Belmont

Winter Hill

A pallid harrier turned up at Belmont Reservoir over the weekend, just the other side of Winter Hill. Amazingly, it might not have been the Marshside bird relocated as a second bird was seen at Hesketh Outer Marsh. Belmont Reservoir's on my local "Go and have a nosy" list so I decided to head thataway.

The buses to Belmont are infrequent and irregular. My train got held up at signals and got into Oxford Road as the Blackpool train was leaving so I missed the 535 bus from Bolton Interchange. There was a two hour wait for the next one so I got The 1 (the bus to Blackburn) to Egerton and walked over.

Winter Hill from Longworth Road 

I've never known it not raining in Egerton and today was no exception. Jackdaws bounced about on the wet chimney pots. I turned onto Longworth Road, by the time I reached the sailing club car park it had become sunny though there were still clouds rolling off the top of Winter Hill. Delph Reservoir isn't visible from the road, I decided not to make a detour to try to have a look as I was already behind schedule. Woodpigeons and carrion crows flew hither and thither. Meadow pipits flew about in pairs, goldfinches in flocks of a dozen or so, a couple of dozen linnets flew across the road and down the valley. It was very pleasant walking.

Along Longworth Road 

By Longworth Road 

At the crossroads I turned onto Egerton Road and into Belmont. After the wide open spaces of Longworth Road the confined cuttings and bends of Egerton Road were a bit more intimidating for the pedestrian though the drivers were very good. I reciprocated by cramming myself into the hedgerows when cars needed to pass or hanging back to give them room in the places where the road was one-and-a-half cars wide. Which is how I bumped into a siskin working its way through some hawthorns and a pair of bullfinches wheezing in an ash tree.

Belmont Reservoir 

Belmont Reservoir isn't far outside the village up Belmont Road and I soon had sight of it. As I approached the sailing club the robins and wrens that had been ticking in the bushes on my approach suddenly fell silent. A female sparrowhawk shot through a gap between bushes, veered and missed my head by inches, a testament to her reaction time and manoeuvrability! 

There was a group of a dozen birdwatchers on the pavement overlooking the reservoir. They had that "nothing doing" look about them. Inevitably, it turned out they'd had cracking views of the bird ten minutes earlier then it bobbed over the hill behind the farmhouses on the far bank. The good news was that it had done this a few times so all was not lost.

I had a scan round. Cormorants dried their wings in the company of immature herring gulls on the far bank. The promontory to our left was fringed with teal and lapwings. A golden plover loafed amongst some lapwings. Carrion crows, jackdaws and woodpigeons flew around. A kestrel flying over the hill and hanging in the air over a field of sheep caused a flurry of emotion. But no sign of the pallid harrier.

I mentioned that the buses were irregular. A feature of the bus service to Belmont is that the 535 will take you from Bolton to Belmont but there's no bus taking you back. I didn't fancy the walk back to Egerton, or worse yet a walk down to Astley Bridge, for a bus back. I'd noticed that there was a bus over to Blackburn via Tockholes, the M11, and that would be setting off from the Black Dog, quarter of an hour's walk, in about forty minutes. Or else I was doing a walk back. So I was on the clock.

I waited as long as I could then started back for the Black Dog, stopping at each gap in the trees to have a look over the reservoir, just in case. A family of carrion crows escorted a raven over a hill. Cormorants a-fishing. A flock of starlings joined the sheep. At the second to last gap in the trees a raptor swooped in over the hill from stage right and headed towards where the other birdwatchers were standing. A consolation buzzard, I told myself. Then I asked myself since when do buzzards have pale rumps, collars and a long, ringed, tail. I was getting a lot closer a look at a pallid harrier this time and could appreciate just how powerful a bird one really is. By the time I got the camera out of the bag, had a fight with it and taken a couple of shots where the bird had been it was gone out of my sight. Still, a cracking bird to have seen.

The M11 turned out to be a little white minibus and I turned out to be its only passenger, which seemed a shame. It was a picturesque run over to Blackburn, the landscape thinly populated with carrion crows, jackdaws and magpies. I got The 1 (honestly, it's not an affectation, that's what it's called) back to Bolton and thence home. It was bright and sunny all the way to Cadshaw. It was raining in Egerton.

