New Years Eve at the Flash

Winter ducks are building up nicely at the flash, including over 20 pochard just off the car park. It's interesting to see the ratio of males and females, with the former usually far outnumbering the latter in our area, as was the case today with 18 males and 5 females.

Meanwhile the goldeneye flock has reached 57 birds, with approximately one third males. These birds are scattered all over the flash during the day but in the evening they flock together and are easier to count.

Goosanders are currently numbered in the mid-thirties, again with about one third males. These birds tend to move around quite a lot and can just as likely be seen on a brook or in front of teal hide as they can on the main flash.

Old Coach Road

This afternoon we had a lovely walk along the Old Coach Road at Rainford. A flock of 300 chaffinches contained at least one brambling and two ravens flew over. Suddenly 800 pink-footed geese took to the air from Simonswood moss and circled around for a while before dropping down again.

Christmas Eve at the flash

A glorious day at the flash with some great birds. This morning the highlight was a woodcock flushed from a footpath on the south side behind Sorrowcow farm. Meanwhile 60 redwing were in the sheep field at Mossley Hall farm and three little egret in Ramsdales, with 30 goosander. 25 goldeneye were scattered across the flash.

Late afternoon the highlight of the gull roost was a cracking adult yellow-legged gull, whilst the Dutch ringed and apparently overwintering black-headed gull first seen on 8th November, was still on the car park.

 

Bewick's swans, Rainford

On my way to Burscough today I took a last minute decision to go down the Rainford bypass rather than through the roadworks on the M6 which was the way my SAT NAV suggested. Glad I did because just near Mossborough roundabout I spotted two swans in a field which immediately looked suspicious.

 
Fortunately there was a layby coming up which I pulled into and got the scope out. My suspicions were correct, two adult Bewick's swans which so far as I can tell are the first St Helens record for 17 years and a St Helens tick for me, bringing my total for the borough to 196 species. 

I didn't know it at the time that I first saw them, but the birds had apparently been present all day.

The frozen flash

A glorious day at Pennington flash, with beautiful sunshine in cloudless skies and 90% ice cover. Highlight was another Caspian gull, this time a 1st winter bird in what was actually quite a small gull roost. Amazingly this is at least the fifth Caspian gull at the flash this autumn.

Note the white head contrasting with the brown neck. The mantle and scapulars are grey, and in particular notice the diagnostic dark streaks and diamond shapes in the scapulars. The tertials are black with a pale edge, the greater coverts brown, the wings are long and the underparts largely white.

Regular readers of this blog will know how much I've struggled with Caspian gull in the past and how I've more or less given up with the species on more than one occasion, so it's pleasing now to be in a position where I finally feel that I've cracked it with this species. The past three potential Caspians that I've found (sub-adult,  2nd winter & 1st winter) have all been given the green light by the county recorder and I've submitted descriptions with photos and videos of each. It's taken a while and I'm sure that there will always be further challenges ahead and some birds which just can't be done, especially given the hybrid potential, but hopefully I've now got a reasonable idea of what to look for.

 

The mainly white underwing is also a feature of Caspian gull.

A cold and misty day at the flash

Or to be more precise, an icy cold, dull and misty day at the flash, but it certainly produced the goods. I flushed a jack snipe at the Slag lane end in one of the few open bits of water and this was a flash first for me. Also at that end a pair of pintail and about 17 goosander. A winter record count of 36 goldeneye were scattered across the water and a little egret flew over.

In the evening gull roost, the 2nd winter Caspian gull was back, as well as an adult Mediterranean gull.

Ring-necked parakeet, Pennington Flash

A ring-necked parakeet at the Slag lane end at lunchtime was only the second that I have ever seen at the flash, with the first 39 years ago in November 1983. I'm not sure what local populations were like in 1983, but with the species currently going from strength to strength and now present in large numbers in most parks in both Manchester and Liverpool, this feels like a much more authentic record than the 1983 bird.

Scaup, Pennington Flash

A 1st winter drake scaup was off the car park today, with tufted ducks and 17 pochard, the latter a winter peak so far at the flash. The scaup looks very similar to one of the birds which has recently been seen at Amberswood Lake. This was my second scaup of the year at the flash following a cracking spring drake in April. 

2nd winter Caspian gull new into roost

A beautiful 2nd winter Caspian gull was new into the Pennington Flash gull roost this evening, and what a bird it was. It seemed almost the darker the light, the more the gull stood out, it's white head like a beacon amongst the masses of other gulls.

From the East Hoyle Bank

I walked out for a mile onto the East Hoyle bank from Hoylake, and for a while I wondered if it was going to be worthwhile because it was misty verging on foggy. However, when I got to the edge of the sea it started to clear and I could see plenty of birds and a few surprises. 

