Flixton

Sand martins, Irlam Locks

It was another splendidly sunny day, I was feeling a bit low energy and a bad night's sleep and the pollen counts vied for my attention but I didn't want to waste the weather. I decided I'd get the train into town and go out for a gentle dawdle somewhere, probably getting the train to Hadfield and pottering up a bit of the Longendale Trail or some such. I looked at the crowd lining the platform at Oxford Road waiting for the train into Piccadilly, I looked at the departure boards, I asked myself if I really wanted the experience of a warm, busy Friday afternoon Piccadilly Station waiting for uncertain trains and the answer was: Good God No!

So I got back on the train I came in on, got off at Flixton and had a walk round Wellacre Country Park.

I stopped to have a look at the Mersey at Flixton Bridge. Last time it was a dipper and a pair of gadwalls, today it was a grey wagtail and two drake mallards. Sometimes there's nothing, I quite enjoy the unpredictability of the game.

River Mersey, Flixton Bridge 

Blackbirds, chiffchaffs and robins sang by the riverside; blue tits, great tits, house sparrows and goldfinches fidgeted about, woodpigeons clattered around as they disbudded hawthorns and jackdaws commuted between the fields on the other side of the river and their nests over in Town's Gate. I walked through onto the path up Green Hill and blackcaps, wrens and whitethroats joined the songscape. 

Green Hill

Green Hill 

Peacocks, orange tips and small whites peppered the open slopes while speckled woods, holly blues and large whites fluttered about the wooded areas at the base of the hill. Every hawthorn bush had its cloud of St. Mark's flies to walk through, every bramble patch its whitethroat ready to scold passersby.

Walking back down through the trees and listening to the churring of blue tits and great tits as I passed and the tutting of long-tailed tits impatient for me to be on my way, I worried I haven't seen or heard willow tits here for a long while. I hope they've not been pushed out by the competition.

Peacock

I passed under the railway bridge, tiptoed around the sunbathing peacock butterflies and had a quick nosy at Dutton's Pond. A mallard duck was being bothered by two drakes, I'd spend the next hour watching her fly from place to place across the country park with them in hot pursuit. There's nothing courtly and gentle about mallard courtship. The coots and moorhens were muttering unseen from the flag irises.

Dutton's Pond 

The songscape resumed as I walked by the railway embankment to Jack Lane. A long-tailed tit bounced by with a huge beakful of insects and it stopped to pick off a few more aphids from a willow twig.

Walking to Jack Lane 

Jack Lane Nature Reserve 

I could hear two reed warblers singing as I approached the path across Jack Lane Nature Reserve, one either side in the reeds. As I stepped over the gateway a third piped up over at the far end by Jack Lane. Then a sedge warbler started singing from the brambles at the side over towards the railway. For a couple of minutes it was bewildering as the four birds jammed scratchy improvisational songs, the sedge warbler slightly harsher and given to suddenly riffing off at an angle to the tune, the reed warblers keeping to the structure of the song throughout. They went quiet as I started walking along then the reed warbler next to the path decided I wasn't anything and resumed singing. For once I got a visual on the water rail as it squealed nearby, albeit just the wobbling of reeds as it passed through. It's a while since I've heard a Cetti's warbler here, it was good to hear one today.

Jack Lane Nature Reserve
No dragonflies yet.

I walked down to Town's Gate and walked down Irlam Road to the locks to have a quick look round before getting the bus home. The swallows had arrived and joined the sand martins on the telegraph lines. While the martins are nesting on the locks the swallows will be nesting in the nearby stables.

Swallows and sand martins

The sand martins were mostly prettying up, skimming the top of the water on the canal before coming to the wires to preen.

Sand martin

Sand martins

Sand martin

Sand martin

Sand martins, wet and dry

The great crested grebes were all downstream of the lock today, as were the cormorants. A pied wagtail bounced about the downstream lock gates, a grey wagtail the upstream. There were just the two common terns today, making enough noise for a regiment. There weren't many black-headed gulls and they were letting the magpies have sole rights to the filtration pans on the water treatment works.

I wandered back down Irlam Road and struck dead lucky with the bus home waiting for me at the stop. Back home a teapot was singing my name.

