Mersey valley

Heron, Jackson's Boat

I wanted to get a bit of exercise on the sunny day the Met Office had promised but didn't have any clear destination in mind when I got up. I've been chasing round a bit lately worrying about catching some Autumn passage migrants to get the year list ticking over (with scant success, it has to be admitted, save for last Saturday's double feature). And it also has to be admitted I've been neglecting local sites in the process. I don't know why I'm worrying about the year list, the first quarter of the year was limited to places within walking distance so it would hardly have likely I'd be hitting the 200 target. It's just that having hit 188 I keep thinking I should do something about it. It's been one of those years when the East coast has been getting a bumper Autumn harvest while the Northwest has just had odds and ends (both of which I dipped on) and I keep checking up bus and train timetables and keep telling myself to be more sensible.

So I had a walk along the Mersey Valley.

I had brunch and got the 84A bus over to Chorlton Water Park and walked home via Sale Water Park and Stretford Meadows.

I'd got as far as the car park at Chorlton Water Park when there was an explosion of woodpigeons, starlings and goldfinches from the bushes and a sparrowhawk steamed through, escorted by a couple of very irate magpies. 

I must have had my affable face on today. As I was walking through the car park a lady stopped me to ask what I'd just seen. Having told her about the sparrowhawk she told me she'd seen a flock of pink-footed geese flying over this morning. I walked down to the lake and had a chat with the lady who was talking to the ducks about the pochard that stayed over Summer. I'd thought it had gone the way of all flesh but she's seen it a couple of times this week.

Mute swan cygnets, Chorlton Water Park

There was plenty of wildfowl on the lake today, mostly mallards and Canada geese with pairs of gadwall dotted about and a small raft of tufted ducks floating about. The herd of mute swans was scattered about though most of the cygnets were hanging round the picnic area. They're looking a bit moth-eaten at the moment, part way into their Winter whites. (I had no luck finding the pochard.) There were nearly a hundred black-headed gulls on the lake, mostly hanging round in noisy groups.

Tufted ducks, Chorlton Water Park

There were a couple of mixed tit flocks along the path, mostly long-tailed tits and blue tits. It was frustrating when one of the great tits came and started feeding on the beech nuts I'd trodden underfoot, it was far too close for my camera to focus on. A trio of ring-necked parakeets screeched overhead at treetop height and headed off towards the golf course.

Comma, Barlow Tip

I had a wander round Barlow Tip, which was damp underfoot but easy walking. A comma butterfly basked in the sunshine at the top of a bramble patch, I've not seen as many as usual this year. There were plenty of woodpigeons and blackbirds about and a couple of jays bounced about in the hawthorns, all the more noisy when a buzzard flew low in and drifted over towards the river. As I approached the river path I noticed a charm of goldfinches busily gleaning insects from the leaves of a goat willow.

River Mersey on the way to Jackson's Boat

The river was high after the past couple of days' rain. Pairs of mallards loafed and dabbled along the banks.  Another mixed tit flock worked its way through the hedgerow by the path and a family of long-tailed tits was busy in the depths of a blackthorn. The first dragonfly of the day was a migrant hawker patrolling the embankment by the high path.

A few woodpigeons and magpies flew over Jackson's Boat. I could hear a grey wagtail but couldn't see it, it must have been somewhere at the bottom of the bank on this side of the river. A couple of ring-necked parakeets screeched their way between the trees by Jackson's Boat and Hardy Farm. A heron lurking by the ditch was discretely quiet.

Not sure which fungus this is on one of the trees on the path through Sale Ees

I walked down to Sale Water Park through Sale Ees. There were more woodpigeons, jays and magpies along the way. Furtive movements in a hawthorn bush behind the trees on Barton Brook turned out to be a couple of redwings, my first of the Winter. As I was watching them another migrant hawker flew across my line of sight.

Great tit, Sale Water Park

I got myself a cup of tea at the café and had a sit down by the bird feeders. Most of the patrons were great tits with pairs of coal tits and nuthatches joining in. Oddly there were only a couple of blue tits. I hung on in the hopes of a willow tit turning up, one didn't but a buzzard did.

There were equal numbers of mallard and gadwall on Sale Water Park as well as a large herd of Canada geese and a few dozen black-headed gulls.

