Merseyside bumper bundle

Waders, New Brighton
Redshanks and turnstones with a dunlin (first left) and purple sandpipers (on the left-hand corner of the pontoon).

The weather was billed as being cool but sunny and after the past few days I had some catching up to do. I thought I'd max out the value of an all areas Saveaway and see if I couldn't nudge the year list a bit.

I've had no luck with purple sandpipers at New Brighton for ages. One had been reported earlier in the week, I thought I'd go and see if it was still around. It was a bit of a chance as I'd be arriving just after low tide so it might be gamboling out of sight on breakwaters, if it was still there at all. If I was lucky it might be amongst the waders loafing on the pontoons on the marine lake after pigging out on the ebbing tide.

It was a mercifully uneventful journey into Liverpool and the first train in downstairs at Lime Street was the New Brighton train. It's nice when things work. 

Liverpool Docks from New Brighton

It was bright, if cloudy, when I arrived at New Brighton and there was a great swathe of exposed beach out there with not very much on it. There were more herring gulls at the station than on the nearby beach. On the beach they were accompanied by a few lesser black-backs and black-headed gull and a lone common gull. All the real gull action was going on far out at the tideline where a thick white line was punctuated by cormorants.

Redshanks, turnstones and purple sandpiper (first left)

There was a small crowd of waders on the corner of the pontoon. A few redshanks mingled with a chattering mass of turnstones and just to one side was a dunlin. And two purple sandpipers. I was happy with that. They're nice little birds. A bit of a further wander round didn't add anything to the mix so I chugged back up the hill to the station and headed for Meols.

It still rankled that I'd dipped on the black redstart at Meols so I thought I'd give it another go. I walked down nearly to the promenade but turned down Guffitt's Rake to join the Wirral Coastal Path behind the Coastguard station. This is where the bird's been seen most regularly and it looks like textbook chat country so I spent a while nosing about and looking in the adjacent fields. Lots of magpies pottering about, robins and great tits sang. No black redstart. It occurred to me that if I walked down the Coastal Path looking for wheatears I might find the black redstart, so this is what I did.

Wirral Coastal Path 

Redshanks fussed and bathed in the creeks on the beach, lesser black-backs and herring gulls loafed, a handful of curlews strutted about and a pair of shelducks had a falling out. There was a hint that the tide might be on the turn: a cloud of herring gulls rose high from the tideline and circled their way inland, complaining all the way.

Lesser black-back (left) and great black-back

A great black-back and a lesser black-back loafed reasonably close together on the open mud. It's not often they obligingly appear in the same camera frame without a whole crowd scene in the way so despite the distance I took a few photos to try and get a decent comparison shot. I didn't but this heavily cropped one (below) will do for now. Besides the size difference and the leg colours (pinkish grey for great black-back, yellow for lesser) the colour of the wings and mantle is key. This lesser black-back is quite a dark example of our local subspecies, graelsii, found around Western Europe. (There's some variation, some are distinctly lighter than this and if the light's just wrong a very pale one may set you wondering about yellow-legged gull.) Even though it's dark there's a difference between the grey of the back and the black of the primary flight feathers. The great black-back is near enough black and doesn't show this contrast. (The Scandinavian subspecies of lesser black-back, intermedius, is the same shade as the great black-back. They're uncommon in the U.K. The nominate subspecies, fuscus, the Baltic gull, is very rare in the U.K. and looks different again, having sooty black upperparts.)

Lesser black-back (left) and great black-back

Female stonechat

It was nice to see so many pairs of stonechats and singing linnets on Meols Dunes. House sparrows rummaged about in the brambles, goldfinches twittered about the trees, linnets bounced in and out of gorse bushes and stonechats struck poses on any likely twigs that took their fancy.

There seemed to have been a mass emergence of seven-spot ladybirds

A heron and a little egret fished in the pool by the groyne. A small cluster of knots loafed at the edge of the pool with a few redshanks.

