The first birding group outing of the Autumn term was to the Wirrall for a – not very – high tide of 9.3 metres at 10:23am. Although it was very misty pretty much all the way, by the time we got to Hoylake it had turned out to be a beautiful, sunny and windless day ! The only let-down was that the tide did not come in very far. Still, we got some good sightings anyway.
We had heard of a Little Stint having been sighted but we could not find it among the Dunlin and Ringed Plovers. The numbers of birds were a bit down on our visit the week before but we did get three juvenile Sandwich Terns and a dozen Grey Plover – all but moulted out of their summer plumage. As we watched we had a quick scan out by the wind turbines for Common Scoter and, although we only saw a few at first, later we saw a huge flock – officially counted as 2,700 !
There were the usual dog walkers letting their dogs run at the birds and I even felt the need to shout at one about it ! after a couple of hours we decided to set off for Denhall Quay and a toastie at the Harp Inn. As we were leaving a chap said that the Little Stint was at the other end of the prom so we quickly got over there and found a woman who had it in her scope. We lined ours up and I may have got a glimpe of it before a dog got the mixed flock up and thereafter I couldn’t relocate it with any confidence. We did get a few Sanderling, though.
Over at Denhall Quay we had our lunch and sat in the sun waiting for the birds to appear. We didn’t get a Hen Harrier which we had hoped we might but we did see the greatest number of Kestrels in the air at any one time ever; later we got a couple of Buzzards and, at last, a distant Hen Harrier.
Those were the main interests at Debhall and so, after lunch, we headed off for Burton Mere Wetlands. We asked what was about and we were immediately directed to a Curlew Sanspiper right outside the reception hide window. After a quick look at it to get the tick, I went outside and got much better views without the smoked glass in the way. The light had got a bit better too, as the sun was getting lower in the sky. There were only the usual suspects otherwise. We got a few Snipe which was nice and some Ruff.
So, apart from the Curlew Sandpiper it was a pretty average day but a lovely one none the less and a bit of an Indian Summer day.
Bird Sightings : Hoylake
| Common Shelduck | 20 |
| Common Scoter | 2700 |
| Great Cormorant | 30 |
| Eurasian Oystercatcher | 600 |
| Grey Plover | 2 |
| Common Ringed Plover | 30 |
| Common Redshank | 10 |
| Eurasian Curlew | 100 |
| Sanderling | 12 |
| Dunlin | 200 |
| Black-headed Gull | 100 |
| Mew Gull | 100 |
| Herring Gull | 300 |
| Lesser Black-backed Gull | 8 |
| Great Black-backed Gull | 10 |
| Sandwich Tern | 3 |
| Carrion Crow | 30 |
| Common Starling | 30 |
| Pied Wagtail | 40 |
Bird Sightings : Denhall Quay
| Grey Heron | 2 |
| Little Egret | 2 |
| Eurasian Marsh Harrier | 1 |
| Common Buzzard | 2 |
| Common Redshank | 4 |
| Common Kestrel | 10 |
| Barn Swallow | 12 |
| European Robin | 2 |
| Common Starling | 30 |
| European Goldfinch | 40 |
| House Sparrow | 10 |
Bird Sightings : Burton Mere Wetlands : Reception Hide
| Common Shelduck | 6 |
| Gadwall | 2 |
| Mallard | 50 |
| Northern Shoveler | 8 |
| Common Teal | 30 |
| Little Egret | 1 |
| Common Moorhen | 4 |
| Common Coot | 10 |
| Northern Lapwing | 20 |
| Black-tailed Godwit | 50 |
| Ruff | 2 |
| Curlew Sandpiper | 1 |
| Common Snipe | 6 |
| Great Tit | 2 |
| Eurasian Blue Tit | 8 |
| Common Chaffinch | 4 |
| European Goldfinch | 4 |