Deja (Deja Vu) Vu... and whatever the opposite is...

 

Something feels...off. It's like a Deja Vu of a Deja Vu moment... and I suspect I am experiencing a glitch in the Patch code... either that or there's a modal running because I find myself living almost the same moments, eight years on compared to what I did eight years or so earlier. 

I fire myself up to visit the patch (currently a low tide at HWH beckons)... only to be scuppered by the weather or work or alarm clock inertia... end up missing it and then ponder on what could be about and sigh at the lack of birds. Then I check previous blog posts for this time of year and find... I was doing almost exactly the same thing each year, except this time it feels different. It isn't of course, different... but I'm now wondering why it is that things have come full circle despite everything else in my world moving ever onwards. I'm not sure whether to take comfort in this (these?) fixed point(s) in time...or... rue them. Quite the existential dilemma and not very 'patchy'. 

Q: What to do?   A: Flip a coin...

Heads - some online birding. Tails - a snack and an early night.

P-i-i-i-i-i-in-g

Hmmm. Heads... 

Where to? The US I guess... should be daylight there... it's 9pm here. Let' see... how about California?

...and we have... WOW!

DOZENS of Hummers... mostly Ruby-throated - AMAZING!

Well I did NOT expect that... go check it out... here's the link  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXe8MpU7uzk

That is splendid. I'm almost jealous! OK... one more then snacks and sign off for now I think... random pin in webcam map yields... Tresna, Poland. OK... so what's going on down by... Żywieckie Lake?

I'll tell you what. Wild Boars is what!!!

Now how do you follow that?

Checking the Patch Pantry...

 

Cornelis Biltius (1653-c1686), Dutch painter, had a penchant, it seems for painting pantries full of game and on seeing his work I was prompted to do something similar - check the patch pantry. If this coming year was to see the phoenix of this blog rise from its self-neglected ashes, then an idea about what it might be possible to see in the coming months, seems like a good place to start.

The most 'recent' list I have is for 2010 it looks like and so below is the list for that year, some 12 years ago now. Anything in YELLOW is what the patch has yielded during my three previous short visits. Anything in GREEN is what should be guaranteed. I'll update things as the year progresses... so watch this space. talking of which, if you DO happen to chance on this blog... spread the word as I am no longer on any kind of social media and hence have zero means of publicizing it - not that I mind, tbh, if it's just me rambling to myself on here, but if any of you who used to read it are still about and got something from it, or know of a soul who might - please, feel free to direct them this way and invite them to leave a comment :)

And so, that list...

BNGrebe, L Grebe, GC Grebe, Cormorant, G Heron, L Egret, M Swan, Greylag, Canada, Shelduck, Mallard, Gadwall, Shoveler, Wigeon, Teal, Pochard, Tufty, Ruddy, M Harrier, Buzzard, R Kite, Sparrowhawk, Kestrel, Merlin, Peregrine, G Partridge, Pheasant, W Rail, Moorhen, Coot, Oystercatcher, Avocet, LR Plover, R Plover, Lapwing, G Sandpiper, Co Sandpiper, Redshank, Greenshank, Blackwit, Curlew, Whimbrel, Snipe, J Snipe, Woodcock, BH Gull, C Gull, H Gull, LBB Gull, GBB Gull, Med Gull, Glaucous, YL Gull, C Tern, Feral Pigeon, S Dove, C Dove, Woodpigeon, Cuckoo, Barn Owl, Little Owl, SEO, Swift, Kingfisher, GS Woodpecker, LS Woodpecker, Skylark, S Martin, H Martin, Swallow, M Pipit, P Wagtail, G Wagtail, Wren, Dunnock, Robin, Wheatear, Stonechat, Whinchat, S Thrush, M Thrush, Redwing, Fieldfare, Blackbird, Garden Warbler, Blackcap, Whitethroat, L Whitethroat, Sedge, Reed, Gropper, Willow, Chiffchaff, Goldcrest, G Tit, B Tit, C Tit, LT Tit, W Tit, Nuthatch, Treecreeper, Magpie, C Crow, Rook, Jackdaw, Raven, Jay, Starling, H Sparrow, T Sparrow, Chaffinch, Brambling, Linnet, L Redpoll, Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Siskin, Bullfinch, Yellowhammer, Reed Bunting... Knot (121), Dunlin (122), Sanderling (123), Spotted Flycatcher (124), Green Woodpecker (125), Turnstone (126), Garganey (127), Common Redstart (128), Tree Pipit (129), Golden Plover (130), Ruff (131), Pink-footed Goose (132), Cetti's Warbler (133), Goldeneye (134), Tawny Owl (135), Firecrest (136), Water Pipit (137), Goosander (138), Iceland Gull (139)... SO close, so VERY close to the magical 140!!!

