Riverbank Road High Tide : 8th April 2016

Riverbank Road High Tide : 8th April 2016

With a high tide of 10.2 metres due for 11.30am we were once more drawn to Riverbank Road, Heswall instead of Parkgate. Unfortunately I hadn’t checked with the Deeside Birding Web Site for their mentions of monthly highpoints. If I had I would have noticed that, now that we are on British Summer Time, you need to ass an hour to the tide wimes listed in “Laver’s Tide Times” As a result we were at Heswall an hour early – well, actually an hour plus an hour and a half before high tide ! This gave us the excuse to go to Heswall village for tea and toasted teacakes ! When we returned, the tide was looking in a better shape and soem other birders had also arrived.

We are starting to recognise a few familiar gfaces and they are starting to remember us so other birders are happy to talk to us and point out birds. The first of these was a (now expected) Merlin sitting on it’s usual post. Later on it was seen to be eating a rat or a vole. There were all the usual suspects there but there high points were two Short-eared Owls as well as a “year tick” in the shape of a few Wheatear. Other “year ticks” were a pair of Eider that were swimming across one of the “drains” and a small group of Brent Geese. There waw also a large flock of Pink-footed Geese (I would have thought that they would all have left by now but obviously not !)

All in all another good high tide at Riverbank Road; the only disappointment was no Harriers ! Still, you can’t complain with SE Owls and a Merlin and a few “life ticks”

Bird Sightings : Riverbank Road