Herons, Broad Ees Dole

Broad Ees Dole was fairly quiet. Half a dozen herons loafed on the island. Half a dozen gadwalls were very busy: five drakes enthusiastically courting a duck. Half a dozen moorhens, a couple of coots and five dabchicks kept well away from the gadwalls. Oddly enough there weren't any mallards or teals around.

Black-headed gulls, Sale Water Park

There were more black-headed gulls at the Western end of Sale Water Park together with a few lesser black-backs. I was looking in vain for any great crested grebes (there weren't any on Chorlton Water Park either) when one of the large gulls caught my eye. It was a second- or third-year bird, possibly a lesser black-back but small-headed and long-billed. But it looked bulky and short-winged to be a Caspian gull. In the end I cheated and took a bunch of photos and asked the experts in a Facebook group. A second-year lesser black-back. I'm not good on second- and third-year large gulls so when I bump into one that's a bit different to the norm I'm easily puzzled.

2CY lesser black-back, Sale Water Park

2CY lesser black-back, Sale Water Park

Black-headed gull and 2CY lesser black-back, Sale Water Park

2CY lesser black-back, Sale Water Park

2CY lesser black-back, Sale Water Park

I crossed the river into Stretford Ees, musical accompaniment provided by a bunch of ring-necked parakeets coming in to roost. A buzzard tried to fly over into Turn Moss and was badgered away by a couple of carrion crows and a magpie.

Kickety Brook by the Bridgewater Canal

I passed under the canal and took the path that follows Kickety Brook to Stretford Meadows. The Himalayan balsam stems along the brook glowed red in the low sun. Woodpigeons and magpies flew overhead to their roosts. A mixed tit flock moving between the hedgerow and the willows by the brook included a single willow tit, the first one I've found here.

Stretford Meadows

The first bird I saw at Stretford Meadows was a buzzard which flew up and off over the motorway. There were dozens of woodpigeons, most of them roosting in the hawthorn bushes in the open (a combination of bed and breakfast?). A couple of jays shrieked from a couple of small oak trees. 

It had been a good walk, I got some exercise and a good selection of birds along the way and a mystery gull to puzzle over. Not a bad call in the end.

Sale Ees

Home thoughts

Pavilion Gardens, Buxton

Another day of pouring down. The spadgers came to the bird feeders en masses in the intervals between rain accompanied by a couple of blue tits and the robin. I'm going to have to get a new pole for the feeder by the living room window, rust and rumbustious squirrels have snapped the old one in three. The coal tit tends to slip in when nothing else is about, it seems to be actively avoiding the great tits still. A nod to the windy season was the arrival of a couple of dozen starlings in the trees on the other side of the railway line.

Wednesday

Over on the school playing field there's nearly always a crowd of woodpigeons, today there were nearly fifty. The black-headed gulls are tending to be lunchtime visitors this week, ready for tidying up after school dinner time. Yesterday they were joined by three herring gulls, today three lesser black-backs. Not seen many common gulls lately, perhaps it's the mild weather.

Chapel-en-le-Frith

I decided to go out despite the weather. It's evidently Northern's week for cancellations so that put the mockers on a hastily constructed plan. So instead I dumped the gear and went to get the bus into Manchester and nipped over to Glossop to spend a rainy afternoon on a bus tour of the Peak District getting my bearings for some potential late Spring walks.

Pavilion Gardens, Buxton

I finished up at Buxton at teatime. I had half an hour to wait for the train into Manchester so I had a dawdle round the Pavilion Gardens. Plenty of Canada geese and mallards on the ponds, the Muscovy ducks seem to have had three youngsters and I was accosted by a couple of mandarin ducks under a tree. 

I'll have to have a proper day out tomorrow. 

Northwich flashes

Treecreeper, Neumann's Flash

It was one of those days where if I hadn't been and bought the train ticket I'd have given up and gone home: there was a bit of a meltdown on the train services due to an incident between Piccadilly and Stockport (I hope not a fatal one). Anyway, it was half twelve before I was finally off on the train to Northwich. The blue-winged teal had reappeared at Neumann's Flash over the weekend so I thought I'd give it a go, I've not seen one in this country.

Neumann's Flash

The heavy rain of the morning had given way to wet dreich. I walked from Northwich Station and up Warrington Old Road to Ashton Flash. There were half a dozen mallards, a teal and a moorhen on Witton Brook as I crossed the bridge. Bobbing up to the path round Ashton's Flash I bumped into the first of the day's mixed tit flocks: a dozen long-tailed tits, a few blue tits and one or two great tits. The mallards and black-headed gulls on the water were heard rather more often than seen, there's still enough foliage on the trees and scrubs to hide behind.

