Scarce chaser 1st for Lancashire, Bickershaw CP

I was at the stock pond at Bickershaw this afternoon when a light blue chaser flew past. My obvious initial reaction was broad-bodied chaser, since they are quite common at the site and are the only chaser here, with the exception of four-spotted which is a very different dragonfly. It flew back and forth for a minute or so, but I didn't pay it too much attention. However it looked a bit different, so finally I looked at it through my binoculars and saw straight away that it had no antehumeral stripes, a black tip to it's blue abdomen, and two dark marks on either side of it's body. The abdomen was also more slender than I would have expected with broad-bodied chaser. Now I was interested because these are amongst the identification features of scarce chaser, a species which doesn't occur anywhere near Greater Manchester but which is known to be spreading north, no doubt spurred on by the current run of heatwaves that the UK has been experiencing.

For such a rare species I knew that I needed to get some photos, but unfortunately the dragonfly only landed once and when it did it was front on and against the light. However, there is enough in my photos to confirm the identification. The dark triangular patch at the base of the hindwing marks it out as a chaser species, but unlike broad-bodied chaser which also has a dark patch at the base on the forewing, this dragonfly does not. Instead the black at the base of the forewing is confined to and follows the major veins, a feature of scarce chaser. The eyes have a blue hue. 

The identification of this dragonfly has been confirmed by British Dragonfly Society expert Adrian Parr and accepted by Lancashire dragonfly recorder Steve White. Thanks to them both for their comments.

This represents the first ever in Lancashire (which for the purposes of dragonfly recording includes this part of Greater Manchester).

Juvenile Mediterranean gull at Pennington Flash

A cracking juvenile Mediterranean gull on the car park at Pennington Flash today. Also today, female common scoter and juvenile whinchat, the latter not seen by me.

Another wave of clouded yellows and black darter at Bickershaw

A decent couple of days at Bickershaw, highlights being another three clouded yellows and an excellent array of dragonflies including my first black darter of the year bringing my Bickershaw total to 22 species in 2026. Also today a few ruddy darters, common darters, four species of hawker and a lingering keeled skimmer. Just need willow emerald now to complete the set at Bickershaw this year.

Spoonbills, quail and avocets on the Ribble

I was at Hesketh Out Marsh for 6:30 this morning, my second visit of the weekend following a late afternoon visit yesterday. With Marshside and Banks now little more than dust bowls, HOM is virtually the only place with water on these marshes, and even here it appears to be drying rapidly. I walked east for about a mile and a half, to the point where the River Douglas joins the Ribble. 

I was accompanied on the way by the song of at least four quail in the fields, while on the pools there were three spoonbill, an adult and two juveniles, 16 avocets, spotted redshank, 600+ black-tailed godwits, around 40 common terns, many redshanks and perhaps most impressively, 26 greenshank. 

On reaching the Douglas I found even more avocets, 40 in total, plus another two spoonbills, the adult and juvenile in the photo at the top of this post.

Quail have bred here this year with adults and chicks seen on at least one occasion, spoonbills breed in the local vicinity and avocets are now long established. It's impossible to walk here these days without seeing at least 20 little egrets and two or three great white egrets. Should we be happy or concerned? Short term happy I guess, but long term? Who knows?

Wood sandpiper and yellow wagtails at Martin Mere

After a long, hot, dry summer there is very little water left at Martin Mere. Vinsons and Woodend marshes are completely dry and there's just a puddle left on Sunleys. The only water really is on the Mere and at the reedbed. Langley's brook still flows, albeit with more mud than normal, but Boat House sluice looks as full as ever. 

Even so, there are still plenty of good birds to be seen, with up to five great white egrets on site, plus 20 cattle egrets and a few little. Wood, green and common sandpipers are all still around and there's a growing flock of 22 ruff. The damp mud of Sunleys is attracting decent numbers of wagtails, with at least 20+ yellow and probably around the same number of alba wagtails today. A kingfisher fished on Boat House sluice.

This wood sandpiper has been on the mere for about four days and can show really well at times, as it did yesterday. However, today it was right at the back of the mere and for a brief spell relocated to Langley's brook where it joined four green sandpipers.

The mere is actually looking really good for waders and if it can stay like this for another month it may be the place to be during late August / September. With so many other places completely dry, it may become a magnet for passage waders.

Hungarian black-headed gull at the flash

A black-headed gull with a yellow ring H2Z8 was on the car park at Pennington Flash today, ringed at  Királyszentistván, near Budapest, Hungary on 18/01/2026, a distance of 1619km from Leigh.

This is a first for me from Hungary which means that I have so far recorded black-headed gulls from Poland, Finland, Holland, Germany, Norway and now Hungary all on the car park at the flash. Reading the rings and submitting them to the relevant authorities makes life so much more interesting than just walking past a group of gulls.

Black Storks at Gayton Sands, Dee Estuary

I embarked on another spontaneous twitch this morning when news came through that two black storks that had been seen at Parkgate yesterday evening, had been seen again in the same area early morning today. I abandoned Pennington Flash immediately and headed to the Old Baths car park at Parkgate, where I arrived an hour later at 9am. I then walked north for about 1km to the viewing area.

