Spanish avocet at Martin Mere

This avocet is the male of the last remaining pair at Martin Mere this year, and has two chicks almost full grown. 

It has a black darvic ring, RR9 and was ringed at Laguna de los Tollos near Cadiz, Spain on 24/06/2014. It was subsequently seen at Cota Donana (east) near Saville in 2017.

Also today, at least 13 cattle egret which included three juveniles, fledged this year from a local site.

More Keeled skimmers at Bickershaw

Amazingly another four keeled skimmers at Bickershaw Country Park today, with a male and female in the reedbed on Nevisons and two more males and possibly a female on the stream between New Water & Nevisons. 

The keeled skimmers from two weeks ago were only the 2nd record ever from Greater Manchester and only the 2nd ever in either Lancashire or Greater Manchester away from the uplands! No idea what's going on, but that's at least six individuals on site, even assuming that the two on Nevisons today are the same as those that were there two weeks ago!

Say "cheese"......

"Cheeeeese"!

In this photo it looks as thought the dragonflies eyes have moved apart to reveal more of it's face but in actual fact it can't do that. In reality it's eyes have swiveled and it's looking directly up and not at me.

Juvenile Mandarins at Newton Lake

A couple of juvenile mandarins were at Newton Lake this morning. I don't think they breed at this site and I'm not sure where the closest breeding is these days, but they have bred in St Helens in the past at Eccleston Mere in 2014 (opens in a new window).

Small red-eyed damselflies Pennington Flash

In 2016 I recorded the first red-eyed damselflies at the flash on the Leeds / Liverpool canal either side of the footbridge. Today I found literally hundreds of them in the same location and better still, in amongst them a few small red-eyed damselflies.   

Not easy to pick out without a decent view, but basically small red-eyed has more blue on the abdomen, specifically segments 2, 3 & 8. They're also a bit smaller, though I found that red-eyed varied a lot in size so size alone is not a perfect feature.

I counted around eight small red-eyed with an estimated 200 of their larger cousins.

Small red-eyed damselfly male. Notice the complete antehumeral stripes, compared to the very short stripes of red-eyed.

Small red-eyed has spread dramatically in recent years after first being recorded in the UK as recently as 1999 and I saw my first just a few weeks ago. It's now  spread well north of Pennington Flash, at least as far as Preston on the west coast.

Male and female small red-eyed damselflies in tandem.

More from Barrow Lane

An adult Mediterranean gull was a nice find today at Barrow Lane, with a small flock of lesser black backs, herring gulls, black-headed gulls and two 1st summer common gulls.

Perhaps best of all though, a flock of 20+ tree sparrows which is the largest flock I've seen in St Helens for a few years.

Several Roesel's bush crickets calling again but this was the only one we managed to see.

Juvenile black-necked grebe, Pennington Flash

It's the time of year for juvenile black-necked grebes to turn up at Pennington Flash so this bird off the spit today was right on schedule. Presumably bred locally at Woolston, though there are other smaller colonies closer to the flash.

 

Black darter and other dragonflies Bickershaw

A black darter at Bickershaw wasn't completely unexpected since they used to occur on Bold Moss in St Helens and that is (was) a very similar place. Never-the-less as far as I know this is the first black darter recorded on the site. It's also the sixteenth species of odonata that I have recorded on the site since the middle of June!

Hobby hunting swifts at Barrow Lane

During an early morning stroll today along Barrow Lane near Winwick (but actually in St Helens, Merseyside), I saw the impressive sight of around 150 swifts feeding quite low down over the fields to the north of the lane. Suddenly they all rose high into the sky and I wondered if there was a hobby about but I couldn't see it. Then a couple of minutes later I saw what looked like a hobby distantly to the north over Highfield Moss. 

It rose high and then closed it's wings and plummeted down at terrifying speed as it began hunting and any doubt in my mind vanished, this was definitely a hobby! It was still distant but heading my way so I watched and waited. Most of the swifts appeared to be in the field close to me so I was hopeful that it would launch another attack nearby.

In seconds it was overhead and attacked again, this time successfully and I actually saw it pick a swift out of the sky and carry it away. For a moment it continued towards me and allowed me to fire off a few photos, before turning and flying away south east with its prey. A breathtaking moment!

This is the same photo as the one at the top of the post minus the brightening and sharpening.

Broad-leaved helleborine, Pennington Flash

Broad-leaved helleborine is a pretty common orchid of local woodlands. I've seen it at the flash previously but usually at the western end. Today I found this dainty specimen growing near Horrock's hide. This was only about 10cm tall but in the right conditions they can grow to a height of 80cm.

Green sandpiper, Pennington Flash

A green sandpiper was in Ramsdales this morning, also today a single common sandpiper, at least five common terns, two Egyptian geese and 350+ sand martins, but the lesser scaup has now moved to Audenshaw.

Great white egret in St Helens at last

It's been a long wait, but finally today I managed to add great white egret to my St Helens list, bringing the total number of species I have seen in St Helens to 198.

I'd just set off for home from Dentons Green when Bill Harrison text me to tell me that he had a great white egret on a fishing pallet from the Nineteen Arches at Carr Mill Dam. It was a no-brainer to call in as I was driving past anyway, but within minutes of the first text there was a second telling me that the bird had just flown towards the boat house. 

I arrived at the overflow at Carr Mill Dam and scanned the shoreline but there was no sign of the bird, but then suddenly there it was flying over and heading south, eventually going over the East Lancs.

It was looking like it was heading for Laffak Pond which is just on the opposite side of the East Lancs, so I jumped back in the car and headed there.

