Wiganish

Moorhen, Amberswood

It was another of those days when the weather runs through all four seasons in an hour, sometimes twice. The worst of the rain coincided with the brightest sunshine. I had three options planned and I binned each as they'd involve me walking about in the open with no cover for miles. 

I had a think about where I'd not been yet this year that I could get to easily and had plenty of tree cover and decided on a wander around some of the Wigan flashes, I could get the 132 to Wigan from the Trafford Centre and the number one bus to Whitecroft Road and just have a five minute walk into Scotsman's Flash and take it from there. As I waited for the bus to the Trafford Centre the sky went black and it heaved down. If the bus hadn't arrived before the shower finishes I'd have gone home, as it was I kept dry in the bus shelter. 

The bus ride to Wigan is a long one and the bus was old and rattly and overwarm and I stuck it as far as Amberswood and I bailed out. So a walk round Amberswood it was, then.

Amberswood, coming in from Wigan Road 

Unsurprisingly there weren't many people about as I walked in from Wigan Road. There were plenty of singing wrens, robins and chiffchaffs and pairs of long-tailed tits and great tits bounced about the hedgerows. The sky was ominous but the sun shone brightly through the clouds and it was warm enough for me to decide to take my raincoat off. As I wandered through the woods towards the lake goldfinches and a coal tit sang from the tree tops and woodpigeons clattered about.

Amberswood 

There were two pairs and a spare of great crested grebes on the lake. It was difficult to know which bird was in each pair, a pair would do a bit of head waggling and copycat preening and in the process would drift into the other pair which were doing similar and then they'd seem to switch partners. The spare bird, I think a male, was excluded from this and would be the subject of aggressive displays if he got too close.

Amberswood Lake 

Otherwise it was fairly quiet. A couple of black-headed gulls loafed on the water while a few more flew overhead together with lesser black-backs and a couple of herring gulls. A mute swan cruised about while his mate sat on her nest. Pairs of mallards, coots and moorhens patrolled the lake margins while teal and a Cetti's warbler called from the reeds.

Great crested grebes, Amberswood

Every so often there'd be a quick shower. I didn't fancy walking down through the muddy paths of Low Hall and fancied even less the walk into Platt Bridge for the bus so I decided on having an explore through Amberswood and getting the bus either from Spring View or Ince. There's a network of paths through the woods heading in that direction and I meandered through them a while before settling on the metalled path to Ince after seeing how muddy some of the others were.

Amberswood 

The conifer stands were pretty barren but elsewhere there seemed to be a pair of great tits every ten yards. Robins and wrens were more spaced out but were still plentiful. A couple of pairs of treecreepers were busy and one pair looked to be settling on a nest site. Chiffchaffs, chaffinches and goldfinches sang in the trees. There were a few more people about and every so often I'd be asked if anything was about and I'd answer that it was a bit quiet but it was nice to hear the chiffchaffs back and singing. One chap engaged me in lengthy conversation in one of the clearings as mallards flew into the pool behind us and a heron and a sparrowhawk flew low overhead while we had a couple of showers of rain.

Amberswood, by the path to Ince

A hail shower was the cue to say cheerio and I resumed my walk into the woods. Crossing Ince Brook I noticed a lot of birds in the alders by the pools. A goldcrest was the first I could identify as I approached. Once I got into the trees I saw there was a mixed flock of siskins and redpolls working their way through the alder cones.

Amberswood 

It was getting on and the rain was now steady so I cut the walk short and took the path leading to the bus stop by the cemetery. I was accompanied by an evening chorus of blackbirds, song thrushes, chiffchaffs and robins. I didn't have long to wait for the number nine bus to Leigh and from there I could get the 126 home.

The weather settled down and started to behave itself and I'd have half an hour to wait for the 126 at the bus station so I stayed on the bus on to Higher Folds and had a walk through Colliers Wood and down the path onto Manchester Road and caught the bus there. Robins, great tits and a reed bunting sang along the path while a lot of blackbirds rummaged in the undergrowth. Jackdaws and woodpigeons were making a performance of coming into the trees to roost. As I headed down to Manchester Road a small flock of pied wagtails divided its time between a horse paddock and the rugby pitch, uncertain which of the beasts cut up the ground best for hunting purposes.

