Wirral

Redshanks, Meols

It was set to be a fair day so I decided on a bit more wader watching on the North Wirral coast (with the hopes of a bit more waders this time). I got the Liverpool train from Humphrey Park, a pleasantly uneventful journey save for the skein of pink-footed geese flying low over West Allerton Station. Looking at the number of woodpigeons in trackside trees you'd never think they'd gone AWOL last November.

I got a Saveaway and got the West Kirby train at Lime Street, getting off at Moreton. The robin singing by the platform was joined by a mistle thrush singing in the tree just across the road. There weren't so many gulls around as usual but the usual kestrel was perched in a tree by the entrance to the industrial estate.

Leasowe Lighthouse 

Another mistle thrush was singing by the path into Kerr's Field. The paddocks were full of woodpigeons and carrion crows with a few black-headed gulls and a couple of herring gulls with a curlew in the end field.

Joining the revetment at Leasowe Lighthouse 

It was nearing high tide so I headed straight for the revetment to see what might be coming in to roost. The water was still low enough for extensive sand bars to be littered with gulls, curlews and oystercatchers. The gulls were mostly black-headed and herring gulls, there were a handful of lesser black-backs and a few small groups of common gulls. Further out a few great black-backs loafed at the water's edge with cormorants. Walking towards the groyne I could see that there were a lot of waders on a sand bank at the edge of the tide. There were plenty of redshanks about near to the revetment but these birds were smaller, probably knots and dunlins. I struck lucky as I scanned the groups of loafing herring gulls: a large adult gull with much darker grey back and wings than the others was lounging in a pool by a sand bar. Just at the point where I was deciding that the shade was a trick of the light or wishful thinking it decided to stretch its wings, displaying the inky black tips to the primaries and single big white mirror on the terminal primary of a yellow-legged gull. I'm doing peculiarly well for them this Winter.

Pale-bellied brent geese, Meols groyne

As I came up to the groyne there were plenty of pied wagtails and turnstones feeding on the weed at the base of the sea wall. And also a pair of pale-bellied brent geese. The only bird on the groyne itself was a little egret.

Redshanks, Meols groyne

Passing the groyne the tide started racing in and redshanks started flying in to roost. The hundreds of small waders on the sand bank rose up in clouds and revealed themselves to be mostly, possibly all, knots and dunlins. The clouds wheeled and merged and parted then headed quickly for the shore at Hoylake, none of the birds coming to roost on the groyne. I was a bit puzzled at the timing: it would be a good quarter hour before that bank would be inundated and waders tend only to move on when the water gets past their knees. Then I noticed the peregrine barrelling through the swarm. In the end the confusion of waders defeated the falcon and it moved on to try its luck on more unwary targets over in Wallasey.

Meols, looking over to the wind farm at Burbo Bank

Once the sea gets past the first of the sand banks the almost complete inundation of the basin of mud at Meols takes about two minutes. Dotted about out on the water there was a bewildering array of herring gull plumages while black-headed gulls squabbled and loafed closer to shore.

Redshanks and black-headed gull, Meols

The shore rises by the lifeboat station and provided refuge for thousands of waders. The oystercatchers and curlews took the opportunity to get some sleep but the smaller waders were very active. Dunlins moved around in groups of a few dozen feeding on the exposed mud, occasionally joined by ringed plovers. The knots near to the sea wall seemed more intent on marching around in lines of a dozen or so birds, perhaps not finding the mud to their liking, unlike the hundreds of knots further out near the tide. Some redshanks busily fed in the shallows, some dozed in the shelter of tussocks of grass and some flew around badgering other redshanks which had been minding their own business. 

Curlews, Meols

Dunlins, Meols

Redshanks, Meols

Dunlins and knots, Meols

Oystercatchers and shelducks, Meols

I found one of the few benches overlooking the area that didn't have screening across the railings and spent a while scanning round trying to enjoy the spectacle. To be honest, I find this many birds concentrated in one place a bit overwhelming and after a bit I stop seeing the birds and just see the shapes of the crowds as they move around. Which isn't altogether a bad thing.

These pictures are saved in a larger format than usual so that you can see more detail when you click on them.

Dunlins, black-headed gulls and common gulls, Meols

Oystercatchers, dunlins and redshanks, Meols

Oystercatchers, redshanks and dunlins, Meols

Dunlins mostly, with a few knots and black-headed gulls, Meols

Eventually I took the hint as the cold wind got to my joints and I got up and wandered off, reminding myself it wasn't so long ago I was here watching a pallid swift tooling round the rooftops. I walked up to Manor Road for the train back to Liverpool. As I waited for the train a roe deer barked at me from the opposite platform.

Oystercatchers, redshanks and dunlins, Meols