There were at least 20 gannets diving into the sea, mainly adults, and these were the first that I have ever seen in the UK in December. Then I saw gulls chasing what even from distance could only be a skua and it was coming towards me! Eventually it came close enough to be identifiable as a juvenile pomarine skua. I have seen this species before in December, most memorably a bird hunting over the marsh on the inland side of the coast road at Marshside on 30th December 1994. More recently there was also a bird at Cocker's Dyke, Pilling on 17th January 2015, and pomarine is by far the most likely skua in mid-winter. 

On the sea there were at least 1000 common scoter, 20 great crested grebes and two red-throated divers. 

Argentatus herring gull

This magnificent herring gull was at the flash today. It's a lot darker than the usual British race and is similar to yellow-legged gull in hue, which it clearly is not because it has pink legs! It's actually the northern race of herring gull argentatus. 

Pintail, Pennington Flash

An immaculate drake pintail was hanging around the eastern reedbed this morning, also a peak count so far this winter of goldeneye, with 32 including 12 drakes. Pochard numbers remain in the region of 15 birds. Also today, an immature whooper swan was flying around the flash, but was presumably not the very sick bird from a week ago which is thought to have died.

Slim pickings at the Flash

November has been an exceptional month at the Flash, with penduline tit a county first, marsh harrier a site first for me and a couple of really smart adult Caspian and yellow-legged gulls into the roost in the evenings. However all of these great birds added up to a combined total of about 20 minutes birding, the penduline tit for example was on show for five minutes, which is not a lot when compared to the average of four hours a day I've spent at the Flash for 17 days so far this month. For much of the rest of the time it's tough and repetitive, getting soaked and wading through mud, seeing the same birds day after day. 

Whilst a great reward for all of the hard work, in some respects finding a bird such as the penduline tit makes it worse because it makes me feel like I've now used up all of my luck for a while. I mean what are the chances of finding another good bird in the near future?

Anyway, today it was just a routine visit, 13 each of goldeneye and pochard, plus the drake mandarin at Plank Lane marina.

Marsh harrier, Pennington Flash

A juvenile marsh harrier flew over me near Sorrowcow pond from the south at 15:30, and headed over the flash and appeared to be heading west until it banked, flew over the ruck and appeared to drop down possibly to roost. This was a new bird at the flash for me.

The only unusual gull in the roost was the smart looking adult yellow-legged gull. 

As always, the jackdaw roost was an impressive spectacle.

Pintail, Pennington Flash

This female pintail was on the flash first thing and then relocated to Pengy's mid morning. It's my first of the year at the flash and brings my year list total for the flash to 126.

Caspian Gull in the roost and an immature Whooper Swan

In the Pennington Flash roost this evening, a cracking sub-adult Caspian gull was new in. It's got everything and really stood out from the other gulls, long-necked, long parallel bill, white headed, dark beady eye in a pair shaped head, slim and long winged. A really nice bird and the first adult or near adult Caspian gull that I have found at the flash.

An afternoon at the Flash

This morning it was lashing it down and hard to believe that I'd be able to leave the house let alone have a decent afternoons birding and take a photo like this. However it cleared up and I did manage to get out...

The highlight was a woodcock which I flushed from the woodland on the point of the ruck. Also today 30 goosander including four drakes, nine pochard including five drakes, 4 goldeneye including a drake, 6 snipe & 1 wigeon. I stayed for the gull roost but could find nothing of note despite near perfect conditions & a decent sized roost by recent standards.

36 Common Scoter, Pennington Flash

A flock of 36 common scoter dropped onto the flash this morning at 8am and fortunately were still there when I arrived at 11:30am. They were all females or 1st winters and remained until 3:15pm when they flew high west.

Penduline Tit, Pennington Flash!

I was standing next to the site of the old East Bay hide at 9am talking to Bill who had his back to the Flash when suddenly I saw a small, brownish, tit like bird fly into the small willow tree in the reeds behind him. It didn't look quite right and I expected it to be a chiffchaff, which would have been a good record and the first wintering bird at the flash this year. However on raising my binoculars, the first thing I saw was the dark mask. I’m very familiar with penduline tit from seeing them elsewhere, especially in southern Europe, and it was immediately obvious to me that this is what it was. However we were not in southern Europe, we were at Pennington Flash and Bill and I had just been discussing how quiet things were. It seemed almost surreal that he should now have a penduline tit over his shoulder! I suggested that he should turn around quickly and look at the bird in the tree.

By this time I’d already dismissed the only other possibility I could think of which was lesser whitethroat, the bird was clearly not a sylvia warbler, and in any case the reddish coloured back ruled out any warbler species. It was closest to a miniature red-backed shrike.