Urban birdwatching

Boggart Hole Clough 

When I'm going through Manchester City Centre I always keep one eye on the Gothic rooftops for black redstarts. There's a tiny breeding population up there and once every seven years or so I actually spot one. Today was not one of those days.

I was in Rochdale for lunch with a friend. Had Rochdale and I not had history I'd be quite taken with the town centre, even so I was impressed by the new approach to the Town Hall. I'd seen a post on Facebook about the Town Hall peregrines coming back so I had a good look round. A pigeon's leg on the pavement suggested a peregrine had been around but I couldn't see any evidence of anything other than pigeons or woodpigeons having sat on the clock tower since it was spruced up. There was a background chorus from the trees on the slopes down from St Chads, a blackcap being the most persistent of the singers, with lusty support from robins, wrens, blackbirds and a song thrush. A nosy on the river found a pair of mallards by the bus station and a lone Canada goose further downstream.

Rochdale Town Centre 

After lunch I decided I would play bus station bingo and see where I went. The 17 was first bus out so I got that. I didn't want a canalside walk in Castleton or a walk round Alkrington Woods today, I felt like having a bits and pieces sort of an afternoon. It was only after the bus had passed the stop I remembered Boarshaw Clough was just off Rochdale Road. I did, however, remember to get off at the entrance to Boggart Hole Clough.

Boggart Hole Clough 

Robins, blackcaps and great tits were singing in the trees by the entrance. Blue tits and wrens joined in as I walked through, then chiffchaffs and willow warblers, blackbirds, song thrushes and nuthatches. Somewhere a few dozen layers of treetops beyond a family of young carrion crows were demanding a feed. Magpies scuttled about, woodpigeons barged about in the canopy, dunnocks and long-tailed tits popped up onto twigs and disappeared just as quickly. I passed under a stand of larches on a bend and found a goldcrest foraging in the twigs just above my head.

Large white

There were lots of butterflies enjoying the sunshine. Large whites, orange tips and green-veined whites fluttered about the path verges, commas basked on paths and speckled woods patrolled the woodland margins. The difference a couple of weeks and a bit of sunshine can make.

Comma

Instead of following Boggart Hole Brook to the boating lake as usual I decided to walk up the path running Northeast alongside another little brook. There were lots more titmice, warblers, butterflies and crows, the squirrels were a bit more conspicuous and a couple of ring-necked parakeets screeched in the treetops. And it was altogether a very pleasant walk.

I played bus stop bingo at Grange Park Road. The 149 to Oldham came first so I got it and went to have a look at Alexandra Park to see how the herons were getting on.

As I waited to cross Kings Road I had plenty of time to listen to the willow warblers, robins, dunnocks and wrens singing by the roadside (it's one of those roads that has a line of traffic coming one way and nothing the other and you have to time your crossing for when they flip over). Town centre willow warblers always surprise me.

Alexandra Park, Oldham

There were more in the park, together with blackcaps, goldfinches and great tits. The heron's nest in the tree in the middle of the boating lake had three nestlings too big to fit the nest.

Heron nestlings

Heron nestlings

Heron nestlings

The park was very busy so I only had a bit of a wander round and headed to Primrose Bank for the bus back to Manchester. (Primrose Bank is as well-named as Flowery Field, by the way.) The 79 turned up first and as it wended its way through Limeside a voice in the back of my head suggested I could get off and walk down to Crime Lake and Daisy Nook. Enough is as good as a feast, I stayed on the bus and went off home.

Leighton Moss

Avocets

I was extremely overdue a walk down to the coastal hides at Leighton Moss so I thought I'd take advantage of a fine Spring day to do so. The lesser yellowlegs that had been reported earlier in the week had moved on so there was no pressure, I was just going to see what I was going to see.

There was a thin smattering of woodpigeons, blackbirds and corvids along the line as the Barrow train went on its way. I stayed on until Ulverston to have a look on the estuaries, but mostly because I somehow still don't have eider on the year list. Much to my relief, half a dozen of them were loafing on a mudbank by the viaduct as the train passed over the Leven. Otherwise it was rather quiet, a handful of redshanks and a few black-headed gulls. Along the way the little egrets peppered about wet fields and saltmarshes were balanced by the empty beaches abandoned by gulls busy on their breeding patches.

