BirdTrack

I downloaded the new version of the BirdTrack app today. It is extremely different to the old app, in fact for all practical intents and purposes it is completely different. I struggled with it at first, unlearning the old ways of doing things and making a bog of it. In the end I decided the best thing to do was to have a wander round and record what I was seeing as I was going along, get a bit of practice in the new way of things. It was a good idea: in a moment of epiphany when I was really struggling I realised that I needed to just forget everything I knew about the old app and come at the new one as if the old had never existed. The learning curve quickly flattened out and I'm comfortable I've got to grips with it now.

The new app does a lot the old one didn't do. For one thing you can record all the non-bird species you could only do on the web version of BirdTrack, saving me having to carry a notebook round for all the records I'd have to append to lists when I get home. 

The map function was a shock at first but it actually works proactively: it locates where you are, automatically suggests the nearest site and also offers the nearest alternatives. But the best thing about the map function is that it's stable, it was constantly crashing the old app.

Adding records is easy enough, there are a few additional steps in the process which offended my old business process development bones but they facilitate some additional recording functions so they can be forgiven. 

The one annoyance is caused when you set up a new list and find you have nothing to record at that location. In the old app you could just delete the empty list. In the new one you have to add a bogus record so the list can be saved as a draft and then deleted. Once I worked the trick out it's easy enough to do but it took a bit of working through to get there.

Anyone like me who's got used to the old ways of doing things will have to go through a period of readjustment. But it's worth it. There's more useful functionality and the whole thing feels more stable.

*** Update 4th September ***

I've given the app a good run over the past few days. It works a lot better for my rather mobile version of birdwatching than the old app did.

The annoying thing about not being able to delete an empty list is only really an issue if it's the last site of the day. The rest of the time it's easy enough to go back from the record entry screen and change the location and time to start a new list.

One big downside I've found is that while the app behaves itself perfectly well normally if I put my 'phone on battery saver the app eats power at a rate of knots, at least twice as much as usual and sometimes a lot more. I think this is a side-effect of the dynamic updating conflicting with the battery saver. It was a big deal the afternoon I noticed it but now I know it's more than manageable.

Redcar

Greater sand plover

It's been a quiet August so I thought I'd go on a twitch. There's been a greater sand plover on Redcar beach this past few days and there's an hourly train from Manchester to Redcar that's less than three hours' (not exactly cheap) ride so off I went. The journey up was a tad fraught because it was only half the usual number of carriages and it gets very busy indeed between Manchester and Leeds but the rest of the journey was very nice indeed.

Juvenile great black-backs

It's only a short walk from Redcar Central to the beach. The plover had been reported first thing at the Eastern end of the beach so I headed that way just in time to bump into a few people heading West. A line of birdwatchers a mile in the distance showed the bird's current location.

A line of birdwatchers 

I wandered thataway, taking the opportunity to check to see what was on the rocky outcrops on the tideline. Gulls — black-headed and herring — loafed and squabbled, cormorants dried their wings and oystercatchers prised mussels off the rocks. A small fishing boat had just beached and was being towed  up to the promenade by a tractor, leaving behind a few fish heads eagerly snapped up by a bunch of great black-backs.

Great black-backs

I reached the line of birdwatchers in time to spot two plovers having a fight in the middle of some beached seaweed. One was larger and paler than the other, for a moment I was worried that I'd sighted my target only to have it chased off by a ringed plover. As it happened I needn't have worried, the two birds settled back down again, the ringed plover feeding on a stretch of seaweed about twenty yards ahead of us, the greater sand plover further out towards the tideline. It showed really well, a lovely little bird, but was a devil to try and photograph as it was very active, scurrying and dashing to and fro across the weed. Compared to the ring plover it was slightly larger and chunkier with significantly longer legs; its back was a warm sandy brown and, most conspicuously, the breast band was broad and bright rusty orange. A very delightful little bird.