Leasowe Common 

I decided I wasn't heading inland to walk the path by the paddocks. I'd promised myself a low-mud day. Besides, I could get good views of most of the paddocks between the trees from the path through Leasowe Common. Woodpigeons lined up on the fence like an identity parade (they were all woodpigeons). A movement just in front caught my eye and just as I was about to dismiss it as wind-blown debris the only wheatear of the day hopped up onto a pile of horse dung and surveyed the surroundings. While I was scanning around to see if any more wheatears were about I found a very nice, bright male white wagtail. A couple of fellow birdwatchers let on and we exchanged hopes for a fruitful Spring passage.

Stitchwort

Despite my promise to myself I took the muddy patch into the thin woodland by the pond. Titmice bounced through the trees, chiffchaffs and a reed bunting sang from willows, woodpigeons clattered about, and blackbirds, robins and wrens bustled through the undergrowth. A great spotted woodpecker was quite rude about my passing by, the woodpigeons in the nearby paddocks weren't remotely fussed.

Birch woodwort, I think,  even though it's on willow

Coots and mallards — and a couple of small, fluffy dogs that were having too much fun to listen to their owner — splashed about in the pond. The singing Cetti's warbler in the reeds can't have been more than six feet away but see it I did not. Nor the totally unexpected dabchick that suddenly started hinneying not much further away.

By the pond

I had no more luck seeing the Cetti's warbler singing in the brambles by the lighthouse. The crowd of greenfinches, house sparrows and dunnocks were more obliging but very fidgety.

Kerr's Field was busy with woodpigeons, moorhens and magpies. A curlew fossicked about and was the only wader to be seen. The only small birds were robins and dunnocks. A pair of stock doves kept themselves away from the woodpigeons and a couple of pigeons that had flown in. They were a nice surprise, I seldom see them here.

Curlew and woodpigeons

Last year it seemed I was falling over spoonbills, I've not seen one this year. One was reported as showing nicely at Marshside this afternoon so I decided that would be the last stop of the day. 

Black-tailed godwits

It was teatime when I got there and as I walked down Marshside Road the marshes were settling down for the night and the clouds had rolled in, deepening the gloom. Wigeons and teal whistled in pools. There were lots of Canada geese and a few greylags, all spaced out just outside pecking distance. There seemed a lot more mute swans than usual on the marshes and the cobs were in full display mode. Lapwings and redshanks were few and far between. A pair of great black-backs dominated the Junction Pool just by their presence. A few dozen black-tailed godwits bunched up tightly and twittered nervously. The great black-backs took flight and all the godwits went up and disappeared into the estuary. Way in the background a couple of hundred pink-footed geese rose from the salt marsh on the other side of the Marine Drive. I couldn't see the culprit but I suspect it was the male marsh harrier that made a pass over the pool by Sandgrounders ten minutes later.

Black-tailed  godwits, black-headed gulls and great black-backs

Shovelers

Shovelers

Sandgrounders was closed but I had a look at the pools from the screens. Shovelers and teals dabbled, tufted ducks and wigeons dozed. The black-headed gulls were busy establishing nesting territories. This colony's shrunk over the past few years, starting before the arrival of avian flu. I don't know why, it seems to be a trend echoed elsewhere in the Northwest.

Black-headed gulls and teal

The spoonbill was gratifyingly easy to pick up. It was on the pool across the road from Sandgrounders and it was very actively feeding. Frustratingly, it was hugging the near bank so most of the time I was just seeing its back and the top of its head. It came out into the open often enough to confirm it was a spoonbill and not two egrets playing a jape.

Spoonbill

Spoonbill

I'd misremembered the 44 bus times, I thought they were every half hour after six o'clock, they're every hour. I walked the length of Marshside Road, got the X2 into Southport and got to the station just in time to see the Manchester train close its doors and depart. So I doglegged it back, getting the train back to Liverpool and the Manchester train back. What I lost by getting home ten minutes later than planned was gained by not having to walk home from Urmston, such are the vagaries of our local train service. I was quite worn out but I'd bumped the year list up to 149 even though I'd dipped on that black redstart again.