Colliers Wood 

Rather despite myself I'd had a very good afternoon's birdwatching walk with a haul of forty-five species.

Wirral

Linnet, Hoylake

It was scheduled to be a bright and blustery day so I headed out to the Wirral to see what might be blown in.

Herring gulls, Kerr's Field

It was a dead straightforward run to Liverpool and I got the West Kirby train as far as Moreton and toddled off down to Kerr's Field. The hedgerows were busy with long-tailed tits, blackbirds and goldfinches while wrens and robins sang their heads off. The horses in the first paddock were accompanied by a flock of woodpigeons together with blackbirds and mistle thrushes. The two big fields had a lot more woodpigeons together with refugees from a high Spring tide: a few dozen herring gulls and a couple of dozen oystercatchers. The gulls loafed and squabbled, the oystercatchers kept on feeding. All the wagtails were pied and there were no wheatears about but it's early days yet.

Oystercatchers, Kerr's Field

A chap I bumped into said he'd seen wheatears in the paddocks by Leasowe Common. I was heading that way anyway to see if any warblers were about and was glad of the tip. I had no luck, perhaps they'd been moved on by the crowd of carrion crows bouncing about in there. All the warblers in the trees were chiffchaffs, and very vocal they were too. As were the crowds of goldfinches in the treetops though the great tits were unusually quiet.

Leasowe Common 

A moorhen lurked in the reeds by the pond while a coot cruised about in the open water. I thought I heard a Cetti's warbler starting its engine but nothing came of it so I concluded I was mistaken. As I walked across the common towards the sea flocks of curlews, oystercatchers and black-tailed godwits flew inland to feed in the fields as they waited the tide.

Leasowe Common 

Meols groyne

The high tide was lashing the top half of the sea wall when I joined the revetment. Gulls — mostly herring gulls with a couple of lesser black-backs — sailed by in the distance tacking into a strong wind. A couple of great black-backs bobbed around on the sea in the mid distance. I scanned round to see if anything else was about and found a couple of drake common scoters a bit further out. Any other time I've seen scoters here they've been dark shapes flying past the turbines of the wind farm. As I walked down a steady stream of common gulls began to drift by in ones and twos. 

Redshanks, Meols

At first sight I thought the groyne was deserted. I was very much mistaken. The waders had elected en masse to roost on the windward side. There was a hundred or so redshanks and handfuls of knots and turnstones. A couple of oystercatchers flew in and settled as best they could amongst the crowd. I fought the wind to try and get photos of the birds, taking rather a lot as I thought the wind shake would ruin most of them. As it turned out I mostly got away with it, less than a dozen were complete write-offs though a similar number had dodgy composition due to the buffeting of the wind. I've not been doing well with the photography lately, it's nice when it works.

Redshanks, Meols

Redshanks and greenshank, Meols

I walked past the groyne, looking back every so often to see if I'd missed anything. Sure enough, I'd missed a sanderling and a greenshank.

The tide started to turn and the redshanks were getting restive. It wasn't long before small parties of them started to head off for the emerging mud at Hoylake. The wind was getting stronger and like me they made heavy weather of it at times. More gulls passed by including a first-Winter kittiwake which had me puzzled for a bit because the black 'W' across its wings wasn't as clean as I would have expected and at first I took it for a common gull. I don't see enough subadult kittiwakes for them to be on my radar when I see unusual middle-sized gulls.

Redshanks, Meols

Redshanks, Meols

When the tide goes out at Meols it goes out quickly. Within half an hour it was a distant memory and as I joined the parade the mud was littered with redshanks. Further along they were joined by increasingly large groups of dunlins and strings of knots while the mud banks were busy with shelducks and curlews.