Blue tit

The gulls don't seem to be breeding on Ulverston Station this year though there were plenty kicking about. The lesser black-backs outnumbered the herring gulls five to one. Blue tits fidgeted in the trees by the platform.

On the way back to Silverdale I noticed there was activity amongst the little egrets on the heronry (egretry?) at Meathop.

Heading for the coastal hides

The walk down from the station to the coastal hides was accompanied by a varied selection of bird song. Blackcaps, chiffchaffs, wrens, willow warblers, chaffinches and song thrushes sang in the trees, Cetti's warblers sang from the rank vegetation in the land drains, reed warblers from the reeds and flags in the larger drains, and a couple of skylarks sang above the fields.

Greylag

Gaggles of greylags grazed the fields in the company of jackdaws and carrion crows. There's no good reason why the hooded crow that had been around at the beginning of the year should make a comeback especially for me but I checked around for it anyway, just in case. A pair of cock pheasants decided to have a stand-off and punch-up by the roadside as I passed.

Pheasants

Heading for the coastal hides from the car park 

The black-headed gulls colony on the pools by the coastal hides could be heard from the car park. Chiffchaffs, blackcaps and willow warblers sang in the trees by the car park, whitethroats and Cetti's warblers joining in as I walked through the open reedy scrub. I had to tiptoe past the peacock butterflies sunning themselves on the path. Dabchicks hinneyed loudly from the reedbeds on the other side of the railway tracks.

Black-headed gulls and oystercatcher

I went to the Allen Hide first. The avocets on the pool tried, and failed, to compete with the black-headed gulls for noise. Some of the gulls were sitting on nests, there were a lot of courting couples and they were all squabbling like mad. The avocets were mostly paired up but were spending their time feeding, when they weren't picking fights with other passing avocets.

Avocets

Avocets

Avocets

Avocet

Avocet

Pochard

A couple of pairs of pochards and a pair of shovelers kept to the bank margins away from the crowds.

Black-tailed godwits, black-headed gull and avocet

There weren't so many black-headed gulls and avocets on the pool in front of the Eric Morecambe Hide. There were masses of roosting black-tailed godwits. A band of them on the pool stood out immediately, it took binoculars to appreciate the crowds of waders covering the marsh like the icing on a cake. There was at least one bar-tailed godwit in the crowd on the pool. 

Knots and black-tailed godwits

Black-headed gulls and redshanks

Redshank

Redshanks pottered about, shrimping and fly-catching in the pool. A couple of spotted redshanks kept to themselves in a far corner. Oystercatchers and shelducks loafed on the marsh, a party of shelducks flew in and started courting on a far pool. I took far too long making sure that it was the silhouette of a red-breasted merganser cruising round the pool, it was lying so low in the water it looked half its real size. Half a dozen wigeon grazed by the fence at the side, almost hidden in the grass. There were a few mute swans on the pools further out, I almost took the spoonbill further along for another one until it got up for a walk.

Walking back to the road half a dozen sand martins twittered about the telegraph lines.

There were more sand martins on the way back to the station and a couple of swallows passed low over the fields. In the mid distance I saw a couple of female marsh harriers floating over the reedbeds of Leighton Moss, and a couple of lapwings taking exception to them. Blackbirds, goldfinches and dunnocks joined the already rich songscape along the roadside.

Black-headed gull

I had an hour and a bit to wait for the through train to Manchester so I had a potter about Leighton Moss. I spent most of the time at Lilian's Hide watching the black-headed gulls on their nests, though the grass on the rafts was high enough to almost hide them. A few tufted ducks, pochards and gadwalls cruised about on the pool. Possibly the same couple of female marsh harriers skimmed the tops of the reedbeds in the distance. A cloud of sand martins hawked high above the pool.

I wandered down as far as the corner of the reedbed, hoping I might bump into a marsh tit. Other titmice quietly went about their business in the depths of the willows but I couldn't find any marsh tits. 