Greater sand plover and black-headed gulls

Greater sand plover

Greater sand plover and black-headed gull

I caught some movement in the corner of my eye. A couple of common gulls were loafing on a rocky outcrop which had accumulated a lot of seaweed debris. A sanderling and a turnstone were busy feeding in here, often disappearing as they burrowed into the weed.

Sanderling

I'd spent a while admiring the sand plover and decided to walk up the beach awhile. It had been very cloudy when I arrived (it had been pouring down when we passed through Middlesbrough) but there was a stiff breeze coming in straight from the Baltic (and cutting straight through the bladder) that broke the clouds up and gave odd moments of bright sunshine.

There were more herring gulls and black-headed gulls. Small groups of sanderlings, never more than a handful, skittered around like clockwork mice, paying no heed to tide, person or, indeed, galloping horses.

Sanderling

Sanderling

I tried a bit of seawatching with no conspicuous success: more gulls and cormorants, a common tern and a couple of Sandwich terns. It was worth a go, though, this was my first visit here and I wasn't sure what to expect. As it was, it was a very pleasant walk, the birdwatching was good even though there wasn't a lot of variety to it, and I got another addition to the life list. Not a bad day's work.

Redcar Beach

Merseyside

House martin, Leasowe Beach

For me the August Bank Holiday weekend heralds the proper start of Autumn migration. There have been Summer migrants drifting away from their breeding grounds for a few weeks and the first returning waders arrived in the middle of last month but they're overture and beginners giving hints of the main event. Autumn migration, unlike Spring, is a drawn-out, leisurely affair. For most species there's no great urgency to get to Winter quarters and plenty of incentive to fatten up before taking on the long haul leg of the migration. Add to that a large number of inexperienced young birds which can take the wrong turning somewhere along the way and almost anything can be anywhere. It's exciting and it's unpredictable — you'll see chiffchaffs, willow warblers and swallows but beyond that you get what you get, which adds to the joy of the thing.

It was looking to be a bright, sunny day so I decided on a wander on the Wirral. I got an old man's explorer ticket to get me to Liverpool with an eye to having a diversion or two on the way back. The train into Manchester was busy with people going to Old Trafford for the test match, the trains coming back were busy with people going home from the Liverpool game but aside from that the travelling was fine.

Wheatears, Kerr's Field

I got the train to Moreton and walked down to Kerr's Field. The air was full of the twitterings of flocks of goldfinches and swallows and the clattering about of woodpigeons in the trees. I could hear but not see dunnocks in the hedges and a moorhen somewhere in the flag irises choking The Birkett. Gulls flew about overhead, roughly equal numbers of black-headed, herring and lesser black-backs.

I don't know what it is about the end paddock that makes it such a magnet for passage migrants. The first quick glance found me a male wheatear standing proud in the short grass. He wasn't alone: scanning round I found a few more further along. I spent a few minutes looking about to see what else there was but aside from a few magpies, carrion crows and woodpigeons I had to make do with a handful of wheatears, which is like making do with a box of chocolates when you weren't sure you were getting any sweeties at all.

Carrion crow, Leasowe Lighthouse

I didn't have high hopes of seeing much in the long grass by the road save for the crows and starlings that were flitting about and the swallows hawking low over the ground. The brief view of a yellow wagtail as it emerged from a patch of nettles and submerged into a sea of knotweed was a bonus.

Buzzard, Leasowe Common

I walked across Leasowe Common along the path in the trees, scanning the paddocks beyond along the way. The chiffchaffs were noisy, I could hear some of them calling as I approached from the lighthouse, the willow warblers I found were silent. They were the only warblers I found here today. The pond was reduced to a small puddle of damp mud and moorhen footprints.

Oystercatchers, Leasowe Beach

It had just passed high tide when I joined the abutment. Lines of gulls and oystercatchers stretched across the emerging mud banks. The path was busy with walkers and cyclists so there weren't many birds close by.

