New Brighton

Carrion crow

Today's challenge was to get out for some decent birdwatching somewhere that didn't involve hillwalking or wading through streams and wasn't so inundated as to be inaccessible without waders or unusable by resting birds. So off to the seaside I toddled. Judging by the state of the Glaze as the train approached Glazebrook it wasn't a bad call, I've never seen it break its banks before. If that's like that God knows what the state of some of the paths are like.

I decided to head for New Brighton to see if any purple sandpipers were about. Usually I get off at New Brighton, have a nosy around Perch Rock and the marine lake then walk down to the end of the prom and go and get the train from Wallasey. It's been a long time but the penny finally dropped today that I could get off the train at Wallasey, walk down to the beach and down the prom to New Brighton and have a cup of tea at the other end. Which is what I did.

Oystercatchers

Oystercatchers and herring gulls

The tide was middling low and starting to think about coming in. The gulls and waders were split between feeding on the beach or loafing on the breakwaters, save a couple of turnstones feeding on the breakwaters. Most of the gulls were herring gulls, the black-headed gulls were mostly feeding on the fields near the golf course. There were also a few lesser black-backs and common gulls. I didn't see a great black-back all day which is unusual, there's usually one or two steaming across the estuary. There were about a hundred oystercatchers scattered about in groups and a couple of dozen each of turnstones and redshanks. A couple of bar-tailed godwits fed at the water line.

Looking towards Leasowe Lighthouse

I walked to the end of the revetment, checking the sand dunes for small birds and finding small giddy dogs on their lunchtime walkies. A robin sang from a gorse bush and a couple of pied wagtails skittered about but it wasn't my day for finding chats or snow buntings.

Oystercatchers

I walked back and carried on down the prom. There were more gulls and oystercatchers. Turnstones, pied wagtails and carrion crows rummaged about on the top of the sea wall. A few little egrets joined the oystercatchers on one of the breakwaters. And the sun sort of came out in that half-hearted December fashion that threatens a hasty retreat if anyone notices.

Redshanks

There was a crowd scene in the bay by the lighthouse. Herring gulls, black-headed gulls and common gulls loafed on the sand, redshanks, turnstones and oystercatchers fed in and around the pools. A couple of dunlins and a sanderling dodged between the redshanks. For some reason I tend to forget that sanderlings are roughly the same size as dunlin, I always think they're bigger.

Redshanks and dunlins
An example of the variation in size of dunlins. I think the bird on the left might be from Greenland .

Although the tide was still low there was a crowd of waders dozing on the pontoon on the lake. Most were redshanks, a sanderling stood out with its white head and a handful of dunlin lurked about the edges. One of them was tiny compared to the others but I couldn't in all conscience turn it into anything but a dunlin. The nominate subspecies alpina from the European Arctic is larger and longer-billed than the Western European schinzii; two large dunlin looked good for alpina but the tiny one didn't look right for a local bird. The bill looked a bit shorter and straighter than I'd expect which got me wondering if it might be one of the Greenland subspecies arctica. (Get him: hasn't the first clue about North American peeps but waxes lyrical about dunlin subspecies.) No purple sandpipers anywhere for me today.

Dunlin

Redshanks, dunlins and sanderling

I got myself a cup of tea and weighed up the options. I was tempted to go over to West Kirby to see if the great Northern diver was about still but decided against: by the time I got over there I'd have less than an hour's light to play with. I have other plans for West Kirby. In the end I decided to call it quits and head off home.

Woodpigeons

Walking up to the station I noticed a bunch of woodpigeons stripping tiny dates from a palm tree in somebody's back garden.