Spring High Tide at Parkgate 9 & 10 March 2012

Spring High Tide at Parkgate 9 & 10 March 2012

We went  to Parkgate on the Wirral estuary  for the spring high tide which we hoped would be one of the spectacular ones. The RSPB web site says of Parkgate  “The marshes of Parkgate and the surrounding areas hold masses of small mammals and bird life.  Will this year’s tides flood the entire marsh and cause the wildlife spectacle hundreds of people travel miles to see?”

Well, the short answer was no as the water came in a bit but not far enough for the “spectacular” appearance of large numbers of birds of prey coming together to hunt the mammals that get pushed progressively towards the narrowing strip of land that remains as the tide rises. When this happens, bird spotters get a great chance to see a wide variety of birds of prey as well as other water birds that usually roost out on the marshes and also have to come closer to the mainland as the tide rises. These include Skylarks, Meadow Pipits, and Linnets. Water Rails are sometimes seen as they look for dry land and have even been known to seek cover in the car park.

For us, however, this was not going to be one of those special events and was a little disappointing. Apparently there was too much high pressure and the weather was too good to assist  the water coming all the way in. In fact we spoke to someone who said that they had been going to Parkgate for 20 years and it had been many years since he had seen the water come all the way in. But as disappointing as it was there were some high points and we had prolonged and excellent views of “ringtail” Hen Harrier. We had slightly less good views of a Short-eared Owl and also some views of Merlin, sometimes perched a long way off on a log and sometimes flying fast and low over the marshes. It has to be said that without the identification help of the RSPB staff there it would have been difficult for us to identify the Merlins on our own. We wanted to have two shots at the high tide so we stayed overnight on the 9th of March and also attended on the morning of the 10th. The second way the water may have come in slightly more but there were actually fewer birds spotted on that day. The tide was high at around 11.30 on the first day and an hour or so later on the second. The marsh was full of Skylarks singing and Meadow Pipits (apparently also Stone Pipits and Water Pipits but I couldn’t tell as they were just darting around at high speed avoiding other birds) We also had a visit from around 300 Pink-footed Geese that flew onto the marsh which was a great sighting – and a nosiy one !

We stayed overnight at the Ship Hotel on the promenade where we stayed in the “Lady Hamilton” room which was one of the more expensive rooms in the hotel but had the advantage of having a small bay window with bench seating  where you could sit and get a good view over the marshes and, in particular, over a sizeable pond of water about 200 yards away where to our amazement was a Spoonbill that had been resident on the marshes all winter apparently. We got really good views of it and the next morning when we opened the curtains in our room it was there again but this time on the nearer edge of the pond and was leisurely enough in its breakfast to allow me enough time to get a little bit of rough video of it and also some slightly better still photos.

Spoonbill, Parkside, Deeside, March 2012

So, all in all it was not a complete washout and we had some good “year ticks” and a couple of “lifers” so  I felt that it had justified the expedition even if we had expected more. But if bird watching was that easy ….?

Bird Sightings : Parkgate 9th March 2012

Bird Sightings : Parkgate 10th March 2012