Moore (or less...) impromptu mud-puddling...

 

With the raven-haired one, settled on the couch, pampering said raven and with dinner in the oven, the boy and I headed to the reserve for an impromptu splash and tally at some of the pools at the east end. We had an hour and the tides were all wrong to head west and so we drove to Pumphouse Pool, parked up and kicked his little blue ball chase-ily all the way to the Eastern Reedbed, picking up 4 Redwing and a female Chaffinch at the entrance.

As we rounded the path to the screens we spied a lone scope on a tripod. Somebody was there... and they were clearly there for the birds too! Well that was unexpected. Imagine my surprise then when there, looking out over the Reedbed, was my old birding buddy, young Mullholland with his other half. Last time we 'spoke' was by Wazzappp, 2 years earlier and before that, Christmas 2019 (just before COVID hit) from opposite ends of the earth... Costa Rica(?) and Paris respectively. And yet today could have been any birding year in the past two decades - it felt no different. Some things, in the nicest possible way don't change - even modes of transport to and from the far reaches of the reserve.

It's Funny. My last couple of blogs have been about how the reserve has changed in the years since my last birding visit, but it suddenly struck me, chatting with Mully, that the vibe had not. It was still our patch. Yes, there may not have been much around (see below), but thinking back it was often like that... and that never stopped our enjoyment of the place and I left feeling re-balanced and optimistic - not for a long list of birds that frankly, I think is now beyond the patch, but for the joy of looking.

Bring it on :)

Eastern Reedbed - 2 Coot (and rumours of a potentially hidden, thermally imaged Bittern)

Mill Brook Pool - pair Shoveler, male Gadwall, female Tufted Duck, 1 Moorhen, 3 Coot, pair Mallard

Pumphouse Pool (from Colin's) - 5pair Gadwall, 10 Coot, pair Mallard, pair Teal, 1 Oystercatcher

R.I.P Upper Moss Side...

 

This is NOT Upper Moss Side. Perhaps if it was, there'd be some hope for the site. But alas no...

Let me explain.

After an eight year absence from the patch I returned to find the east end of the reserve much changed - see Plucked and Seasoned and so I decided to visit the west end today. For the uninitiated, this comprises the walk from the black and yellow gate, west along the Manchester Ship Canal to Halfway House (the bend in the river opposite Fiddler's Ferry power station), then back up along the canal east to the Ethylene Station and then cutting through to Upper Moss Side, where, once upon a time, farmland birds (Tree Sparrows, Yellowhammers, Grey Partridge, Barn Owl) were regulars, Brown Hares almost guaranteed once every few visits and occasional surprises like Quail and Great Grey Shrike, popped up. On top of that, the hide overlooking Norton Marsh was great for a leisurely mid-walk cuppa and scan of the pools and marsh for waders and wildfowl, the odd Stonechat, Marsh Harrier and Short-eared Owl. Even Osprey occasionally put in an appearance on it's way north at the right time of year and Green Sandpipers could often be heard 'kloy klee klee-ing' somewhere out on the marsh.

It is not like that any more. It now looks like this... Unkempt...unloved... and abandoned.

 

The rich farmland has gone, replaced instead with unmanaged scrubland devoid of anything but the odd Great Tit, Blue Tit, Blackbird, Robin, Wren, Chaffinch and Dunnock surreptitiously clinging to the remnants of hedgerows and the newly encroaching saplings in muted embarrassment - rewilding at its lazy worst in a casual attempt it seems, to absorb the area into the Mersey Forest. Well, I'm sorry, but I'd much rather have a mosaic of habitats, rich in birdlife than the homogenizing scrubland we now have. It's a poor substitute and seems destined to turn the west end of the reserve into the same sanitized 'parkland' as the east.

