Yes I agree regarding the lack of birders there is a lot more to it, but I think the lack of birds due to the poor habitat doesn't help. The number of times a mother brings her kids into Horrock's while I'm there to look at the birds and there's just nothing to look at. They always leave disappointed. A visit to Horrock's hide does nothing to entice youngsters to take up birding, probably quite the opposite. 

Anyway, I'm just back from another quick visit, and right on cue birds on the buoys, including one gull doing a spot of "gardening".

I've also seen common terns on the buoys recently, plus a great black-back once. I don't know how stiff those spikes are, they look as if they're blowing in the wind. I expect 1) the birds to pretty soon learn that they can quite comfortably sit on them and just ignore them, in fact they may even help the birds avoid slipping off, and/or 2) if the materials used are anything like normal quality these days, the spikes will fall off next time it rains and they'll wash up on the spit one day soon.

It's just symbolic of the way things are these days. People talk a good talk about conserving wildlife but the majority then do all they can to destroy it or move it on. Everybody wants bees in the garden but nobody wants a bees nest. Pennington Flash is supposed to be a National Nature Reserve (I don't know how I can say that with a straight face), but nature is the last thing that is considered at the flash. Most people think it's a great place for wildlife based on the Canada geese, mallards and coots on the car park.

Almost as alarming to me is the fact that I so rarely see other birders there. Of course there are a small and dedicated (and ageing) few who normally go either at dawn or dusk, but I often go during the day as well and all of the hides are usually empty whichever day of the week or weekend I go. Why is this the case? In my view it's because the habitat has been allowed to deteriorate to a state which is very poor and more worryingly probably virtually irreversible. Any birders visiting Horrock's hide today will find an empty hide and see a handful of coots, a few mute swans, a few mallards, a Canada goose and some cormorants on the spit, all miles away at the end. Despite the sterling work of the volunteers in spring, most of the spit is again completely overgrown with willow scrub and the bits that can be used by birds are just a few bits of stone, partially hidden from the hide by the scrub, on the very end of the spit or on the edges, and even these are all completely covered when water levels (frequently) rise. Meanwhile Ramsdales hide is hardly worth a visit because you can barely see anything for the reeds in front of the hide and the Teal (Charlie Owen) hide looks out onto a sea of New Zealand pygmy weed which has almost completely choked the water. Apart from year ticking willow tit there is no incentive for any birders to visit the flash and everybody just waits for the (fool) hardy few to find such rare or scarce birds that they may find interesting. I honestly think that there are regularly periods of two or three consecutive days when no birders visit Pennington Flash.

The whole of the National Nature Reserve needs some serious habitat management work carried out by skilled rangers and led by people who know what they're doing. It's not good enough to rely on volunteers, who of course do a great job but who like most birders are also ageing. Make it worthwhile for birders to sit and wait in Horrock's. At the moment it's almost pointless.

Probably the greatest spectacle of all at the flash is the gull roost. Whether the spikes on the buoys work or not, the intention is clear, they are there to try to stop the gulls from landing on them.  It's just a further attempt, knowingly or unknowingly, to erode the value of the flash to wildlife. Next thing we'll have gull scarers going off at dusk.