New Brighton

Snow bunting

I had a few morning errands to run so it was lunchtime before I set off for a day out in Merseyside (the new train timetable's getting some getting used to). All the usual suspects had made an appearance in the back garden and fifteen magpies were rattling and racketing in the sycamores on the railway embankment.

I got to New Brighton and walked down to the promenade. It was a cool day, the hazy sunshine taking the edge off a light wind, just the sort of weather for a walk by the seaside. The tide was just starting to ebb and I was looking forward to seeing a pile of waders roosting on the pontoons on the marine lake. Not a sausage. The only wader on the lake was a lone turnstone half asleep on the raft in the middle of the lake. Time was I could virtually guarantee seeing a crowd scene here, this Winter's definitely changed things.

Cormorants

Turnstones

There were plenty of turnstones on the rocks and breakwaters near the lighthouse. There were also plenty of herring gulls and cormorants. I was checking out the turnstones in the hope (unfounded) of finding a purple sandpiper when a little egret popped up from behind a rock and started fossicking in a rock pool.

Little egret

Turnstone

I wandered along the promenade. As the tide ebbed more and more gulls settled on the beach, mostly black-headed gulls and herring gulls with a few common gulls. Lesser black-backs and a couple of great black-backs flew by without stopping and more cormorants flew out into the estuary. I hadn't walked far when an adult Mediterranean gull flew past. I hoped it would settle so I could get a photo but it continued on up the river. Further along there was a steady traffic of gulls heading for the emerging Wallasey beach. Most were subadult herring gulls; there were also a couple of adults, a handful of lesser black-backs and a second-Winter yellow-legged gull straight out of the textbook: white head, brown wings, dark grey saddle and white tail with a clean black band near the end.

Black-headed gulls

Rock pipit

The redshanks had been roosting on the breakwater by the King's Parade. I was pleasantly surprised to find that one of the pied wagtails pottering about on the seawall was a rock pipit. Oystercatchers started to fly in and start feeding on the mud beyond the breakwaters while black-headed gulls and common gulls danced for worms. Some of the herring gulls and lesser black-backs were already in fresh breeding plumage and looking very spruce with it.

I passed the lifeguard station and started walking down the revetment, keeping my eyes peeled for any small birds in the dunes. There had been reports of a snow bunting around here over the past few days, I was just wondering whether it might still be about when it hopped up onto the side of the path and cheeped at me. You've got to love snow buntings.

Snow bunting

Snow bunting

Snow bunting

I had a bit of a wander without further wobbling the year list then walked down to Grove Road for the train back. It had been a surprisingly productive couple of hours' birdwatching.

New Brighton lighthouse 

Local patch

Buzzard, Barton Clough

Today's cloudy skies took the icy edge off the weather. The coal tits were busy a-courting in the rowan tree, the great tits have been paired up a while and the blue tits include a male that's been making great play of displaying his crown feathers the past couple of days. The magpies are making a racket as pairs begin to flake off from the crowd. There were four in the sycamores this morning, eighteen on the school playing field.

Barton Clough 

It was a similar story as I had a gentle wander round the local patch, nineteen magpies chasing each other round the treetops by the footpath. Other than that the park was very quiet. The old cornfield seemed very quiet at first until I spotted the flock of thirty-odd goldfinches picking at the buds in the apple tree. The buzzard made an appearance, too, settling down in the trees behind the school.

Goldfinch, Barton Clough

• Black-headed gull 4 overhead
• Blackbird 2
• Blue tit 2
• Buzzard 1
• Common gull 1 overhead
• Dunnock 1
• Feral pigeon 2 overhead
• Goldfinch 32
• Great tit 3
• Herring gull 2 overhead
• Lesser black-backed gull 2 overhead
• Magpie 19
• Robin 2
• Starling 3
• Woodpigeon 2

Seeing as it's the lunar new year it was nice to see a couple of rabbits, too.

I passed by the Trafford Centre on my way to get some shopping done. The pied wagtails are as fearless as ever though it looks like Hoppy has met his maker, I've not seen him for months.

Pied wagtail, Trafford Centre

Mosses

Chat Moss, Twelve Yards Road 

I had a birdwatching day off yesterday, recharging my batteries by having a walk in the Winter sunshine around Platt Fields. I had a few plans for today but shelved them, I've lost confidence in my ability to walk on sheets of ice at the moment and wanted to wait for the sun to start breaking them up a bit. Not wanting to waste a nice Winter's day I decided on a walk on Chat Moss, not wanting a repeat of the other day's fiasco I went to the Trafford Centre and got the 100 to Cutnook Lane.

