Birding Group Visit to Hoylake 15th January 2013
After the disappointing visit to Burton Mere Wetlands we decided to rescue the day by driving up to Parkgate and then on to Hoylake. The reason I suggested that we go up to Hoylake was that I had been looking at local sightings on the internet before we set off and had come across a posting on the Dee Estuary Birding web site that mentioned a high tide at Hoylake the day before that had featured tens of thousands of birds whose roost had been pushed up to within a few yards of the promenade at the high tide. The tide was supposed to be reasonably high again today so I suggested to the group that we go there and see if it would be as spectacular today. Since we were only a few miles from there anyway we decided to go just making the briefest of stops at Parkgate en route. There were a few birders at Parkgate but I got the impression that they were – like us – just having a look before setting of for Hoylake. We got to Hoylake around 12.30pm and even before we stopped the car we got a good inkling of what we were in for.