House martin, Leasowe Beach

Just before I got to the groyne a couple of young house martins flew in and started fluttering about the dried seaweed on the concrete slope. At first I thought they were after flies but they landed and started pecking at the seaweed itself. Dried seaweed is highly mineralised so it could be that this is some type of dietary supplement, I don't know. It was nice to finally get some photos of house martins, they aren't given to perching on telegraph wires and they are very skittish when they're collecting mud for their nests. I always forget they have knickerbockers.

Wheatear, Meols Beach

There were families fossicking round on the groyne so there were no waders on there. A wheatear was massively unconcerned by shouting kids.

Redshanks, Meols Beach

Greenshank and redshanks, Meols Beach

As always there was a change when I passed the groyne. Flocks of redshanks peppered the puddles and more flew in as the tide ebbed. There were a couple of small groups of little egrets more intent on squabbling with each other than feeding. There was just the one greenshank with the redshanks. I can't remember the last time I saw multiple greenshanks. They're sociable enough, they seem to enjoy the company of redshanks and turnstones, just not other greenshanks. There were a few curlews further out, together with hundreds more oystercatchers and gulls. This time of year shelducks are notable by their absence, they're all still in their moulting flocks elsewhere.

I didn't much fancy walking on down to Hoylake or West Kirby today so called it quits at Meols. I decided on a side-trip to Crosby Marine Park for a change of coastal scenery.

The marine lake was predictably busy with people though this didn't much faze the mute swans and herring gulls on the boating pool, they just see more opportunities for a free meal. The mallards and coots dozed in the sun and a couple of pairs of tufted ducks fed at the deep end. Any meadow pipits or skylarks were keeping their heads down but a flock of a couple of dozen linnets skittered around the sand dunes. The little egrets kept to the far end of the marine lake where the dunes are too steep for people to easily get to the water's edge.

Crosby Beach 

A sunny bank holiday Saturday on the beach didn't stop there being a thin line of dunlins and knots on the tideline. Black-headed gulls and carrion crows foraged around the families, herring gulls and lesser black-backs loafed on the sandbanks. A handful of Sandwich terns flew up the estuary.

I had a wander along the fence looking into Seaforth Nature Reserve. A flock of a couple of hundred starlings split their time between the blackberries twining their way through the gorse patches and the rabbit-cropped turf. Most of the noise was provided by common terns, mostly youngsters, on the pool with a few Sandwich terns and black-headed gulls providing backing vocals. Although the tide had retreated there were still plenty of oystercatchers and black-tailed godwits with the lapwings and Canada geese on the islands and redshanks and dunlins flew to and fro. 

I saw a flash of red and brown as I was walking down to Waterloo Station and found this red underwing moth on a garage door.

I'd done a full circuit and headed back to Waterloo for the train. I debated whether to go up to Southport and get a train home from there or go to Liverpool, in the end deciding to leave it to fate and the first train that turned up. Which was a mistake: the train was Saturday teatime busy as it was then at Sandhills we got the football fans going home from Anfield. The Manchester train from Hunts Cross was just as busy, it was only once we'd passed Widnes there was any sitting room. Shockingly bad timing on my part! Still, I'd had a good day's birdwatching and a couple of decent walks in the fine weather so I had nothing to complain about.

Meols

Etherow Country Park

Dipper and grey wagtail, Etherow Country Park

I'd planned on having a wander round Etherow Country Park this weekend then I remembered it was the bank holiday so it would be a good idea to get a visit in today to avoid the annual music festival. I had a couple of things that needed procrastinating about first so it was getting on for teatime before I arrived.

The post-breeding flocks of black-headed gulls are outnumbering the ducks and geese on the lake now. The drakes are coming out eclipse, most of the mallards were largely grey with varying amounts of bottle green mottling on their heads, the mandarins adopting startling ginger wigs and comedy eyebrows (I was going to say they looked like George Robey but I'd be showing my age) with eye-catching electric blue flight feathers destined to be hidden by lots of exotic feathering.

