April 2016 archive

Apr 30 2016

Summary : April 2016

Summary April 2016

Species this month = 88

New Species added to 2016 Year List in April = 15

Sand Martins and House Martins at Moore on the 5th, Brent Goose, Common Eider and Wheatear at Riverbank Road on the 8th and Black-necked Grebe at Woolston Eyes also on the 8th. Our first Swallow at Ellesmere on the 10th April, Cetti’s Warbler and Water Pipit (Life Tick) and Little Ringed Plover at Burton Mere Wetlands on the 12th April,  Willow Warbler and Blackcap at Wigan Flashes on 18th April, Sedge Warbler at Burton Mere Wetlands on 22nd April. Reed Warbler (heard) and Marsh Tit (seen) at Leighton Moss on the 26th April

New UK Life List Birds In April = 1

Water Pipit at Burton Mere Wetlands on 12th

Running Total for the 2016 UK So Far = 124

 

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Apr 26 2016

Leighton Moss RSPB : 26th April 2016

Leighton Moss RSPB : 26th April 2016

The last birding group day of the month (and our last until we are back from holiday in Norfork etc.) was to Leighton Moss. The day started badly with three different traffic jams that meant that our joutrney there took two hours. When we got there, it was surprisingly quiet at all the hides and there were only a couple of things to liven up our day.

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Apr 22 2016

Red Rocks, Neston Old Quay and Burton Mere Wetlands : 22nd April 2016

Red Rocks, Neston Old Quay and Burton Mere Wetlands : 22nd April 2016

WIth a good day predicted and a 9 metre high tide due at  Noon we decided on another visit to the Wirral. Expecting that a, none too impressive, 9 metre tide would’t do much anywhere except Hoylake we decided to go up there. As it happened the tide was mainly a long way out. We had a little bit of a walk around but we decided to try a place we had not been to before, despite its proximity to Hoylake, Red Rocks.

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Apr 19 2016

Wigan Flashes : 19th April 2016

Wigan Flashes : 19th April 2016

The last two times the birding group have been scheduled for Wigan Flashes, it has have to be called off due to bad weather. Nothing could have been further from the truth on this day and, with a beautiful blue sky above, the birds were out and Spring had definitely sprung with plenty of Warblers about and singing loudly.

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Apr 12 2016

Burton Mere Wetlands : 12th April 2016

Burton Mere Wetlands : 12th April 2016

Our first sighting on the day was four Mistle Thrushes in the car park making a lot of noise. We went on to the reception hide where there we were immediately met with a Hen Harrier showing well. A staff member who was out at the Marsh Covert Hide phoned in an Osprey that had been seen over Burton Point. Unfortunately it didn’t come our way.

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Apr 08 2016

Woolston Eyes : 8th April 2016

Woolston Eyes : 8th April 2016

We had a bit of time on our hands after we had left Riverbank Road so we decided to see if we could catch any of the small number of Black-necked Grebes that had recently arrived at their traditional breeding site. We weren’t disppointed and we managed to see three of these lovely birds, albeit they seemed pretty hungry and spent 90% of the time (or more) under the water. We still managed to get satisfactory views, though, so we were happy.

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Apr 08 2016

Riverbank Road High Tide : 8th April 2016

Riverbank Road High Tide : 8th April 2016

With a high tide of 10.2 metres due for 11.30am we were once more drawn to Riverbank Road, Heswall instead of Parkgate. Unfortunately I hadn’t checked with the Deeside Birding Web Site for their mentions of monthly highpoints. If I had I would have noticed that, now that we are on British Summer Time, you need to ass an hour to the tide wimes listed in “Laver’s Tide Times” As a result we were at Heswall an hour early – well, actually an hour plus an hour and a half before high tide ! This gave us the excuse to go to Heswall village for tea and toasted teacakes ! When we returned, the tide was looking in a better shape and soem other birders had also arrived.

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Apr 05 2016

Moore Nature Reseve : 5th April 2016

Moore Nature Reseve : 5th April 2016

The first birding group morning of the spring term saw a small turnout for a fairly quiet morning. We were all hoping that we would see a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker and we were not the only people with that idea in mind. Normally we could be fairly hopeful of success at this time of year but apart from probably hearing one drum (soft and brief in length) that was the only evidence despite a lot of looking. Be that as it may, we still managed to get a couple of “year ticks”.

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