This morning a full circuit produced just two common terns. However, I did see a small wader with a wing bar just as it disappeared behind vegetation on the end of the spit. Could possibly have been a common sandpiper but it didn't seem to have that kind of flight. Unfortunately I couldn't relocate it. I'll try again later.
Hopefully this is the correct thread, it's certainly close; yesterday around 11:50am driving up the Atherleigh Way (A579) near the Flash (between St Helens Road and the Sports Village), hundreds of swifts overhead.
First summer Arctic Tern, appeared over the flash early morning (not present first thing) and still present at 10am
Four adult Common Terns (only one present first thing in the morning)
Three Ringed Plovers flew in from the W/NW early morning and flew low across the flash, alighting only very briefly on the sailing club shore
Three Redshanks on Ramsdales Scrape
Four drake Shovelers on Ramsdales Scrape
Male Cuckoo singing from the south side again throughout the morning
Swift numbers remain high, with just over 800 over the eastern side pre 7am, birds then spreading across a wider area before the onset of rain around 8:30 when two large feeding flocks over the eastern side numbered 1150
830 Swifts feeding over trees at the eastern end of the site in an impressive flock, dispersing slightly later on over the south side and some over the water too
Full circuit mid-afternoon for me today, partly in a vain attempt to see Garden Warbler and Lesser Whitethroat (or at least hear to know more precisely where to look) - no joy
Warblers - a reasonable selection:
Willow Warbler - loads singing away
Chiffchaff - quite a few singing - managed to spot one but only because it was sitting at the top of a semi-dead tree, not worth trying with full leaf cover
Blackcap - loads singing all over the place, managed to (separately) spot both a male and a female
Whitethroat - only a few singing - got a brief view of one, they seemed to be skulking (a la Blackcap) rather than singing from prominences
Reed Warbler - actually got a good view of one singing away (from the "bench viewpoint" on the other side from the carpark - East Bay "hide"?), first time I've had a good view at Pennington rather than the usual song but no sight or fleeting sightings, I think it was also feeding a juvenile
Cetti's Warbler - heard several but just as I got close to the Tom Edmonson hide one "exploded" and I managed to see it fly through the trees before it "exploded" again
Most places I'm familiar with seem to have Sedge Warbler environment between the Reed Warblers and the woodland warblers - Pennington Flash seems to be missing that kind of terrain.
Waterfowl, etc:
Obviously Mallards, Coots, Moorhens, GC Grebe, Mute Swans, Cormorants and Canada geese - some Mallards and Canada Geese with young
Gadwall - lots some with ducklings
Tufted Duck - only a few
Shovelor - a few, saw one pair displaying - not seen that before
Little Grebe - in more than one place but what looked like a pair from the Tom Edmonson hide with one feeding a juvenile
Mandarin Duck - the male's still on the canal in the little Ackers Fold inlet - no sign of a female
Tits - at Bunting hide:
Willow Tit - kept on coming back
Coal Tit - at least 2
Great Tit - eventually
No Blue, no Long-tailed - funny to have the least common first and some of the others not even there
Some of the Black-headed Gulls have got big, dumpy, fluffy chicks
Several other species, but nothing of particular interest
Full circuit mid-afternoon today, mainly for surveying breeding birds but highlights of five singing Cetti's Warblers, five family parties of Willow Tits, single Common Tern and 120 House Martins tight to the Western end reeds.
Fairly quiet look about this morning, highlights being singing Garden Warbler and Lesser Whitethroat at the western end, 3 Little egret in trees at the west end and 3 Shoveler around Ramsdales
Cuckoo calling this morning c.6.30 on the South side of the flash and then heard just after 8 on the north side of canal from the rucks Only other bits of note were 2 freshly fledged Grey Wagtail on the sailing club shore, a pair of Greylag geese with at least one Gosling also here. Singing Lesser Whitethroat again along Slag Lane in bushes around the Borehole.
Early this morning a singing male Cuckoo flew NW over Ramsdales Ruck towards Bickershaw, having probably flown over from the south side of the flash. Also present, three Common Terns and 130 Swifts.
No sign of any sanderling or dunlin at the sailing club. Unfortunately this appears to be the only shoreline available at the moment due to high water levels.
4 Turnstones still on this spit, with a single Dunlin (possibly arctica)
Two Sanderlings flew straight through with a single Dunlin at 3:35pm, quite quickly followed by another three waders (one larger than the other two, the larger bird most probably a Ringed Plover) which flashing through at speed across the southern side of the flash in the ‘murk’ defied definitive identification
2 Common Terns
860 Swifts, numbers swelled enormously at one point by a huge column of birds over the eastern side of the flash, total numbers could well have exceeded four figures
240 House Martins, mainly low over the southern side of the flash near the East Bay (not a Sand Martin in sight?)
138 Swallows, pretty much all at the very western end
This evening, a rufous (hepatic) female Cuckoo perched briefly by Ramsdales scrape (photo on the website) and a female Pochard was resting on the spit.
Cuckoo singing again just south of the canal at the back of Teal scrape this early morning. Also, 2 Common Terns, 2 drake Shovelers, Willow Tits with young, Little Egret and 93 Swifts.
Whilst out on my bike ride this morning I stopped on the old railway bridge over the brook and had a brief sighting of a Dipper. It flew upstream towards the bypass bridge but I wasnt able to relocate it.