Cutnook Lane 

It was a dead clear January day, the only clouds being wispy stuff on the horizon. The ground underfoot along the lane alternated between dead clear and stretches of gritty ice depending on the density of the hedgerows on the West but was entirely passable. There were three mixed tit flocks, or one very extended one, between the motorway and the fishery: long-tailed tits and blue tits by the motorway bridge; long-tailed tits and coal tits by the lane to the stables; and a mixed bag of great tits, long-tailed tits, blue tits and a treecreeper by the fishery that moved off into the birch heath. A small flock of fieldfares and mistle thrushes were feeding over in the paddocks by the motorway. I kept seeing movements in the water in the deep ditch on the right, pairs of mallards quietly scoping out nesting sites. Given the number of dogs that go for a walk along here I hope they have the sense to nest on the far bank.

Cutnook Lane 

Twelve Yards Road 

Twelve Yards Road was fair walking though I couldn't work out the reason for the patches of ice as there was only one stretch of hedgerow that might cast enough shadow to hinder a thaw. Perhaps it's differences in drainage in the gravel. There wasn't much about that wasn't a woodpigeon or a carrion crow. I could hear the coots, mallards and at least one heron calling from the fishery and wrens scolded from the pathside drains. The buzzard flew back into its tree and the kestrel flew by and headed for the pools beyond the trees. 

Twelve Yards Road 

By Four Lanes End, looking towards Hephzibah Farm 

By the time I got to Four Lanes End I'd seen a handful of chaffinches in the trees and hedges, I've not been seeing big flocks of finches at all this Winter. At Four Lanes End a small flock of fieldfares rattled and flew off to the poplars over at Hephzibah Farm while blackbirds and a song thrush stayed put and went about their business. Another mixed tit flock, including a nuthatch, bounced between the trees and the farmhouse garden.

Turf fields, Astley Road

There had been a sudden influx of walkers from Astley Road so it was evident that was passable today. I had wondered about getting back to Irlam via Little Woolden Moss but decided against, it was less than an hour till sunset and I didn't want to push my luck by having to negotiate the dodgier bits of road in twilight. There were thin pickings in the snow on the turf fields, a couple of carrion crows, while magpies and blackbirds kept the horses company in the paddocks. A kestrel flew by, none of them seemed to be in hunting mode this afternoon.

Irlam Moss 

I crossed the motorway and walked into Irlam. A handful of chaffinches flew overhead, a few goldfinches fed in the hedgerow by the Jack Russell's gate, a pheasant called from somewhere near Roscoe Road and a buzzard flew over into the trees near Zinnia Street. 

Astley Road 

I negotiated the rollercoaster at the end of the moss and walked down to get the 100 bus back. It hadn't been the most productive few hours' birdwatching on the moss but it had been a good walk and I'd improved my morale somewhat in the walking of it.

Urban birdwatching: Salford

Kestrel, Kersal Wetlands

After yesterday's débâcle I was feeling pretty demoralised. I had a couple of ideas for an outing for the day but decided I didn't want to put much trust in trains. It had snowed overnight and the snow, and a refilling of the bird feeders, brought the crowds into the back garden. Oddly enough, the crowds didn't include any blue tits or great tits, they must have sneaked in and out while I was feeding the cat. The school playing field was quiet, the gulls preferring the school buildings rooftops and leaving the field to the rooks, magpies and jackdaws.

I looked at the pavements and wondered if I really wanted to go out for a walk in the snow and slush. I decided I couldn't waste a bright, sunny day so I dragged myself out for the train to Irlam with a view to going for a snowy stroll over the mosses. As I was waiting for the train one of the local foxes strolled by and we passed the time of day.

In Irlam I walked down Astley Road in the slush. I only got as far as the end of Zinnia Street. The hundred yard stretch of road just beyond is always interesting and I make a point of allowing any passing motorist plenty of room to give them every chance of negotiating it. My photos cannot do it justice: imagine that each side of the road is a series of sine waves about three feet deep and ten feet long and that they're out of synch such that when the left side's going down the right side's going up and vice versa.  I shouldn't have been surprised that a lorry carrying palettes had slid into a ditch. I was a bit more surprised that the tractor that had come to pull it out had slid into the opposite ditch. As I arrived another tractor turned up to pull out the tractor. I gave it up, I'm not good at taking a hint but this was Fate slapping me in the face with a kipper. So I left the crowd of onlookers, spadgers and starlings and walked back for a bus back.

