Merseyside bumper bundle

Preening redshanks, New Brighton

It was a bright, sunny day after a very wet night so I headed for the seaside. The problem with December is that you've no sooner arrived somewhere than the light begins to fade so I'm going to try and "front-load" this month's birdwatching before the short days cramp my style.

I got the Liverpool train, noting the return of woodpigeons along the way and that they were all feeding or loafing in trees and none on the ground. The wariness of newcomers? I'm becoming persuaded that "our" woodpigeons don't come back for the Winter.

New Brighton sea front, Liverpool Docks in the background

At Liverpool I got myself an all areas Saveaway and went to New Brighton, hoping to get purple sandpiper onto the year list. The tide was on the ebb when I arrived at the sea front and there was already plenty of beach for gulls, waders and dog walkers to use.

Herring gull

Herring gulls and black-headed gulls were much in evidence, common gulls and lesser black-backs needed looking for though there were a few about. I just saw the one great black-back. I browsed through the gulls, just in case. My first Bonaparte's gull, Mediterranean gull and my only Laughing gull were at New Brighton and a lad can dream.

Most of the oystercatchers had moved on. Redshanks bathed and preened in pools before flying out to the retreating tideline.

Redshanks

Herring gulls

Dozens of cormorants and herring gulls loafed on the sea defences by the lighthouse. Starlings bustled about on the tops, turnstones and oystercatchers about the bottom. As the tide ebbed the gulls started to drift away, all the quicker when an elderly couple of dog walkers thought it would be a fine idea to climb over the sea defence until they discovered it wasn't.

Cormorants, herring gulls, oystercatchers and great black-back

New Brighton Lighthouse 

A wander round found more gulls, redshanks, turnstones and starlings and crowds of pigeons on the car park. A dozen black-headed gulls dozed on the pontoons. I was disappointed but not surprised not to find any purple sandpipers, the mild Autumn has postponed a lot of Winter visitors.

Next stop was Lunt Meadows, long due a proper visit by me this year. I had twenty minutes to wait for the 133 at Waterloo so I said a quick hello to Crosby Marine Lake where the herring gulls and coots carpeted the grass by the boating pond. A quick look over the pond found coots, mute swans and tufted ducks but I didn't notice any mallards. An equally quick look over the lake found a dabchick fishing on its own out in midwater.

Roughley's Wood 

I got off the 133 at Lunt and had a brief nosy in Roughley's Wood. At first I didn't think the mixed tit flocks were including long-tailed tits then the flock bouncing across the main path included more than two dozen of them. The blue tits were staying in the treetops with goldfinches and chaffinches, the great tits at the bottom of the canopy and the long-tailed tits tended to move between the lower canopy and the undergrowth, which was busy with robins and wrens.

A kestrel was hovering over near the car park to Lunt Meadows. Greenfinches passed low overhead, higher up there was a steady traffic of black-headed gulls and herring gulls heading for the coast.

Lapwings

Lapwings, teals, wigeons and mallards were settling down on the main pool. Shovelers dabbled midwater and a couple of dozen Canada geese cruised about. Moorhens and pied wagtails fussed about the water margins while the coots squabbled in that half-hearted way I associate with sleepy toddlers in a grump.

Lunt Meadows 

I'd walked round for a look over the pool from the screen on the East side, finding myself a goosander hiding in plain sight on the open water. I stepped away from the screen, turned onto the path and came face to face with a short-eared owl sitting on a fencepost almost within arm's reach. The owl slipped sideways from the fence — I don't know any other bird that can fly sideways effortlessly like a short-eared owl can — then slowly circled round and flew over to the open meadow. By this time I'd retrieved my camera and took what is unequivocally the worst photo I have ever taken of an owl. Which I'll be keeping for the memory.

Lunt Meadows 

I got another, more prolonged though distant, view of the owl on the way back as it drifted over the meadow and round the edge of the wood.

Short-eared owl
Not a great picture but substantially better than my first one today.

The chaffinches were going to bed as I walked past Roughley's Wood and the blackbirds were having one last go at the hawthorn berries. As I waited for the bus back to Waterloo the hedgerow fizzed with house sparrows and the big trees on the corner of the road were becoming black with jackdaws. The journey home was nicely uneventful and I was ready for a pot of tea when I got there.

Roughley's Wood