We’d now agreed that it was a penduline tit and probably an adult due to the dark mask. The bird stayed in the tree calling for about 5 minutes, before flying down into the small patch of reeds to the left where we could hear it calling out of view. After a further couple of minutes it flew across the gap and started calling from the reeds to the right until eventually it fell silent at about 9:10am and was not seen or heard again all day, despite the arrival of about 20 other birders. Bill and I were the only birders to see or hear the bird.

It appeared to be a little smaller than a blue tit, with a reddish coloured back, buff underparts, brown / grey head with a dark grey / black mask and a pale throat. Due to the limited extent of the mask we considered it to be a female.

On examining the photos the bird appears a little dull for an adult female and the possibility of it being a 1st winter bird was discussed. 

 

This is a Greater Manchester county first. For context, there is just one record for Cheshire, from Wirral in 1986, and two records for Lancashire, both from Leighton Moss in 2004 and 2011/12. So this bird is the 4th record for North West England.

Edit 12/11/2022: This bird or perhaps another was trapped and ringed at Woolston Eyes at Warrington today, but has not subsequently been seen since release. It was aged as a 1st winter but apparently cannot be safely sexed at this age. The general feeling is that it is the same bird as that at the flash, but personally I'm not sure which is more unlikely, two penduline tits in the north west or the bird from the flash travelling 6.5 miles to be miraculously caught in the nets at Woolston. 

Another gull roost at the Flash

Another good gull roost this evening, with 1st winter Caspian and yellow-legged gulls (above) joining the sub-adult yellow-legged gull. Also today an adult black-headed gull on the car park with a Dutch ring, 3,738,977. 

Yellow-legged gull in the roost

This smart looking sub-adult yellow-legged gull was in the roost at Pennington Flash this evening. It's quite a slender, petite looking bird so perhaps a female. It's more or less a full adult except for a black mark in the red spot on the bill, which is pale rather than bright yellow.

 

Whooper swans, Pennington Flash

Two whooper swans at Pennington Flash this morning, commuting all around the flash from the main car park to the Slag lane end to Ramsdales. Flighty and not seen by me after 10:30am. November is the classic time of year to see whoopers in the area. It would be nice to think that these birds were part of the flocks we watched coming in off the sea on Barra about three weeks ago.

Finnish black-headed gull, Pennington Flash

This black-headed gull was on  the car park at the flash today. It's wearing a ring on it's left leg and was ringed as a chick in Finland. I took a few photos from different angles to try to get the ring number but unfortunately it appears that I'm missing a digit so it can only be narrowed down to two possibilities. The first is ST170852 ringed at Sipoo, Finland on 23/06/2020 or ST270852 ringed at Hyvinkää, Finland on 10/06/2009. It seems most likely that the bird is the Sipoo individual because the other bird hasn't been reported anywhere since it was ringed 13 years ago. Both these ringing locations are in southern Finland, approximately 1130 miles from the Flash. I'll be keeping a look out for the bird over the next few days in the hope that I can confirm the missing digit.

Also today, 10 female / 1st winter goosanders, 8 pochard including six males, 90 pink-footed geese over south, 80 redwing south a at least three willow tits and three kingfishers around flash.

Hoopoe, Ince Blundell

Hoopoe long ago lost it's status as my bogey bird in the UK, yet for the first 25 years of my birding career it was just that, I just couldn't see one anywhere without getting on a plane and flying to Europe. How things have changed, todays bird at Ince Blundell was my 10th in North West England and my 5th in Merseyside, which included a self found bird on Hilbre last year. Even so, I've still never seen one on the south or east coast of the UK from Cornwall to Shetland (I've never been to Scillies). 

It gave me the run around today, it took me 3 attempts to see it. First time it had flown across the Formby bypass and was lost to view 5 minutes before I arrived and second time it had just been flushed by a vehicle and flown half a mile away in the opposite direction and lost to view behind a pine woodland. Finally at the third attempt I saw it, but even then after 5 minutes it was flushed by a kestrel and flew back towards the pine woodland.

Bittern, Lunt Meadows

I called in at Lunt Meadows today hoping to see a 1st winter male ring-necked duck which would have been a Merseyside tick for me but no sign of it today. However, while I was waiting at Pump House Pool a Bittern suddenly appeared in the reeds which it turns out was even better, being a year tick as well as a Merseyside tick, bringing my Merseyside list to 279.

Lesser yellowlegs, a Merseyside tick

Marshside, Southport early morning before work, the North American lesser yellowlegs was showing exceptionally well in great light and with no wind. A great looking bird. Although I've seen about four previously in south west Lancs, and at least two in Cheshire including one as close as Houghton Green Flash, this is the first that I have seen in Merseyside and brings my Merseyside list to 278.

