Laughing Gull at New Brighton : 22nd February 2015

Laughing Gull at New Brighton : 22nd February 2015

After getting lucky with the Long-eared Owl at Burton Mere Wetlands, we decided to head off to New Brighton for the last high tide day of February (10.1 metres at 1.27pm). We got there around 1pm so we had half an hour before high tide. As it happens the tide was already well in and people were fishing off the prom so I suppose the tide comes in about 90 minutes before the Liverpool Gladstone Docks time. We had experience of how hard it is to find a parking space in New Brighton at the weekend so I suppose it was good for us that it had turned to a windy and drizzly day and the place was not quite as busy. We eventually found a parking spot (the majority of parking places are reserved for the disabled but nobody seems to pay the slightest attention to these notices) and hoped we would get lucky.

When we first looked in the bins from our parking place it seemed like there were only a few Herring Gulls on the pontoon but as we got closer things started to look better. Then it was clear that there were lots of birds; Redhsank, Dunlin and a huge number of Turnstones. There were also a few Purple Sandpipers but it took us a little while before we spotted a single Gull on its own. It wasn’t hard to distinguish, especially by the very long bill. As we stood there, quite a few people turned up also looking for the Gull and, as ever, there were miscellaneous people taking pictures that had to ask what the birds were.

We were starting to get very wet so we popped into “Caffe Creme” for their famous bacon sandwich on granary toast and a nice cup of tea. We could still see the birds on the pontoon but the “different” gull had gone by then.

We finished up in the cafe and returned to the pontoon where the Herring Gulls had started to move around and this disconcerted all the other birds who started milling around and making noisy complaint. Wherever a gull was walking around it was like the parting of the seas as the smaller waders kept their distance from the much bigger birds.

We walked to the end of the marine lake and it was there that someone else had caught up with the Laughing Gull which was hovering on the wind between the sea wall and the marine lake. It eventually landed back on the lake but this time on the water. We were happy with the views we had had and I even got a little bit of digiscoped video so, as the weather got more gloomy and threatening we headed back home, happy with our two “life ticks” in one day.

Bird Sightings : New Brighton Marine Lake