Dec 31 2018
Dec 31 2018
December 2018 : Summary
UK Species Year List to December: 173
Total UK Species in December: 66
New “Year Ticks” in December: 2
New “Life Ticks” in December: 0
Dec 30 2018
The last birding day of the year for us was on the 30th. A succession of ilnesses and colds over the festive period had seriously curtailed our birding chances – which seems to happen every December. Be that as it may we managed to get out just before the close of the year but were rather put off our preferred plan on walking along the marshes by the heavy presence of Christmas dog walkers who were so loud and boisterous that it was no fun being in the middle of them. Instead we concentrated on the dog-free Burton Mere Wetlands.
Dec 05 2018
Jan 15: Burton Mere Wetlands
Jan 22: Riverbank Road, Heswall followed by Denhall Quay (High Tide 11.50)
Jan 29: Hilbre (Low Tide at noon)
Dec 04 2018
The birding group outing on the 4th December was to WWT Martin Mere. We wanted to set off early because we were due to have a planning meeting after our morning bird watching. Accordingly we set off about 8:15am instead of our usual 9am. Google maps was showing that the M6 was at a standstill so we took an unorthodox route of carrying along the M56 to the A553 over the Mersey then up past Widnes onto the M57 and then through Maghull. And Aughton before arriving at Burscough, then the reserve. I think it probably saved us half an hour on the motorway and there was a lot of fog so I think we made the right choice.
Dec 02 2018
Although the weather reports for the Wirral were poor, we decided to risk the weather to have a go at finding the Great Northern Diver seen recently on West Kirby Marine Lake. We knew that on a Sunday it might be busy but we had forgotten that the tide was as far out as it could be and people were Sunday-walking their dogs around the perimeter path. On top of that, there were dozens of boats and wind surfers and all sorts of other water-borne vehicles going up and down the lake. It was a surprise that any bird wouldn’t just fly off, especially since some of the dogs were jumping into the water for a swim.