Sefton

Stonechat, Hightown Dunes

When there's a major passage of a species of bird going through the region there are two possible strategies: you can chase after them or you can do what you were planning to do anyway and hope to get lucky in the process. Experience has shown me that the latter works best for me: most Spring passage migrants are fly-by-nights and flibbertigibbets and you could easily waste your life being one step behind every time and not get any decent birdwatching done in the process. Much better to visit places which are frequently visited by passage migrants and see what turns up. Today tested this to breaking point.

There's a major passage of little gulls going through Northwest England at the moment. Odd ones and twos have appeared all over the place over the past couple of days, this morning thirty-odd were reported going through Woolston Eyes and singles passed along the Mersey at Ashton-on-Mersey and at Hollingworth Lake. I'd already decided I was going to visit Crosby Marine Lake because I haven't got round to it this year and I wanted to see if any wagtails were about. Besides, the marine lake and Seaforth Nature Reserve are little gull magnets so I might strike lucky anyway.

It was a cool, grey sort of a day and the brisk wind had an edge to it. I walked down to the marine lake from Waterloo Station and had a look round. It was fairly quiet of birds: a couple of dozen each of starlings and pigeons fed on the grass, a dozen herring gulls loafed on the boating pond with a couple of coots, there might have been half a dozen mallards, there were half a dozen mute swans and a couple of tufted ducks. A skylark sang from above the dunes and that was pretty much it. 

Dunes by Crosby Marine Lake 

A small flock of linnets flitted round the dunes as I walked to the beach. The tide was a fair way out and receding and gulls and waders were coming out to play from their high tide roost on the nature reserve. There were equal numbers of herring gulls and lesser black-backs, a few settled on the beach while a writhing knot of gulls wheeled and barrelled around as they drifted out into the estuary. A mixed flock of waders started feeding at the tideline. There were a lot of redshanks and I assumed that all the larger waders were black-tailed godwits given all the flashing about of white wingbars that was going on. The flock settled and dispersed and I realised that nearly all the godwits were bar-tailed not black-tailed, they didn't look right even from this distance then a couple decided to have a squabble and things escalated and there wasn't a white wingbar amongst them. Then, just to confuse things, half a dozen actual black-tailed godwits flew in and joined the crowd. A "what the Hell is that?" wader turned out to be a greenshank with a lump of mud at the end of its bill.

Crosby beach 

I had a look at Seaforth Nature Reserve from the wire fence, moving carefully so as not to upset the shelducks loafing on the grass. Possibly an unnecessary precaution: even the rabbits didn't take any notice of me. All the wagtails were pied and there was only one wheatear about. There were crowds of linnets and greenfinches. Scanning the pools as best I could I could see there were dozens of herring gulls and lesser black-backs but nothing small enough to suggest a black-headed gull let alone a little gull, despite two little gulls having been reported here half an hour earlier. I suspect I'll be seeing my first redstarts and little gulls of the year in the Autumn. It's not often I see turnstones here, that was a nice surprise, as were the teal nestling by a crowd of shelducks and Canada geese. I was surprised not to see any terms about today.

Crosby Marine Lake 

As I wandered back to the station I had a nosy round the little nature reserve next to the boatyard on the marine lake. A couple of chiffchaffs sang from the trees and a Cetti's warbler sang from a patch of nettles.

The afternoon was young so I moved on to Hightown Dunes to see what waders were about.

Alt Estuary, Hightown

It was a very low tide when I arrived and it was threatening to become a sunny afternoon. I could see a couple of hundred shelducks out on the mud, nearly all in pairs spaced well apart. A few redshanks fed on the riverbanks and there were more dotted about on the mud. Fairly close to the jetty a flock of dunlins included a couple of ringed plovers, which came as a bit of a relief as they were notably absent the other day at Hoylake where I would have expected dozens.

Stonechat, Hightown Dunes

A pair of stonechats showed well on the path back to the road, sharing bushes with house sparrows and greenfinches.

I got the train from Hightown to Southport and knocked any further plans on the head as I had a very easy connection with the Manchester train. On the way home I saw reports of a couple of dozen little gulls at Pennington Flash and three dozen at Elton Reservoir. Did I have the energy left in me to get off at Wigan for the hour bus ride to Pennington Flash or to hang on until Bolton for the forty minute ride to Elton Reservoir? No, of course I didn't. Tomorrow is another day.

Alt Estuary, Hightown