Home thoughts

Long-tailed tit

The running round over the past week plus a couple of weeks' bad sleep caught up with me today, despite its being a gloriously sunny Autumn day I couldn't persuade myself to do anything with it. So I spent the day watching the long-tailed tits bouncing around the back garden. One of the cut beaches of rambling rose I've not yet been able to untangle from the rowan tree provides a useful prop for photography.

Long-tailed tit

St Aidan's

Heron, coots, greylags and Canada geese
The sign appears to be bait for photographers, it seemed churlish not to.

I spent a sunny Thursday running errands and reading, I should really have been catching up with writing and housework but it is as it is. Friday began with a spot of rain and the first blackcap of Autumn in the back garden, a male in pristine plumage helping a couple of blackbirds to strip berries off a Pyracantha branch.

St Aidan's is one of the unvisited sites I've been fretting about. Reports of a Baird's sandpiper there gave me a very good reason to give it a visit. Ordinarily it's a straightforward journey with a through train to Castleford from Piccadilly but track improvements are going on that line so I had to go via Sheffield and Wakefield. It was grey and gloomy as I left Manchester, Sheffield was bright but cloudy and the sun kept promising to show its face as I got off at Castleford and got the 140 bus to Ferry Lane. The latest report on the Baird's sandpiper was that after being on site for three days it had just done a runner and couldn't be relocated. I'd just be having a walk through a very pleasant nature reserve on a nice Autumn day. There are worse things in this life.

River Aire

A mixed tit flock bounced through the trees on the Methley side of the River Aire. Three goosanders flew downstream and out of sight as I reached the bridge and crossed over to St Aidan's. I was greeted by the first of very many migrant hawkers I'd be bumping into today.

St Aidan's 
I'm looking back here.

I tiptoed between common darters sunning themselves on the causeway. The large, open pool on my right was dotted about with coots, tufted ducks, great crested grebes and mute swans and a flock of black-headed gulls fussed about on the pool beyond. A small flock of swallows passed by. The tree-lined pool to my left was lined with small groups of mallards, coots, gadwalls, wigeons and tufted ducks. 

Gadwalls and wigeon
This time of year you can see they're closely related.

Looking over towards the Eastern reedbeds 

I encountered a group of people looking for an osprey that had been reported. I scanned round where they were looking and found a lot of carrion crows and a female-type marsh harrier but I had no luck finding the osprey. I moved on so I wouldn't be jinxing the others and split my time checking out the pools and looking out for passing raptors.

The pools by the path were busy with birds. Greylags, Canada geese, herons and little egrets loafed on the sides. Mallards, gadwalls, teal, shovelers and wigeons dabbled, tufted ducks, coots and great crested grebes cruised about, cormorants spent more time underwater than above and every little mudbank was peppered with waders, mostly lapwings. A dumpy sandy brown bird amongst one group of lapwings on the other side of one pool was a juvenile golden plover, it took far too long for the penny to drop that the dull grey counterpart asleep closer to hand was a grey plover. A few snipe pottered about and some dunlins loafed with lapwings.

Lapwings, snipes and dunlins

All of a sudden the waders, and a lot of the teals, were up. I looked round for the bird of prey and eventually found it, a red kite cruising low over the reserve over the Eastern reedbeds, drifting out towards the fields beyond.

Red kite
Not by any means a great photo but I was glad to finally get any sort of a record shot of one.

It took about five minutes after the kite had drifted away for the waders to come back. The snipes stuck with the lapwings but the dunlins split off on their own and settled on some mud with the grey plover. I had a good look at them with no great hopes of finding anything but dunlins. Given that Baird's sandpipers are long distance migrants between high Arctic Canada and Tierra del Fuego, "It won't have gone far," didn't seem applicable. One bird caught my eye, though, as it was smaller than the others, which doesn't mean a lot as dunlins come in mixed small, medium and large sizes. There was a chap with a telescope just nearby so I asked him what he made of it.

"I think they're all dunlins but you're welcome to have a look for yourself, I'm no good at small sandpipers."

I admitted I'm rubbish at peeps myself and that it probably was a small dunlin, and when I looked through the telescope so it was, toddling out of view stage right. Scuttling into view from that direction was something else again, a very different bird to the dunlins. "Stuff me!" I said when the penny dropped, which I think was a model of restraint, "I think we've got the Baird's!" 