Female mandarin duck, Etherow Country Park

Drake mandarin moulting out of eclipse plumage, Etherow Country Park

Juvenile drake mandarins, Etherow Country Park

I was surprised to see a grey wagtail feeding in the rill by the garden centre. It didn't seem any too bothered by passersby. A family of young coots less than a week old was unexpected, too.

Weir, Etherow Country Park
The big hole halfway up on the right-hand side is where the dippers used to nest before the roof caved in

Up at the weir a white farmyard goose loafed by the bridge in the company of half a dozen mandarins. I looked in vain for any dippers but there were plenty of grey wagtails about.

Juvenile grey wagtail, Etherow Country Park

A common hawker patrolled the garden by the toilets, the only dragonfly of the day.

It was a decidedly muggy day making for uncomfortable walking. So I decided on a stroll through Keg Wood. The going seemed hard work, explained when I checked the weather and found it was 70°F with 85% humidity. For a long while it seemed like the only bird life was going to be the two young herons perched in one of the trees by the river. Eventually I started bumping into young robins, all of them showing flecks of orange in their speckled breasts, and hearing adult robins singing a warning to them to go and find their own territories before they moult fully into adult plumage. A few wrens muttered, a couple of nuthatches sang, chiffchaffs called and great tits made unlikely noises in ivy-covered oak trees.

Keg Wood 

At Sunny Corner I tried and failed to find the buzzard I could hear calling overhead. Ten minutes' sit down in the shelter for a drinks break usually ends up with a few titmice and other small birds flitting about in the trees but today there was nothing whatsoever.

Keg Wood

Keg Wood

I wandered back, bumping into more robins, wrens and great tits along the way. I was reminded of the people who do detailed bird population surveys in deep jungle environments and I had to take my hat off to them.

As I left Keg Wood I glanced up and noticed a crow flying overhead. It wheeled round, spread its tail and croaked to make sure I realised it was a raven.

I had one more look down the river from the weir and was found a dipper surveying the rapids while a couple of grey wagtails foraged amongst the rocks.

Dipper and grey wagtail, Etherow Country Park

Dipper, Etherow Country Park

I carried on down the path along the canal to the car park, tiptoeing my way around dozing mallards and Canada geese and trying not to upset the mandarins loafing by the edges. There were plenty of moorhens about but I was surprised to find one halfway up a tree.

Moorhen, Etherow Country Park

Mulard (mallard x muscovy duck), Etherow Country Park

The last puzzle of the day were half a dozen rather pretty beige ducks with very long tails, rather bigger than the mallards but definitely not any wild species. It took me a while to identify them as "mulards," a cross between a Muscovy duck and a mallard. It was only then I realised I hadn't seen the usual Muscovy ducks at all today.

Carrington Moss

Collared doves, Sinderland Brook

It was one of those muggy days like a teenage armpit and I wasn't altogether sure I wanted to go for a walk. I dragged myself over to the Trafford Centre and got the 18 bus to Ashton on Mersey, thinking I could walk back home via Banky Meadow and Cob Kiln Wood. As I got off the bus I remembered that I've not walked across Carrington Moss yet this year. 

Carrington Moss 

I took the footpath that starts at the corner of Carrington Lane then doglegs across the fields to Isherwood Road. The stretch of path through the trees was busy with speckled woods and squadrons of woodpigeons passed overhead between fields. The jays and magpies were very conspicuous, and very noisy, the smaller birds much less so. I suspect I wouldn't have heard or seen the robins, wrens and great tits had there not been a ginger tom walking up the path ahead of me. His disappearance off in the direction of the houses was accompanied by a lot of bad language from a couple of squirrels.

Woodpigeons, Carrington Moss

There were literally hundreds of woodpigeons feeding on the stubble fields with three carrion crows. Scanning round I could see quite a lot of juvenile woodpigeons with their grey necks, looking like over-inflated stock doves, but no actual stock doves. The complete absence of any finches or buntings was marked, too. A female kestrel hunted the length of the drain beside the path before trying her luck on the field margins by the main road.

