Grasshopper warbler, Pennington Flash

A grasshopper warbler was reeling near the footbridge north of the canal this morning.

Curlews, Old Coach Road

There's been a flock of up to 47 curlews in a field off the Old Coach Road recently and today I managed to see 34 of them.

Little Owls

I came across this pair of little owls during my travels this week.

At first I could only see one bird, but suddenly it started making a call which I have since discovered is a soliciting call "gwoooook". Then the bird flew to the other side of the building and I could see a second bird close by. 

Grey seal in St Helens

Astonishingly today there was a grey seal in St Helens. A marine species, it must have travelled up the waterways from the Mersey, a journey of  around 14km (8.5 miles). The open sea is a further 42km (26.5 miles). Apparently it's an old adult female about 1.5m (5ft) long and slightly underweight. It seemed to be feeding well, it ate at least two fish while I was watching and others saw it eat at least four fish before I arrived.    

Marine Animal Rescue arrived on site while I was there but their opinion was that it was healthy and didn't need rescuing. However it will be monitored on a daily basis. Trouble is how long it will remain healthy in this area is unknown and it seems to me that it would be better if it left as soon as possible, either under its own steam or with a little help. It's just a sitting duck if it remains here.

The photos of the animal in the water were taken from a bridge over the brook. The seal seemed oblivious to our presence and on several occasions approached very close. The only time it seemed nervous was when it was sleeping on the far bank and Marine Animal Rescue tried to get close to see if it had any injuries. 

Dane Valley osprey

A beautiful day to be out and about in the Peak District today, starting at Wildboarclough and then across the moors to join the Dane Valley Way at Danebower Quarry. Sadly no ring ouzels for me today, but I was more than compensated by a breathtaking osprey heading north up the Dane.

The last of the pink-feet

Pink-footed geese are in the process of disappearing from North West England and heading north to breed in Iceland. Today I came across a flock of 2000+ at Aldcliffe marsh and these will probably be amongst the last that I see for a few months. There's said to be a tundra bean goose with them, but I struggle with them at the best of times and the distance combined with the heat haze today defeated me once again. A spectacular sight nonetheless. 

Spotted redshank, Condor Green

A spotted redshank oblivious as it walks into the jaws of a monster at Condor Green today!

Red-necked grebe, Clowbridge Reservoir

A bad hair day in the wind this morning for the stunning red-necked grebe at Clowbridge reservoir near Burnley. I'm not complaining though, last time I saw it at the beginning of March it was it non-breeding plumage and 400m away in the middle of the reservoir. Today it was probably little more than 30m away and looking good!

Garganey, Pennington Flash

A female garganey was from the viewing screen opposite Tom Edmondson hide this morning. Also today, two adult Mediterranean gulls in full breeding plumage, three black-tailed godwits in Ramsdales, two goosander, a drake and a female, and 100+ sand martins. This afternoon a swallow was over the flash.

Forster's tern, Skippool Creek

Two days ago a Forster's tern was seen flying south along the coast at Morecombe but it didn't stop and was not subsequently relocated.  However, at 16:45 today it was found roosting on a sandbar in the River Wyre at Skippool Creek, and it set in motion a mini twitch reminiscent of the African royal tern at Llandudno in 2009! 

By 17:15 we were heading north on the M6, not completely convinced that the bird would stay because our journey would take 55 minutes in which time anything could happen, but at least the tide was dropping so the sandbar would still be there when we arrived, and we adopted the attitude "if you don't try, you don't see". We were also helped by the clocks going forward by an hour last night which gave us one hours extra daylight this evening.

Ten minutes into the journey we received the negative news that we had expected, the bird had flown north until lost to view. We'd barely started our journey and it would have been very easy to turn back and spend the evening watching telly, but we decided to keep going. After all, if the sandbar was still there, then there was a decent chance that the bird was just fishing and it may return at some point.

For the next 45 minutes we continued north, but there were no further updates, either negative or positive. Finally, at the very moment we pulled onto the car park, another update - the tern was back on the sandbar. Hastily we got our stuff out of the boot and headed over to a small group of birders who were clearly watching the bird.

Dark-edged beefly, Carr Mill Dam

Dark-edged beefly is a parasitic fly which targets miner bees and other insects. They're great looking things and this one at Carr Mill Dam today was my first in St Helens. The first I ever saw was at Pennington Flash a few years ago.

This is one of the host species, Clarke's mining bee Andrena clarkella.

On the water, the female common scoter was still present today. 

Wheatears arrive

The first wheatears have arrived in the Rainford area, with two males on Clare's Moss from the Old Coach Road on 23rd March and another two at Moss Lane today. Also today a white wagtail at Moss Lane.

Common scoter, Carr Mill Dam

A female common scoter was on Carr Mill Dam today.

