Merseyside bumper bundle

Redshanks, turnstones, black-headed gull and purple sandpiper

I thought I'd have one last nibble at the year list so I headed for New Brighton to see if I could find my first purple sandpiper of the year. The train run to Liverpool was nicely uneventful and for once I managed to just catch the New Brighton train at Lime Street (I usually miss it by a whisker).

Wallasey Beach 

I got off at Wallasey Rose Grove and walked down to the lifeboat station. It was a grey day and not for the first time in the past week I had to put my cap in my pocket. I don't have enough hair to hold it in place when the wind catches it, I'll have to buy some toupee tape.

Wallasey Beach 

It was lunchtime and low tide so the birds were mostly far out on the beach well away from frisky dogs and their frisky owners. Large flocks of herring gulls loafed on sandbanks while almost as large flocks of oystercatchers worked the muddy sand. I walked down to the car park in the dunes, just in case any pipits or buntings were about. Sadly not.

Carrion crows

Herring gulls 

Herring gulls 

Herring gulls 

Herring gulls 

I walked back a way along the beach. I'd passed one of the breakwaters when a couple of redshanks caught my eye. I had a wander over that way to see if anything was on the breakwater and was rewarded with a dozen turnstones skittering about on the concrete breakers. As I wandered back to the seawall a couple of pied wagtails chased each other about the sand and a rock pipit flew onto the wall.

Sand gaper
A few of them at the base of one of the flights of steps had been unearthed from the sand by the tide and a couple of them hadn't yet been got at by gulls or crows. 

Acorn barnacles
This flight of steps is the last safely navigable one on the way into New Brighton. The next is fenced off as unsafe.

Oystercatchers 

Although there had been plenty of black-headed gulls flying about none of them properly settled on the beach until I'd passed the Pierrot statue into New Brighton. The first common gulls of the day turned up here, too.

Cormorant, redshanks, turnstones, purple sandpiper, knot, black-headed gulls and herring gull

Redshanks, turnstones, purple sandpiper, knot and black-headed gull

Redshanks, turnstones, purple sandpiper, knot and black-headed gull

Redshanks, turnstones, purple sandpiper and black-headed gull
The knot had fidgeted its way into the redshanks.

Redshanks, turnstones, purple sandpiper and black-headed gull

Redshanks, turnstones, purple sandpiper and knot
(cropped detail of first photo in this sequence)
The purple sandpiper is centre-right, the knot behind the turnstone to its right.

The tide was noticeably on the turn but it was hours before high tide so I wasn't overly optimistic about what I might find on the pontoons on the marine lake. The first birds I saw on my approach were a bunch of herring gulls and a cormorant. Then I turned the corner and could see the end of the pontoon where a couple of dozen redshanks and a dozen turnstones were already twittering at roost. A few more birds flew in as I walked round past the restaurants and I found a couple of knots in the crowd. I was about to give up when I noticed a lone purple sandpiper asleep amongst the turnstones.

It was still only lunchtime and I was still rankling about not seeing the snow bunting in Southport the other day so I headed over there. I might strike lucky with twite, too, I thought to myself. I got off at Birkdale and walked down to the foreshore, the idea being to walk the length of the path from the salt marsh to the pier, just in case. 

Walking to Southport Pier 

Goldfinches 

Goldfinch 

Grey wagtail 

The tide was still pretty far out so the herring gulls, oystercatchers, curlews and shelducks were distant figures beyond the marsh at first. The path was muddy and treacherous but I reckoned I'd have more chance of seeing the bunting down here than from the roadside if it was about. I succeeded in upsetting woodpigeons, goldfinches, pied wagtails and a grey wagtail that spent three minutes fidgeting about five yards ahead of me. Every so often it would fly ahead and wait for me to catch up, just in case I was disturbing any insects in my progress. Skeins of pink-footed geese passed overhead on their way to the salt marshes North of the pier.