A flock of swallows arrived as I came to the electricity substation, feeding high on their approach then descending to feed low over the stubble. Over on one of the electricity pylons a young buzzard called noisily to another buzzard over by the riding school.

I walked down Isherwood Road onto Carrington Moss. There was too much vegetation to see much of the Shell Pool though I could hear coots, moorhens and mallards. There were more woodpigeons in the fields and swallows hawking low over the stubble.

Carrington Moss 

I walked along the path through the wooded field margins. Wrens muttered, great tits called and robins sang. A couple of common hawkers lurched about in one of the clearings and common darters patrolled the bracken. I accidentally disturbed a buzzard perching at the crossroads. It loped off towards the industrial estate, as I was watching it on its way a flock of sand martins flew in and joined the swallows.

Carrington Moss 

At Sinderland Brook I joined the old Irlam to Altrincham railway line and walked down to Broad Heath. Another common hawker patrolled the hedgerow while speckled woods flitted about the trees growing between the sleepers. Small birds were heard but very few actually seen; blue tits, great tits and long-tailed tits called quietly to each other from the undergrowth while chiffchaffs called from the treetops.

The old Irlam to Altrincham railway line 

I got to Broad Heath with ten minutes to wait for a 247 to the Trafford Centre. I'd had a fair walk and although the birdwatching had been unspectacular there was still plenty about to be seen and heard with a bit of hard work and a lot of luck.

Horwich

Goldfinches, Bottom o'th Moor

The weather forecast has been promising heavy rain each day for the past week and delivering not much more than a modestly damp cat so I decided to call its bluff and set off for a walk on the Horwich Moors. It was overcast and muggy when I got the 125 from Bolton and it had started spitting with rain by the time we got to Doffcocker but it didn't seem too bad and by the time I was getting off the bus at Bottom o'th Moor it seemed to be passing over, a stiff breeze sending the rain Manchester's way.

Moorgate Fisheries 

I had a nosy at Moorgate Fisheries, the little flooded quarry by the Blundell Arms. A heron decided it wasn't for being stared at and took itself over the other side of the pool behind some saplings. The usual pair of Muscovy ducks dozed, there was just the one pair of mallards on the pool and nine moorhens seemed to have found plenty to peck at on the far bank.

Shepherd's Drive 

I decided to wander up Shepherd's Drive as I've never been up that way and it looked like the footpath meets Matchmoor Road about halfway up. It might well do but I quickly lost the path and had to retrace my steps but not before bumping into small flocks of starlings, swallows and goldfinches which split their time between sitting on telegraph wires and feeding on the fields by the lane. A kestrel flew downhill at a rate of knots pursued by a black-headed gull (there's always a backstory). The bramble patches along the road were busy with speckled woods, meadow browns and wall browns, these last have been thin on the ground this year. Looking back I saw the flock of starlings return to the wires, accompanied by a couple of young mistle thrushes. I'd already scanned this flock just in case it was my turn to find a rosy starling so finding a couple of interlopers came as a surprise. Always look twice, I guess.

I walked down to Georges Lane with the weather taking a turn for the worse: the wind was lessening but the rain was letting itself be known. I hadn't gone a hundred yards up the road when the heavens opened. I decided it might not be a good idea to carry on with the plan of walking up to Winter Hill and then down to Walker Fold via Burnt Edge.

Wilderswood 

I carried on up to Wilderswood, where dozens of swallows were lined up on the telegraph wires, then took the old Old Rake path over to Factory Hill, taking advantage of the cover of the woods and forgetting that the woods had had to be considerably thinned due to larch dieback. There was enough cover not to get atrociously soaked but not enough to stop the patter of rain on my hood drowning out most small bird noises in the undergrowth. Ironically, the open glades were the most productive with a few wrens and chaffinches and a flyover tree pipit (as always I had to check my identification by listening to a few flight call recordings on Xeno-Canto). I'd found myself a chiffchaff in a hawthorn when a stoat bounded over the path and dived into a dense patch of heather out of the rain.

