West Kirby

Pale-bellied (left) and dark-bellied brent geese

For some reason West Kirby's often one of the last site visits of the year. The weather forecast looked iffy but it's been wrong all week so I thought I'd be fine for a walk round the marine lake then up to Red Rocks to see if I couldn't add brent geese to the year list.

It was warm and sunny in Manchester when I set off and I wondered if I wasn't overdressed. I needn't have worried.

Little Eye, Middle Eye and Hilbre

I got off the train at West Kirby and walked down to the marine lake in the teeming rain. It was low tide; in less atrocious weather I'd have walked over to Middle Eye. As it was I was wondering, not for the first time, why I do this to myself.

I had an anticlockwise walk round the lake. There wasn't a lot on the lake itself, except the half a dozen black-headed gulls on one of the jetties, as a group of windsurfers were taking advantage of the stiff breeze to do some stunt surfing.

Dee Estuary from the marine lake

There were a few herring gulls, black-headed gulls and redshanks on the nearby mud. There were more of them a little further out, together with a few curlews. Between the poor light and the rain on my binoculars there wasn't a lot of joy in trying to identify anything more than a hundred yards out. By the halfway mark I'd given up on the bins completely because I was doing better with the naked eye than through a film of rainwater. 

A duck flew up from the far end of the lake. Mercifully, it flew out over the mud then wheeled back low overhead before heading off towards Red Rocks so I could see it was a redhead red-breasted merganser.

Redshanks and dunlins

The rain lessened as I approached the far end of the lake, enough for me to wipe my binocular lenses dry enough to see through. The mud was littered with dunlins and redshanks. A few curlews fed a bit further out. The oystercatchers were a couple of hundred yards upstream.

Shelducks and pale-bellied brent goose

A flock of a couple of dozen shelducks kept together about fifty yards out. Along with five brent geese. Three of the geese were definitely light-bellied brents. One was a lot darker, the dark of the abdomen stretching down between and beyond its legs, a dark-bellied brent. And the one that was palling up with the dark-bellied brent was just as dark but the darkness stopped at its legs and was, presumably, a dark light-bellied brent. They moved on, walking along the mud parallel to the walkway before hopping over to feed on the seaweed on the lake margins.

Pale-bellied (left) and dark-bellied brent geese
(These are the same birds as the top photo)

Pale-bellied brent goose

Dark-bellied brent goose
(Notice how far back beyond the legs the dark colouring goes,)

Pale-bellied brent goose

I spent a short while checking out all the gulls and waders, just in case, but there was nothing more to add to the tally so I headed off back to the station before my cap shrank.

Dunlins

The plan was to head over to Southport and have one last try for a short-eared owl at Crossens. I was tempted to stop off at Moreton for the snow buntings on the revetment by Leasowe Lighthouse but the weather had closed in again so I decided to stick with the plan. It at least gave me the chance to dry off a bit.

I got into Southport an hour before sunset. I looked at the weather, I looked at the bad light, I decided to get the train home. Which was cancelled. So I bought rather a lot of crisps for me and some treats for the cat to see us into the New Year then waited for the next one.

One of those days where a really disappointing walk can still make for rewarding birdwatching.