Pink-footed geese 

I breathed a sigh of relief when I joined the little bit of revetment between the slipway and the pier and could tread confidently again. Not too confidently, mind, it wouldn't be the first time I've nearly trodden on a snow bunting. I needn't have worried, I couldn't find it though a couple of meadow pipits and a dunnock jumped out of my way.

Southport Pier 

A large flock of black-headed gulls loafed on the beach South of the pier, an army of redshanks fed on the beach North of the pier. The light was failing though there was still technically quarter of an hour to sunset. Gulls flew out to sea and squadrons of cormorants flew in to roost on the marine lake. I had one last look at the raft of dabchicks fishing on the lake and made my way for the train home.

New Brighton

Redshanks

Today was a reminder why most of my weekend birdwatching is kept local and nearly always away from popular spots: I find crowds exhausting these days. Oxford Road was bedlam, busy made worse by the new crowd control measures (it's taken me a week to realise that the problem is that passengers are being directed from open areas to congested areas rather than the other way round; I'm getting slow, in the old days that would have taken me ten minutes). The train to Liverpool was packed and, despite its being a grey and blustery day, the sea front at New Brighton was busy, too. Still, I got some exercise and a bit of birdwatching done rather despite myself.

New Brighton beach

I got off the train at Wallasey Grove Road and walked down to the lifeguard station, the idea being to have a look to see if the snow bunting was still where I saw it last month in the dunes by the Derby Pools. It's an odd thing but once snow buntings find a cushy billet for the Winter they'll hang around for weeks or even months. Given how busy this stretch was with both unruly yapping dogs and unruly yapping kids* I didn't hold up much hopes so it was a pleasant surprise to see the bunting flitting in and out of cover between waves of noisy passersby. It's a bit of a relief to see a skittish snow bunting, they often strike me as being wilfully unwary.

Carrion crow, preening after a bath

The beach was busy with walkers and dogs so there were only a few oystercatchers and crows and rather a lot of gulls about. The gulls were evenly divided between black-headed and herring gulls with handfuls of lesser black-backs and common gulls and a couple of great black-backs. I looked in vain for redshanks. A small, dark shape moving in the seaweeds at the bottom of the sea wall turned out to be my first purple sandpiper of the year.

Redshanks

I got to the marine lake and found out where all the redshanks were: the beach was so busy they'd all gone to roost on the pontoons in the company of another, rather fidgety, purple sandpiper.

Redshanks and purple sandpiper

I called it a day then. Filtering out the crowd scenes had tired me out far more than the walk had and I didn't fancy moving on to try and fit an hour's birdwatching in elsewhere. I'd got both today's target birds and kept the year list ticking over so it was a fair result for the day.

New Brighton beach

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* I did wonder whether or not to delete that as being a bit curmudgeonly but it has to be said: some dogs, and some children, shouldn't be let loose in the public realm without leads and muzzles. I blame the owners.

Crowd scenes

Purple sandpiper

I looked at the wrather forecast last night and concluded I'd be best off heading towards Merseyside if I wanted to avoid the worst of the weather. The weather forecast of nine o'clock was rather different to that of midnight but I thought what the heck and set off, armed with my old man's day explorer. I started having other ideas as the sky went black over Widnes but by the time we were getting into Liverpool there was the suspicion of blue in the sky so I stuck to the original plan.

Which was good because by lunchtime it was bright and sunny in New Brighton, if ferociously windy.

New Brighton Lighthouse, Port of Liverpool Docks in the background

It was a high high tide. I spent a short while doing a bit of seawatching. It was too choppy to hope to see anything sitting on the water. Gulls — lesser black-backs and herring gulls — towered over the waves and a cormorant made heavy weather of flying into the wind. Most of the black-headed gulls were either on the grass by the promenade or sitting on lampposts in Morrisons' car park.

New Brighton marine lake, the wader roost is on the pontoons at the left

I'd come to check out the wader roost on the pontoons on the marine lake. As hoped there was a lot of redshanks and turnstones. There seemed a lot of space on the pontoons, I couldn't work out whether there were less of them than usual or just more jam-packed than usual. It didn't take long to work out they were more jam-packed than usual. Every so often a redshank would overbalance in the wind and a ripple of annoyance would shiver through the flock.