Cowslips

I called it quits as it was time to head for the train. This one was the last train with an almost reasonable connection home, the choice between a twenty minute wait for a bus or forty minutes for the train. It had been an excellent day out, I didn't want to end it playing Robinson Crusoe in Manchester.

Woolston Eyes

Domestic (greylag) goose, shelducks, black-headed gulls and gadwall

The weather was set fair, the pollen count wasn't ridiculous, so I thought I'd walk down from Padgate and have a wander about Woolston Eyes.

For once I wasn't upset about a late-running train, three minutes after it was due I saw my first swift of the year flying high over Humphrey Park Station. The train arrived less than a minute later. I took both as good omens.

Woolston Brook 

Daisies

I walked down from Padgate Station to Woolston Brook and followed it down to Manchester Road. The birds were in full song. Blue tits, blackcaps and robins were joined by blackbirds, wrens, woodpigeons, great tits, greenfinches, dunnocks and goldfinches. Chaffinches pinked from trees, house sparrows chirped from hedgerows and magpies barged about. There had been an emergence of holly blue butterflies, they were flittering about all over the shop. Orange tips and peacocks littered the verges, speckled woods bustled about hedgerows, a few small whites almost passed unnoticed amongst the orange tips on the drifts of hedge garlic and my first of what almost certainly be many hundreds of large whites this year skittered over the brook. A pair of mallards dozed on the brook, at least one pair of moorhens fidgeted about in the depths of reeds and flag iris.

Paddington Meadows 

Crossing the road I thought I'd have a bit of a diversion and spent quarter of an hour nosying around the top end of Paddington Meadows, adding a reed warbler and a couple of whitethroats to the songscape.

Brimstone 

It was nice to get out of the wind in the walk down the New Cut to Woolston Weir. Chiffchaffs joined the songscape from the willows, Cetti's warblers from wet bramble patches and depths of reeds. It seems to be a bumper Spring for Cetti's warblers, they're numerous and vocal. Moorhens and mallards drifted in and out of drowned willows. Titmice, wrens and robins bounced about in the trees, blackbirds chased across the path, magpies and woodpigeons clattered about. Brimstones and green-veined whites joined the cavalcade of butterflies fluttering about the path.

Grey Mist 

The New Cut 

Over on Grey Mist I could see a few tufted ducks and mute swans. The usual coots were notably absent, which this time of year is a good sign.

Grey wagtail

At Woolston Weir a line of a dozen tufted ducks drifted upstream like a search party combing the water. Pairs of mallards and great crested grebes drifted about and a male marsh harrier floated by before heading for No.2 Bed on Woolston Eyes. Mallards dozed and a grey wagtail rummaged about on the detritus caught by the weir gate. 

River Mersey, Woolston Weir 

Downstream a few black-headed gulls fussed about, there were more mallards and tufties, a pair of shelducks and a mute swan. At the corner where the river splits in two a great crested grebe sat on its nest.

Great crested grebe 

I climbed up and followed the path above the river. Warblers were in full song, Cetti's from the depths of the bank, whitethroats and blackcaps in the hawthorns and willows along the tops and chiffchaffs all over the place. As I turned and started the descent a garden warbler started singing. It took me a while to be sure I wasn't misidentifying a blackcap — they'd been providing a surprising number of variations on the theme — but having a couple of very different blackcaps within earshot, one with a rolling, bubbly song and one shot with shrill notes, helped the process along.

Looking down on the Mersey from the path

The orange tip butterflies were getting frisky in the sun. Younger readers may wish to avert their gaze.

Orange tip butterfly naughtiness.
Here the lady orange tip butterfly is saying: "Hello sailor, fancy a nice time ducky?"

The male orange tip indicates a modicum of interest

Then rather a lot more interest

Having bid farewell to her suitor the lady closes her wings to become less conspicuous and ponders the wonders of motherhood

Crossing over to No.3 Bed 

While I was negotiating the padlock on the gate to the bridge over to No.3 Bed I noticed a red-eared terrapin sunning itself on the roots of one of the riverside willows. The pet trade's response to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles craze has some to answer for. Two shapes zipped past over the treetops, I couldn't tell if the kestrel was chasing the sparrowhawk or the sparrowhawk chasing the kestrel. Given kestrels' habit of stealing from other birds of prey, and sparrowhawks' impatience with being stolen from, it could be either way.