Knots, Meols

Dunlins, Meols

At the lifeboat station a flock of linnets was doing an excellent demonstration of the art of disappearing in plain sight amongst the seaweeds and sticks of tidal wreckage. A couple of the males ruined the illusion by stepping out into the open to sing.

Linnet, Hoylake

Linnet, Hoylake

The beach at Hoylake was strangely deserted, usually the linnets are joined by pied wagtails and ringed plovers but not today. I kept an eye out for movements in the sky just in case the Alpine swifts that had been reported in the morning were lingering. I wasn't surprised not to find them, the wind would have blown them into the Lake District by now.

Hoylake 

I debated whether or not to carry on to West Kirby but decided against and headed to the station for the train. I almost changed my mind in the shelter of the houses as I walked down the King's Gap but quickly reconsidered as the wind howled down from the golf course as I crossed Stanley Road. I'd had an excellent few hours' birdwatching, there was no reason to knacker myself by being greedy.

Buxton

Mandarin duck

It was one of those mornings where I have three options for a day out planned but really couldn't be bothered, a combination of poor sleep and achy joints with the changeable weather, together with an early morning alarm call from a cat that needs to be reminded it wasn't so very long ago she was dining on bits of old mouse and spiders.

Pavilion Gardens, Buxton

Thus it was I had an early lunch and by a series of random happenstances found myself on the train to Buxton and passing through bands of heavy showers and rainbows into a bright sunny afternoon. Which is good because I've been beating myself up again for not getting to All The Places and I haven't been to Buxton yet this year. 

Pavilion Gardens, Buxton 

The birdwatching in the town centre is pretty much what you'd expect in any town centre. A small flock of siskins in the trees in the Pavilion Gardens was a nice surprise. And there were a couple of pairs of mandarin ducks lurking in the shade of the trees by one of the ponds.

One of the many things I like about mandarin ducks is their capacity for turning themselves into un-ducklike abstract shapes. One of the preening drakes was delivering a masterclass.

Mandarin duck

Canada geese and mandarin ducks

I had a pleasant wander round enjoying the scenery and unexpected sunshine, which provided the bit of uplift my spirits evidently needed.

Blackbird

I made my way over to the market square and got the 61 to Glossop and thence got the train home. The 61's meandering route through splendid High Peak scenery was made all the more meandering because of a diversion at Whalley Bridge which imposes an eight mile detour via Chapel-en-le-Frith to service bus stops less than half a mile apart. The black-headed gulls we're no longer seeing in lowland Greater Manchester are now gathering in the upland fields before moving onto nesting territories up on moorland pools and reservoirs.

From the bus along Long Hill

I need to take more advantage of these £2 maximum bus journeys while they're still available.

From the bus: Lantern Pike from Birch Vale 

Leighton Moss

Leighton Moss 

The day had started with my noticing that one of the spadgers on the feeding station was a fledgling — I'd taken it for one of the darker females until I noticed it still had a bright yellow gape. It looked to be a few weeks old, they must have started nesting in last month's touch of Spring.

I thought I'd start the week with a stroll round Leighton Moss so I armed myself with an old man's explorer ticket and got the Barrow train from Oxford Road. It struck me on the way up that the change in the seasons was apparent by the absence of black-headed gulls nearly all the way (I think they're resident at Chorley Station). 

Roe deer, Bolton-le-Sands

We were held at signals just outside Carnforth. Three grazing roe deer provided a bit of a distratction.

It was a grey, rainy morning so there wasn't a crowd at Leighton Moss when I arrived. The feeders by the hideaway were busy with great tits and chaffinches, a couple of coal tits and a marsh tit slipped in while they weren't looking.

The main drain from the sky tower

For a change I ignored Lilian's Hide today, going straight for the sky tower for a look over the pools. There were plenty of black-headed gulls squabbling over potential nest sites, a few dozen pairs of teal dabbled while pochards, tufties and coots dived. I couldn't work out if I was hearing two or three bitterns, there's an echo to the booming that makes it difficult to place where it's coming from. A Cetti's warbler sang from somewhere in the vegetation at the bottom of the tower.

