Wirral

Linnet, Hoylake

It was scheduled to be a bright and blustery day so I headed out to the Wirral to see what might be blown in.

Herring gulls, Kerr's Field

It was a dead straightforward run to Liverpool and I got the West Kirby train as far as Moreton and toddled off down to Kerr's Field. The hedgerows were busy with long-tailed tits, blackbirds and goldfinches while wrens and robins sang their heads off. The horses in the first paddock were accompanied by a flock of woodpigeons together with blackbirds and mistle thrushes. The two big fields had a lot more woodpigeons together with refugees from a high Spring tide: a few dozen herring gulls and a couple of dozen oystercatchers. The gulls loafed and squabbled, the oystercatchers kept on feeding. All the wagtails were pied and there were no wheatears about but it's early days yet.

Oystercatchers, Kerr's Field

A chap I bumped into said he'd seen wheatears in the paddocks by Leasowe Common. I was heading that way anyway to see if any warblers were about and was glad of the tip. I had no luck, perhaps they'd been moved on by the crowd of carrion crows bouncing about in there. All the warblers in the trees were chiffchaffs, and very vocal they were too. As were the crowds of goldfinches in the treetops though the great tits were unusually quiet.

Leasowe Common 

A moorhen lurked in the reeds by the pond while a coot cruised about in the open water. I thought I heard a Cetti's warbler starting its engine but nothing came of it so I concluded I was mistaken. As I walked across the common towards the sea flocks of curlews, oystercatchers and black-tailed godwits flew inland to feed in the fields as they waited the tide.

Leasowe Common 

Meols groyne

The high tide was lashing the top half of the sea wall when I joined the revetment. Gulls — mostly herring gulls with a couple of lesser black-backs — sailed by in the distance tacking into a strong wind. A couple of great black-backs bobbed around on the sea in the mid distance. I scanned round to see if anything else was about and found a couple of drake common scoters a bit further out. Any other time I've seen scoters here they've been dark shapes flying past the turbines of the wind farm. As I walked down a steady stream of common gulls began to drift by in ones and twos. 

Redshanks, Meols

At first sight I thought the groyne was deserted. I was very much mistaken. The waders had elected en masse to roost on the windward side. There was a hundred or so redshanks and handfuls of knots and turnstones. A couple of oystercatchers flew in and settled as best they could amongst the crowd. I fought the wind to try and get photos of the birds, taking rather a lot as I thought the wind shake would ruin most of them. As it turned out I mostly got away with it, less than a dozen were complete write-offs though a similar number had dodgy composition due to the buffeting of the wind. I've not been doing well with the photography lately, it's nice when it works.

Redshanks, Meols

Redshanks and greenshank, Meols

I walked past the groyne, looking back every so often to see if I'd missed anything. Sure enough, I'd missed a sanderling and a greenshank.

The tide started to turn and the redshanks were getting restive. It wasn't long before small parties of them started to head off for the emerging mud at Hoylake. The wind was getting stronger and like me they made heavy weather of it at times. More gulls passed by including a first-Winter kittiwake which had me puzzled for a bit because the black 'W' across its wings wasn't as clean as I would have expected and at first I took it for a common gull. I don't see enough subadult kittiwakes for them to be on my radar when I see unusual middle-sized gulls.

Redshanks, Meols

Redshanks, Meols

When the tide goes out at Meols it goes out quickly. Within half an hour it was a distant memory and as I joined the parade the mud was littered with redshanks. Further along they were joined by increasingly large groups of dunlins and strings of knots while the mud banks were busy with shelducks and curlews.

Knots, Meols

Dunlins, Meols

At the lifeboat station a flock of linnets was doing an excellent demonstration of the art of disappearing in plain sight amongst the seaweeds and sticks of tidal wreckage. A couple of the males ruined the illusion by stepping out into the open to sing.

Linnet, Hoylake

Linnet, Hoylake

The beach at Hoylake was strangely deserted, usually the linnets are joined by pied wagtails and ringed plovers but not today. I kept an eye out for movements in the sky just in case the Alpine swifts that had been reported in the morning were lingering. I wasn't surprised not to find them, the wind would have blown them into the Lake District by now.

Hoylake 

I debated whether or not to carry on to West Kirby but decided against and headed to the station for the train. I almost changed my mind in the shelter of the houses as I walked down the King's Gap but quickly reconsidered as the wind howled down from the golf course as I crossed Stanley Road. I'd had an excellent few hours' birdwatching, there was no reason to knacker myself by being greedy.