I was enjoying the walk despite the weather. I turned onto Brownlow Road and headed down into Horwich, the rain getting heavier and the hedgerows busier with blackbirds and robins. I didn't have long to wait for the 125 back to Bolton so I called it quits: I'd had three miles' exercise and the wildlife had more sense than me and was keeping out of the rain which was now a dense sheet of water. I did have the sense to buy myself a new flat cap once I got into Bolton though.

Portrait of the author as a drowned rat

Local patch

Golden rod, Barton Clough

I've only had a couple of wanders round the local patch this month, both at teatime, and there wasn't much doing. I thought I'd have a mid-afternoon nosy to see what was about and after an hour the answer was: hardly anything. Had it not been for a lot of furtive squeaks and rustling in the last bush I looked at I wouldn't have managed a double-figure total. Desperately quiet, even by August lull standards.

• 2 Black-headed Gull overhead
• 2 Blackbird
• 1 Blue Tit
• 2 Carrion Crow
• 1 Chaffinch
• 1 Feral Pigeon overhead
• 1 Goldfinch
• 1 Greenfinch
• 3 Lesser Black-backed Gull overhead
• 4 Magpie
• 9 Woodpigeon

Blackberries, Barton Clough

Sefton coast

Black-tailed godwit, Marshside

After a week's bad sleep I had eyes like peepholes in the snow but I decided to get out for a walk on the argument that staying at home trying to get a nap hadn't been conspicuously successful yesterday either. I've not been to Marshside for too long and the announcement that the Arriva bus strike was over gave me the necessary prod.

Unusually, the trains behaved impeccably to schedule. They were, however, phenomenally busy with people like me catching up with their travel plans. I made the mistake of catching the Barrow train to Wigan, the effects of Avanti cutting the number of trains to Manchester drive passengers onto this train to get to Wigan Northwestern, Preston and beyond on the West Coast Mainline so it's standing room only, and packed at that. By the time I arrived at Southport it felt like somebody had been sandpapering my nervous system.

Greylags, Marshside

I got the 44 bus to Marshside and toddled down Marshside Road. The fields either side were bone dry and most of the drains and the Junction Pool just cracked mud. Canada geese and greylags grazed and loafed in the long grass, an intimation of Autumn that prompted me to scan round hard for any stragglers or interlopers just in case. A female kestrel hovered over what was Junction Pool and a female sparrowhawk perched on one of the fenceposts by the junction with Marine Drive.  Further out the starlings flocked over by the feeding cattle and woodpigeons foraged in the short grass, and that was pretty much it from the roadside. 

Canada geese, black-headed gulls, black-tailed godwits, lapwings and a greenshank, Marshside

Bathing ruff and lapwings, Marshside

The pools by Sandgrounders were busy with Canada geese, lapwings and black-tailed godwits with a supporting cast of black-headed gulls, mallards and teals. A handful each of ruffs and redshanks wandered in and out between the godwits though it was the lone greenshank feeding with the geese that I spotted first. The tufted duck family couldn't be seen though there were a few males bobbing around on the pool by the gate.

The adult godwits were mostly still in their breeding finery and were accompanied by good numbers of full-grown juveniles with their more scaly backs and wings. The little egrets and herons were a bit listless, mostly loafing about in small groups dotted about the marsh.

Spoonbills have been drifting over every so often from the Ribble Estuary but they didn't make an appearance today. (This year's bogey birds appear to be wood sandpiper, spoonbill, white wagtail and ruddy shelduck. I hope that by writing that down I'll bump into them all next week.)

