Jack Snipe and a record count of Teal, Eccleston Mere

Jack Snipe 1
Snipe 1
Teal 31
Little Grebe 2 juvs.
Great Crested Grebe 10
Siskin 5
Lesser Redpoll 1
Goldfinch 50
Goldcrest 4
Treecreeper 1

It was a cold yet beautiful start to the day at Eccleston Mere. The Teal flock was the largest I have ever recorded at the mere, the previous best being 23.

No doubt about the star bird though, a fantastic Jack Snipe in the fields adjacent to the mere. I've searched long and hard for this species at the mere over the past 23 years, and at long last today it paid off. A great flight view at close range! This brings my Eccleston Mere total to 161 species.



31 Teal.

Eccleston Mere

Snipe 4 in fields adjacent to the mere
Little Grebe 3 juveniles
Great crested Grebe 11
Buzzard 1

Cetacean watching Anglesey

I was on Anglesey for the first three days of this week. The weather was grim on Monday, with lots of rain and strong winds, but by Wednesday it had cleared up quite nicely. I saw a decent selection of birds, including 4 Waxwings, adult Mediterranean Gull, several Red-throated Divers, Eider, Little Egrets, Common Scoter and lots of waders.

Highlight though was the cetaceans, with several Bottle-nosed Dolphins, a pod of about 20 Harbour Porpoise and best of all, a Common Dolphin which lept completely out of the water right behind a Red-throated Diver I was watching in the telescope. A memorable experience!


I like this combination of photos. One looks wintery and stormy, the other looks almost spring like! Hard to believe that they were taken on the same day and little more than 5 miles apart! That's the British weather for you!


Notice that each of the three boats has an accompanying gull!


It was a beautiful end to the day, the colours were fantastic. That's the moon behind the boat by the way, not the sun!

Formby Beach

It was a beautiful afternoon to be on the beach, and we almost had it to ourselves. No vast numbers of waders, but a nice selection of Sanderling, Bar-tailed Godwits, Grey Plover, Knot, Oystercatchers and Curlew. In the woods we managed to see a single Red Squirrel.




Bar-tailed Godwit and Grey Plover.

Eccleston Mere

Teal 3 (male & 2 females)
Tufted Duck 5
Cormorant 7
Goldfinch 50
Siskin 2

Just a brief stop at the mere today to see if the overnight winds and rain had brought anything in. The entire Goldfinch flock, with a few Chaffinches and Siskins, was feeding on the ground on the west side of the mere. No sign of any Mandarins, in fact the whole place had a very different feel about it!

Mandarin spectacular, Eccleston Mere

Once again the late risers missed the best part of the day! It was a beautiful, calm, crisp morning at Eccleston Mere and my reward for making the effort was one of the best sights I have ever seen on the mere.

You may recall that back in September, when the American Black Tern was around, there was a flock of 11 Mandarins on the mere for one or two days. Well today, presumably part of the same flock was back, this time consisting of 9 birds. Unlike the September version, today they were in pristine breeding plumage, and courting was very much what they had on their minds. Seven of the flock were males, two were females, one of which seemed paired up with a male and was left well alone by the other males. The second female however was not so lucky! She was definately fair game, and the remaining six males chased her everywhere, splitting their time between displaying to her and trying to drive away each other. They kept flying around the mere, circling the island, then landing in the water and displaying, tipping their heads back and raising their tails, with their sails erect as they called. They charged at each other like lecking grouse, and even flew up out of the water and hurled themselves feet first at their opponent. Then they would take off again and circle round, before landing and starting over again. Breathtaking! A really spectacular sight, and a great experience!

Where they have been since September is hard to say. I've not seen any reports from Knowsley Safari Park, Carr Mill Dam, Taylor Park, Ravenhead or anywhere else which mention more than a couple of birds at any one time. Mandarins are most active early morning, and then spend most of the day under overhanging vegetation, so I suppose that despite their spectacular and unmistakable plumage,there is an outside chance that they could avoid being seen somewhere. Whatever the answer, let's hope they're here to stay. I did wonder whether the waterlogged woodland at the south end of the mere with it's associated dead trees was starting to look attractive to this tree hole nesting species.

Mandarins are of course an introduced species in the UK, one of the few examples of an introduction which doesn't seem to affect our native wildlife. In fact, declines in the species natural range mean that the UK now holds an important percentage of the population.

Other birds seen today, a Woodcock flushed from woodland at the end of the stream, 5 Snipe in the fields adjacent to the mere, 2 Bullfinches, 10 Siskin, 50 Goldfinches and 10 Goldcrests.

Taylor Park

Coot 136
Tufted Duck 15
Mute Swan 3 (2ads & 1 juv.)

A pretty decent count of Coots, certainly far more than I've ever recorded at Eccleston Mere.

Common Eyelash, Eccleston Mere

Common Eyelash fungus Scutellinia scutellata growing on a fallen tree.

Hard Fern, Eccleston Mere

This is Hard Fern Blechnum spicant growing on the side of a woodland stream at Eccleston Mere. It's a relatively common fern, which I have seen in other parts of the UK, but I've never seen it in St Helens before. The internet resource NBN Gateway shows it as recorded in the Carr Mill Dam / Sankey Valley area, but I'm not aware of any recent records. It's probably just overlooked. If you look carefully at the plant, you can see that it has two distinct types of fronds ("leaves"). The sterile evergreen fronds are the shorter more robust looking, whilst the fertile fronds look longer, thin and spindley.

Birds today included 2 Bullfinches, 2 Buzzards, 9 Great crested Grebes, Kingfisher, Nuthatch and about 30 Goldfinches.

Eccleston Mere

Teal 2
Bullfinch 2
Siskin 3
Goldfinch 50
Buzzard 2
Sparrowhawk 1
Goldcrest 2

A Turkey Tail (possibly!)

I found this beautiful fungus growing on a tree stump in a garden in Lowton today. I can't decide what it is, perhaps Turkey Tail Trametes versicolor, though it doesn't look quite right to me. Whatever it is, it's a wonderful display.