It's lost its wildness... and I guess that was the whole idea - to make a space where people can jog, walk their dogs and ramble... reconnect with nature. In itself of course, that has to be a good thing and I know I sound like a NIMBY... but what gets my goat is this kind of claim... sorry Mersey Forest, but it really does!

https://www.merseyforest.org.uk/about/how-we-benefit-the-environment/

It's not ALL about woodlands you know! How does replacing a relatively rare local habitat (rich farmland) with MORE woodlands and ponds boost biodiversity? Biodiversity is about, well... diversity and the site has lost a ton of it now... and it saddens me. Truly. And then there's Norton Marsh...

Now if you want to get the full impact of what can happen to a place when it ceases to be managed for wildlife, go take a look at my original blog on Upper Moss Side here...

http://moorepatcher.blogspot.com/2010/06/birding-on-upper-moss-side-photo-guide.html

In particular, there's this photo...

That my friends is the Norton Marsh bird hide. It was great... now, it looks like this...

 

Yep. It's gone... and the marsh? Well, let's just say there are no pools and you can't even see the river anymore. What I wonder is the opposite of 'Halcyon Days'?

Ah well... little point I guess in me grumpily dwelling on the gallons of spilt milk I waded through this afternoon with the pooch and so instead, I'll finish off with the birds we DID see... I'm afraid there weren't many :/

We parked up at the black and yellow gate having perilously navigated the ever deepening but thankfully frozen potholes of the track to it...

... and made our way along the canal to Half Way House (HWH) where we picked up; 15 Tufted Duck, 8 Gadwall, 4 Mallard, 3 Little Grebe, 2 Coots, I Herring Gull, 2 Black-headed Gulls and a Common Gull on the water. 

Along the path itself was a sparse and eerily quiet sprinkling of Great Tits, Blue Tits, Long-tailed Tits, Robins, Dunnocks and Chaffinches.

HWH itself was ill-timed. The tide was in (I had forgotten to check) and so there was no exposed mud.

 

There were however 5 Grey Heron adults tucked into the far bank, 3 Canada Geese and 2 Shelduck way off by Norton Marsh, a solitary Black-headed Gull on the water and a couple of Ravens calling to our left, probably annoyed by the Buzzard that was soaring overhead and that, apart from 2 Carrion Crows and a Magpie over... was that. The rest of Upper Moss Side yielded nothing new save for a pair of Bullfinch in one of the hedges bordering what was once Tree Sparrow Field.

At least the dog enjoyed his run, but I think it will be a while before I venture to UMS again. Still, cuts out the middle bit and gives me more time to check the east and west ends of the patch. Let's see what turns up eh? Who know, perhaps the Longhorns will come back one day... miss you guys ;)

PS Lapwing Lake - 30 Wigeon, 2 Teal, 4 Mallard, 2 Coot

Plucked and seasoned...

 

Today is my first birding visit to the patch in 8 years and boy has it changed! 

I thought I'd start, seasonally enough, as I used to do at the Eastern end of the reserve and work back towards Lapwing Lane, checking off the Eastern Reedbed, Millbrook Pool, Pumphouse Pool, Birchwood Pool and Lapwing Lake, taking in the Feeding Station at the end of Lapwing Lane, to get a 'baseline' for my blog continuation.  

So, last night, I set my three alarms for 7am, to head straight out with my borrowed Opticrons and see what was about. First thing I noticed was that my capacity to actually get out of bed at that time of the morning has suffered what one might call 'slippage' in the intervening years (I am now biologically an Owl and not a Lark it seems...) and so I didn't arrive onsite until 9:23am.

On the drive there I plucked a species tally from the air (37) and guessed that Robin would be the first bird I got. I was wrong. It was Mistle Thrush, followed by Robin (doh!), which in turn was followed in quick succession by Dunnock, Magpie, Wood Pigeon, calling Nuthatch and Pheasant, and fly overs by Blackbird, Black-headed Gull and Feral Pigeon - unimpressive stuff. But, it was a start, and as I'm writing this, I have no idea how close to the 'plucked' tally of 37 species I am/was - I'll do that at the end!

Today I decided to park alongside the car park and walk the Eastern end. In the past, I used to drive up to the reedbed, do a bit of birding, drive to Colin's Hide on the east end of Pumphouse, do a bit... and so on. Problem was that as it had been so long, I didn't know whether the barrier would be locked or not and so decided not to risk it. I needn't have bothered... the barrier had long since fallen into disrepair and the warehouses seemingly abandoned and graffitied..

