Thursday, 23 November 2017

Bit Windy On't Wirral

I took the day off work today to go birding. I had arranged to go with a friend so even though the weather forecast looked rubbish it was a bit difficult to change the arrangements as we had both booked leave.

After considering our options we decided on a trip to the Wirral. Our logic was that we could at least start at Burton Mere Wetlands and if the weather was as bad as expected we'd be able to shelter in the hides. If it was any better than forecast we'd have plenty sites along the coast to go at.

We arrived at Burton Mere at around 09:30. Barring a couple of showers the rain was largely holding off and the wind didn't feel that bad either.

We did a quick scan around from the reception area and set off around the reserve. It was very quiet.

A ten minute spell in the hide in the centre of the reserve (think its called Marsh Covert) produced nothing more than a few Teal and Shoveler, a single Pintail and a Little Egret. A single Kingfisher was sat on a perch less than 10 feet from one of the windows - a photographers dream but there were no photographers there!

On our way round to the Inner Marsh hide we spent a bit of time looking over what appeared to be a seed crop field. It was just a bit too dense to see into, but there were plenty Chaffinches and Linnets flying around, suggesting other stuff may well have been feeding down between the stems but we couldn't see if there was.

From here we made our way to the Inner Marsh Farm hide, quickly checking the hawthorn where the Long-eared Owl had been roosting a couple of years ago. Again the pool in front of the hide was pretty quiet. There was a flock of Black-tailed Godwits immediately in front of the hide. I love the noise they make when they're feeding. Mixed in were a few Dunlin and Redshank and I picked up a Stonechat and single Whooper Swan on one of the islands. Ian had a go at scoping some distant geese to see if there was anything of interest, but they were so far away it was impossible.

Black-tailed Godwits

The view from the Inner Marsh Farm Hide


We spent around half an hour in the hide before heading back to the reception. On the way we discussed trying Parkgate for the high tide which was at 13:30. It wasn't a massive tide, only around 8.4m and usually a tide of 10m is needed to push things off the marsh. But we decided to have a go anyway. As we got to the car it was obvious that the wind had picked up considerably now that we were out from the shelter of the trees and earth bunds in the reserve. But, we headed off to Parkgate anyway.

To say it was a bit breezy would be an understatement. By standing at the side of the car we managed to get enough shelter to keep the tripods steady and we had a decent hour with at least three, maybe four Marsh Harriers, one male and one ring-tailed Hen Harrier and singles of Greenshank and Merlin. Ian thought he'd got a Great White Egret but it was so distant it was difficult to tell.

We stayed until just after the tide had peaked and then moved on. This time to New Brighton to check out the marine lake. As we drove along the promenade waves were crashing over the sea wall and when we got out of the car on the car park at Perch Rock it was obvious why. Whether it was because it was that bit more exposed or because the wind strength had increased I don't know, but it was blowing a hoolie!  There were very few gulls on the lake itself, but as we walked around to the end with the pontoons we were pleased to be able to see a tidy flock of waders were there, roosting in what turned out to be a very sheltered spot.




The hoped for Purple Sandpipers were there, along with a couple of Knot, a few Dunlin, more than a few Turnstones, a single Greenshank and plenty Redshanks. One Redshank had a Cockle or Clam clamped to its toe. It was obviously uncomfortable for the bird as it kept trying to put the foot down and then pulling it up quickly. Neither of us could work out why or how the bird had ended up with a shellfish stuck to its foot.

By this time it was around 14:30 so we called it a day and headed home.

Sunday, 19 November 2017

Gull Season Begins

I'm not going to pretend I'm a gull expert. I'm certainly not going to pretend I'm a gull fanatic like some birders. But I am trying to 'get better' and that means 'doing the gull roost' as as they provide such a great opportunity to observe and compare birds of different species and races.

I managed to get to Pennington Flash roost for the first time this afternoon.The window to make the most of the roost is quite small, normally gulls start to gather from around 14:00 but the light goes by 16:00. I don't finish work until 15:00 at the earliest, so my chances to watch the roost are limited to weekends.

Today the light was excellent, no wind and a reasonable number of gulls (eventually). The best place to watch the roost is usually the opposite side of the flash to the nature reserve so that's where I headed. At 14:30 conditions were perfect as you can see below.



I was joined at around 15:00 by another regular and we set about checking through the birds. There were around 7000 Black-headed Gulls and a few hundred each of Common, Herring and Lesser Black-backed. Two or three Great Black-backed gulls were also present. What I was really hoping for though was something a bit different. There have been a couple of Mediterranean Gulls recently, an odd Iceland Gull and two or three Yellow-legged Gulls. I had seen what I thought was a 3rd winter YLG just after I had arrived, but at a considerable distance, near the hide on the opposite side. John, the other birder, confirmed that a YLG had indeed been where I'd seen my bird as he'd been in the hide at the time. After about 20mins John picked it up again a bit closer, perched on a buoy. Ten minutes or so later John found another bird, an adult much closer. This bird was incredibly clean and was a great individual to study and compare with the other Herring and LBB Gulls.





I managed a few phoneskoped shots which I think just about show the key features - obvious darker mantle, white head and longer winged than the Herring Gulls. The spot on the Gonys was also very obvious but doesn't really show up in these photos.

Unfortunately nothing else of interest turned up but it has piqued my interest for the rest of the winter, and I expect I'll be back a few times as the year goes on.