Leighton Moss 

It was a relatively quiet walk down to the reedbed hides, there were lots of small birds about but they were feeding quietly in the undergrowth. A lot of the young willow trees have been cut, opening up some of the views. If the willows weren't thinned out they'd dry out the reserve and take over the reedbeds as part of the natural succession. As it is, the reserve stays wet and the open spaces encourage the growth of a bit of cover for the birds.

The teal were a hive of activity

There were a few dozen teal at the Tim Jackson Hide, all asleep on the mud. Ditto the shovelers, the mallards and a pair of oystercatchers. Greylags flew past, making a hell of a racket as they did so.

There were fewer birds at the Griesdale Hide but they were all awake. A couple of pairs of pintails dabbled just in front of the hide, pairs of shoveler and teal were dotted about the reed margins and lapwings dozed on muddy islands. Far out, by the edge of the reserve, dozens of greylags and mallards fed on the field at the bottom of the hill, there were more greylags in the field beyond the reserve. A lone sand martin fluttered quickly by in the distance, a bit of promise on a gloomy day. The marsh harriers had evidently decided to sit it out in this weather, a female hunched down in one of the trees far out in the reeds was the only one I saw today.

Ramalina lichen on a willow twig

I set off walking back thinking that I hadn't heard any water rails in the reeds today. No sooner had I thought that when one started squealing deep in the reeds by the hide. My walk back was punctuated by blood-curdling noises from the reeds though I only saw the one water rail and that in the distance as it ran across the path. Cetti's warblers sang every hundred yards or so and the only reed bunting of the day made itself known.

This willow had a good assortment of lichens and mosses on its trunk as well as the common polypody ferns up in the crooks

Turning the corner the willows were more obviously lively with birds than they had been on the way in. Pairs of goldcrests and treecreepers fussed about by the path, great tits and blue tits foraged overhead and a nuthatch sang in the rain.

Leighton Moss 

I checked the trains. The Carlisle train was running phenomenally late, I had plenty of time to go and catch it and milk a bit of value out of my old man's explorer ticket by checking out the estuaries along the coast and there was a twenty minute window at Seascale for the train back to Barrow which connects with the Manchester Airport train. So I got that.

The tide had ebbed, redshanks and curlews probed the mud in the creeks of the Kent Estuary at Arnside. The lack of crowds of black-headed gulls was notable. Similarly the lack of little egrets on the salt marsh on the way into Grange-over-Sands though they were made up by pairs of shelducks. A paradise shelduck in amongst them was a surprise. The dozens of bar-headed geese on the marsh beyond the station were less of a surprise, they regularly skip over the railway from the municipal park.

Passing inland from Kents Bank the train disturbed a snipe which flew parallel with the train before jinking off and disappearing into a field. The salt marsh beyond Cark was surprisingly empty until we passed a dozen grazing pink-footed geese. There were more curlews and redshanks on the Leven Estuary and the first little egret of the day.

I only got as far as Barrow. The train was running so late that it was going to skip a lot of stations to try and make up time. I checked the schedule, I was looking at waiting an hour for the train back at either Millom or Sellafield, the latter with an uncertain connection back to Manchester, so I opted to get the train back from Barrow which was due in five minutes. Or rather twenty-five minutes as the late-running Carlisle train had its knock-on effects. This gave me plenty of time to notice that while all the gulls on the rooftops of Barrow on the way in were herring gulls nearly all the gulls at the station were lesser black-backs.

I sat inland on the way back. The train disturbed small groups of wigeon as we crossed the Leven and pairs of goosanders cruised the creeks. The wetlands just beyond near Holker were littered with pairs of teal and mallard. A dipper on the river Eea just before Cark was a nice bonus. 

