Birding Group Visit to Pennington Flash 16th October 2012

Birding Group Visit to Pennington Flash 16th October 2012

It seems that every time that the birding group schedules Wigan Flashes the weather conspires to be so bad that it is changed to Pennington Flash at the last minute, primarily because at least there is shelter there. This time was no exception. The weather wasn’t any better there but at least there was cover on what was a cold blustery and rainy day without much going for it except that it blew the cobwebs out of our heads.

As we got out of the cars we could see that that the main flash looked more like open sea with with the wind whipping up dark waves. With all the rain there has been recently it was no surprise that the water levels were very high and not much use for waders. We started, as usual at the Horrocks Hide which was like a wind tunnel and all the seats were soaking wet, the wind had so driven the rain through it. There were the usual Cormorants here and about thirty Canada a Geese and similar numbers of Lapwing and Black-headed Gulls but not much else. Moving on to the Tom Edmunson Hide we saw Gadwall, Shoveler and Teal in modest quantities as well as a lone Mute Swan and Grey Heron a few Tufted Ducks. In between rainfalls we moved hides and the next one was the Ramsdale Hide which was also fairly unexciting. We spent a long time looking at a diving bird that we hoped would be a Black-necked Grebe that was on the sightings board but in the end we concluded that it was probably a biggish Little Grebe. There were some Teal mixed in with a flock of Mallards, a few Shovelers, a Mute Swan and Coots and Canada Geese.

With the rain still coming down heavily we thought that there was no point in going further down the low path that leads to the canal because it was in all probability still under water from the last time we were at Pennington so we back-tracked and dropped into the Bunting Hide. As usual this was fairly busy and the highlight was probably the presence of a couple of Willow Tits; not unusual in itself, the interesting aspect was that they were less flighty than usual and even gave us long views so that we could look at the field guides and ponder the fine detail of Willow over Marsh Tit- always good for whiling some time away !

Also on the feeders were a few Bullfinch and Nuthatches, the usual array of Chaffinches and Tits, large numbers of Greenfinch amounting to 16 in one cage at one point. Magpies, Moorhens, and Collared Doves and Wood Pigeons were plentiful as well as the resident squirrels. After a bit, however, everyone was cold and it didn’t seem like the weather was going to get any better so we all headed back to the car park. As it happened some sun started to appear just as we got into the car to leave but we doubted that it would stay that way for long so we headed off to the pub for lunch !

Bird Sightings : Horrocks Hide

Bird Sightings : Tom Edmonson Hide

Bird Sightings : Ramsdale Hide

Bird Sightings : Bunting Hide