Wirral

Shelduck, Meols

A surprisingly sunny morning had me heading for a lunchtime stroll on the Wirral Coastal Path. I was still feeling out of sorts but the joints weren't as painful and stiff as they had been the past couple of days so I thought I might be able to walk some of it off. And it was better than sitting at home saying: "Oh dear me."

I got off the train at Moreton and walked past the new housing development with its mallard-littered water feature (an aerial photograph would be more duck than lawn) to Kerr's Field. As I walked down the road a warm but very assertive wind blew the clouds rolling in. Kerr's Field was busy with woodpigeons and magpies, the hedgerows were dead quiet. Aside from a couple of rose hips the hedgerows had been stripped of berries. A great spotted woodpecker made a commotion from the trees by Lingham Lane before flying out and over into the industrial estate.

By Kerr's Field 

The hedgerows behind the lighthouse were busy with house sparrows, blue tits, greenfinches and goldfinches, and nearly all of them heard but not seen. Every so often a bird or two would break cover to move between bushes or flit up into the trees with the blue tits for a moment before disappearing back out of the wind. I worked at it as I wanted to get my eye in properly, both a firecrest and a yellow-browed warbler have been reported this week as being in the trees on Leasowe Common, between Lingham Lane and the reedy pool, and I'd need to be alert to find either if they were still about. Especially in this wind.

Leasowe Common 

To cut a long story short, I didn't see either though I was told where they had been. I said hello to about a dozen birdwatchers on the same quest, at least one of them had seen the YBW earlier that morning near the pool and that's where the largest group had congregated. I was finding small mixed tit flocks which pretty much kept to the bramble undergrowth, nearly all the movement above head height was twigs and leaves blowing in the wind, and nearly all the small bird sounds were creaking branches and rustling twigs. Linnets and meadow pipits flew past the open areas, goldfinches and chaffinches passed between stands of trees. I ended up doing a circuit and a half of the common and the only warblers I found were goldcrests and chiffchaffs, which were nice to see anyway. A red admiral butterfly was a sign of how mild a day it was. I even made a point of checking the pool for any dragonflies, just in case. The yellow-browed warbler was reported as being present a couple of hours after I gave up and moved on.

Leasowe Common 

Walking down the revetment to the groyne

I wasn't sure if I was up for walking down the revetment onto Meols Promenade and then on to Hoylake so I went and did it. It was excellent walking weather, particularly for November. The tide was on the ebb but was starting to motor, the mudbanks were still islands at Leasowe, by the time I got to Meols the sea had retreated to the far horizon. As I reached the revetment hundreds of oystercatchers were scattered across the mudbanks with scores of redshanks and herring gulls. A dark patch on one mudbank turned out to be about fifty knots with a few redshanks and dunlins mixed in. Curlews and carrion crows prowled the margins of the mudbanks, lapwings loafed and little egrets squabbled noisily. And there were black-headed gulls all over the shop.

Lesser black-back, black-headed gulls and a little egret

Little egret

Little egrets

Little egrets

Turnstone 

I walked down towards the groyne, turnstones fossicking about in the seaweed at the base of the revetment, herring gulls and carrion crows dropping cockles onto the concrete to break them open. A ghostly shape gliding past the redshanks and black-headed gulls turned out to be a passing greenshank. Way out in the distance the tideline was marked by a line of cormorants and large gulls, 

Curlew

For once there were no birds on the groyne as I passed by and there wasn't an abrupt change in the bird life on the mud. The tide was retreating rapidly so there was more mud and less water which meant the knots and curlews were feeding closer in and any gulls wanting a bath were in the rills and gullies further out. A rock pipit skittered about the revetment before flying over onto the dunes. Pied wagtails stayed put unless passing dogs and their walkers got too close for comfort but they didn't fly off far. A few black-tailed godwits strolled amongst the redshanks and a bar-tailed godwit strolled amongst them just to stop me getting cocky.

Black-tailed godwit

Redshank 

Little egret

From Meols Promenade 

Oddly I wasn't seeing any shelducks. It wasn't until I was halfway down Meols Promenade that I started to see them then I started to see scores of them along the stretch where the mud meets the salt marsh. The salt marsh itself was very quiet save a couple of little egrets, I'd expect pied wagtails and meadow pipits and hope for ringed plovers but of they there were none.

Hoylake

I got to the lifeboat station, had a sit down, called it quits after a productive few hours' birdwatching. I could have done without such a strong wind keeping the small birds under cover on Leasowe Common but it was probably that strong wind that kept the rain away. Swings and roundabouts and all that.