Black-tailed godwits, Marshside

Little egrets, Marshside

Juvenile heron, Marshside

Little egret, Marshside

I wandered over to Crossens Marsh. There was enough sun to make it a bright, dry day and more than enough wind to stop it getting too warm. It was too windy for butterflies: a few large white and meadow browns kept low over the path and an apparent mass-hatching of red admirals littered the bramble patches. I took the opportunity to pilfer a few dewberries from the sides of the paths where over-eager strimmers hadn't reached.

Dewberries, Marshside 

There were more godwits and black-headed gulls on Polly's Pool and yet more godwits were with the mallards, teal and dabchicks in the drains and gulleys. A family of shovelers were hard work to identify, keeping their heads mostly underwater and their backs to the road. Oddly, I couldn't see any gadwalls

The wind made it hard to hear any small bird noises in the wayside bushes. A wren churred at me and a few linnets and goldfinches twitted past between hawthorns. Over on the outer marshes I looked in vain for meadow pipits or skylark, there were just a few gulls flying over and the occasional little egret. There have been daily reports of a ringtail hen harrier but the only bird of prey I could see was a kestrel hovering over the border fence on Crossens Outer.

Hen harrier, Crossens Outer Marsh

Crossens Inner Marsh was bone dry with the only water, and not much of it at that, in the main drain by the roadside path. Aside from the half a dozen mallards in the drain and the hundred or so black-headed gulls loafing on the cracked mud over by the bund there wasn't a right lot about. I kept scanning the outer marsh to see if there was anything about and was rewarded by about a minutes' worth of the hen harrier floating like a bubble low over the long grass in the distance before going to ground and apparently staying down because I didn't see it again.

Walking along Marine Drive by Crossens Inner Marsh 

I crossed over to have a look at the small pools by the wildfowlers' pull-in. There was enough water to keep a few dozen teals and lapwings happy and they weren't much up for budging for any cattle that came up for a drink.

By the time I got to the 49 bus stop at Crossens I felt like I'd had a long walk, which shows how little exercise I've been taking this week. It was still only late afternoon so I decided to stay on the bus to Ainsdale and get the train to Hightown and thence toddle down to the Alt Estuary to try and improve this month's tally of waders. (The Area D Saveaway I'd bought is good for trains and buses between Hightown and the border between Crossens and Banks.)

Sandwich terns, Hightown Dunes

I wandered down from the station to Hightown Dunes and settled myself by the sailing clubhouse to watch the incoming tide. All I could hear was the wind blowing in from the sea and the creaking calls of Sandwich terns. It took a while to find the terns, a hundred or more were roosting beyond the boats over by the the danger zone (this is the area within shooting range of Altcar Training Camp). As the tide rose more terns drifted over, while others left the roost to go out fishing. Rather despite myself I scanned round just in case any of the terns had a yellow bill and in the process found a couple of passing common terns.

Ringed plovers, Hightown Dunes

There was a confusion of waders out on the mud. The area between the sailing club and the river looked deserted at first sight. It was worth a closer look: a couple of dozen ringed plovers were lurking, mostly loafing and preening. A few juvenile pied wagtails skittered about and a meadow pipit made a brief appearance. A few mallards drifted about in the river while redshanks and dunlins fed by the banks more ringed plovers pottered about on the far side like clockwork mice.

The light was harsh, casting nearly all the waders into silhouette and making it surprisingly difficult to keep a sense of scale. Every so often I'd start to get interested in a particularly small wader only for it to run a few yards and become just another dunlin in a crowd. A grey plover sitting on its own in the shadow of a mud bank took me longer to identify than it should have.  I even struggled to be sure that the mass of dark shapes in the mid distance were oystercatchers until the rising waters made them start to fidget. A cloud of knots finally giving up a mud bank against the tide came as a bit of a relief.

Incoming tide, Hightown Dunes 

I lingered a while at high tide, trying to see if anything else might turn up, before setting off back to the station and thence back to Southport and home. The side excursion had done me good. It was an uneventful journey home though later than planned so it was a chippy tea for me and a tin of tuna and mackerel for the cat.