It did not bode well and Birchwood Strip to the left, once a throbbing little woodland full of songs and calls was rather too quiet and I pondered if the single Cormorant that flew over might be a portent of even less to come :/ I wasn't that far off the mark...

By 9:40am I was at Pumphouse west hide... well, I say 'hide'... it's not. Not anymore. Now it's just a screen and of course without a roof, the benches were wet. Today the weather was fine. Some blue sky, no wind, a little chilly, but gone it seems are the days when one could hunker down for hours with a coffee, nice and dry, out of the rain and watch the comings and goings on the pool in relative comfort. There is nothing there anymore to hold one for more than a few minutes and it's a shame. It was a great place to just sit and watch 'the nature'... the price paid across the Reserve for the thoughtless few who occasionally took over the shelters for drinking, smoking and pissing up the walls. Not sure where the 'Stellar Brigade' hang out these days, but there's evidence of their visits, even today...

Maybe the lack of a hide is fitting. There wasn't much to see. The thinnest covering of ice had pushed the couple of dozen waterfowl to the far end of the pool, just below Colin's and these mostly looked to be Coot...

The Eastern Reedbed and Millbrook Pool were even worse. There was nothing, literally NOTHING on or around Millbrook, not even a Mute Swan or Canada Goose... and the reedbed yielded just 2 Coots. There was nothing perched, nothing calling... it was quite simply - dead.

To be honest, I was pretty dejected... what HAS happened to the place? It used to be so rich in bird life, at least that's how I remember it. I suppose it might always have been quiet at this time of year... perhaps what I need is a frame of reference. Good idea Mark! Let's grab a 'bit-o-blog' from the same date (ish) previously and compare!

Here's what I wrote on 19th Jan, 10 years ago at the same locations... 

FLASHBACK...

I've decided to forgo my snipe hunt and try the east end of the reserve for Woodcock and Goosander. Not really sure why, given that neither have been seen at the east end for a while, but hey, ever the optimist me.
I'm driving along the track past Pumphouse Pool when I remember something... Somebody had posted up that they'd seen the male Lesser Spotted Woodpecker in the trees along the embankment a few days ago. Deffo worth a look!

SO, windows down and I'm crawling along in the little Skoda on choke only, barely making a sound. It's almost like I'm driving an electric car. I scan every silver birch. No sign (or sound). There are Bullfinches though... a little chain of 'tu's flitting acros the road. I reach the Eastern Reedbed and park up. I'm sure there'll be Woodcock again today... Hmmm. Damn their cryptic hides. Seven of them and not a single one in view. Or maybe it's three. You see the thing is, I KNOW they're out there, but I'm buggered if I can see a single one of them! Ah well, nothing to be done but count the wildfowl on Millbrook Pool; 8 Shoveler, 55 Teal, 11 Mallard, 18 Gadwall, 2 Tufted Duck,15 Canada Goose, 2 Coot and a little surprise... the Little Grebes are back; a pair! The Eastern Reedbed though has refrozen... and there is no open water... BUT there are Water Rail; 2 calling and the first of the year for me. Good stuff!

...back to the now...

OK. It's not just me. 10 years ago, same place, same time there were good numbers of birds and species... and all that without the ubiquitous winter Bitterns!

Time to check the east end of Pumphouse... and again, it looks different...

... and I have to say, it filled me, mess as it was, with a little hope! Pumphouse used to be THE only place on the Eastern end of the patch for waders, until Crassula took over and attempts to flood it out resulted in the total loss of the pool's muddy margins and turned it into just another duck pond. Could these draggings of mud and sand represent an attempt to return the pool to its former glory? I do hope so! And the bonus was I got to count the waterfowl I had spotted from the other end, up close and personal - 21 Coot, 2 pairs Gadwall, 1 pair Teal, 2 pairs  Shoveler, 1 Moorhen, 3 Little Grebe - that's a bit better, though still not a patch (pun intended) on 10 years ago when there were  "7 Wigeon, 52 Teal, 15 Mallard, 14 Gadwall, 10 Tufted Duck, 2 Moorhen, 2 Coot, 1 Grey Heron. 

