The birding group day out this week was to Hilbre ISland but we weren’t in the mood for that so we decided that we would go up to the Wirral anyway but go to Burton Mere Wetlands, Denholm Old Quay and then on to Connah’s Quay. We had a pretty good day at Burton getting fifty-one species including a year tick – believe it or not – of a Common Kingfisher !! How could it be the end of October before I saw a KIngfisher this year ? Apart from that tere were good species around, pehaps especially in the field on the way to the barn at BMW.
In this field (so aften devoid of anything except Corvids) we found Mistle and Song Thrushes, Redwing and Fieldfare, Meadow Pipit and prodigous numbers of Pied Wagtail. We did not see the alleged Water Pipit ! A Great Spotted Woodpecker flew over and we also got all the usual Tits and Finches and a couple of Nuthatches. There wer good numbers of Pink-footed Geese in the fields towards Shotwick and we got a single Black Swan on the scrape. We heard a Water Rail squealing in the reeds on the way down to the Marsh Covert Hide and at the bridge we saw a few Pintail. On the scrape there was still a single Avocet; I’m not sure what he is still doing there !
We didn’t bother going down to Inner Marsh Farm as we could see only a couple of people there and they looked like they were staring into space and not a binocular or camera was to be seen so we figured it wasn’t worth the time to get down there – especially since it was a low tide anyway!
We moved on to Denham Old Quay and to the Harp Inn for a drink and a cheese toastie. It didn’t seem as if anyone had seen Owls or Hen Harriers yet but we did get good views of a Merlina and more distant views of Marsh Harrier.
At Connah’s Quay it was freezing cold and with it being low tide we didn’t expect much. I was hoping that the Twite might have been around but there was nothing written in the book yet so I suppose they aren’t there quite yet. A small bonus as we were leaving was a fly-by of a pair of Ravens so this probably meant we got around fifty-five species over the few hours and a Kingfisher in among them !!!
Burton Mere Wetlands Environs
| Pink-footed Goose | 200 |
| Greylag Goose | 20 |
| Canada Goose | 40 |
| Black Swan | 1 |
| Whooper Swan | 6 |
| Common Shelduck | 3 |
| Mallard | 30 |
| Northern Shoveler | 6 |
| Northern Pintail | 3 |
| Common Teal | 150 |
| Common Pheasant | 1 |
| Great Cormorant | 1 |
| Grey Heron | 1 |
| Little Egret | 1 |
| Eurasian Marsh Harrier | 1 |
| Common Buzzard | 1 |
| Water Rail | 1 |
| Common Moorhen | 6 |
| Common Coot | 10 |
| Pied Avocet | 1 |
| Northern Lapwing | 20 |
| Black-tailed Godwit | 30 |
| Dunlin | 6 |
| Common Snipe | 2 |
| Black-headed Gull | 40 |
| Common Wood Pigeon | 4 |
| Common Kingfisher | 1 |
| Great Spotted Woodpecker | 1 |
| Eurasian Magpie | 3 |
| Rook | 30 |
| Carrion Crow | 20 |
| Coal Tit | 1 |
| Great Tit | 4 |
| Eurasian Blue Tit | 8 |
| Long-tailed Tit | 6 |
| Eurasian Nuthatch | 2 |
| Eurasian Wren | 2 |
| Cetti’s Warbler | 1 |
| European Robin | 2 |
| European Stonechat | 1 |
| Eurasian Blackbird | 4 |
| Fieldfare | 2 |
| Redwing | 8 |
| Song Thrush | 2 |
| Mistle Thrush | 2 |
| Dunnock | 4 |
| Pied Wagtail | 20 |
| Meadow Pipit | 2 |
| Common Chaffinch | 16 |
| European Greenfinch | 8 |
| European Goldfinch | 10 |
Denholm Old Quay
| Eurasian Marsh Harrier | 1 |
| Common Redshank | 20 |
| Eurasian Curlew | 6 |
| Lesser Black-backed Gull | 2 |
| Common Kestrel | 2 |
| Merlin | 1 |
| Common Starling | 40 |
Connah’s Quay
| Canada Goose | 40 |
| Common Shelduck | 100 |
| Eurasian Wigeon | 10 |
| Great Cormorant | 30 |
| Grey Heron | 6 |
| Common Redshank | 10 |
| Eurasian Curlew | 20 |
| Common Raven | 2 |