The train terminated at Preston due to lack of train crew. I got the Liverpool train to Wigan Northwestern and the train to Victoria from there. I had wondered why the journey was scheduled to take forty minutes, it turns out there's a twenty minute wait at signals scheduled at Golborne Dale. It was getting late on a wet and gloomy afternoon so there wasn't much on offer in the trees and fields beyond a couple of carrion crows and woodpigeons and a pair of male blackbirds fighting over an elderberry bush. (The journey's still a good twenty minutes quicker than going the long way from Wigan Wallgate via Bolton).

A very rewarding day's birdwatching in unpromising weather and the year list's inched up to 136.

Leighton Moss 

Home thoughts

Long-tailed tit

A combination of train strikes, downpours, a lunchtime panic which turned out to be a false alarm, and just plain tiredness conspired to have me shelve all today's plans. The weather couldn't make up its mind whether it was going to be sunny or not but it was distinctly cooler than yesterday and when I was making my way home for the second half of my lunch it poured down with big blobs of sleet in the mix and that sort of finished it for me.

The birds in the back garden were taking advantage of my having refilled the feeders yesterday afternoon and they made quick work of all the fat balls in the feeder under the rowan tree. There were more in the feeder by the washhouse and the sunflower feeders were full so there was still plenty to go at. There were a few nice surprises: the male chaffinch has found the sunflower seeds and looks like lingering awhile, the first chiffchaff of the year bounced into the sycamores on the railway embankment, and a heron lolloped slowly at tree height along the railway line heading off into Urmston. It might have been taking advantage of the lack of trains to navigate its way from the docks to the river at Flixton.

• Black-headed gull 1 overhead
• Blackbird 4
• Blue tit 1
• Carrion crow 2
• Chaffinch 1
• Chiffchaff 1
• Collared dove 1
• Dunnock 2
• Great tit 2
• Grey heron 1
• Herring gull 1 overhead
• House sparrow 16
• Jackdaw 2
• Long-tailed tit 2
• Magpie 1
• Mistle thrush 1
• Robin 1
• Starling 3 
• Woodpigeon 6

Today's the first day this year without any gulls on the school playing field. A handful of black-headed gulls flew overhead when I was out but none of them landed on the school.

• Jackdaw 23
• Magpie 17
• Starling 2
• Woodpigeon 10

Mersey Valley

Broad Ees Dole: herons, goodanders, gadwall and teal

It threatened to be a good day for weather despite the occasional heavy shower in the morning so after a late breakfast I set off for a wander down Stretford Meadows and on to Sale Water Park.

It was a day of birdsong, starting about an hour before dawn when the blackbirds started. I woke to the sound of a chaffinch singing by the railway line, a first as they're only ever Winter visitors this side of the park (why twenty yards of mown grass is a barrier has always been beyond me). I looked out of the window as I drank my tea and pondered on the very complicated sex lives of the dunnocks.

Stretford Meadows 

I looked at the paths on Stretford Meadows and elected to stay on the Transpennine Trail, which wasn't short of its own puddles. Chaffinches, robins, great tits and goldfinches sang in the trees and mobs of magpies chased each other across the hawthorn bushes on the meadows. Both the kestrels were about: the male hovering over the rise while the female sat by the motorway. Dunnocks and wrens sang from the brambles along the path. The sun emerged from the clouds and decided to stay awhile and it became quite a warm day.

Magpie, Stretford Meadows

Kestrel, Stretford Meadows

Walking along Kickety Brook 

I passed under Chester Road and walked along Kickety Brook towards Stretford Ees. Somebody had been giddy with a strimmer and taken out all the undergrowth cover either side of the path. A feeder full of fat balls had been hung on one of the remaining trees. The irony did not escape me.

I walked through Stretford Ees to the songs of great tits, wrens and robins, the screech of parakeets and the bone-crunching sound of carrion crows making baby carrion crows. Long-tailed tits and blue tits bounced through the wood and blackbirds and woodpigeons worked their way through the ivy berries. A buzzard, hunting low over the wet meadow, was chased off by crows and drifted over the tramway only to deliberately float back just to make the point that it could.

Stretford Ees 

The river was still high and fast but Canada geese and mallards bobbed around in the torrent all the same.