A few dozen dunlins dozed on the margins and five purple sandpipers dozed on the margins of the dunlins. 

This is easily the most accessible wader roost I know of. I had a big tea planned for when I got home so I didn't stop for a pizza, confining myself to taking rather a lot of photos.

Dunlins, turnstones and redshanks

Redshanks

Dunlins and purple sandpiper

Redshanks, dunlins and turnstones

Redshanks and turnstones

Turnstones and dunlins

Redshanks, dunlins and turnstones

Black-headed gull, redshanks and turnstones

After a while I noticed the clouds being blown in were starting to look ominous so, after stopping off for a nosy in the second-hand bookshop across the road from the station, I set off back home the long way via Chester. I finally got the first fieldfares of the Winter when we passed a flock in some sycamores just outside Helsby.

New Brighton

Purple sandpiper

A sunny day with a light wind and a low tide isn't ideal conditions for trying to find Leach's petrels at New Brighton but I thought I'd give it a go anyway, I might strike lucky with a distant view of one out in the estuary and if you don't look you don't see. By the time I arrived at New Brighton it had become a bright sunny Summer's day and what wind there was had largely dropped, so no I didn't see one.

The marine lake is still kitted out for Summer holiday fun with zip wires and big inflatables all over the water so it was no surprise to see no birds on there. So I had a long nosy round the lighthouse with a flock of starlings in its superstructure providing musical accompaniment.

One of the gobies in the rock pools

Black-headed gull

There were plenty of gulls on the beach, equal numbers of herring, lesser black-backed and black-headed gulls. I'd expect to see some common gulls but none were around here today. I've noticed they've been thin on the ground at home, too.

I was surprised to see so many gobies in the rock pools by the fort. Especially given how many gulls there were on the beach.

New Brighton lighthouse

I walked down to the sea, trying to ignore the bloke playing with his quad bike on his lunchtime break. Every so often he'd scare up the flock of turnstones loafing and feeding on the sea defences. A couple of redshanks that he spooked flew around a bit, landed by the lighthouse and fussed around for a couple of minutes before flying off completely. A bird which was either a greenshank or a spotted redshank disappeared and never came back.

Turnstones

Turnstone

The turnstones settled back onto the sea defences, squabbling and calling all the while. They were between me and the sun which made the light a bit challenging. Turnstones are usually very easy to identify on silhouette but a lot of these needed a second glance as they'd moulted most of their head feathers, giving them an oddly pin-headed look.

Purple sandpipers and turnstone
The sandpiper on the left seems to have a long bill because it's sticking its tongue out at the photographer.

A couple of birds were slightly smaller and rounder. They puzzled me for a few minutes until I realised they were purple sandpipers still largely in their Summer colours. I've never seen them this early in the year and they came as a surprise. It's only the second time I've seen this plumage so I took a long time to feel confident in the identification.

Canada Dock from New Brighton

I walked back to the promenade and decided to walk down to the lifeguard station at the other end. There were more of the same gulls on this stretch of the beach along with small groups of oystercatchers which mostly clustered at the water's edge. A little egret flew by and headed for the river.

Herring gulls

House sparrow on marram grass

Half a dozen swallows twitted from the telegraph wires by the lifeguard station and a small flock of spadgers worked their way through the marram grasses.

I joined the start of the Leasowe Revetment (a great word I only learned yesterday, I've often wondered what the thing was called) and walked down towards Wallasey Dunes. I hadn't walked far when I bumped into the first and only wheatear of the day.

Leasowe Lighthouse

The common gulls turned up on this stretch of beach. They and a few herring gulls were busy dropping cockles onto the concrete slope of the revetment. 

Common gull

I got as far as Wallasey Dunes and decided to call it quits for the day rather than continuing down to Leasowe. I wanted to get home to check on something that was worrying me (I was most of the way home when I found out there was nothing to worry about after all). It had been a good walk and the purple sandpipers brought the year list up to 181.