Sure enough I found it at Laffak Pond but immediately flushed it. Fortunately it perched up in a tree and remained there long enough for other local birders to connect with it. 

Small red-eyed damselflies at Cambourne pond

I called in at Cambourne Pond in the Sankey Valley this morning, hoping to get a few better photos of the small red-eyed damselflies that have recently colonised the area. They're quite difficult being long, thin and very small and with a habit of perching up on the algae usually two or three metres off the bank. Even though the sun is on the pond it's still quite a dark place and the damselflies are quite difficult to follow, especially with lots of other species of very similar damselflies chasing each other around.

However, by positioning myself near one of the patches of lighter coloured algae and waiting, I was able to get some half decent photos, at least by my standards.

Keeled skimmers at Bickershaw CP

With a sunny day forecast and temperatures due to reach the low 30's I decided to head to Bickershaw Country Park in the hope that I might see a few dragonflies and possibly reconnect with the recent Norfolk hawkers that were there in June. 

What I was certainly NOT expecting to find was a male keeled skimmer which performed well right in front of me. So far as I can tell this was only the 2nd keeled skimmer ever in Greater Manchester. If that wasn't surprising enough, I was even more amazed when a female suddenly appeared from nowhere and the pair hooked up and proceeded to mate! 

This is a species of moorland and peat bogs and the closest breeding populations that I know of are in the Lake District where I have seen them previously. An unbelievable record.

Crossbills and a yellowlegs at Leighton Moss

A beautiful walk in glorious weather today, perhaps a fraction too hot in the afternoon if I'm honest but can't complain. Just shy of 10 miles, the walk takes in the reedbed and saltmarsh parts of Leighton Moss, plus Jack Scout / Jenny Brown's Point. 

We dropped on with 10 crossbills which were found on the car park just as we reached the building and later managed to catch up with a lesser yellowlegs on the saltmarsh.

The crossbills were a mixed flock of at least one male, two or three females and a few juveniles. Probably a couple of family parties I guess.

A top morning at the Flash

First thing this morning there were two little terns flying around with about seven common terns which included two juveniles, but they disappeared at 8am and I didn't see them again, though there were reports of one little tern still being present into the afternoon.

The lesser scaup was present again and showing well with about 65 tufted ducks off the car park until about 10:15 when the flock flew into Ramsdales and was then viewable more distantly from Horrock's hide.

Late morning a black-necked grebe in full summer plumage was found in the middle, probably a dispersing failed breeder from Woolston, while two Egyptian geese and a common sandpiper were at the sailing club and a redshank on the spit.

Lesser scaup again off the car park and the return of GWE

The lesser scaup was again off the main car park at Pennington Flash and showed very well. Meanwhile, a great white egret was at the west end and was the first I have seen at the flash in 6 months. Will this be another bumper end to the year like last year when and up to seven were present daily from August to year end, or will it revert to type like 2023 when there were just four records of single birds all in summer? Time will tell....

Greenshank and Green sandpipers at Martin Mere

I didn't have a lot of time for birding at Martin Mere, but it's really hard to fail at the place to be honest. A quick look over Woodend marsh from the Gordon Taylor hide revealed two stonking summer plumage greenshank and a single green sandpiper, whilst Plover field scrape held five more green sandpipers. Add to that several marsh harriers and at least three cattle egrets and it was another successful visit.

Whorled caraway, Martin Mere

Whorled caraway is a rare plant in Lancashire, in fact Carum field which stretches from just outside the Janet Kear hide to the United Utilities hide, was for a long time the only place in Northern England where the plant was found. These days it's spread a little further than Carum field thanks to good habitat management on the reserve, but it's still confined to Martin Mere.

I've never seen it in flower before because it's not easy to see from any of the hides except distantly, but one of the advantages of doing surveys for Martin Mere is that you get out to parts of the reserve that you wouldn't normally reach. Today we happened to be on the edge of a field which was full of whorled caraway.

The plant gets it's English name from the leaves, while Carum field takes it's name from the scientific name of the plant which is Carum verticillatum. Prior to the Janet Kear hide there was another hide in the same location called Carum field hide. I find it slightly sad that a hide that enabled viewing of a rare plant should be replaced by a hide that no longer offers views of the plant but instead is really only useful for viewing birds on feeders largely for the benefit of photographers. There are lots of places where photographers can get shots of birds on feeders, but not many were you can view whorled caraway. That decision was taken years ago so not a reflection on the current management of the reserve. 

Lesser scaup off the car park

The drake lesser scaup was back at the Flash today having apparently been missing for a day and a half and showed better than ever off the main car park. Yesterday I checked all of it's favourite haunts at least twice each and could find no sign of it, so no idea where it's been.

Lesser scaup still Pennington Flash

The drake lesser scaup was still present today, again at the western end with 30 tufted ducks and four pochard (3 drakes). Also today two wigeon, four common sandpipers at the sailing club and two Egyptian geese.

When I first found the bird on Monday it was distant and asleep but I was confident as soon as I saw it that it was a lesser scaup. The grey back and black head clearly made it a scaup, and even with it's head tucked in I could see that the crown was peaked at the rear, and it was obviously similar size to a tufted duck. Really the only potential problem was eliminating the possibility of it being a hybrid, but the dark tip to the bill which was restricted to the nail ruled that out almost from the moment it woke up.

Looking through Birdguides recent sightings, this is the only lesser scaup in the country at the moment and the last record before this was from as far back as 4th May.

Duckling Days

There's always one! Mallard with ducklings at Carr Mill Dam today. I'm not normally a sucker for cute fluffy things, but I'll make an exception here! Presumably some farmyard duck genes in the family in the dark and distant past.