Leasowe

Kestrel, Moreton

A late afternoon stroll round Leasowe Common, timed to avoid the rain. Walking down Pasture Road from Moreton Station I was pleased to find a male kestrel fly up and perch on top of a lamppost. It watched me take a few photos and then walk past with every evidence of not being much fussed about it.

The hedgerows by Kerr's Field were busy with house sparrows and goldfinches and a mixed tit flock which included goldcrests, a chiffchaff and a dozen long-tailed tits. The horse paddocks were quiet, just a few magpies and carrion crows and half a dozen mallards in a big puddle.

Leasowe Common

Leasowe Common was quiet. Plenty of crows, magpies and gulls but just a couple each of robins and wrens to be found amongst the trees. Interesting to see that somebody's built a hide screen overlooking the open bit of the pool amongst the reeds.

Leasowe Common: the view from the screen

It was low tide on the beach so most of the birds were pretty far out. They included herring, black-headed, lesser black-backed and common gulls, with just the one great black-back lumbering out to sea. A couple of large groups of oystercatchers were dotted with redshanks, a couple of little egrets and four curlews. Something interesting must have been out at the tide line as a dozen carrion crows were gathered round it.

Curlew, Leasowe beach

Walking back it was nice to see a couple of buzzards in Kerr's Field. Strangely, it was an overflying heron that spooked the mallards.

Heron