I walked along the bund between Ashton's and Neumann's. The blue-winged teal had been reported early today as being somewhere on the Southwest corner of Neumann's Flash, visible from Pod's Hide, the one on the end of the little path poking into the reedbeds by this bund. Rather than going straight to that hide, which would be packed, I nipped through the birch trees and looked out over this corner from the fence by the reeds.

I'd been hearing wigeons and teal whistling from the flash as I walked along the bund. I could see the wigeons easily enough in the murky light: a couple of dozen were out on the water with rafts of coots, shovelers and tufted ducks. A herd of Canada geese were noisy in the Southeast corner of flash and mute swans were dotted about. The teals were harder to find from this position: a dozen of them were scattered around a small bight largely obscured by reeds. I made the mistake of starting by looking for an odd-looking teal: it's October, the males are coming out of eclipse, there's no shortage of odd-looking teal. Luckily, enough of them decided to fly around showing entirely common teal brown wing coverts to shake me out of that mistake and get on with the business of looking round to see what there was. A couple of moorhens walked out of the reeds, a Cetti's warbler sang from the reeds just to my right then flew over to the reeds the moorhens vacated and a couple of gadwalls drifted into view.

I wandered down towards Pod's Hide for a better view of that bight. I didn't go to the hide ("COVID city" as a passing birder called it), staying out in the open near the beginning of the path. A bunch of mallards dabbled by the path, a pair of dabchicks hinneyed at each other and a migrant hawker became the latest candidate for latest dragonfly of the year. I had a better view of the bight and I could see the ducks there far better despite the gloom. There were more shoveler than I'd reckoned on and a few more gadwall. The teals kept dabbling in and out of the reed edges. One sat on its own on the bank, a darker looking teal with a pale face. Which could just be a dark teal with a pale face, they do happen. I got a slightly better look at it when it left the bank and out of the shadows but it was still inconclusive. Had the light been better I might have seen something that would have helped but the evidence to hand couldn't convincingly be anything other than a common teal. I had another scan round — it wouldn't be the first time I've spent ages looking at a potential target bird only to find the real one twenty yards away. No luck. Going back, probably the same bird I'd been staring at before was definitely a common teal.

?Teal (middle) and shovelers, Neumann's Flash

Shoveler and teal, possibly the same bird as above, Neumann's Flash

I gave it up and decided to move on. A flock of more than a dozen lesser redpolls flew over, twittering all the while. This was one of those "Goldfinches, no they're not, they're linnets, no they're not, what are they then?" identifications until they came close enough for their short-tailed shape and their light flight calls to be obvious. As I walked to the end of the bund I bumped into a couple of linnets twittering in the treetops and a charm of goldfinches bouncing round in the waterside birches and alders.

I bumped into another couple of mixed tit flocks as I walked round the flash. The second was a bit of an accident: I'd been hearing a treecreeper but couldn't see it and while I was looking I noticed the trees and bushes behind the hawthorns by the path were thick with long-tailed tits, blue tits, coal tits and great tits. The treecreeper was feeding knee-high in the hawthorn I was standing by, it was only as I glanced down at my notebook I noticed it.

Spindle berries, Neumann's Flash

The scrub at the Northeastern corner of the flash included a stand of spindle trees spectacularly covered in berries.

The rest of the walk round was pretty uneventful bar a couple more singing Cetti's warblers, including one still in training. I'd had a good couple of hours and the weather could have been a lot worse. On a whim I walked into the town centre and got the bus to Warrington and thence the train home, just in case the trains through Stockport were still a bit iffy.

Wild goose chase

Juvenile cattle egrets, Marshside

It's a daft old game is birdwatching and today is an object example. I didn't go out on yesterday's planned hunt for a snow goose because Thursday night was unexpectedly busy and I was knackered. So it stayed all day on Plex Moss. I went out for it today, didn't get it and found myself a little stint instead then went off looking for the snow goose elsewhere and ended up with an embarrassment of cattle egrets.

On my way to Southport I saw a report that the snow goose had been seen in the flock of pink-feet on the Alt Estuary at Hightown first thing. So I got the train down and walked down to the sailing club to see if it was still about. I didn't have high hopes, it was lunchtime when I arrived and I'd expect the birds to have moved inland to feed. Sure enough, not just no snow goose but no geese whatsoever.

