This week the birding group’s visit was to Hilbre Island on the Wirral. There were around 12 of us and we were fortunate to pick a really fine day for it – even if it was a little cold.
We saw a very large flock of Oystercatchers which amounted to at least 200 birds (but probably much more) mixed in with around 50 Black-tailed Godwits, 30 Redshank, 20 Dunlin and a dozen or so Turnstone.There were 3 Grey Heron, a Cormorant, Black-headed, Great Black-backed and Herring Gulls and around 50 Brent Geese. We also had a great view of a singing Wren. As we were coming back we encountered a small flock of birds bouncing around the sand and rocks and what little grass there was and after much humming and hawing we concluded that it was a flock of a dozen or so Linnets – though, subsequently it crossed my mind that they just might be Twite but they seemed a bit too dull peachy around the chest for Twite.
Anyway we spent nearly 2 hours on the island and also had the added bonus on the way back of seeing a group of 40 Atlantic Grey Seals lying around on a sandbank a few hundred metres from one of the islands.