Wirral

Turnstone, Leasowe
Natural selection goes to all that effort to pattern a bird's plumage like dry seaweed then sticks a bright white belly and red legs underneath it all.

It was another bright, dry morning though cooler than it has been lately and with a definite edge to the wind. I headed over to the Wirral for a seaside walk. It would be well into the ebb tide by the time I got there so I'd be unlikely to see any sea ducks but there should be gulls and waders about and there's usually something interesting around Kerr's Field and Leasowe Lighthouse and I could get some practice on the landscape before the Spring passage starts at the end of the month.

Redshank, Kerr's Field 

I got off the train at Moreton and walked down to Kerr's Field where the horses were confined to the least flooded paddock and the comforts of their stables. A flock of teal cruised the puddles in one of the other paddocks while redshanks, pied wagtails and woodpigeons browsed the wet grass and a pair of oystercatchers made a racket as they flew in to feed. I checked for any Spring migrants and was suitably rewarded for my impatience. The hedgerows were lively with robins, blackbirds and goldfinches.

Leasowe Lighthouse 

The hedges by Leasowe Lighthouse were very busy with house sparrows, greenfinches, goldfinches and reed buntings. As I got a bit closer I noticed the filled bird feeders that were keeping them interested.

Herring gull, Leasowe 

I walked up and onto the revetment and had a look out to sea. The tide was low and ebbing yet further and I needed my binoculars to see the surf. So no sea ducks today then. There were lots of oystercatchers about and every puddle had at least one redshank shrimping in the shallows when they weren't chasing each other round on the mud. Herring gulls outnumbered lesser black-backs two to one and the black-headed gulls made up in noise what they lacked in numbers.

Oystercatchers and redshanks, Leasowe 

Knots, Leasowe 

It was unusual to see a small flock of knots this side of the groyne. It was entirely usual to see little egrets to-ing and fro-ing and turnstones feeding by the stranded seaweed at the base of the revetment.

Leasowe beach 

Herring gull, Leasowe beach
This young bird was learning the hard way that begging doesn't work for gulls once they're in their second calendar year.

The groyne on the approach to Meols

Lesser black-back, Meols

For once there wasn't a sudden change in the birdlife once the groyne was passed. There were a few more lesser black-backs and the clusters of black-headed gulls included a few common gulls. I was nearly at the start of The Parade when the first shelducks and dunlins were sighted.

Meols Parade 

Redshank, Meols

The birdlife thinned out the further I walked along The Parade. I looked in vain for ringed plovers and the only pied wagtails were flying over the houses across the road. By the time I reached the lifeboat station anything out amongst the samphires and sea asters that wasn't a redshank was a pigeon.

West Kirby Marine Lake 

I decided against carrying on walking beyond the lifeboat station and got the train to West Kirby. It was approaching low tide and the birdlife on the estuary was a distant scattering of small black dots amongst the larger black dots walking to and from Hilbre, and North Wales was vague shapes in the mist. I had a late lunch and wander round the marine lake, sharing my sausage roll with a turnstone. The lake was very quiet: a cormorant fishing at one end and a redshank feeding at the other. It was rather different to the sensory assault on Banks Marsh the other day and probably no bad thing as a wind down to a pleasant afternoon walk.