Wirral

Sedge warbler, Kerr's Field

The leaves on the trees are nearly all out in full now, with just a few lingering ashes and oaks playing catch-up. It makes birdwatching from the train a hell of a lot more difficult, with even the woodpigeons and carrion crows hidden by leaves. Which makes seeing anything out of the ordinary that bit more satisfying. One of the Urmston buzzards soared low over the station and the train still hadn't picked up speed from leaving Irlam Station so I managed to catch a kingfisher darting down Glaze Brook as we passed by.

Wheatear, Kerr's Field

I was on my way to Leasowe Lighthouse on the Wirral, in the hope that I might catch up with white wagtails and perhaps some yellow wagtails on Kerr's Field. It was warm and sunny when I arrived at Moreton and when I arrived at Kerr's Field I had the definite feeling that I'd missed the boat. The Spring arrivals had all settled down for the Summer with swallows whizzing about all over the place and warblers singing all over the shop. Blackcaps and chiffchaffs sang in the trees, whitethroats sang from the tops of bushes and telephone lines, and sedge warblers sang from the ditches around the fields. A few wheatears still lingered in the big field with the horses, which gave me a bit of hope. Most of the birds feeding in the field were woodpigeons, linnets, blackbirds and starlings with a mistle thrush and a couple of pied wagtails. A kingfisher whizzing up the Birkett towards Leasowe was a surprise. I spent far longer than was warranted trying to turn a textbook female pied wagtail into a white wagtail. All in all I had not a lot more luck than the other week when the field was full of crows (they were all on the field by the lighthouse).

Sedge warbler, Kerr's Field

Whitethroat, Leasowe Lighthouse

I took the wooded path through Leasowe Common. There were more blackcaps and chiffchaffs singing from the trees and more goldfinches than you could shake a stick at bouncing round the treetops. A couple of reed warblers sang from the reeds by the tiny pool.

Groyne, Meols Beach

It was high tide and there were lots of people walking about so there wasn't much about on the beach. A few herring gulls and lesser black-backs loafed offshore and pairs of curlew and shelduck flew out to the sand banks over by Meols. One of the larger sand banks had a couple of hundred oystercatchers roosting on there until the encroaching tide forced them to move on. A flock of a dozen ringed plovers flew in towards the groyne then wheeled round and set off back where they came from.

Redshank, dunlin and turnstone, Meols Beach

I made a fool of myself concerning one of the waders on the groyne. A redshank and a turnstone were easy enough to recognise, a third wader, quite a bit smaller than the others dozed between them with its head tucked deep into its back feathers. For the life of me I couldn't identify it. A couple with a telescope joined me and we all had a go at the ID, with me running through every possibility bar its being a dodo. Just as we'd convinced ourselves it was a common sandpiper it roused itself and let us see its face and beak and showed itself to be a dunlin still in full Winter drabs.

There didn't look like much doing further on so I took the footpath inland that eventually meets up with Park Lane then runs down to the station. There were plenty of goldfinches, linnets and woodpigeons in the fields and robins and blackbirds in the hedgerows while swallows skimmed overhead. I kept scanning the horse paddocks but all the wagtails were pied and all the Spring arrivals were swallows. It was a very pleasant walk but not very inspiring birdwatching, it had a dog days feel about it without there being any butterflies or dragonflies to provide any distraction.

It was still only mid-afternoon and the weather was still very nice. I considered going up to Southport to see if I could find the wood sandpiper I missed on Saturday but in the end I really couldn't be bothered. I'd had a decent walk and even though I was being very grumpy about it I'd actually had a good day's birdwatching so I headed off home by a roundabout route just for a change of scenery.

Walking along the Birkett to Leasowe Lighthouse