Lesser scaup, Pennington Flash

I've worked out what the secret is to finding rare birds at Pennington Flash, stop going regularly and just call in now and again. Last week I dropped by for the first time in weeks and found a little tern, today I wasn't even bothering to go to the flash, I was on my way birding elsewhere, but decided to call in at Green Lane for a quick look and almost the first bird I clapped eyes on was a drake lesser scaup just going into eclipse.

It was still present at the west end to 14:15 when it was flushed by two canoeists. The tufted duck flock it was with seemed to fly into Ramsdales, and perhaps most of them landed, but when I got there I couldn't find the lesser scaup, and it also wasn't in East Bay, though there were 20+ tufties plus a drake pochard that had been with them earlier.

Roesel's bush-cricket, Barrow Lane

Roesel's bush-cricket at Barrow Lane, St Helens today, a new species for me and I think the 2nd record for the borough though they are no doubt under recorded. It's a species which is spreading north and has a distinctive song which sounds a bit like a Savi's warbler and is made by rubbing it's wings together. This is why in the photo, just about everything is in focus except the wings. That's my excuse anyway! Below is a short video of the habitat with the bush-cricket calling in the background. 

Viper's-bugloss on the Rainford bypass

On my way home from Rainford just after lunch I noticed Viper's-bugloss growing along the kerb of the Rainford bypass, on the south bound carriageway mainly between Mossborough roundabout and Pasture lane, though there were also a couple of small clumps just beyond the lane. This is most commonly found on the coast as you can see from the distribution map and prefers sand/chalk grasslands, the complete opposite basically of the Rainford mosslands. 

This is the only place I have seen it growing in St Helens though the other distribution map does have some dots in the borough. Interestingly another coastal plant, Danish scurvygrass which flowers in Mar/Apr, also grows along the bypass and the East Lancs, and it's thought that the scurvygrass grows here because of salt put down on the road during the winter. Perhaps viper's-bugloss is here for similar reasons, especially since like the scurvygrass, the bugloss is very much on the edge of the road and doesn't even seem to occur on the other side of the cycle track. 

Honey buzzard and dragonflies, Martin Mere

A very busy day today started with a breeding bird survey north of Preston at 4.30am, then onto Martin Mere for dragonfly and bittern surveys. After the bittern survey I was walking past Woodend Marsh when the calls of gulls drew my attention to a raptor soaring quite low overhead which turned out to be a dark morph honey buzzard. 

I watched it for a couple of minutes gradually ticking off all of the identification features, tail bars, underwing pattern etc., and generally enjoying such a good view of a honey buzzard, before eventually I remembered to get my camera out, but by then it was climbing higher and moving further away, and the best I could get was this poor photo. Still identifiable from the photo but just a shame I wasn't a bit quicker with the camera. Can't complain though, a very decent record for this area and my first self found honey buzzard, and an especially pleasing find because I'm not particularly familiar with dark morph birds.

Even without seeing the plumage details, you can see it's a honey buzzard from the photo. A nice long tail, rounded at the end and a protruding, slim head, wings pressed forward with wing "arm" appearing bulging and wider than the "hand" are all obvious in the photo and all good pointers to honey buzzard. 

I was surprised at how dark it was, almost black or very dark brown, with no hint of the pale breast bar of common buzzard. Obviously difficult from this photo, but in the field I could see that even the underwing was very dark, the only pale areas were on the hand, and I wonder if this was actually the translucent base to the inner primaries which I'm told would make this a female.

Little tern, Pennington Flash

A dull drizzley day looked perfect for something good to drop in and so it proved, with an adult little tern fishing off the boat club. My sixth at the flash and the third in the latter half of June.

Eclipse drake mandarin at Newton Lake

An eclipse drake mandarin was at Newton Lake this morning, looking a shadow of its form self.

Small red-eyed damselfly, Cambourne Pond, St Helens

At least 4 small red-eyed damselflies on Cambourne Pond in the Sankey Valley, St Helens today. This species had never been recorded in the UK before 1999 when the first were seen in southern England but over the past few years they have spread further north with some seen near Crosby in 2024.

Earlier this year there was a report of the species also being seen at Cambourne Pond in 2024 so we decided to check it out today. They weren't easy to see let alone photograph but in the end we got enough to confirm the identification. Apart from being smaller than the commoner red-eyed damselfly, small red-eyed has more blue on the tip of the abdomen (segments 8, 9 & 10 as opposed to just 9 & 10 on red-eyed) and segment 10 has a black X in the blue, which you can just make out in the photo above.

Photo: Small red-eyed damselfly
Cambourne Pond 20-06-2025
© Ray Banks

A full blown UK tick for me so obviously also my first in St Helens ☑️.

Cambourne Pond.