Avocet and kittiwake, Pennington Flash

Once again a gloriously dismal, drizzly day produced the goods at Pennington Flash, with the highlights being an avocet and an adult kittiwake. The avocet started off on the spit and then moved onto Ramsdales scrapes.

Other birds today included my first willow warbler of the year at the Slag lane end, 100 sand martins and two black-tailed godwits.

Caspian gull with "thayeri" pattern primaries, Cutacre

I called in at Cutacre CP this afternoon hoping to see the pair of garganey that had been reported earlier on Swan Lake. I could only see the drake, but while I waited I managed to find a cracking adult or 5CY Caspian gull. A real stunner!

The primary pattern of this bird is unusual for Caspian gull.... 

...the white tongue on P10 joins the white tip on the inner web, reminiscent of Thayer's gull. I didn't notice this myself until it was pointed out to me by somebody looking at the photos, but apparently about 5% of Caspian gulls have this "thayeri" pattern. More usually the tongue does not touch the white tip and the area of black between the two is much larger. 

There's a couple of interesting articles here by Chris Gibbins and here by Ian McKerchar which discuss this "thayeri" pattern (both open in a new window).

Green-winged teal, Chat Moss

It's always nice to see a green-winged teal, so I wasn't going to miss out on an opportunity to see one locally on Chat Moss. Viewing was difficult but in the end I managed to find it and it showed pretty well.

First little ringed plover of the year

My first little ringed plover of the year was on a muddy field near Winwick this morning.

Red kite and the first sand martins, Martin Mere

A red kite at Martin Mere today was only my second ever site record in 50 years of visiting the place. Also today, my first sand martins of the year with six over the mere, four adult Mediterranean gulls, at least 45 avocets plus the usuals.

Mediterranean gull.

Black scoter, Hoylake

Photo: Putative hybrid black x common scoter. 

This morning I was up early and walking across Hoylake beach at 6:30am. It was a glorious morning, with blue skies and wide open views across Liverpool Bay, but more importantly it was approaching low tide and this was virtually the only part of the day where I had any hope of seeing North Wirral's black scoter. 

This North American sea duck has been offshore here for about a week, associating with a few hundred common scoters and two hours either side of low tide is the only safe time to see it. It's a vast beach and I was walking out to the tideline which was over a mile (1.5km) offshore. You need to be sure of your tide times out here, because there are channels behind you which fill as the tide comes in and if you're not careful can leave you on a rapidly diminishing island of sand. Following the tide out is the safest way to do it but you still need to be extremely careful and aware of the state of the tide.

Eventually I reached the tideline and found many small groups of common scoter spread all over the sea, stretching away into the distance towards the wind farm. Some were just shimmering dots and identification of these birds was just impossible, even with a telescope. Fortunately though, an apparent trait of black scoter is the habit of staying close inshore so I was hopeful that it would be one of the closer birds, and so it proved, but not without much head scratching and mis-identifications!

Photo: Common scoter.

The first problem was that there were common scoter out there with far more yellow on the bill than I expected. So for example, compare the second and third birds from the right in the photo above, not only the bill patterns but also the head and bill shape. These birds were amongst the closest I saw all morning, but even so, they never stopped either bobbing up and down, diving or chasing each other, allowing just split second views and in these circumstances it would be easy to think that the second right bird must be the black scoter. I spent a lot of time videoing and photographing this flock before I realised my mistake.

Fortunately I spotted Sean, the original finder of the black scoter about 500m to the west of me and he seemed to be watching something so I headed over. It was indeed the black scoter that he had been watching for half an hour. It was alone and at close range but initially asleep when I arrived, however after 10 minutes or so it woke up. It had a large swollen blob of yellow on the bill and was very different to the earlier bird that I had tried to turn into black scoter. I was very happy with the identification. 

We watched it for another 10 minutes or so until finally it took off and flew east, more or less to where I had been standing earlier. I wish I'd left it there to be honest but I decided to walk back and try for another look and possibly get some photos. 

Red-crested Pochard, Scotsman's Flash

A nice drake red-crested pochard was on Scotsman's Flash at Wigan today.

Lesser white-fronted goose, Upper Thurnham

It's been a poor winter for geese in north west England in my opinion, with below average numbers of unusual species in amongst the flocks of pink-footed geese. However, in recent days pink-foot numbers have built up on the Fylde as birds from Norfolk begin to return to the area before heading north in the next week or so, and with them has come a wonderful adult lesser white-fronted goose. 

This is one of my favourite species of any bird, not just geese. They are the reason why Peter Scott set up the Wildfowl Trust (now Wildfowl and wetlands Trust) following a visit to Slimbridge in 1945. He was using a war time pill box as a hide overlooking an area of marsh known as the Dumbles when he found two lesser white-fronted geese with a flock of 2000 Russian white-fronts. He decided almost there and then that this was the place for him to live and to be the headquarters of a new conservation organisation that he had been planning to setup. I recommend his book "The Eye of the Wind" which gives a very evocative description of this period.

