Birding Group Visit to RSPB Leighton Moss : 14th October 2014

Birding Group Visit to RSPB Leighton Moss : 14th October 2014

The first birding group day our after our return from Mallorca was to RSPB Leighton Moss where we were hoping – as usual – that we might get views of Bearded Tits at the grit trays. On the plus side, October is the best month for this it seems, but on the negative side we have said that every time we have been there. I, personally, have only previously seen one pair there and that was in 2009 from the Public Hide; this despite many visits. So when we arrived around 10.15am we were, of course, thinking that we were a little late in the day to be lucky. How wrong we were !

As soon as we approached the causeway we could see a lot of cars parked there so we did likewise – despite being a bit close to the bend – and started off down the causeway towards the grit trays. As we walked down there we could see a large group of people but there weren’t many binoculars raised so we weren’t too hopeful. As we approached, however, it became clear that the reason for this was that three Bearded Tits were showing so well there wasn’t really any need for bins !

We spent a good half hour or more watching these birds – and the occasional curious Wren – before they disappeared. We decided to go down to the Public Hide and see what we could see from there. Well our great joy was slightly marred when we entered the hide only to be informed we had just missed a Bittern fly-by ! Well that would have been some start to the day.

Anyway, we settled down to scan the water and there was a smattering of Mute Swan, Coots, Shovelers and Teal. A small flock of Wigeon also flew in but that was pretty much it. The Bittern did not reappear.

Back up the causeway we went only to be halted by the sight of two groups of people standing still on the causeway equidistant from a group of nine Bearded Tits taking grit from the gravel on the footpath. This was an amazing sight and one that I doubt anyone there had ever seen before. Indeed we got talking to a couple of individuals who are responsible for monitoring the breeding of these and other birds at this site and they said that this was something of a new development. And for us to see nine of them at once was a brilliant bit of luck. He told us that some chaps had been on the causeway since first light and had failed to see any of them.

Occasionally the birds would fly into the reeds and this acted as a kind of traffic light system allowing people to swap sides on the causeway. Most people swapped sides and then remained to look back in the direction of where they had been and, sure enough, before long the Tits came back again and provided more brilliant views. I have seen them at RSPB Minsmere, Walberswick and NWT Cley (all in 2012) and Blacktoft Sands (2013) but never such extended views. By this time it was nearly noon so we had spent a couple of hours looking mainly at Bearded Tits and on one of their disappearances we tore ourselves away and headed off for a cup of tea at the cafe.

After tea it was off to Lillian’s Hide where there were lots of Teal and a Snipe or two but the best bird was a Water Rail that was shooting from cover to cover in front of the hide heading for the reeds to the right of us.

At the Tim Jackson Hide I was surprised to see that they had restored the water from the last time when it had been completely drained [See previous post] The area in front of the hide now looks much bigger with more ponds and from here we watched deer and found more Snipe – a feature of the day. At the Grisedale Hide it was more of the same but we added Back-tailed Godwit and Grey Heron to our list and also got a Kestrel and Pheasant.

We walked back along the path to the visitor centre and here we noticed that some sculpted logs had been placed inside which there was bird food and this was attracting Great, Blue, Marsh, Coal and Long-Tailed Tits as well as Robins, Dunnocks and a Nuthatch. Other people had also seen Goldcrest amongst the Long-tailed Tits but I missed that. One thing |I did think I caught sight of was a Green Woodpecker but it was only the briefest of glances and then I could not find it again.

Some of the group decided it was their lunch-time but I preferred to go straight to the coastal hides where two of us started out at the Allan Hide. Here we saw a Kingfisher pretty much straight away and on the mud were a couple of Little Stints, yet another Snipe, and lots of Little Egrets, a single Curlew and Lapwing and Redshank.

Moving on to the Eric Morecambe Hide there was a small dark strip in the distance that looked like land but turned out to be around five hundred densely packed Black-tailed Godwits. There were more of these closer in and also smatterings of Mallard, Teal, Wigeon etc. We spent a long time trying to determine whether a group of eight birds were Goosander of Merganser. The confusion arose because they were all quite eclipsed. In the end we decided that there were some of both and this was based on their bill shape, some having a distinct downturn and others an equally distinct upturn.

A pair of Spotted Redshank were there and a single Knot. A last minute fina addition was a single Great White Egret and there were four very eclipsed Pintail. We spent quite a long time here and only left when we felt that we were going to hit rush hour in Manchester. We returned pretty happy with ourselves and we felt we had had one of our best visits to Leighton Moss ever. Some of the group had never seen Bearded Tits so it really was a red letter day for them. But 44 species including Bearded Tits, Kingfisher, Water Rail, Little Stints, Spotted Redshank, Marsh Tit, Great White Egret a possible Green Woodpecker and a whole bunch of other birds – what’s not to like about that for a birding day out ?

The only thing that marred the day for me was that I accidentally managed to delete some scoped video of the Bearded Tits on my phone when I got home and nothing I could do with software recovery tools could bring them back – what a fool ! grrrr !

Bird Sightings : Leighton Moss Environs

Species	Count
Common Pheasant	2
Bearded Tit	9
Marsh Tit	1
Coal Tit	1
Great Tit	2
Common Blue Tit	4
Long-tailed Tit	6
Eurasian Nuthatch	1
Northern Wren	2
European Robin	1
Dunnock	2
Chaffinch	2

Bird Sightings : Leighton Moss Public Hide

Species	Count
Mute Swan	8
Eurasian Wigeon	10
Mallard	10
Northern Shoveler	20
Common Teal	6
Common Coot	8

Bird Sightings : Leighton Moss Lillian’s Hide

Species	Count
Mute Swan	2
Mallard	10
Common Teal	30
European Water Rail	1
Eurasian Common Moorhen	4
Common Snipe	1

Bird Sightings : Leighton Moss Tim Jackson Hide

Species	Count
Greylag Goose	1
Mute Swan	4
Northern Shoveler	2
Common Teal	40
Eurasian Common Moorhen	6
Common Snipe	2

Bird Sightings : Leighton Moss Grisedale Hide

Species	Count
Northern Shoveler	1
Common Teal	40
Common Pheasant	1
Grey Heron	1
Common Kestrel	1
Eurasian Common Moorhen	2
Black-tailed Godwit	1
Common Snipe	1

Bird Sightings : Leighton Moss Allen Hide

Species	Count
Little Egret	10
Northern Lapwing	20
Common Redshank	12
Eurasian Curlew	1
Little Stint	2
Common Snipe	1
Common Kingfisher	1
Rook	6
Carrion Crow	12

Bird Sightings : Leighton Moss Eric Morecambe Hide

Species	Count
Eurasian Wigeon	30
Northern Shoveler	30
Northern Pintail	4
Common Teal	20
Goosander	4
Red-breasted Merganser	4
Great Cormorant	1
Great Egret	1
Common Buzzard	1
Spotted Redshank	2
Black-tailed Godwit	550
Red Knot	1
Great Black-backed Gull	1
Eurasian Jackdaw	8
Common Starling	30