Hightown Beach, with the River Alt

The tide was low, the mud was exposed and despite there being a large (but very quiet) group picking litter off the beach there were plenty of birds out there. Small groups of black-headed gulls were the most immediately obvious birds, it's remarkable how easily curlews and mallards blend into a mud background. Redshanks foraged on the river banks while a large flock of shelduck dabbled about way out on the beach. 

Mallards, Hightown

I walked down the little metal grid jetty to the edge of the river bank and was rewarded with a little egret and a greenshank. I noticed a pale blob over near one of the beached buoys and kept it in sight while I retraced my steps and walked up onto the seated area by the sailing club. The change in angle worked in my favour, I could see that it was a grey plover. This spurred me to spend half an hour scanning round the mud from this vantage point. I quickly found a couple of teal on the river with some bathing mallards and as I was watching them a bar-tailed godwit wandered into plain view. 

Little egret, Hightown

Mallards and greenshank, Hightown

Grey plover, Hightown

Bar-tailed godwit and teal, Hightown

Aside from the curlews and redshanks I was only seeing single birds of other waders. I turned back to the plover to see if any more were about and noticed a small wader walking just over the brow of the bank. At first I thought it was a dunlin then it came up onto the bank so I could see it properly. A very small wader, less than half the size of the redshanks that walked by. I'd hoped to catch sight of a little stint some time this month but I wasn't expecting one today.

Little stint, Hightown
(Heavily cropped record shot)

I decided to move on to try and find the snow goose. There had been no further reports so I decided to head off for Plex Moss and try my luck there. I got the train back to Ainsdale and set off walking towards Woodvale and thence Plex Moss Lane. I'd got as far as Liverpool Road when the 44 bus to Crossens stopped at the bus stop by me. I thought it would be rude to ignore it so I headed off for Marshside instead. (A good call as it happened: while I was heading North the goose was heading South and was soon reported flying about on Altcar Moss).

Cattle egrets

I got off the bus on Marshside Road and wandered down. I hadn't gone far when I noticed some white figures skittering round the feet of the grazing cattle. You wait all year for a cattle egret and nine turn up at once, every one of them doing what it says on the tin. Two adults were readily identifiable by the traces of breeding plumage orange on their crowns. The others looked like they were younger birds, including two skinny individuals that almost looked like little egrets until they fell into the the characteristic hunchbacked posture and looked like almost typical cattle egrets. These two had darker bills than the others, the bright butter yellow being mostly confined to the base of the bill, a sign of youth. I sat on the roadside bench to watch them and they flew in closer. I know that elsewhere in the world cattle egrets are a bit wary of people, the ones in Southport couldn't give a monkey's. 

Cattle egrets, Marshside

Cattle egrets, Marshside

I spent a while watching them. I was particularly interested to watch the way they catch flying insects. I could tell when one was in the sights of an egret because it would stand very still then slowly stretch out its neck with a strange sideways movement like a snake travelling over a floor, then a sudden snap and the bird would fold back into its usual hunched posture. While I was watching the egrets a covey of red-legged partridges emerged from one of the furrows in the field and trooped across my eyeline. Definitely a day for surprises.

Red-legged partridges, Marshside

I hung on a little while then called it quits and went home. I was lucky with the trains but less lucky with the passengers once we hit the busy period at Bolton and the maskless Saturday revellers heaved on. Ah well, I won't let that spoil a good day out.

Martin Mere

Ruff

I had an afternoon wander round Martin Mere. It was a toss-up between that and a trip out to Birkdale Moss to see if the snow goose that's been bobbing round West Lancashire would be making a repeat appearance. As it happens I was on the train to New Lane when I noticed a report that it was back there and I considered it for a bit but decided to stick with the plan. Hopefully it'll still be there tomorrow, I'll make a proper job of a trip out of it rather than going cack-handed.

I got off at New Lane (the leeks are being harvested so the station smelled wonderfully of Winter soup) and walked down Marsh Moss Road for a change, it's been a long time since I last did. There were plenty of woodpigeons about and one passing flock flushed a buzzard out of its tree, a nice turnabout of the usual dynamic. The first of many skeins of pink-footed geese passed overhead as I got to the bend in the road. 

Marsh Moss Road

I had a look over the fields (accompanied by a small dog guarding a Leylandii hedge). There were a few carrion crows, magpies and jackdaws fossicking about. A couple of fields away there was a single goose grazing. Any goose out on its own is worth a second look but this one was definitely a juvenile pink-foot.