Having read this book in my youth, I always wanted to see lesser white-fronts at Slimbridge, but sadly even though I visited a few times in the early 1980s when the species was still almost annual, I failed to see any. I've always considered Slimbridge the classic place to see the species and Russian white-fronts the classic carrier species.

It took until 1991 for me to see my first lesser white-front, with pink-footed geese at Martin Mere, but by that time we were already calling them "of unknown origin". 

The species has undergone steep declines in recent decades largely due to hunting in their eastern European and Asian wintering grounds. In an effort to save the species, conservationists in Sweden set up a release scheme which aims to change the migration pattern of the species by directing them towards Western Europe in winter rather than the east.

This is theoretically possible because unlike passerines, geese and swans learn to migrate from their parents by travelling to their wintering grounds in family flocks and the hope was that the Swedish birds would learn to travel west every autumn. 

I've haven't really followed the progress of this release scheme and don't know much about it or how successful it's been, but the theory sounds good. However, what it has left us with is three possibilities when it comes to the origin of this lesser white-front at Upper Thurnham. 

Swedish birds tend to overwinter in the Netherlands but this winter there have been higher numbers than usual wintering in the UK, including seven ringed birds at Flamborough Head and at least nine in Norfolk. Officially these birds are not "tickable", probably because they're not yet considered to be a self sustaining population. Today's bird could be from this population. 

Ferruginous duck, Woolston Eyes

Aythya diving ducks are very much underrated in my opinion, they're all really nice birds, with the drake ring-necked duck currently touring St Helens a perfect case in point. So is this drake Ferruginous duck which turned up on the Oxbow by the bridge to number 3 bed at Woolston Eyes today. It's assumed to be the same bird which was present last spring when it was accompanied by a female. My first ever Ferruginous duck was at Woolston Eyes in November 1984.

Old Coach Road, Rainford

A male marsh harrier was at the back of the sprout field on Clare's Moss this morning, spending most of it's time over Simonswood Moss, but occasionally coming into St Helens airspace. Also, little egret with cattle at Brown Birch farm, male Stonechat on the fence near the prefabs, 500 pink-footed geese on the ground at the junction with Dairy Farm Road and 3 corn buntings & grey partridge Dairy Farm Road.

Dairy Farm Road, Rainford

It's been a really good winter in and around St Helens this year, and today two of the star birds performed brilliantly at Dairy Farm Road. First off we saw the female hen harrier quartering the sunflower field to the south of the road, and a few minutes later a barn owl appeared over the same field.

At least 300 pink-footed geese are in the area plus a couple of corn buntings.

Ring-necked duck, Carr Mill Dam

The St Helens ring-necked duck finally made it to Carr Mill Dam today and showed well at the northern end from Nineteen arches. Pity my camera was on the wrong setting.....

So after initially being found at Taylor Park, it's now also visited Eccleston Mere, Victoria Park and Carr Mill Dam. Where to next?

Stodday

I was surprised to come across four cattle egrets in fields alongside the coastal footpath on the River Lune today. I visit this area a lot but these are the first I've seen here. Little egrets were in double figures and there's a been a noticeable build up of curlews, spread across the saltmarsh and fields.

Satellite male ruff, Martin Mere

I was in the area today so called in at Martin Mere for a brief visit. Right in front of the Discovery hide was this impressive "satellite" male ruff. Also today at least one Siberian chiffchaff still at the sewage works, adult Mediterranean gull, great white egret, two avocets on the mere, barn owl and at least five marsh harriers.

These satellite males are interesting birds. As most birders know, (though not everybody so hence the explanation here), male ruff in breeding plumage have spectacular ruffs like Elizabethan gentlemen which is what gives them their name. Males take part in what's known as a leck where they battle to impress the females. It's similar to rutting stags.

The ruffs come in a variety of colours but birds with white ruffs are known as satellite males. They're not usually very successful when it comes to breeding except that they sometimes hang around the edge of the leck and when a female shows interest in mating with a dominant male, the satellites take their opportunity by getting in quick while the dominant male is still at the leck, mating with the female and then running away!  🤦‍♂️

I don't know if the satellites remain satellites for all of their life or if they can become dominant males themselves. The bird in the photo is not yet in full breeding plumage.

Hen harrier, Rainford

A female hen harrier has been hanging around the Rainford mosslands since at least Christmas, but it can be hard to catch up with, ranging from New Cut lane near the A580 all the way north to Dairy Farm road. To date I've seen it four times, the first three were from the Old Coach road on Clare's Moss but today I finally caught up with it at Dairy Farm road.

Shore Lark, Oglet

At the third attempt today we finally caught up with the overwintering shore lark at Oglet shore. It took a while to find even the flock of 100 skylarks that it was with, but eventually we found it and it showed pretty well, despite what the photo might tell you!

It was the perfect day for looking for the shore lark, great light and no wind.