Wirral

Wheatear, Leasowe Lighthouse

It was starting to irk me that I hadn't seen any wheatears yet so I decided to go back to Leasowe Lighthouse and try my luck.

I got the train to Liverpool and the West Kirby train as far as Moreton and walked down to Kerr's Field. It had struck me yesterday how many herring gulls were still inland, today I was struck by how many more lesser black-backs than herring gulls there were on the Wirral.

Kerr's Field is usually a reliable haunt for Spring migrants. There had been reports of wheatears last week and a report first thing of a ring ouzel here. I didn't hold much hope for the ring ouzel, they tend to be in and out fairly quickly at dawn. A few chiffchaffs were singing in the bushes and there were plenty of goldfinches and woodpigeons in the hedgerows and on the small paddocks. There was a steady traffic of mallards between the Birkett and the fishery. The big field at the end I would have put money on having a wheatear or two in it and I would have lost my bet. It had a dozen carrion crows, a pair of pied wagtails and half a dozen woodpigeons. I was starting to worry I'd got my timing all wrong when half a dozen sand martins flew low overhead, twittering all the way, which cheered me up.

Female wheatear, Leasowe Lighthouse

Male wheatear, Leasowe Lighthouse

I found half a dozen wheatears on the field by the lighthouse, feeding well away from a pair of carrion crows. Perhaps they don't like crowd scenes with crows. Out on the open field they looked sprightly and confident enough. A couple of skylarks sang and meadow pipits flew about calling every time they were disturbed by the crows.

An uncooperative willow warbler, Leasowe Lighthouse
(The lighting makes its legs look chiffchaff dark, I'd just watched it singing)

For a change I walked down the road to the fisheries to see if there was anything about in the paddocks either side. There were lots of goldfinches and greenfinches, a family of spadgers made a lot of noise in the bushes by the Birkett, and a little egret rose from the little orchard and off to the beach. Out on the paddocks it was nearly all carrion crows and woodpigeons with just a couple of blackbirds feeding under hedges and a chaffinch singing from a fencepost. I was just about to turn back when a willow warbler started singing from the hedge by the fishery.

Leasowe Common

Then I walked through Leasowe Common, following the path that runs beside the hedges of the paddocks. There were plenty more singing chiffchaffs, robins and wrens. A couple of pairs of blue tits fed in the treetops while a few pairs of great tits kept to the undergrowth. There were blackbirds aplenty and a cock mistle thrush flew down from his singing post to give me the evil eye.

Leasowe Common

A nosy at the little pool turned up just a moorhen and a singing Cetti's warbler. I suppose it's far too early to be hoping for reed or sedge warblers.

Back out in the open there were more skylarks and meadow pipits and a small flock of linnets.

Dunlins, Leasowe Lighthouse

The tide was out so most of the birds were distant shapes, mostly herring gulls and lesser black-backs with a few black-headed gulls and curlews and the little egret I'd bumped into earlier. Half a dozen dunlin fed by the groyne with a redshank. While I was watching them another wheatear flew into the groyne and a swallow flew past.

Redshanks and dunlin, Meols

As always the groyne marked a change point in the birds out on the mud. There were more dunlins and redshanks, though not nearly as many as on my last visit and there were no knots or turnstones, and shelducks dabbled in the muddy pools.

Although it had only been a short walk, just over three miles, and I'd had the wind at my back most of the time I decided to call it a day when I got to Meols. I've been sleeping badly lately and it's starting to tell on my stamina. Looking at the reports on my way home it turns out that I'd been within walking distance of an Iberian chiffchaff and a pied flycatcher but there's no guarantee I would have seen either and I'd seen some nice birds, managed to get the intended targets and had a bit of exercise in pleasant scenery. I had an old man's explorer ticket so I went home via Todmorden and Preston, with roe deer showing nicely on the railway embankments near Walsden and Horwich.

Meols beach