New Brighton

Snow bunting

I had a few morning errands to run so it was lunchtime before I set off for a day out in Merseyside (the new train timetable's getting some getting used to). All the usual suspects had made an appearance in the back garden and fifteen magpies were rattling and racketing in the sycamores on the railway embankment.

I got to New Brighton and walked down to the promenade. It was a cool day, the hazy sunshine taking the edge off a light wind, just the sort of weather for a walk by the seaside. The tide was just starting to ebb and I was looking forward to seeing a pile of waders roosting on the pontoons on the marine lake. Not a sausage. The only wader on the lake was a lone turnstone half asleep on the raft in the middle of the lake. Time was I could virtually guarantee seeing a crowd scene here, this Winter's definitely changed things.

Cormorants

Turnstones

There were plenty of turnstones on the rocks and breakwaters near the lighthouse. There were also plenty of herring gulls and cormorants. I was checking out the turnstones in the hope (unfounded) of finding a purple sandpiper when a little egret popped up from behind a rock and started fossicking in a rock pool.

Little egret

Turnstone

I wandered along the promenade. As the tide ebbed more and more gulls settled on the beach, mostly black-headed gulls and herring gulls with a few common gulls. Lesser black-backs and a couple of great black-backs flew by without stopping and more cormorants flew out into the estuary. I hadn't walked far when an adult Mediterranean gull flew past. I hoped it would settle so I could get a photo but it continued on up the river. Further along there was a steady traffic of gulls heading for the emerging Wallasey beach. Most were subadult herring gulls; there were also a couple of adults, a handful of lesser black-backs and a second-Winter yellow-legged gull straight out of the textbook: white head, brown wings, dark grey saddle and white tail with a clean black band near the end.

Black-headed gulls

Rock pipit

The redshanks had been roosting on the breakwater by the King's Parade. I was pleasantly surprised to find that one of the pied wagtails pottering about on the seawall was a rock pipit. Oystercatchers started to fly in and start feeding on the mud beyond the breakwaters while black-headed gulls and common gulls danced for worms. Some of the herring gulls and lesser black-backs were already in fresh breeding plumage and looking very spruce with it.

I passed the lifeguard station and started walking down the revetment, keeping my eyes peeled for any small birds in the dunes. There had been reports of a snow bunting around here over the past few days, I was just wondering whether it might still be about when it hopped up onto the side of the path and cheeped at me. You've got to love snow buntings.

Snow bunting

Snow bunting

Snow bunting

I had a bit of a wander without further wobbling the year list then walked down to Grove Road for the train back. It had been a surprisingly productive couple of hours' birdwatching.

New Brighton lighthouse