A little later as I'd moved on, I started second-guessing myself. The report of the Baird's having flitted worried me so I sat down and made notes on what I'd seen, just in case I'd been mistaken and seen something else entirely. I knew what the bird wasn't but there's a cavalcade of small sandpipers I just don't know.

• A small "peep," the same length as the smallest of the dunlins but a smaller bird
• Low slung, attenuated, a very horizontal bird, possibly because it was on the rush, being lead by the beak
• Bit like a common tern amongst black-headed gulls; short-legged, slighter, a lot of length to the back half but not so much body that end
• Short but not dumpy legs — proportion something between snipe and dunlin — long wings projecting beyond tail, straight-backed incline from shoulder to wingtip, a bit small-headed
• Back and wings brighter, more contrasty than the dunlins, like a little stint but without the white braces over the shoulder
• Underparts white, abrupt cut-off from brown upper breast/lower throat similar to a pectoral sandpiper but higher up breast (too small, wrong shape for pec)
• Bill similar to shorter-billed individuals amongst the dunlins but perhaps finer
• A busier bird than the dunlins, in a hurry as it bustled past them, sanderling-like scurry

Hitting the reference books back home I could only make this bird either a Baird's sandpiper or a white-rumped sandpiper and I hadn't seen the prominent white eyebrow of the latter, so I can only think it a Baird's. I'll admit I was rattled when I saw a report of Baird's sandpiper at St Aidan's for about the time I was there then a correction saying it had been erroneous as a Baird's had turned up at Fairburn Ings down the road. I might be wrong, I don't know.

Once I'd made my notes I moved on and left them alone to worry over tonight. There were more ducks and coots and egrets. Cetti's warblers sang from unlikely patches of gorse and field bindweed, linnets and goldfinches twittered past, magpies rummaged about on the paths. Migrant hawkers zipped past, common darters danced about my ankles and bees and hoverflies flitted between Michaelmas daisies and knapweeds.

St Aidan's 

I checked out the map and train times and realised that I could walk to Woodlesford Station from here and get the train home from Leeds. So I followed the path that curved round then past Astley Lake and thence to the bridge over the river at the Aire Wave.

A small group were staring over a corner of Astley Lake. Apparently I'd missed the osprey flying over Swillington Ings. I joined them for a while then moved on, I reckoned I should be looking at the same stretch of trees as I walked up the Aire to the canal towpath that would take me into Woodlesford.

The Aire Wave

Another mixed tit flock bounced through the trees by the river as I crossed the bridge and robins sang at each other either side of the path. I was right, there was a good view of those trees from this side of the river even if I didn't avail myself of the hide on the bankside (I wasn't convinced my knees were up to the climb up). And yes, there were some raptors: three buzzards including one very vocal individual that almost certainly was a juvenile bird. Jackdaws and carrion crows flew hither and thither as I checked out the moorhens and mallards on the river. Then a couple of red kites drifted over the reserve. So no, I didn't get to see the osprey but I was seeing plenty of other birds of prey, which seemed to be the theme for the week.

The hide by the Aire, Astley Lake over the other side of the river

The Aire and Calder Navigation 

Goldfinches twittered and acorn-laden jays flew about Water Haigh Country Park. Mallards and gadwalls pottered about on the Aire and Calder Navigation. It was an extremely pleasant walk. I had ten minutes to wait for the train to Leeds, most of which I needed as I was baffled as to how to find platform one which was hidden in a corner beyond a maze of fences. At Leeds I was dead lucky, the train waiting just down the platform was the very crowded late-running train to Manchester. It started raining when we reached Todmorden.

Third-quarter review

Goldfinches, Marshside

A warm but windy June gave way to the driest July on record, an extended coo what a scorcher! with pulses of additional heatwaves extending into August, which at least managed a few nights of rain. The landscapes, the wildlife, and certainly this birdwatcher, felt the effects. 

Rixton

The lush greens of June were replaced by parched straw browns in July, a False Autumn in August then a cold, wet Bank Holiday weekend stretched into a cold, wet September and suddenly there was a lot of green about. Then the month closed with a succession of cold mornings and warm afternoons just to make sure we were inappropriately dressed at least twice before teatime.