Pochard

First port of call at Martin Mere was the Discovery Hide, which turned out to be very busy birdwise. The bank in front of the hide was heaving with mallards, pintails and ruffs. The pintail drakes were still halfway into their moult from eclipse, patchy greys and hints of Winter elegance to come.

Pintail

Out on the mere there were dozens of greylags and black-headed gulls. Herring gulls and lesser black-backs loafed on rafts with drip-drying cormorants. There were a few male pochards (I didn't find any females) and small rafts of tufties and wigeon. There were about a dozen whooper swans and plenty more incoming. The few teal and gadwall that were around took a lot of finding and the one Canada goose was a marked contrast to my last visit. The far bank was pretty much covered in black-headed gulls, lapwings and pink-feet.

Ruff (left) and juvenile sanderling

I had a quick shufti in the Raines Observatory to see if I'd missed anything on the mere. There were a lot more ruff here. There was also one wader that had me scratching my head as it was so very different. Generally speaking any mystery wader in a flock of ruff is a ruff but this wasn't one. For a start it had a white rump and was browner and more scaly than any ruff. A white-rumped peep is nearly always a sanderling but this didn't look right. And it resolutely kept its beak in its back feathers. I took a few pictures but the grubby distorting glass in the Observatory is better for special effects than for ID photography. I lost it when it disappeared into the panicking crowd when one of the reserve staff appeared with a wheelbarrow full of bird seed, none of the waders came back once she'd gone. Looking at the photos back home it occurred to me that if I saw more juvenile sanderlings I wouldn't be so easily puzzled by them.

There's a lot of tittivating being done in preparation for this weekend's bird fair. One consequence is the cutting back of the scrub obscuring the view at the Hale Hide. The only birds on the pool were a couple of greylags, spillover from the flock hanging round the bund behind the fence in the hopes of some spuds.

The tree sparrows at the Kingfisher Hide were heard but not seen. The water levels are nearly back to normal so there was plenty of damp herbage about for a couple of migrant hawkers to patrol.

From the Ron Barker Hide

The water at the Ron Barker Hide was quite high so there wasn't any mud for waders to exploit. The dozens of dabbling shovelers and teal made up the numbers. More greylags and pink-feet flew in and headed for the mere. A flock of jackdaws headed off towards the woods over at Mere Brow. I was surprised to see a coupled pair of migrant hawkers helicoptering over the ditch in front of the hide.

On the way back I stopped for a fruitless look in the ivy-covered trees for a tawny owl, the way you do. More jackdaws and pink-feet overhead. (And the ashy-headed geese and juvenile smews in the duckery are looking very fine even if they can't go on my year list.)

Whooper swans and black-headed gulls

I had a look out from the screens by the mere and tried not to lament the late Swan Link Hide. By now the mere was covered in whoopers and greylags and most of the loafing black-headed gulls had to budge up on the islands.

Greylags

Quarter of an hour in the Janet Kear Hide added greenfinches, pheasants and rats to the visit tally. The small birds were very skittish, I suspect because of the constant rustling and crashing of woodpigeons feasting on hawthorn berries just behind the feeders.

There were no Canada geese at all on the Harrier Hide, which gave the black-headed gulls, mute swans and mallards a lot of breathing space.

I missed out on the little stint reported at the United Utilities Hide. I'll bump into one eventually this year.

Red Cat Lane

The walk over to Burscough Bridge was fairly quiet. A few dozen starlings gathered on telegraph wires and a couple of skeins of pink-feet passed over. The jackdaws and rooks were heading off to roost as I got into town and had five minutes to spare for the train back to Manchester.

Leighton Moss

Red deer calf

I had an afternoon at Leighton Moss, the weather was looking iffy so I thought it a good idea to be within easy distance of a hide or three. It actually brightened up North of Preston so I had a good couple of hours' wander.

As the train approached Silverdale I had a look at the pools by the coastal hides. There were a couple of hundred waders, most were lapwings and redshanks but there was a crowd I couldn't identify as we passed by.

On the short walk round the corner from the station to Leighton Moss I was accompanied by a singing robin, a calling nuthatch and a charm of goldfinches. A family of long-tailed tits and a pair of mallards saw me into the visitor centre. I had a look at the feeders to get my eye in and was rewarded by great tits, blue tits, coal tits, chaffinches and a couple of marsh tits. And some more mallards. And a pheasant.