Willow warblers joined the songscape but it was the noise of black-headed gulls that dominated the landscape. A quick Dekko from the Sybil Hogg Hide confirmed that there were a lot on the bed and that there was a lot of activity on the breeding rafts. I wondered if I might strike lucky with black-necked grebes and found lots of gadwalls and pochards, which is no bad thing. My first sedge warbler of the year sang from the reed margins in front of the hide, its free-form riffs distinguishing it from the more integrated improvisations of a reed warbler over to the right.

Walking to the Morgan Hide 

Solomon's seal 

I walked round to the Morgan Hide. I looked at the big shipping container hide and decided against. I didn't fancy being up there in this wind and the knees didn't fancy the climb up the scaffolding. I'm getting delicate in my old age. I tiptoed past butterflies, bumblebees and stands of Solomon's seal and cuckoo pint as great tits and whitethroats churred their displeasure and long-tailed tits tutted and faded into cover. 

Shelducks

I climbed up to the Morgan Hide and looked out over the rafts. Shelducks and gadwalls dominated the rafts immediately in front of the hide though they were loafing about rather than nesting. A lone lapwing flew about in a very agitated manner, chasing passing ducks as furiously as it did jackdaws or magpies. Pochards, coots, tufted ducks and great crested grebes drifted about, greylags cruised like noisy dreadnoughts, and mallards and gadwalls dabbled about the margins. 

Gadwalls

The rafts further out were seething with black-headed gulls, most of them on nests. I wasn't sure if the pair of lesser black-backs in the background were nesting or just keeping watching on the pantry. A pair of Mediterranean gulls in the middle of one of the rafts spent a lot of their time stealing nesting materials from the black-headed gulls. They're not yet on the breeding list for Woolston Eyes, fingers crossed for this year.

Gull breeding rafts on No.3 Bed
Mostly black-headed gulls, a pair of lesser black-backs at the back, a Mediterranean gull in the middle

I wasn't finding any black-necked grebes. I was about to give up and move on when I noticed a mute swan I hadn't seen. If I could be overlooking a mute swan… I found a pair of shovelers and some teal. All the small dark shapes in the reeds were female pochards.

Gadwall
I forget they have yellow feet, I so seldom see them properly out of water.

Moving on, I was reminded that the big shipping container wasn't the scariest hide on the reserve. Or the second scariest. You need a head for heights on this bed. I climbed up into the Warrington Rotary Hide for a look over the corner I've found best for seeing the black-necked grebes. There were half a dozen out on the water showing well, all of them distant and all very actively feeding.

The black-necked grebes were showing well but distant

Black-headed gulls 

Black-headed gulls and pochards 

Cowslips 

Back down on terra firma I wandered back via the meadows which were awash with cowslips and bees. I noticed a few oxlips in there, natural hybrids between cowslips and primroses. Dandelions, lady's smocks and daisies were dotted about and a damp patch had a drift of snakeshead fritillaries, which are always nice to see in the wild.

Cowslip

I rarely see a pure white snakeshead fritillary, white ones usually have a pale green checkerboard pattern to them.

Back to the bridge

The whitethroats, greenfinches and goldfinches of the meadows gave way to the chiffchaffs, robins, blackcaps and great tits of the woody scrub. I made my way back to the bridge and took three goes at getting the padlock open, there's a definite knack to it and it's not one I instinctively incline towards, then wandered round onto Thelwall Lane. 

Walking by the canal to Thelwall Lane 

The willow warblers singing from No.4 Bed almost beguiled me into having a wander round but I knew I didn't have the legs to add that to the walk, it's a long drag down the lane to the bus stop. I'll need to come in this way next time and just confine the walk to the two beds. I walked into Latchford and got the bus into Warrington and thence home.

Looking at my records, and looking at the birds being reported by other people, this year's Spring passage feels more intense than usual. It's hit like a ton of bricks. This isn't a complaint, mind. Whether it's a lot more birds, a lot more birdwatchers, or both,  it can't be a bad thing.