steel grey beak with a white base and ending with a broad white band and long black nail. Nice. I found out later it had been seen yesterday, too. I wonder if it's the same one that was at Pine Lake last week.

Ring-necked duck
(cropped detail)

Shoveler and ring-necked duck

Leaving Leighton Moss I decided to get a bit more benefit from my old man's day explorer ticket by getting the Barrow train as far as Ulverston and catch the Manchester train back from there. The main reason was to see what might be about on the Kent and Leven estuaries. The tide was lowish by now so I wasn't expecting large numbers of waders but you never know what you may see. Leaving Arnside there were a couple of dozen black-headed gulls on the mud with half a dozen each of little egret and carrion crow on the salt marsh. A couple of hundred black-headed gulls were milling about the salt marsh approaching the Leven Estuary with thirty-odd jackdaws. Three greylag geese flew over but didn't land. There were a few more black-headed gulls on the estuary and a flock of two hundred or more shelduck on the mud by the bank on the Plumpton side.

I sat on the landward side of the train on the way back. Nine mute swans swam on the River Leven and three curlew fed on the mud in the creeks. Crossing the Kent there were eight mute cygnets, thirty-odd black-headed gulls and a handful of redshank.

The trains weren't right for a circuitous route home and I struck dead lucky with an unscheduled stop at my local station. Always quit while you're still winning.

Chorlton

Ivy Green

I didn't want to waste a sunny Sunday afternoon but didn't much fancy sunny Sunday public transport so I bobbed over to Chorlton and walked through Ivy Green along Chorlton Brook, had a wander round Chorlton Ees and then back through Hardy Farm.

Ivy Green was busy but even so there were plenty of birds around. There were more woodpigeons flying over than in the trees. Two of those were a pair of squabs exercising their flight muscles in the nest. The magpies were noisy, the jays uncharacteristically quiet. A couple of mixed tit flocks — blue, great and coal — kept well into the undergrowth away from noisy families and even the robins and ring-necked parakeets kept undercover.

Chorlton Ees was quieter, particularly once I moved off the path along the brook. Pretty much the same variety of birds as in Ivy Green but easier to see and hear.

The parakeets at Jackson's Boat were particularly noisy, probably getting ready to go off to their roosts. There were half a dozen mallards on the river, mostly hugging the bank to keep out of the fast water. A grey wagtail foraged along the bank before being flushed by a spaniel.

Hardy Farm

As I walked through Hardy Farm some bloody fool was letting off fireworks from somewhere near the football pitch. I consoled myself with the thought they'd wasted half their money at least as it was still daylight. The noise brought up small groups of woodpigeons and parakeets and a couple of pairs of mallards. A small charm of goldfinches, just eight birds, flew into a bramble patch.

As I waited for the bus home from Barlow Moor Road a nice, round 350 jackdaws flew overhead to roost on Hardy Farm.

Home and away

Tufted ducks, Chorlton Water Park

A redwing joined the blackbirds in the rowan tree this lunchtime, another harbinger of Winter. Every Autumn I'm struck by an ID feature I always under appreciate: the clean, white underparts. Song thrushes are rusty, mistle thrushes have a cold, lemon yellow wash and both have spots well down the abdomen but redwings are clean white from breast to tail.

Barton Clough

Had a wander round my local patch just after lunchtime and phenomenally quiet it was, too:

• Black-headed Gull 3 overhead
• Blackbird 3
• Carrion Crow 2
• Chiffchaff 1
• Dunnock 1
• Feral Pigeon 18 overhead
• Goldfinch 1
• Great Tit 1
• Lesser Black-backed Gull 2 overhead
• Magpie 7
• Woodpigeon 4
• Wren 2

So I bobbed over to Chorlton Water Park for a wander to see if I had any more luck before the scheduled rainfall. There were plenty of birds on the lake: many dozens of coots, mallards and black-headed gulls, plenty of tufted ducks, gadwall and Canada geese, a family of mute swans and singles of cormorant and heron. Overhead there was a lot of toing and froing as woodpigeons, carrion crows and ring-necked parakeets had a last wheel round before going to roost.

For a change I walked down the river towards Kenworthy Woods in the sporadic rain. The river was still in spate and moving too fast for much else other than a couple of mallards. A grey wagtail flew by and carried on down towards the bridge where there was a bit more exposed ground by the banks. A couple of rowan trees at the edge of the wood were thick with blackbirds, song thrushes and magpies, together with the second of today's redwings. Half a dozen parakeets screamed around the hawthorns then moved in to the depths of the wood to roost.

River Mersey and Kenworthy Woods

I got to the bridge where Princess Parkway crosses and decided to call it quits. I walked down to Southern Cemetery and got the bus home.

Home thoughts

Coal tit

I'm watching the sleet bouncing off the garden fence and feeling relieved I didn't feel like going for a walk today. The tit flock and the dozen spadgers that had been bouncing round the feeder by the living room window have retreated noisily into next door's ivy, and the blackbirds that had been feeding on the rowan have all ducked for cover.

Coal tit

House sparrows

The pair of mistlethrushes that usually kick around the school and nest in one of the trees a few gardens down have been notable by their absence since late July. I noticed them back on the school field yesterday and they came into the garden today to upset the blackbirds for half an hour.

