Wirral

Greenshank and redshank, Meols

The weather was set fair so I decided to have a trip out to Leighton Moss. So I had a day out on the Wirral. (My train into Manchester was cancelled so I got the train to Liverpool which was scheduled five minutes later and turned up quarter of an hour late).

It was bright and sunny when I arrived at Moreton but the wind was a lot fierce. This became a feature of the day.

Leasowe Lighthouse

It was high tide so a few black-tailed godwits and oystercatchers joined the mallards, teals and pied wagtails on Kerr's Field. I scanned round for wheatears or white wagtails as they're starting to arrive but had no joy today. I'll come back in a couple of weeks when the Spring migration's in full cry. A few singing chiffchaffs were a hint of things to come.

I was a bit surprised to see a couple of dozen carrion crows loafing in the field. When you're just seeing ones and twos dotted across the sands you don't realise how many of them are making a living by beachcombing.

A couple of flocks of starlings fed on the field by the lighthouse though they spent most of their time spooling round in small murmurations, occasionally joining together into one big cloud then splitting up and settling again. I couldn't see an obvious trigger for this behaviour, there was nothing spooking the crows, pipits or skylarks on the field. Perhaps it was pre-migration restlessness.

High tide at Leasowe Lighthouse

I climbed the bank by the lighthouse and walked along the reventment to Meols. The tide was just starting to ebb when I set off. Out at sea there were dozens of gulls loafing or passing by. Most were herring gulls with nearly as many lesser black-backs and common gulls, perhaps a dozen black-headed gulls and a couple of immature great black-backs. Most of the common gulls were in second-Winter plumage, one I don't immediately identify because I just don't see it often enough: inland birds tend to be adults with a few first-Winter birds hanging on their coat tails.

Second-Winter common gull, Leasowe

Other than a couple of small flocks of passing knots out at sea there weren't many other birds to be seen on the stretch before the stone groyne. A few skylarks and meadow pipits flew up from the field and a few carrion crows flew over. A couple of pipits feeding on some stranded seaweed caught my eye as looking a bit big and having a cold tone to the brown upperparts. I spent a while making sure they really were rock pipits and not meadow pipits being subjected to wishful thinking, it's easy to misjudge size and colour tone without anything to compare against. The clincher was the relatively short hind claw. One bird looked bigger than the other and had a hind claw that would be long for most birds but nothing like the outrageous length of a meadow pipit's.

Stone groyne, Meols

By the time I got to the groyne the retreating tide had exposed some of the mud. On the Meols side of the groyne a couple of dozen redshanks landed and started feeding at the water's edge accompanied by a couple of knots, a dunlin and a greenshank. The further along I walked the more redshanks and knots there were and half a dozen turnstones rummaged in the stranded seaweed at the base of the revetment.

Greenshank, Meols

Knot, Meols

Redshanks, Meols

The sea was in full retreat as I approached Meols and the mud was littered with redshanks, dunlins and shelducks. Mixed flocks of gulls still loafed on mud banks, biding their time before going out to feed.

I had a chat with a couple of blokes walking up from West Kirby. They were relieved to see so many birds at Meols, they'd had a barren patch on the stretch past Hoylake. I had exactly the same experience, I'd have expected to see plenty of linnets and pied wagtails and in the event I only saw three pied wagtails and those on a garden wall. I did notice that the vegetation on the beach was a lot more sparse than usual: at the top end I'd expect to see a lot of samphire, sea beet and sea asters. I don't know if the scouring is the result of the recent storms or if the row between the conservationists and locals who want unsullied sand right up to their back gardens has escalated.

Hoylake beach

Red Rocks

There wasn't much to see from Red Rocks, just a few cormorants loafing on the now-distant shoreline and a couple of dark-bellied brent geese feeding on the mud by Hilbre Island.

Female stonechat, West Kirby

Male stonechat, West Kirby

I took the path through the reedbeds and along the duckboards by the golf course. I could hear but not see the moorhens and water rails that were alarmed by a pair of carrion crows flying over at head height. Three pairs of stonechats were considerably easier to see.

I dismissed the idea of going for a walk round the lake at West Kirby, I was flagging after four hours' wandering and the two hours walking into a stiff wind had made the walk feel longer. Despite that it had been a good walk and I'd added greenshank, Brent goose and rock pipit to the year list.

North Wales across the Dee Estuary