High Tide at Riverbank Road and Burton Mere Wetlands 23 March 2023

We had a second go at a high tide a couple of days after our first visit when the tide was much better; 10.1 metres at 12:12pm. We started out at Riverbank Road on the Wirral. It was a bit wetter than on the Tuesday but the weather helped the tide come in a long way there. Unfortunately we didn’t see any Short-eared Owls or Hen Harriers- they have been scarce this Winter. In fact, we did not get a Marsh Harrier which is unusual – they must have been full up already!

Although we did not get any Harriers we did get a pair of Buzzards right above us and interacting in an interesting manner. In general, all the Buzzards in the area are taking to the skies – Spring is springing.

We got three Great White Egrets and several Little Egrets. There were the usual numbers of Shelduck on the water but as the tide came in we started to see a lto of the little birds – Meadow Pipits particularly, but also Skylarks and Reed Bunting. A nice flock of Brent Geese came closer in with the tide and eventually the water was nearly all the way up to the car park. This brought Dunlin and Redshank closer.

We left about 12:20pm and headed down to Burton Mere Wetlands where there were the usual suspects. We didn’t range far because it was a bit wet and we had been here a couple of days previously ans seen pretty much the same birds as were on the sightings board. This time nobody has seen the Dowitcher. Perhaps the best part of this visit to BMW was a fine display of Pink-Footed Geese.

As we neared teh old barn we saw in one of the fields behind, a very large group of Pink-foots. As the path rose it was clear that a good number of them had come off the marsh for the tide and preferred to hang together in the field. I estimated that the flock was around 2,000 birds and the spectacle was even greater when they all decided that it was time to return to the marsh and they all rose together, circling around for a while before heading out to the estaurry and splittng up into smaller flocks to settle back down on the receding tide.

On the scrape it was business as usual but there was a nice group of half a dozen Ruff and, of course, the Avocets are always a joy to see. It was a bit disappointing on the birds of prey front but, as ever, every high tide experience is different and they often have a special sight that compensates for any shortfall regarding our expectations. This time it was the Pink-foots.

Bird Sightings : Riverbank Road 23 March 2023

Bird Sightings : Burton Mere Wetlands 23 March 2023