February 2018 Summary
UK Species Year List to February: 92
Total UK Species in February: 82
New “Year Ticks” in February: 24
New “Life Ticks” in February: 0
February was as cold and wet as January so we didn’t get much birding in. What we did get was a couple of good days of high (and one high-ish) tide days on the Wirral. The first high tide of the year that we were able to get to was a 10 metre tide at 12.21pm at Burton Mere Wetlands, Riverbank Road and New Brighton Marine Lake – all on the 2nd of February.
At Burton the notable sightings was my first Chiffchaff on the year – not singing yet and a very loud Great Spotted Woodpecker drumming frequently. There was a particularly attractive Fieldfare lit beautifully in the sunlight.
At Riverbank Road we got a ring-tail Hen Harrier, Peregrine, Marsh Harrier and Buzzard so that was a good raptor day. There were also some Common Scoter out on the water.
Lastly for that day we got our Purple Sandpipers at New Brighton Marine Lake as well as good numbers of Turnstone, Redshank and DUnlin.
The second high tide of the month wasn’t really that high at all at 9.13m at 11:33am. But we thought it was worth a go because it was a rare pleasant day. We took in Hoylake, West Kirby Marine Lake, Burton Mere Wetlands and Connah’s Quay all on the 16th of February 2018.
Hoylake was interesting because we started on the promenade at Moels instead of going directly along to Hoylake promenade and this gave us great, closer views than usual, of Grey Plover, Sanderling, Knot and Dunlin. We also got a dozen Bar-tailed Godwits.
At Connah’s Quay we got our Twite in a good group as well so it was a good day in general.
I only got to one birding group morning of the month and that was to Wigan Flashes on the 20th February 2018. We didn’t see that much there but we had a good walk and I hadn’t been there since 2016. I did hear two Cetti’s Warblers – the first for the year, singing loudly. There were also good numbers of Goldeneye and Common Pochard.
Although this was a birding group morning, the three of us went on to Pennington Flash but it was a bit rammed it being half-term. We saw a Kingfisher there. This was my second for the year – both seen at Pennington but in different places – which may not seem that remarkable until I think that it took me until November to see one last year.
Around the garden, the birds are always hungry. The highest count of Goldfinch awas twenty. We have Blur Tits in good numbers and fewer Great Tits. We see the occasional Dunnock and Wren and Coal Tit. We continue to suffer from Feral Pigeons and Wood Pigeons although we seem to have regular visits also from our traditional pair of Mistle Thrushes; this must be the third year they have visited our garden regularly in winter.
Long-tailed Tit flocks can appear at any time and some stray House Sparrows are also seen venturing from their usual garden across the ginnel. A Robin is seen occasionally and a particularly rare and pleasant visitation was from a pair of Siskin mixed in for a day with the Goldfinches. Out Nuthatch continues to be a regular visitor to the kibbled Sunflower seed hearts.