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Great Northern diver, West Kirby
I have a dream of some day getting a photo of a great Northern diver that doesn't look like somebody's traced the outlines with a chinagraph pencil.

It was a surprisingly mild and pleasant start to the day and I had a yen to go to the seaside so I got the Liverpool train and arrived at West Kirby at lunchtime. The weather had clouded over a bit and the wind was strong but it was pleasant walking weather. 

There had been reports of a juvenile great Northern diver on the marine lake so I was keeping an eye out for that and hoping it hadn't been scared off by the windsurfing class that was taking place. The black-headed gulls and cormorant on the jetty weren't much fussed, nor even the redshank feeding by the landing stage so that boded well. It was lowish tide so there weren't any other waders about the lake.

West Kirby Marine Lake 

I walked along the prom, looking over the lake every so often to make sure I wasn't missing the diver. A passing little old lady stopped and said: "It's halfway down, love." I thanked her, and I thanked the young couple a few minutes later who stopped and said: "They're just a bit further along." "They" turned out to be a couple of birdwatchers looking at the diver. I had a scan round. I couldn't see the diver but there was a female common scoter bobbing on the water ridiculously close by.

Common scoter, West Kirby

Common scoter, West Kirby

The diver spent more time underwater than above but when it was up it showed splendidly well.

Great Northern diver, West Kirby

I'd promised myself I'd keep my feet dry today so I wasn't sure about taking a turn around the lake (I was in second-best boots with the split in the uppers near the laces because best boots are still drying out after getting filled during Saturday's sloshing about.) North Wales was copping for some filthy weather and the wind seemed to be blowing it out way and that decided the matter. I kept to the pavements. I looked down the estuary from the boatyard. The mud was littered with shelducks and oystercatchers and I could make out a few redshanks and curlews. The wind blew the filthy weather up the estuary and we got away with a handful of raindrops.

Great Northern diver, West Kirby

I walked back and helped a couple of people connect with the diver and was rewarded by its swimming in even closer for a minute or so before heading back underwater.

Great Northern diver, West Kirby
Sometimes conditions were challenging for photography.

The tide was too low to be able to see any waders or geese out in the mouth of the estuary, there were just a couple of groups of loafing herring gulls and some common gulls.

Shelducks, Hoylake

The day was young so I bobbed over to Manor Road and had a wander down Meols Promenade to see if any waders were about. As I arrived at the prom the next band of filthy weather swept in and caught me. I kept the wind to my back so my cap was peppered with hailstones not my face. A couple of hundred shelduck were browsing the mud. Here and there there'd be small groups of redshanks and/or dunlins, never more than half a dozen in any one place. I counted an even dozen grey plovers, the couple of ringed plovers were hard work, and the linnets, meadow pipits and pied wagtails were keeping in the cover of the tussocks of grass. Further out there were a few curlews and pale grey lines of knots chased the waterline with a small group of very bright white sanderlings.

Hoylake beach 

I'd broken my promise to keep my feet dry so I decided enough was enough and walked into Meols for the train. I noticed a report of a green-winged teal at Marshside, it was still early afternoon, I headed for Southport.

At Southport I got the 44 as far as Hesketh Road and walked down to the viewing platform where the green-winged teal had been reported. The weather was decidedly changeable, blowing fair and foul at three minute intervals, and I wondered if this was wise. From the platform I could see dozens of wigeon and a few shovelers and gadwall close by on the pool with a pair of mute swans. Further away there were more wigeons with a lot of teal, pintails and lapwings. Scanning through I found a few ruffs and redshanks amongst this crowd but no green-winged teal. 

Lapwings, wigeon, shovelers, teal, herring gulls and black-headed gulls, Marshside

My heart sank a bit: was it amongst the crowd of ducks yet further out? I had a colossal stroke of luck. A lady had pulled up on her bike, set up a telescope and asked: "Excuse me, is this a green-winged teal?" There'd been a bit of shuffling round in the group of ducks and waders I'd first looked at. There in the centre of the field of view was a drake teal with a broad vertical white stripe at the side of its breast. I was pleased to be able to say yes it was. Now I knew where it was I could just pick it out with my binoculars, the white stripe being surprisingly conspicuous once I knew where I was looking. A colossal stroke of luck.

Pintails, Marshside

I looked at the weather and decided to head for the bus back into Southport. The quickest way was to walk over the bund across the golf course to Marshside Road, which also gave me the chance to check out what was about on the marsh besides hundreds of wigeon, teal and lapwings. A few little egrets flew in with a big flock of black-tailed godwits which was followed by an only very slightly smaller flock of black-headed gulls. There must have been nearly a hundred pintails, and a couple of dozen shovelers. 

Pink-footed geese, Marshside

Stanley High School's playing field was wall-to-wall pink-footed geese with pied wagtails tiptoeing between them.

Marshside sunset

I had ten minutes to wait for the 44 bus, watching flocks of wigeon, curlews and black-headed gulls coming into the marsh to roost. The weather may have been a tad suboptimal but it had been an excellent day's birdwatching, one of those days where birdwatchers help each other out and get rewarded in return. Which is always a good thing.