I got the 67, not sure whether to get off in Eccles for a bus to the Trafford Centre or stay on into Manchester and get a bus or train home. I noticed that the 66 to Heaton Park was due a couple of minutes after we'd be getting into Eccles bus station and it's been an age since I last had a wander there. The 66 arrived on time and we readied to get on but the driver told us we'd have to wait for the new driver to get on. Five minutes later he was back, explaining that he had to go and pick up the new driver from the depot. I'm not aware the bus ever came back. 

I gave it twenty minutes and got the next bus into Manchester, which happened to be a 10 which goes through Salford then up through Charlestown and Broughton then into Manchester. It happens to pass the Kersal Wetlands and on a whim I got off and had a wander, which turned out to be an excellent idea.

I got off at Castle Irwell and walked down the path along the river. The path was icy in parts but was mostly thawed and grittily muddy and there was enough grass at the sides to easily negotiate the nastiest stretches of ice. 

Kersal Wetlands looking North

The riverside path opens into the Kersal Wetlands on a peninsula on a bend of the Irwell. This open area is, essentially, a big bowl with a path around the rim containing two smaller bowls, one shallow and grassed, the other deeper with pools and tiny reedbeds. A path drops down from the rim and runs along the bank between the two. I kept to the rim path which seemed safest in these conditions. 

Kersal Wetlands, Manchester city centre in the background 

A small flock of chaffinches flitted about in the trees by the path while mallards and Canada geese floated down the river. A pair of dabchicks hinnied and danced around each other at the bankside. There was a crowd of carrion crows, a couple of dozen at least. There were also a few rooks, jackdaws and magpies about on the grass but they were outnumbered by the crows. I noticed a handful of goosanders drifting downstream, all redheads though one was obviously a first-Winter drake coming into his black and white body plumage. A kestrel flew over and hovered over the pathside until it was chased away by a couple of black-headed gulls. It came back a few times over the next quarter hour and was chased away each time.

Dabchicks, Kersal Wetlands

Kestrel, Kersal Wetlands

Black-headed gulls, Kersal Wetlands

The wetland was partly frozen, the free water in the pools was littered with a hundred or more black-headed gulls with handfuls of herring gulls and lesser black-backs and a few common gulls. There were a dozen each of coots and tufted ducks and a couple of mute swans and dabchicks. About a dozen herons were dotted about in the long grass on the little islands. I was surprised to hear a pair of ring-necked parakeets screeching in the trees on the other side of the river, I hadn't realised they'd spread this far.

Black-headed gulls with herring gulls, lesser black-backs, common gulls and magpies, Kersal Wetlands

Goldeneyes, Kersal Wetlands

I crossed the river into Lower Kersal. I didn't fancy the slope on the bridge in the way up, even less on the way down with bits of ice in the shadows but got over unscathed. A flock of eighteen goldeneyes drifted slowly down the river amidst lots of head-bobbing and squabbling amongst the drakes.

River Irwell, Manchester city centre in the background 

I walked over to Salford Sports Village and got the bus home. It had been a nice afternoon's walk in the end despite everything.

The triumph of experience over hope

Hardy Farm 

I've got my head around the new train timetables now: we've quietly lost a couple of trains from Humphrey Park, the Liverpool trains are less helpful and a couple now stop at Warrington; they've addressed the problem of congestion at the Castlefield/Deansgate bottleneck by limiting the number of trains stopping at Deansgate, losing the cross-city connections on the trams and free buses; and what I gain by only having to wait half an hour for the direct train to Southport from Oxford Road I lose by having to wait the best part of an hour for the rest after nine o'clock. So it was I left home at the crack of dawn to get the train into Manchester for a trip out to Redcar. The weather was set fair for a cold but very clear day, just right for Winter seawatching.

I was in luck, the Redcar train was one of the few Transpennine trains running from Oxford Road this morning. Even so I was a bit uneasy about the journey, looking at the departure boards it felt like something wasn't right so it was with a huge sense of relief when the train pulled in and set off.

All went well until we arrived at York. And stayed at York. Then the train was cancelled. I waited for the next train, which should have left Oxford Road just after ten o'clock. Ten minutes before it was due the departure board said it was cancelled. I checked online, it was running but late and still scheduled to get to Redcar. I looked at the time, I looked at the time the train would get there, if it did, I wondered if and how I'd be getting home, and I saw the train back to Manchester was leaving in four minutes. I hate conceding defeat on railway journeys, it offends pride as much as pocket. Anyway, I bottled it. And I got back into Manchester a few minutes after the train was due to arrive at Redcar.