Mistlethrush in the rowan tree

Gull numbers are up on the school playing field, with fifty-odd black-headed gulls and four herring gulls today, just the one common gull and, for a change, no lesser black-backs. Even though the numbers are higher than any of the other local fields they're less than I'd usually be exprcting this time of year. Perhaps it's the weather, or perhaps this isn't a good year for school playing field earthworms.

After the euphoria of the hoopoe the other day I got to thinking about a couple of things. One was that I need to calm down a bit on the birdwatching, I suspect I'm still subconsciously trying to catch up on the lost Spring migration. I'll still be going out as much but trying to worry less about getting ticks either on the year list or the map.

The other, more fun, thing was to wonder how many times I've got all the birds from a particular family on the British List. And how many I've got none. For the rules of the game I decided to omit the bird families which just had one representative on the List (like hoopoe, or wren, or long-tailed tit). I'm a little surprised to find I've actually managed to see all the grebes and true titmice on the British List. There aren't any surprises in the "not seen" list, half of them I've seen elsewhere but not in the UK.

• Nightjars
• Bustards
• Coursers & pratincoles
• Albatrosses
• Storks
• Frigatebirds
• Tropicbirds
• Bee-eaters
• Tyrant flycatchers
• Vireos
• Mockingbirds & thrashers
• New World warblers
• Tanagers

Stretford and Sale

Grey heron, Sale Water Park

I was going to have a long walk today but took an age to get my act together and ended up going for a wander round Stretford Meadows and over to Sale Water Park.

Stretford Meadows seemed very quiet but when I looked at my notes there was a fair variety about. I expect the impression's gained by the complete absence of warblers. The most obvious birds were the robins singing from every thicket, the squadrons of woodpigeons flying overhead and the group of six carrion crows bouncing about the tops. Half a dozen magpies rummaged around in the trees by the cricket pitch and a jay was busy collecting acorns.

Stretford Meadows

I scared up a party of half a dozen meadow pipits. Two of the birds came back and puzzled me by landing in a hawthorn bush to feed amongst the top branches like leaf warblers. They were spooked a couple of times by magpies, and again by a passing kestrel, but kept returning to feed on the branches. Try as I might I couldn't turn them into anything other than meadow pipits behaving in a most un-meadow pipit-like way.

Kickety Brook was frustrating: I could hear a mixed tit flock but couldn't find where it was. Starlings congregating on the electricity pylons by the motorway were harbingers of Winter.

I had more luck finding the mixed tit flock by the path from Stretford Ees down to the bridge over the river: the long-tailed tits flew over to check me out before returning to their gleaning and foraging with the great tits and coal tits.

River Mersey

The river was in full spate, the only birds were a couple of overflying magpies.

Sale Water Park was fairly quiet, possibly due to the canoeing class going on over on the other side of the lake. A couple of dozen black-headed gulls and a lesser black-back loafed in the middle of the water while the swans, Canada geese and coots lurked by the margins near the reeds. Oddly, the only mallards on the lake were two farm ducks. A heron sat on the island next to the end of Cow Lane.

Half a dozen mallards were on the "teal pool" on Broad Ees Dole with a couple of dabchicks. The pool by the hide was busier with a dozen gadwall, half a dozen each of dabchick and coot, a few moorhens and a couple of wigeon. Five herons loafed on the big island.

Adult and juvenile dabchicks, Broad Ees Dole

I wandered over to the café (too late for a cup of tea) and sat on the bench to watch the feeding station for a while. The great tits tried to monopolise as usual but the were displaced by half a dozen magpies which made a right Horlicks of trying to raid the fat feeders. In the end they gave up, except one that was canny enough to realise that the tits dislodged almost as much food as they ate. Which worked a couple of times but seeing as every time it turned up the tits were spooked and disappeared it soon got browned off and flew off to join its mates in the next field. Great tits, blue tits, coal tits and a nuthatch but no willow tit again today.

As I waited for the bus home by the Barlow Moor Road tram stop I counted 374 jackdaws flying over to roost over at Hardy Farm, mostly in flocks of six to a dozen but including a couple of forty-plus flocks.

Hoopoe

 

Hoopoe, Collingham

I thought the one-way system round Leeds was hard work but it turns out that trying to find your bus in the city centre is harder work. Despite arriving with twenty minutes to spare for the intended bus I not only missed it, I only just managed to catch the one that runs half an hour later. The stop that Google Maps sent me to in its directions wasn't in use. The one it sent me to when I searched for the bus route had a notice saying that the bus was now running from the stop I first went to. West Yorkshire Travel's web site said the stop was at the station (it wasn't). It turns out the best way to catch the X99 is to see it on the road, run after it and catch it up when the driver's having a minute to stretch his legs. (The correct stop is P7 on Boar Road, a block away from the station.)

Anyway, the hoopoe at Collingham Cricket Club was both a lifer and a delight. I got off the bus and walked over to the pelican crossing and wondered why there was a crowd of people pointing cameras at the traffic light. The hoopoe was in the tree by the pelican crossing. I walked round into the cricket club to get a better view without a lot of foliage in the way. The bird carried on preening for quarter of an hour then flew down onto the cricket outfield to feed. 

I was a bit worried about how close some people got to the hoopoe but I soon became more relaxed about it as the bird was so intent on making inroads on the chafer grubs and wireworms that not only didn't it care that people were close, it moved in closer to them. 

Hoopoe and hoopoe watcher

While I was waiting for the bus back to Leeds I had a quick wander in the wood by the river.

Comma butterfly