Windy Wirral

Redshank

I timed a visit to the Wirral to arrive after the rain and much to my astonishment I was successful. It was, however, very windy and gloomy.

Arriving at a bracing New Brighton at high tide I thought I'd check out the pontoon on the marine lake to see if any purple sandpipers have arrived yet. It was jam-packed with redshanks, the only other wader being a lone sanderling.

Redshanks

Black-headed gulls and common gull

A big flock of herring gulls played in the surf. Black-headed and common gulls loafed on the beach with oystercatchers and a few redshanks. I wandered down to the end of the sea defences, a small flock of turnstones and a couple of redshanks on the rocks and a great black-back loafing on the beach.

Turnstones

I got the 414 bus from New Brighton to Leasowe and walked down the path by the Birtle to Kerrs Field and Leasowe Lighthouse. The stretch along the Birtle was the most productive: mallards, moorhens, a little egret and a pair of grey wagtails along the river; house sparrows, blackbirds and goldfinches in the hedges. Things were quieter in Kerr's Field and around the lighthouse, not entirely surprising given the time of year, time of day and the weather. Plenty of gulls, mostly black-headed and herring gulls rather fewer common gulls, overhead and on the beach. Plenty of oystercatchers and redshanks also on the beach and there was a fly-by by a murmuration of dunlins.

Off home before sunset and back home an hour late due to trespassers on the line in Liverpool.