Redwings and Fieldfares flood in

There was a mass movement of thrushes today, especially this morning with huge counts recorded across the North West. Most remarkable where the counts at Crosby of 122,600 birds and Horwich moors 62,000+ birds. 

Unfortunately I couldn't get to the flash in the morning so missed out to a large extent, but I did record thousands over our back garden in the morning, all of which must have passed over the flash. There were less birds in the afternoon but I still recorded over 2000 passing over in flocks which varied in size from 20 - 100 birds. Redwings accounted for about 75% of the total, though ironically all of my photos are of fieldfares.

Escape from Barra across the Sea of the Hebrides

Our departure from Barra was delayed by three days due first to a bow thruster failure on the MV Isle of Lewis followed by a failure of some steelwork on the rescue vessel, MV Lord of the Isles. Finally after days of anxiety and uncertainty, not least about where we were to stay for the extra nights, MV Clansman came to our aid and amid emotional scenes at the harbour got us off the island.

Not that the three extra days weren't time well spent, the bulk of the barnacle goose and all of the whooper swan passage happened after our official leave date and was possibly the single greatest experience of the holiday whilst arguably the bird of the holiday turned up in the shape of the Hornemann's Arctic redpoll.

However, finally we departed Barra at 13:30 today and headed off into the murk which shrouded the island with the forecast of 40mph wind and heavy rain ahead of us. It turned out ok though, yes we got wet and buffeted but we still spent most of the five hour journey on deck and saw some decent sea birds and at least 20 common dolphins. Just before we arrived at the entrance to the Sound of Mull we came across a feeding frenzy of mainly gannets and kittiwakes which were harassed by juvenile pomarine and long-tailed skuas and right in the middle of it all emerged a breaching minke whale. A great end to the holiday, I then packed up and went inside to dry off and enjoy a hot meal before we arrived in Oban.

Earlier on the trip we had seen at least nine petrels, one of which was certainly Leach's, but most of the rest appeared to be storm petrels.

Hornemann's Arctic redpoll, Glenn, Barra

Just a couple of hours before we were due to board our ferry home, this little beauty turned up at Glen near Castlebay, a Hornemann's Arctic redpoll. This was my first sighting of this race having previously seen two Coue's Arctic redpolls, and it was a real snowball of a bird, by far my best and most convincing Arctic redpoll.

Hornemann's Arctic redpoll originate from Greenland, so it's appearance is not totally surprising given the mass arrival of geese, swans and redwings from that direction over the past few days. We didn't see it with other redpolls, but after we left the island it was joined by a couple of lesser redpolls which it apparently dwarfed. The wide bill base of the race is particularly noticeable in this photo. This is the third record of Hornemann's Arctic redpoll on Barra and the first since 2009.

Whoopers and barnacle geese in off the sea

Lots of migration in evidence today, with parties of whooper swans joining the waves of barnacle geese heading south east through the Sound of Barra. This really has been one of the highlights of the holiday for me and has more than compensated us for our delayed return home due to mechanical failures on two ferries on Saturday and today.

Most flocks of barnacle geese continued to fly over high and away south east but for some reason this flock along with a couple of others headed low north west through the Sound and one theory is that these may actually be part of the small population which over winters on the islands of the Sound. However, I'm not sure about that, they appeared to fly up to the north tip of the island and then turn south west, perhaps they're just taking a different route.

White-tailed eagles, Eoligarry

I'm starting to lose count of the number or eagles we have seen on this trip so far and today we added another two white-tailed and a single golden eagle to the tally. This was our sixth sighting of white-tailed, involving at least five, possibly seven birds, and by eagle standards the views have been spectacular. 

The photo above reminds me of my very first encounter with the species, in Greece in 1985. We were close to the Bulgarian border at Lake Kerkinis when we saw two huge birds flying much more distant than this. Even though I'd never seen them before the jizz of the species was immediately obvious, particularly the long necked, short tailed look. We watched them land out of view but we had a rough idea of where they were and eventually our track took us right past the spot. They were eating a fish, pestered by two magpies which kept hoping towards them, stealing a mouthful before backing off rapidly. I never dreamt that I would see them so well in the UK.

Meanwhile at Nask we had our fifth sighting of at least our eighth golden eagle. This species has generally been a little more distant, but even so we've had good views, much better than I usually expect of a species which I see far less often than white-tailed and usually in far more difficult terrain.

Golden plover at Barra airport

The flat grassy fields near Barra airport are great for roosting waders at high tide, especially golden plover and lapwings and during our stay we've seen  flocks of up to 200 of the former. I couldn't say if this is the same flock that has been present all the way through our holiday or if they are just moving through. Today there were a couple of juvenile ruffs with them which were the first we have seen on the island.