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.