There were some consolations. The Pennines were a Winter wonderland. North Yorkshire had its share of buzzards and kestrels. A family of roe deer browsed by the track near Barkstone Ash. And a red kite floated low over a back garden in Ulleskelf, though given the flooding in the Ulleskelf area it might have been more appropriate for it to be a white-tailed eagle.

I had been tempted to linger in Yorkshire and have a wander round seeing as I was already there but opted to keep going in to Greater Manchester where at least my options for creatively getting round any travel problems wouldn't be restricted by Transpennine's train service.

The train got into Manchester late and we arrived in time to miss any local trains that might get me somewhere for a consolation walk. I decided that I'd get the first bus at Piccadilly Gardens that didn't go home and see if I could make a walk of it. As it happened, the first was the 86 to Chorlton so I had another Mersey Valley walk. I was spectacularly pissed off by the trains so a bit of sliding about on ice, snow and half-frozen mud wasn't going to spoil any good mood.

Ivy Green 

I walked through Chorltonville into Ivy Green. There were patches of snow and ice but these were easily navigable. The tree that had fallen over the brook and the path was a little trickier. Pairs of parakeets screamed the odds as they chased each other round the treetops. The blackbirds, robins and woodpigeons were quiet, the crows and magpies less so. A mixed tit flock in some birches included a couple of goldcrests.

Chorlton Ees contrived to be even less busy than the other day. Parakeets, chaffinches and bullfinches were easier to hear than to see.

Chorlton Ees 

The river was lower again at Jackson's Boat, nearly back to normal. A few mallards dabbled by the bank and a cormorant flew upstream.

I didn't fancy the wibbly wobbly bridge in these conditions and didn't want to go down to Chorlton Water Park so I headed through Hardy Farm and got the bus home. At least I'd managed a bit of exercise and justified carrying the binoculars round for a day.

Urban birding: Manchester

Canada geese, Alexandra Park 

A cold and frosty morning meant a gull-less school playing field but quite a busy back garden. I refilled all the feeders, just as well as the fat balls that were left overnight were rock hard in the cold and the spadgers were making heavy weather of them. The geopolitical situation has put sunflower hearts out of my price bracket so the birds will have to make do with black sunflower seeds, not that I'm hearing any complaints. I also put out what felt like half a hundredweight of mealworms, the starlings make short work of them. I did a bit of work in the garden — there's a lot needing doing — and received the very vocal disapproval of the blackbirds and spadgers. The robins and dunnocks were happy enough once they realised I was grubbing up some brambles the blackbirds had sown amongst the roses.

I had to go into town for an errand and bumped into the coal tits at the station, I'd worried that I hadn't seen them in the garden. It turns out they were preoccupied with their billing and cooing. As, indeed, are the local collared doves and mistle thrushes.

I decided on a diversion on the way back so got the 103 into Moss Side and had a stroll around Alexandra Park. I didn't have my camera with me so of course the grass was littered with very confiding redwings. Mind you, they might not have been taking any notice of people but it might have been different if somebody was pointing a telephoto lens at them. Parakeets screeched as they chased each other round the treetops with backing vocals from robins, magpies and carrion crows. The crowd of black-headed gulls by the play area made up for the ones missing from the school field. The lake was busy with waterfowl, for once the tufted ducks more than outnumbered both the mallards and Canada geese. I had a giddy moment and checked to make sure there wasn't a ring-necked duck amongst them. I did find a pair of shovelers dozing under the bank of the island, though. It's a bit early yet for the herons to be coming in to breed.

It had been a pleasant and undemanding half hour's stroll on a surprisingly pleasant, if grey, Winter's afternoon.

Southport

Hen harrier, Southport

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

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

Mute swans, Southport Marine Lake

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

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

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

Blackpool and a snowy Lake District, shelduck on Southport shore

Pink-footed geese, Southport

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

Hen harrier, Southport

Hen harrier, Southport

Hen harrier, Southport

Hen harrier, Southport

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

Teal, Marshside

Black-tailed godwits, Marshside

Wigeon, Crossens Inner Marsh

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

Snipe, teal and ruff, Crossens Inner Marsh

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

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

Meadow pipit, Crossens Inner Marsh

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

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

Crossens Inner Marsh 

Crossens Inner Marsh 

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

Lapwings, Marshside

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

A twilit ruff, Marshside

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

Marshside