Hawkers, chasers and skimmers, Bickershaw CP

We spent an incredible afternoon in the presence of at least six Norfolk hawkers at Bickershaw Country Park today. They have been at Amberswood, Platt Bridge, Wigan for at least the past four years and are presumably breeding there, but this is the first year that I have heard of them at Bickershaw and I assume that it's a range expansion, though how and why they would be breeding at Amberswood is uncertain to me at least. You can read my thoughts from last year on the Amberswood population by clicking here. We did see an individual today that looked like a teneral so perhaps they were at Bickershaw last year as well. Where else might they be in the North West?

If they continue at this rate we're going to have to drop the Norfolk part of the name and refer to them by their other name, green-eyed hawker. 

Great eyes! I never thought I'd see Norfolk hawker like this locally. This is a mile and a half from my home!

Redshank Carr Mill Dam

Two redshank at Carr Mill Dam today were my first in the borough for many years. Now that Prescot Reservoirs is no longer accessible to birders there is very limited suitable habitat for waders anywhere in the St Helens.

Barnacle geese in Knowlsey Safari Park

The free flying feral barnacle goose flock which spends late summer on the Rainford mosslands north of St Helens and occasionally travels further afield continues to thrive. They breed in Knowsley Safari Park and an unscientific survey today as I drove around resulted in a count of 297 adults and 65 goslings. When they are on the mosslands they are very likely to mix with wild pink-footed geese and occasionally the odd bird or two must get caught up with the pink-feet when they leave, which casts doubt on any barnacle goose in pink-footed goose flocks, especially in the north west.

Despite good numbers of both breeding Canada and barnacle geese in the safari park, I didn't see any birds that looked like hybrids. Similar story last autumn as well, when the two species mixed at Moss Lane, St Helens but I couldn't pick out a single bird that looked like a hybrid.

Harriers and kites Barrow Lane

Marsh harriers have really taken off in the past few years. Only two or three years ago they were very rare in St Helens, but now sightings in the Rainford area are not unusual at all. Today I walked along Barrow Lane which is perhaps surprisingly in St Helens given that it's close to Junction 22 on the M6, where I found a male and female marsh harrier hunting over the fields between here and Highfield Moss. This is the complete opposite end of the borough to Rainford and these are clearly different birds.

The male is an absolute stunner, one of the nicest male marsh harriers I've ever seen.

Wood sandpipers, St Helens

I toured a few local sites in St Helens today and was delighted to come across two wood sandpipers. These are only the 4th record for the borough, the first this century and a new St Helens tick for me, bringing my total to 197. If only we had a few more wetlands like this I would very soon get past 200, but there's a real dearth of habitat for waders locally.

St Aidens

Little owl at St Aidens RSPB, near Castleford yesterday. On the Sunshine miners memorial, an impressive Bucyrus Erie 1150B walking dragline opencast coal excavator (apparently!) at the entrance to the reserve

An impressive piece of equipment at the entrance to a equally impressive reserve.

Gadwall family at Newton Lake

A female gadwall had three downy ducklings at Newton Lake this morning. They've certainly bred at Eccleston Mere and Prescot reservoirs, plus also at Pennington Flash previously, but I don't know of any other sites in St Helens where they breed. I've certainly no confirmed breeding records from Newton Lake.

Kites, harriers, owls and a quail - just another day on the Rainford Mosslands

It was lashing it down as I approached Windle Island just after lunchtime today. If I hadn't already arranged to meet Ray in Dairy Farm Road I might even have turned back for home there and then. But I had arranged to meet him so I just carried on, but not particularly convinced that we were going to be able to do much.

However, the rain had almost stopped when I reached my destination and we hadn't been out of the car two minutes before we heard a quail calling in the field to the south of the road, and right alongside the footpath that leads to Inglenook Farm. Presumably one of the birds that was at the junction with the Old Coach Road a couple of weeks ago.

While were listening to the quail a quick scan of the now ploughed ex-sunflower field revealed two breeding plumage adult Mediterranean gulls in amongst about 80 large gulls, mainly lesser black-backs but also a few herring gulls. There were also a large number of corvids in the field, with around 350 rooks and 50 jackdaws. Suddenly a red kite appeared over a woodland to the south of Inglenook Farm and soared around for a bit with a couple of buzzards.

We hadn't been here more than 10 minutes, but the rain from earlier was now a distant memory.

Woodchat shrike, Daresbury

A cracking breeding plumage woodchat shrike was found at Daresbury near Warrington this morning. It looks like a 1st summer male to me, there's quite a lot of white on the lores and the black in the wings looks quite brown plus I didn't see any barring on the flanks in the field.

My 8th woodchat shrike in the UK and my 5th in the North West, but my first anywhere for 10 years. Others in the North West were Lytham (1987), Frodsham marsh (1996), Shore Top Lake Irwell Valley (1997) and Marshside Southport (2007).