Stonechat, Chat Moss

Even by traditional standards the dog days were excessively quiet. The advice not to feed the birds over Summer to try and control a couple of epidemic diseases meant that there wasn't the usual crowd in the back garden to tide things over. Elsewhere a lot of Summer visitors looked to have packed up their suitcases early, I made heavy weather of July and August, spending too much of my time hiding from the heat.

Despite that, I had a bumper Summer for butterflies and dragonflies, adding lifers of both to my lists. If I were rather a lot better at identifying Noctuid moths I dare say I'd have added some new ones of them to the tally I don't maintain properly. Bats kept a low profile, and hedgehogs one even lower though my excuse for that is they're not queueing at the front door waiting for me to feed the late cat.

Sand martin, Irlam Locks

Gannets, Bempton Cliffs

Ruff, Marshside

Marsh harrier, Leighton Moss

Woodpigeon punch-up, Chorlton Ees

Despite the weather, and myself, both the year list and the life list ticked over. I added the white-rumped sandpiper at Meols to the life list after years of dipping on this species along the same stretch of mud. An obliging nightjar sat on a branch in a clearing in Kenworthy Wood. And just yesterday I saw my first pallid harrier on Crossens Marsh only just over a year after seeing my first Montague's harrier in the same place.

Nightjar, Kenworthy Wood 

The year list to date is 207, my life list 395, and British list 316.  And I got around a bit. Annual totals to date for BTO recording areas:

• Caernarvonshire 47 species
• Cheshire & Wirral 135
• Cumbria 73
• Denbighshire 34
• Derbyshire 55
• Flintshire 31
• Greater Manchester 128
• Lancashire & North Merseyside 152
• Staffordshire 28
• Yorkshire 91

I'd have got about a bit more had the trains managed to get over the Welsh border the day I tried to get over to Llandudno.

The parakeets flying over the garden have lost their power to surprise. Glossy ibises on the sewage works by Barton Bridge managed to astonish.

Juvenile robin, Clifton Country Park

Grey wagtail, High Rid Reservoir

Little stint, Meols

A third bite of the cherry

Marshside Outer Marsh 

It was a bright, sunny morning and that pallid harrier was taunting me. I headed for Southport for another go.

I got the 44 and got off at Elswick Road. There were more pink-feet on the marshes either side of Marshside Road, plenty of Canada geese and greylags and about a dozen curlews. Something brought up the lapwings on the marsh opposite Sandgrounders, it turned out to be a juvenile great black-back. As I approached the junction a sparrowhawk flying less than a foot above the marsh scared up a flock of goldfinches and linnets. At the corner a robin and a Cetti's warbler told me to get on my way.

Marshside Outer Marsh from the sand plant

Crossing the road I joined the crowd at the sand plant and scanned over the marsh. At first sight it looked empty but I soon spotted meadow pipits and skylarks flitting about. Out on the estuary shelducks flew upstream and a few dozen small waders, either dunlins or knots but far too distant for me to tell which, wheeled around before settling down out of sight beyond the marsh.

Today's reports said that the harrier was showing best from McCarthy's so I started that way. Way over towards Crossens River a buzzard was wheeling high over the marsh, much closer to hand a male kestrel hovered not much over head height over the marsh. I spotted two very distant female-type marsh harriers floating over the marsh in opposite directions.

I was halfway to McCarthy's when I noticed a raptor heading this way, flying fast and direct and skimming over the tall grass. From first sight in was a harrier of some kind and the way it was flying pretty much eliminated marsh harrier. It quickly became apparent it was a ring-tail harrier and the bright ginger underparts wasn't a good fit for a hen harrier. It was now flying parallel to me, I was getting a good side-on look at the bird a couple of hundred yards away. What had first impressed me most was the paleness of the head, which was misleading because now I was getting a better look the head itself wasn't excessively pale, I had been registering the pale collar made to look all the paler by the dark gingery brown top of the shoulders. I had me the pallid harrier.

I think I got about half a minute's view before the bird shot off beyond the sand plant out of view. It had been too far out for me to get a photo with my kit but I would hope someone in the group by the sand plant had some luck with it. I was happy enough, I'd seen the bird and could recognise what had been needed for the identification. And a nice bird it had been, too. Last year I'd seen my first Montagu's harrier here, this year a pallid harrier. I suppose it would be being cheeky to hope for a Northern harrier next year.

