Heswall Shore at High Tide : 11th September 2014

Heswall Shore at High Tide : 11th September 2014

We had planned to do this walk from the car park at Banks Road, Heswall along the shore to Thurstston Country Park, at high tide. The high tide was due to be at 13.24hrs (BST) with a height of 9.9m. We were a bit early so we thought we would drop in to Burton Mere Wetlands first. We actually ran into a couple of our birding group members but also got to speaking with some locals who informed us that if we wanted to catch the tide before it was too late we would have to get there three hours earlier than high tide not two, so we raced off down there straight away.

We parked up at the Banks Road car park and walked down to the shore past the Sheldrake Restaurant. From there we walked along the shore which was pretty muddy. This was the third day of high tides and the previous midnight tide had been 9.9 metres and it was obvious that the sea had come all the way up to the edge of the low cliffs. After plodding through a lot of mud we eventually came to a path that leads up to a field where there is a park bench overlooking the marsh and sea.

It became clear that we were wise to get there early because we sat down at around 12.30pm and twenty minutes later the tide was almost over; certainly by 12.30 the tide was a long way in with a whole fifty minutes to go technically speaking. An experienced local we were speaking to estimated that there were 5,000 Redshank, 2,000 Shelduck and 1,000 Curlew. We also saw a couple of dozen Cormorants at least and high numbers of Gulls.

The tide came in so quickly that without even noticing the birds were suddenly quite a long way away. We decided to walk on to Thurstaston visitor centre and as we walked along the beach, even with an hour to go before high tide, there was only a narrow strip of beach left –  a couple of feet perhaps.

We walked back along the Wirral Way but there wasn’t much to see in the fields either side of what used to be the old railway line. It was interesting to do the walk, however, as we got a bit of the lay of the land clearer in our minds.

I have a feeling that this is a better site in winter and can imagine even larger numbers of birfd than we saw – impressive as it was.

 Route from Bank Road Car Park to Thurstaston Country Park and Back

Bird Sightings : Heswall Beach