In for a Penny; but did we find the pound?

The Safari picked up CR and headed south east to join almost all the old Southside Gang at a grey, dull, dreary but mild(ish) Pennington Flash just over the border into Greater Manchester, our first safari here since mid-April. 

Perhaps the most interesting thing to be seen from a quick peak from the first hide was a Red Dogwood bush in striking plumage, normally we would expect to see the stems this bright, especially as there was no sunshine - chance would have been a fine thing - today, as the sap was rising in the early spring. Maybe it was just the contrast with the, mostly, still green leaves around it but it did seem unseasonally vivid. Anyway with little else to keep us entertained we moved on to the Feeding Station at the Bunting Hide, which should perhaps be renamed the Squirrel Hide due to the plague of Grey Squirrels to be seen there. Not as many as on our previous visit, 'only' eight of them today and big fat ones at that. We don't know what time the feeders get filled up but by the time we got there those pesky Grey Squirrels had eaten almost every single morsel leaving slim picking for the birds. There's definitley a case for more Goshawks and Pine Martens here! We imagine they'd be easy to catch as many of them were pretty rotund for squirrels, and a couple of them were positively barreloid. Any spillage from on high knocked off the feeders was eagerly hoovered up by a herd of Mallards leaving even less for the smaller birds. 

So what small birds did we see? The usual feeders fare was there, like this Great Tit, along with Blue Tits and a couple of, far too fast for our camera, Coal Tits.

With the dearth of food remaining by mid morning the Robins were getting fiesty with each other and a few Moorhens dodged the Mallards on the hunt for missed spillage. After a while one of the 'main event' birds showed itself.

Fortunately it came down to search the table for any left-overseeds.

The Grey Squirrels must miss or ignore the small seeds like Millet that must be in the mix provided. The Coal Tits continued to be too fast for us, the Blue Tits wouldn't sit in a photogenic place but at least the Great Tits provided something to  point the lens at and in the right place with a bit of autumn colour too.

The pics aren't the best as we were up around ISO Beyond Ridiculous due to the gloomy weather and the overhanging trees, double and even triple lashings of noise reduction have been added where necessary too. Almost as we got up to  move on a Nuthatch came in for a look-about, nice.

Once it had departed we continued on our walk to the next hide, where IH, who unfortunately wasn't able to join us to complete the 'set' of the Southside Gang, would have enjoyed the sight of a Heron and total lack of any egrets here for a change.

A small number of ducks, Teal and Gadwall mainly, were mostly a the far side of the pool until  a drake Teal came a little closer.

There weren't many small birds to be seen or heard in the trees along the path to the next hide where we expected to find some Goosanders but there weren't any. There wasn't much of anything and the only 'near' bird was a Moorhen poking around in the overly bright green nightmare that is the extensive bank of invasive New Zealand Pygmyweed. A few Coots mooched around the far bank and a Little Grebe was heard but other than that it was quiet until a dazzling blue dart shot across the back of the pool, always good to see a Kingfisher even if it is only a brief view. A look over the lake from the Horrocks Hide gave us a our first Goldeneyes of the season. A few Snipe were flushed by a Sparrowhawk darting out of the trees on the right hand side but the gulls, Coots, single Oystercatcher and Mallards on the end of the spit took no notice. Scanning around the lake we found several Tufted Ducks and a couple of Great Crested Grebes but we couldn't find anything unusual among the gulls, we were particularly interested in finding a Yellow Legged Gull for our Challenge, we were probably too early in the day with large numbers of gulls coming in to roost on the water in the evening. 

By now it was lunchtime and while the Southsiders took advantage of warming brews and bacon barms in the new cafe we went back to the feeders along with CR to munch our pies and butties. That turned out to be a good move as we soon had a female Bullfinch come down to say hello.

And not long after us saying with all the Grey Squirrels having eaten all the food there was little chance of seeing a Willow Tit, especially as the nearby tables along the very muddy track had been taken away, didn't one go and appear...How often does that happen?

Each time it found a seed it disappeared into the undergrowth to eat it but unlike the Coal Tits spent sometime chosing the next one when it reappeared which it did several times.

We rejoined the some of rest of the gang after lunch and decided to do the circuit the 'wrong way round' - for some inexplicable reason we've only ever walked round the reserve anti-clockwise. So our first stop was at the Horrocks Hide. This caused a bit of chaos with AB and AK who'd stayed in the cafe chatting...where were we??? We went for a quick look to see if we could see them and deliver some lunch rubbish to the nearest bin which was by the water's edge where we sawe this huge fish struggling in the shallows. Not sure what it is, answers on a postcard please. It appeared to have a rounded tail like a Tench rather than a more traditional forked tail which although we took several photos was always under the water when the shutter opened.

It was a big fish, well over 2 feet (60cm) long including the tail. We didn't get back that way so don't know how it got on but it didn't look too good wallowing around so close to the bank. A phone rang "where are you? We're lost" The other two hadn't heard us say we were going to go the wrong way round. Some interesting interpretations of directions later two smiling faces poked through the door, everyone was back together again - phew.
From the hide there was little change from earlier although we were joined by a Little Egret that began to fish in the shallow pool in front of us.

After a few minutes having had no success it had a scratch

and then headed off for, hopefully, more productive fishing grounds.

Withthe gang all present and correct we set off to continue the wrong way round seeing very little new for the day. We had been hoping for some Redwings and Fieldfares but struggled to even see many Blackbirds. Snatches of Cetti's Warbler song was heard coming from thick vegetation several times but we couldn't see any of them. On a day when herons almost beat egrets in our safari tally-up one of the day's best sightings was this afternoon Heron, the same individual as seen in the morning, stood reflecting in front of the atumnal coloured reeds.

It was well into mid-afternoon and getting very gloomy now so we said our goodbyes to the Southsiders, really great to see them all again, and head off headlong into a massive tailback on the motorway...marvelous...NOT!

Not one of our most exciting safaris but we did see just about everything that was on offer and of course had a great catch up and lots of banter with the Southsiders so it was a grand day out.

Where to next? Not sure yet but we'll be out on safari somewhere soon.

In the meantime let us know who the greedy bloaters are in your outback