Shovelers and gadwalls

I bobbed over to Sandgrounders for a quick nosy. It was pretty much as per the other day but half a dozen redshanks had joined the black-tailed godwits at the hide and a rather gingery looking wader with the lapwings turned out to be a juvenile ruff.

Little egrets, mallards and wigeons

Dewberry flowers, still game

It was blowing for rain as I stepped out of Sandgrounders. I took the hint. I got to the bus stop and just had time to see if the bus was coming and there it was in front of me. I sat on the train home watching the pouring rain.

Martin Mere

Lapwings and pintails 

It was a greyer, cooler morning as I set out for Martin Mere. I got the train to Burscough Bridge and walked down Red Cat Lane, rooks and jackdaws fussing in the trees at the station and the fields by the road. I suspect the activity in the rookery is the older birds putting their beach towels on their deckchairs.

By Red Cat Lane 

It was a fairly quiet walk otherwise. Woodpigeons and black-headed gulls flew to and fro. A skein of about forty pink-footed geese called as they flew overhead. House sparrows, starlings, goldfinches and collared doves fussed about farmsteads. It felt like the shuffling around in the wings between acts.

Pintail
A drake in eclipse plumage 

Arriving at Martin Mere I headed straight for the Discovery Hide as usual for a look over the mere. This, too, had a between times feel to it, very busy with birds but out on the water almost entirely shovelers and mallards. Handfuls of wigeons grazed the banks and not many more pintails dozed on islands or generally pottered about. All the drake pintails were in eclipse plumage, most the drake wigeons were starting to moult out of it, the shovelers had almost completed their moult and the only drake mallards that hadn't were immature birds playing catch-up. 

Lapwings and pintails 

A couple of hundred lapwings were being very skittish, possibly because maintenance work was going on over by the far bank. For the same reason the Canada geese, pink-footed geese and coots were all grazing in one corner. Four swallows called in and quickly moved on.

Lapwings, lesser black-back and mallards

I moved on to the Mere View Hide where the views were splendid but the birdlife underwhelming. A Cetti's warbler singing in the brambles in front of the hide was a consolation prize.

From the Mere View Hide 

The pools at the Ron Barker Hide were a stark contrast. On the left there was literally nothing on the pool, the pool on the right was heaving with teals and shovelers, and a great white egret stalked the drain in between. Way over to the right a couple of whooper swans grazed with some Canada geese. A couple of little egrets flew past. After yesterday's raptor bonanza just seeing the one marsh harrier was a bit of a letdown.

From the Ron Barker Hide 

As I walked back a couple of loosely-connected mix tit flocks fidgeted their way through the trees and hedges. One included a goldcrest having some singing practice. Jackdaws, black-headed gulls and woodpigeons passed overhead. Every so often a small skein of pink-feet would pass by. A couple of robins sang in the undergrowth.

Coots, Canada goose and pink-footed goose 

I had another look at the mere from the screens by the path. All the birds had moved to this side of the pool now, there was work being done with machinery over at the end by the Hale Hide.

From the Harrier Hide 
Mute swans, teals, mallards and gadwalls but you'll have to take my word for it.

I had a sense of having just missed something at the Harrier Hide. All the ducks — teals, mallards, gadwalls and shovelers, were sheltering by the banks under trees and tree roots with a couple of mute swans and some coots. The only birds out on the open water were four dabchicks and a couple of coots.

Female common darter 

After a cool lunchtime the afternoon had warmed up significantly. As I walked back migrant hawkers patrolled the hedgerows; large whites, red admirals and speckled woods fluttered about the wayside and common darters sunned themselves on notice boards along the path.

Male common darter

I walked round to New Lane for the train back to Manchester. It was a very quiet walk, save for the traffic on Marsh Moss Road. A stoat very sensibly waited for a quiet patch before crossing the road.

Crossens and Marshside (again)

Black-tailed godwits and Canada geese, Marshside 

It seems to be a month for having two bites of each cherry. The plan for today was to go for a wander round Martin Mere but a juvenile pallid harrier turned up at Marshside yesterday afternoon and was still around on Crossens Marsh first thing so I headed thataway.

