Sefton bumper bundle

Sanderlings, Crosby Beach

A cool, breezy but bright sort of a day saw me heading over to Merseyside to try and catch up on waders. Martin Mere had reopened its doors but I thought the first day of half-term might be a bit hectic, better to have a tour of the Sefton coast and see what was about.

Herring gulls and black-headed gull

First stop was Crosby Marine Park. It was approaching high tide and the grass was covered in gulls. There were equal numbers of black-headed and herring gulls with handfuls of lesser black-backs and common gulls. There were as many coots on the grass around the boating pond as on it, and plenty of them, but there weren't many mallards, just the one tufted duck and no swans or geese. A dozen turnstones huddled together and dozed on the far bank.

A couple of little egrets worked the banks of the marine lake. The water was very choppy and there seemed to be just the one herring gull sitting in it. A cormorant and a great black-back loafed on one of the floats. A few starlings picked their way amongst the rocks, most of them were huddled noisily in the stand of sea buckthorns in the corner. Just as I'd checked the gulls for exotica so I checked the starlings and had equally negative results.

Carrion crow

Apparently I have a look of somebody who has dog treats. I'm frequently approached by dogs under this impression. One of the carrion crows had the same idea and accompanied me for the next ten minutes, begging all the way. I shall have to be careful and not weaken and start carrying dog treats, Heaven knows where it would end.

Sanderling

I had wondered if I hadn't dressed too warmly. I needn't have worried, it was a brisk wind blowing sand across the beach. All the gulls at the water's edge were black-headed gulls. They were accompanied by sanderlings which scampered along the surf like clockwork mice.

Crosby Beach 

The sun rendered silhouettes of all of the birds on the pools on Seaforth Nature Reserve. The shelducks and curlews were easy enough to pick out. The redshanks were trickier and if there were any other Tringa waders out there I missed them in the mix. There were scores of godwits and the flare and glare didn't make it easy to spot the subtle structural differences between bar-tailed and black-tailed. Luckily, both have a habit of stretching their wings when they're loafing so the plain wings of the barwits separated them from the black-and-white winged blackwits. Dozens of cormorants and oystercatchers crowded the big island but I couldn't see any lapwings. The Canada geese I hadn't seen by the pool were grazing on the grass by the fence I was looking through.

Robins and wrens sang in the little nature reserve by the sailing club. Blue tits and great tits fidgeted about and goldfinches twittered in the tree tops. Otherwise it was surprisingly quiet.

Alt Estuary 

Next stop was Hightown. I walked down to the sailing club and parked myself down on one of the seats overlooking the Alt Estuary. It was high tide but there were plenty enough sand-and-mud bars over on the far side for gulls, waders and cormorants to loaf on. The loafing gulls were mostly herring gulls, the black-headed gulls were busy flying about. Most of the curlews were loafing with the gulls, a few dozed in the grassy mud this side of the river and a couple strutted about between the very active redshanks and fast asleep grey plovers. (I confess: I spent half a minute wondering what the grey, plover-sized birds were before what's left of my brain joined the dots.) Meadow pipits flitted about but it looked like I was going to have no luck with ringed plovers, which I had expected to see here. Eventually one flew in and immediately disappeared behind the lumps and bumps in the mud so I dare say I'd just not been able to see dozens of them.

Stonechat

As I walked back from the sailing club a skein of pink-feet called from somewhere over Altcar. I thought to myself that there should be stonechat about and as if by magic a female stonechat jumped up into a bush by the path. She flew over into a bush a few yards away and was joined by her partner who saw me on my way.

Stonechat, the same bird as above

Greylags

Last stop was Marshside. I wondered if I had the energy for it but was glad that I made the effort. A couple of ruffs flew low overhead as I walked down Marshside Road, which I took as a good omen. A white-winged black tern had been reported over the weekend but hadn't turned up today, and nor did it while I was here. On the other hand, there were family groups of pink-feet amongst the greylags and Canada geese, the wigeons were coming out of eclipse plumage and ruffs skittered about amongst the lapwings. Pintails and shovelers dabbled on Junction Pool, gadwalls and wigeons in the land drains. I had nothing to complain about.

Wigeons

Lapwings and ruffs

Shovelers and friends

The cattle were grazing the marsh near Sandgrounders. There was a time a few years ago when cattle egrets looked set to be Autumn staples here. I wasn't surprised not to see any today.

Grey wagtail

A grey wagtail was bobbing about on the island in front of Sandgrounders and pied wagtails skittered about with the lapwings and black-tailed godwits on the marsh beyond. Gadwalls, mallards, teals and wigeons fossicked about on the pools closer by.

At Sandgrounders 

I wandered back out and had a scan of the outer marsh, resisting the temptation to carry on walking round to Crossens. Resistance made the easier because I remembered I'd have to do a full circuit because roadworks were blocking the path by the water treatment works. At first all I was seeing was a pool full of mallards and shovelers and small skeins of pink-feet flying about. A great black-back cruised past and disturbed a few meadow pipits and skylarks. Then a female-type marsh harrier floated in and disturbed a lot of meadow pipits and skylarks before carrying on past the sand plant.

Pink-footed geese 

I called it a day, walking back up Marshside Road as skylarks, pink-feet and lapwings passed overhead. I got to the corner of Elswick Road when the 44 swung round and sailed past the bus stop. I walked up to Fleetwood Road in the hopes of catching the 40 into Southport and missed that, too. The next 44 was late so I just missed the train back to Oxford Road so I had a half hour wait and went home in the dark. I was too tired to be much fussed about it. It had been a long day with plenty to see and that was good enough.