Next up was, Birchwood Pool. Now, this has/had three hides: East, South and West, but one (the east hide) is now also a screen with wet benches, although thankfully the other two are a bit more 'intact'... BUT, here's the thing - somebody has renamed the buggers! They all have these flash carved signs on them...

The east hide is now 'Fox Hide', the south 'Strip Hide' (don't even go there...) and the west hide is now 'Grebe Hide'. WTF? I mean what the actual F**k? Sure they look 'nice', but the whole place now feels like it's been 'parkified' for ramblers, joggers and dog walkers. No longer the hidden gem among reserves, now instead, 'somewhere nice to go for a Sunday stroll.' Moore! What have you become?!

I guess the problem started when the rubbish tip closed and the tax-relief money for reserve management vanished... ho hum. Gone are the halcyon gull days of old where you could see EIGHT species on the pool during the winter (including Iceland and Glaucous) which would draw in gullers from across the north-west. Back in the day, it was better than Seaforth some years...

Today there were just 7 Black-headed Gulls and 3 Common Gull among the 4 Tufted Duck, 2 Pochard, 12 Mallard, 4 Teal, 4 Gadwall, 2 Little Grebe, 1 Great Crested Grebe, 2 Coot, 2 Cormorant and single Grey Heron.

But all was not 'meh'... I did get Green Woodpecker among the pines between Millbrook and Pumphouse on the way and the 'Fox Hide' sign did bring back pleasant memories of hand-feeding a fox chicken crisps there one year. Perhaps that's how it got its name... that would be nice :)

...and so through the woods to the Feeding Station and a quick check of the old Tawny Owl roost tree. Needless to say, that too had changed from an ivy cover cluster of trees by a wooden bridge, to this soggy sight...

... and there was more soggy-ness. The little garden area near the gate on Lapwing Lane, once the winter haunt of Woodcock, was also under water...

... and so it went on, all the way to the Feeding Station...

Ah yes. The Feeding Station. Now, ordinarily, I never used to visit this much, apart from around this time of year for winter finches, Willow Tit and Coal Tit. It was tucked away in a grubby bit of woodland, but well supplied with feeders and was another 'get away' spot for a few minutes. Imagine my chagrin therefore when I arrived to find the 'parkification' of my beloved reserve had resulted in this!

No!!! Enough already! Pictures of birds. Please stop! There were six (I think) of these hideous things stapled to the old screen depicting >30 species. Yeah right! Back in the day... maybe... at a massive cumulative push... but today? Four species. FOUR! Blue Tit, Great Tit, Chaffinch and Nuthatch. No Greenfinch, No Goldfinch, No Siskin, No Redpoll, No Brambling, No House Sparrow, No Reed Bunting, No Long-tailed Tit, No Willow Tit, No Coal Tit... bugger all. I had to wait right until I was leaving to even get a single Great Spotted Woodpecker and that flew into a tree behind me and started calling along with a Jay and a couple of Bullfinch. I am shaking my head... Moore is NOT what it used to be :/

And with that, I dragged my sorry ass to Lapwing Lake where at least the 7 Wigeon were nice among the 2 Moorhen, 4 Teal, 3 Mallard, 2 Coot and 2 Moorhen...

Elsewhere, I added Buzzard, 31 Redwing, Long-tailed Tit, Song Thrush, Raven (flyover) and Carrion Crow, Wren, 

Total species tally for the day was... 34 - so not that far off the plucked 37 :)

SO what do I think? What, 8 years on... are my first impressions? 

#3words... Ponytail - Sasquatch - Tango 

They're as good as any to sum up how I feel...   

8 years later...

 

How things have changed... 

For some reason today, I remembered that years ago I did a blog about my beloved patch - Moore, and so I am currently considering restarting it. 

The reserve has changed a lot... and so have I. For a start, I'm re-married, I have a small dog (above), had a another heart attack, have no optics whatsoever any more (divorce + car crash, respectively... the later literally, not a euphemism for the divorce), the reserve appears to all intent an purpose to be no longer managed, the Bitterns by all accounts have gone, everywhere is feral and unkempt and of course there's been COVID - perfect conditions I'd say to see just what IS at Moore these days!

SO, if you liked the old blog and are still around, I'll be back on here as soon as the Crypto bull run has peaked and I can afford new optics.

Watch, as they say, this space...

Mark