The usual crowd of gulls on Sale Water Park was down to half a dozen black-headed gulls and a couple of second calendar year herring gulls. It's been similar on the school playing field back home where the black-headed gulls are in single figures, replaced on the field by jackdaws and woodpigeons. One pair of great crested grebes were asleep by the reeds, another was display dancing over on the other side of the lake. I can see I'll not be getting any photos of the dance this year. One pair of coots were already occupying a nest in the roots of a willow.

Broad Ees Dole 

Herons, gadwall and coot, Broad Ees Dole

Heron and teal, Broad Ees Dole

Gadwall, goosanders and teal, Broad Ees Dole

Broad Ees Dole was busy. The teal pool was relatively quiet with pairs of mallard and, appropriately, teal. A heron dozed in the reeds and a mute swan dozed on its nest. A Cetti's warbler sang from the brambles by the electricity pylon, the first I've heard round here in years. It carried on singing as I sat down in the hide for a look at the big pool. The water was just low enough for a few herons and pairs of gadwall to loaf on the islands. More pairs of gadwall dabbled on the pool with a male shoveler and a dozen coots while a pair of goosanders cruised around looking elegant. It took an age to find the dabchick I kept hearing, it was feeding amongst the roots of the drowned willows in the corner. I was just feeling smug about finding it when I noticed that a pair of snipe had been on the bank in front of the hide all along.

Snipe, Broad Ees Dole

Snipe, Broad Ees Dole
The same bird as above, pteening

I walked along the lake to the café. The usual gang of mute swans, Canada geese and mallards were scrounging over by the car park, closer by there were a few more mute swans and pairs of tufted ducks. Blackbirds and song thrushes sang in the hedgerows and a pair of goldcrests fussed about in one of the elder bushes. Walking down the path I wondered where the rain of wood shavings was coming from. Twenty feet above my head a parakeet was chewing away at a branch.

I got a drink at the café and sat by the feeders to see what was about. The feeding wasn't as frenetic as it has been, which meant that it wasn't just great tits and long-tailed tits getting a look in. A pair of coal tits lingered, giving me a chance to weigh them up properly. Of the pair that visit my garden the male has a peach flush to his underparts while the female is straw yellow. This pair were both straw yellow, the female being much the paler of the two. I suspect this is down to their diet during the moult, some types of caterpillar have chemicals which birds metabolise into bright plumage pigments. In a similar way some great tits have primrose yellow underparts while others are rich buttery yellow. A male great spotted woodpecker came in to visit and was chased off by magpies. As I was finishing my drink a willow tit came in to feed on the fat balls.

Jay, Sale Ees

Walking through Sale Ees to Jackson's Boat the trees were full of woodpigeons and carrion crows and the first of the jackdaws were coming in to roost.  A jay was disturbed by dogs as it fossicked around the sluice gate. A chiffchaff sang and made display flight sorties in the apple trees by the river on the Lancashire side. It kept posing for the camera and skittering off as soon as I got it in focus. The blue tits were more obliging, the long-tailed tits weren't. A noisy flock of a few dozen black-headed gulls flew high overhead heading North for who knows where.

Blue tit, Jackson's Boat

River Mersey, Chorlton Ees 

The walk through Chorlton Ees was noisy with parakeets, robins, wrens and jackdaws but particularly with song thrushes and blackbirds which seemed to be having a competition to see which could sing the loudest. Ivy Green was marginally quieter though the carrion crows tried their best to make up for it. Turn Moss was quieter, most of the song thrushes were busy getting something to eat before bedtime and the mistle thrushes didn't feel the need to shout.

Ivy Green 

I walked down to Edge Lane and got the 25 bus home feeling surprisingly tired for what was only a bit more than five miles' walk. In my defense, there was quite a lot of mud involved. Seeing in the dawn before finally getting to sleep probably didn't help. On my way home from the bus stop thirty-eight lesser black-backs flew overhead to their roost somewhere on the river probably near Woolston Eyes.