As I walked down to Lilian's Hide a couple of migrant hawkers buzzed by and into the reedbeds. A Cetti's warbler sang deep in the reeds nearby.

Black-tailed godwits

Black-tailed godwits, knot, teal and shoveler

Black-tailed godwits, teal and shovelers

Lilian's Hide was fairly busy and I tried not to think too hard about my being the only one in there with a mask on. There were numerous compensations out in on the pool. I'd watched half a dozen wigeon fly in but it took me a while to spot them amongst the rafts of gadwall and shovelers. The mallards and teal congregated by the bank near the hide. A male pintail was asleep deep amongst the mallards. A couple of dozen black-tailed godwits fussed about on the little island in front of the hide, most of the adults in their Winter greys, the juveniles in various stages of moult but keeping most of the scaly look on their wings. A smaller bird bustled out of the crowd, a knot in full Winter rig. Amidst all these hints of Winter another migrant hawker whizzed by and a common hawker buzzed the godwits for a couple of minutes before zipping off into the willows.

Heron

A lot of birdwatching time is spent wondering: "What the Hell is that?"
Case in point: teal dabbling in water milfoil. 

Mallards, shovelers and pintail

Juvenile black-tailed godwit

I walked down into the reedbeds. It was fairly quiet save for a couple of robins, a great spotted woodpecker and a jay screaming from the trees by the field. I wasn't far into the reedbeds when I heard a water rail squealing like a stuck pig by the path but I'm damned if I could actually see it.

Watching the watchers

The highlight at the Tim Jackson Hide was a calf red deer which was feeding on the grass just in front of the hide. Every so often it would stop and have a look at the watchers in the hide. The water levels were nearly back to normal, giving a group of mallards enough water to dabble in.

Red deer calf

Walking round to the Griesdale Hide blue tits and wrens fossicked and called in the willows and reeds. I could hear a group of at least three bearded tits but they were too deep in the reeds to see them.

At the Griesdale Hide

There were a few dozen each of mallards and teal loafing at the water's edge at the Griesdale Hide. A couple of dozen more teal kept being flushed from the pools beyond the bund on the far side. I couldn't see any airborne culprit, it may have been a fox or stoat making passing mischief. A single greylag on the bund was wholly unmoved. A handful of juvenile godwits foraged on the bank by the dozing teals, prompting some of them to dabble tentatively before going back to sleep. The only raptor of the day was a buzzard soaring very high over the trees atop the hill. Another calf red deer wandered across the bund and disappeared into the reeds.

Red deer calf

Walking back through the reeds I spent a few minutes watching a migrant hawker quartering a patch of cut reeds munching its way through the local midge population.

There were a few blue tits and wrens in the willow scrub. A pair of marsh tits came along to check me out. They stayed long enough to sneeze at me while I got my camera and bobbed off into the undergrowth the moment I got them into focus. With the willow tits I saw the other day in mind I noticed that the marsh tits' flanks weren't so extensively brown and it was more a tawny yellow-brown than a rich russet. I wouldn't use the difference as a key ID feature, and it might not be obvious on a marsh/willow tit on its own in an unfamiliar context but it's something to bear in mind.

I got the Carlisle train as far as Ulverston so I could have a look over the Kent and Leven estuaries. There were a hundred or so black-headed gulls at Arnside, together with dozens of redshanks and a few cormorants. There were a few little egrets on the salt marsh on the way into Grange over Sands and more black-headed gulls and redshanks on the beach. The water levels were back to normal on the salt marsh between Cark and the Leven but there were only a couple of woodpigeons to show by it. There were a lot more black-headed gulls on the Leven, together with more redshanks and a small flock of red-head goosanders. A couple of herons and curlews loafed on the breakwater rocks by the railway line.

I had ten minutes' wait at Ulverston for the Manchester train. A mixed tit flock and a charm of goldfinches flew in to roost in the conifers by the platform. 

I sat on the inland side of the train on the way back over the Leven. There were more black-headed gulls and some lesser black-backs, a dozen little egrets and single juveniles of red-breasted merganser and tufted duck. 

Kent Estuary, Arnside

I took the opportunity of switching to the seaward side of the train at Kent's Bank so I could check out the coastal pools at Leighton Moss. There were still plenty of redshanks and lapwings and a flock of greylags grazed on the embankment.

A nice afternoon's excursion.