Trip reports

WARTON QUARRY & LEIGHTON MOSS

Wednesday, 10 June 2009

We made for Warton and passed along the village street, turning by the pub into and up Crag Lane to Warton Quarry. We were not disappointed, having a female peregrine resting on the rock face pointed out to us. On a nearby ledge were three well-grown chicks with some dark feathers beginning to come through their down. Then the male showed up, screaming his head off. He came to rest on a ledge not far from her and she called to him. It was wonderful to see the family group together. There were many jackdaws in the quarry, some nearby in a loose flock, perhaps they were juveniles which had been bred earlier? Tom alerted us to a softly singing hidden goldcrest. Green-veined white butterflies with black fore-edged wings fluttered among the wildflowers.

Leaving the quarry, we continued along Crag Road towards Silverdale to the Allen and Morecambe hide car park. It was warm and the sun was shining and so it was we left our waterproofs in the car. Along the path a sedge warbler was showing off and singing loudly from atop a willow, whilst a distant willow warbler practised his descending cadences. Goldfinches were flitting about, calling and singing. Beautiful pink dog roses were admired and we heard the common whitethroat's scratchy song. Arriving at the Allen hide we saw two herons, lots of shelduck, plus a few scattered redshank and lapwing. Two avocets (Recurvirostra avosetta), were sweeping their recurved bills with a side to side scything motion through the water. A curlew called its long bubbling trill as it passed over the hide. An immature marsh harrier over the marsh treated us to a lazy, leisurely glide past. Back on the path we heard a wheezing greenfinch, a reed warbler in song (more of a baritone than the sedge), and for the first time the single note rattling song of the lesser white throat.

On to the Eric Morecambe hide where we noted our first little egret, 3 oystercatchers, and a redshank on its nest by the waterside (looking rather vulnerable). Also a male shoveler, a couple of widgeon, two fearsome looking great black-backs and a single common gull spotted by Anne. Tom found a peregrine resting on a post on the marsh, a hunter from Warton Quarry perhaps? Of interest were three sub-adult gulls. One or two cormorants were about. We were confined to the hide for a while by a heavy shower. Back on the path we happened on a song thrush and spent some time trying to track down the elusive lesser whitethroat, eventually catching a glimpse of it in flight. As we were leaving the car park a swallow passed over the drain.

Taking the road to Silverdale, we turned off for the Leighton Moss Reserve. We had lunch by the feeding station where we watched blue, great and coal tits with great spotted woodpecker, nuthatch and bullfinch. From Lillian's Hide we viewed lots of noisy black-headed gulls. Later a female marsh harrier took a black-headed chick causing absolute uproar. We had 3 or 4 sightings of marsh harriers male and female, hunting and resting. I counted ten greylag geese, also pochard, tufted, some gadwall and a raft of coot.

Our last call was to the Griesdale hide, where members spotted a water vole. There were gadwall, shoveler, a pair of Canada geese with six juveniles, also moorhen, coot and a heron. Swifts with a sand martin overhead and a sparrowhawk flipped swiftly past the hide. Two little egret sparked interest, as did three red deer sporting antlers, which showed above the reeds as they moved.

The library photograph shows the reedbed at Leighton Moss.