That white domestic goose amongst the Canada geese had my whiskers twitching for a moment

I got the 44 to Crossens and walked down Marine Drive. There weren't as many teal and wigeon on the river as last week but there were significantly more Canada geese and pink-footed geese out on the outer marsh. Ahead of me, stretching round the curve of the road, I could see small knots of birdwatchers scanning the marsh. Which is precisely what I started to do.

Crossens Marsh, by the River Crossens 

The first of many birds of prey I'd be seeing here today was a kestrel hovering over the river bank. About ten minutes later a buzzard floated over the marsh and was ignored by everything except a passing black-headed gull that had one on it. Approaching the curve to the road I started checking out the fenceposts stretching out into the marsh, just in case I was going to be very lucky, but only found a woodpigeon.

Beyond the curve the marsh is ungrazed and is the haunt of skylarks and meadow pipits. Every so often one or other might fly up to move on to a fresh patch of marsh. But then I started to see explosions of larks and pipits erupting from the distant marsh near the river. Something was putting them up but i wasn't seeing anything. One panicky eruption of small birds might be due to a stoat or a mink. A chain of eruptions like this suggested a bird of prey flying very low. My guess was that there was a merlin about but i wasnt seeing it.

Crossens Outer Marsh 

A female-type marsh harrier rose from the distant long grass a bit further along,  putting the scares into some shelducks as well as the larks and pipits. A movement even further out turned out to be a kestrel. That flew inland and on towards the sand plant. I panned back round whence it came and spotted a male marsh harrier flying in and out of the marsh a few hundred yards out.

I'd been slowly making my way along the road for the best part of an hour. The plan had been to stop at McCarthy's watchpoint and linger there but I'd been so busy looking out at the marsh I'd walked straight past it. Small parties of pink-feet, a few family parties but mostly a couple of dozen at a time, flew to and fro. A kerfuffle over on Marshside led to a lot of lapwings and starlings flying over and onto the estuary. There was another wader with the lapwings and I took far too long to realise it was a bar-tailed godwit. Barwits tend not to come inland as much as the black-tailed godwits and they certainly don't congregate in their hundreds like the black-tailed godwits do here.

There was another chain of eruptions of panicked small birds way out on the marsh, this time heading left to right. I caught a glimpse of the culprit, a harrier skimming across the grass, disappearing behind bumps and rises. I immediately concluded it wasn't a marsh harrier by the long, thin shape of the wings then I got a better look at it and saw that it was a ringtail harrier of some kind. In the ordinary course of events I'd have immediately said hen harrier and been very pleased to see it. But there was the possibility it might be the juvenile pallid harrier. All the reading up I did last night highlighted the identication features on the head and neck and the underwings and all I was seeing was tail end on. So it's recorded as "unidentified ringtail harrier."

I carried on walking round, finding a merlin sitting on a post in the mid-distance and getting excited a couple of times by distant kestrels, my sense of scale goes to pot at more than quarter of a mile away. Another female-type marsh harrier put the wind up a distant flock of skylarks and they flew inland onto Marshside. I gave it another hour and packed it in. A tally of three marsh harriers, a buzzard, a merlin, at least three kestrels and a ringtail harrier is a pretty good bag even if i did dip on the pallid harrier. Which made a few more appearances later in the day after I'd gone.

Merlin

I crossed over and tiptoed my way past wall browns and small coppers to Sandgrounders. Some of the small coppers were very small indeed. Blue tits and a Cetti's warbler told me to move on as I passed their bramble patches.

Little egrets, wigeons and black-tailed godwits 

I'd been struck by a lack of little egrets on Marshside last week. There was an embarrassment of them today. There were also appreciably more wigeons on the pools and it looked like twice as many black-tailed godwits on Polly's Pool as there were last week.

Black-tailed godwits 

The godwits and teals on the pool by Sandgrounders were busy feeding. The wigeons, mallards, gadwalls and shovelers dozed in the sunshine.

Wigeons

I walked round and down Marshside Road and had less than a minute to wait for the bus back into Southport. For all that I'd dipped on the pallid harrier I couldn't say it had been a disappointing birdwatching visit.