The birds were apparently on the ground but in one of the channels on the saltmarsh which combined with the height of the vegetation meant that they were completely out of view despite their size. At least we knew where they were so in theory all that I had to do was stick it out and wait for them to fly, whenever that might be.

Fortunately I didn't have long to wait, after about 45 minutes the shout went up that they were in the air and suddenly I saw them, directly out from us, perhaps 500m away and in line with Bagillt on the other side of the estuary. That last piece of information is important but I'll get back to that later 😄.....

A really magnificent sight, they circled around climbing higher all of the time, coming as close as 100-200m at times, until finally they were little more than dots and appeared to be heading off east. Except that they didn't go east.

I was surprised at how many people just ignored them and left after the initial sighting. People were packing up and saying "are we off?" and leaving, with the birds still circling overhead. Having made the effort to go I was determined to watch them as long as I could and perhaps see where they went. Pretty soon there were just two of us left, still watching the storks as they suddenly dropped and came down, now heading north before appearing to land behind trees somewhere beyond the golf club. Later in the afternoon, long after I had gone, there were two further reports, again of the birds distantly and briefly on the saltmarsh, confirming that they hadn't left the area earlier. The last report of the day from the Dee was from Burton Mere Wetlands at 13:20, and with a report of two black storks at Gibraltar Point, Lincolnshire at 17:30, it looks like this time they really have gone.

These birds were just my second ever sighting of black stork in the UK, the first being on Walney Island in October 1985.

"So why is it so important that the birds were in line with Bagillt?", I hear you ask. Go to the end of this post to find out.

Pectoral sandpiper, Hesketh Out Marsh

A cracking adult pectoral sandpiper was on the eastern section of Hesketh Out Marsh today and eventually showed very well. It was originally found on Wednesday, when I did see it but it was a poor view so I went back for seconds today.

At first I thought it had gone, I'd been there two hours with no sign of it. At last it was found asleep in the grass, almost as distant as it had been on Wednesday, and it took another hour or so for it to do much more than the occasional preen. Finally it flew a bit closer and showed very well. A really smart bird!

I love that pec band!

Sandwich terns, Pennington Flash

One of the great joys of birding is the unpredictability of the hobby. I can walk out of the door in the morning and have almost no idea what I am going to see today, it could be a good day, it could be a poor day, it depends on so many things and even if the birds are there, they might decide not to show themselves. However, when I got to the flash in heavy drizzle this morning and a fellow birder commented that it wasn't a great day for birding, my reaction was "it's a Sandwich tern day".  It just had that feel to it and I knew from experience that this was the type of day in July when they often drop in. 

So when Ian messaged me at 8:30 to inform me that there were three Sandwich terns off the sailing club it was no great surprise. I was in Horrock's hide and for a minute or so I struggled to find them, but then I heard their screeches which pointed me in the right direction. They were flying around off the sailing club with several common terns, but they stood out being paler and larger. 

I watched them for 15 minutes, occasionally they would come into the centre of the flash when they were a bit closer and once I thought that they were heading for the spit but turned back, but overall though I was pleased to see them they were always a bit distant and it was a bit unsatisfactory.

After a while I decided that it would be worth driving to Green Lane and having a look from there. Of course it was right in the middle of rush hour and St Helens road is never good at that time so it wasn't a particularly appealing prospect. However, with no school traffic at the moment it wasn't as bad as expected and less than 10 minutes later I arrived at Green Lane. A brisk walk to the viewing area ensued, with fingers crossed that the birds would still be present.

The plan couldn't have gone better, no sooner had I arrived than I saw all three of the Sandwich terns balancing precariously on buoy number 8, the closest buoy to me at a distance of about 50m. I don't think I've ever actually seen three terns of any species balancing on the same buoy before so I was a bit concerned that at least one of them might fall off before I could take a photo, but I needn't have worried they all stayed on the buoy for at least another 10 minutes, before finally, at 9:12 they flew high to the west.

Interestingly, as they flew away over the tall trees at the western end of the flash they were joined by a fourth tern which looked the same size and structure as the others and was probably another Sandwich tern, but if it was, it certainly hadn't been on the flash. I wondered if this bird had actually been flying over calling and the three on the buoy had heard it and flown up to join it and away west.

More clouded yellows and other butterflies at Martin Mere

Fabulous to see at least three clouded yellows from the Hale hide this morning. Surely the first wave of clouded yellows which arrived two weeks ago in our area must have died off now, and these seem in pretty good nick so perhaps they are new arrivals.

No chance of a decent photo from the hide of course, and probably not even if I was outside the hide, but just great to see them here!

Peregrine display and an early morning sea watch

High above the lighthouse at the northern most tip of the Great Orme at 8am this morning, a pair of peregrines were in courtship display, chasing each other in synchronised flight, sometimes coming quite close to me, at other times quite distant, they rolled around in the air and occasionally one bird would flip upside down and offer it's talons to the other. I didn't hear any calling. Not particularly obvious from the photos but one bird, the female, was considerably larger than the other.

I'd got there early at 6:30am in order to do a sea watch. It was windy but the conditions were not ideal with the wind direction being south west rather than the preferred north west, and obviously the end of July is also not a great time for a sea watch, yet even so I managed 5 Manx shearwaters and about 10 gannets, so I was happy with that.

I suppose it is obvious which is the larger bird! The female had a very dark underwing compared to the male.