The last Tuesdayof the month for the birding group was a trip to the Wirral starting at Hoylake at 10 am for an 11:35am high tide of 9.89 metres. It wasn’t particularly high but there haven’t been that many recently, so we were looking forward to and – for once – it was a lovely, wind-free and sunny day.
When we got there at 10am the sea wax still quite long way out but already we could see a long train of Oystercatchers marching along the tide line. These were soon followed by small groups of Dunlin and Sanderling, the latter in pretty good numbers. A peregrine flew down and landed on the beach but was soon off again.
As the tide came in it was clear that it wasn’t going to be a spectacular but there were enough birds for it not to be disappointing and the birds got close enough for good views in a beautiful light. Grey Plovers appeared and a couple of Ringed Plovers joined in witht he Dunlin and Sanderling. A single Redshank walked around on the beach.
The water did not come in all the way and stopped about sixty feet from the prom. By 11:30 we figured we had seen everything we were going to so we moved on to Riverbank Road.
At Riverbank Road there were about a dozren birders. It wasn’t long before we got both Merlin and Peregrine, both perched on posts in the marsh. A Marsh Harrier appeared briefly but then dropped down into the marsh and was then hidden from view. A couple of Stonechats appeared for us as well which was nice.
The lady from the big house came down and spoke to us – this must be about the third time that we have seen her. She is always curious as to what people see but, typically, as soon as she appeared the raptors disappeared so we could not show her anything much. We will have to take her up on her offer of a cup of tea one day.
After Riverbank Road some of us headed off fot Denhall Quay but nothing much had been seen there and the Harp wasn’t doing food so we decided to finish off at Burton Mere Wetlands where we spent about an hour without seeing anything special but still adding to our day count of species.
With the weather turning a little bit, we headed off home.
Bird Sightings Hoylake 29th October 2019
| Species | No |
|---|---|
| Common Shelduck | 40 |
| Rock Dove | 10 |
| Stock Dove | 2 |
| Eurasian Oystercatcher | 400 |
| Grey Plover | 3 |
| Common Ringed Plover | 2 |
| Red Knot | 50 |
| Sanderling | 40 |
| Dunlin | 100 |
| Common Redshank | 1 |
| Black-headed Gull | 20 |
| Herring Gull | 20 |
| Lesser Black-backed Gull | 10 |
| Great Black-backed Gull | 20 |
| Great Cormorant | 10 |
| Peregrine Falcon | 1 |
| Eurasian Jackdaw | 10 |
| Carrion Crow | 6 |
| Common Starling | 20 |
Bird Sightings Riverbank Road 29th October 2019
| Species | No |
|---|---|
| Eurasian Curlew | 30 |
| Dunlin | 10 |
| Common Redshank | 6 |
| Eurasian Marsh Harrier | 1 |
| Eurasian Kestrel | 1 |
| Merlin | 1 |
| Peregrine Falcon | 1 |
| European Stonechat | 2 |
Bird Sightings Burton Mere Wetlands 29th October 2019
| Species | No |
|---|---|
| Greylag Goose | 30 |
| Pink-footed Goose | 300 |
| Canada Goose | 20 |
| Northern Shoveler | 6 |
| Eurasian Wigeon | 8 |
| Mallard | 20 |
| Common Teal | 100 |
| Common Pheasant | 1 |
| Northern Lapwing | 20 |
| Black-tailed Godwit | 80 |
| Great Egret | 1 |
| Little Egret | 6 |
| Eurasian Kestrel | 1 |
| Eurasian Magpie | 6 |
| Eurasian Blue Tit | 2 |
| Great Tit | 2 |
| Cetti’s Warbler | 1 |
| European Greenfinch | 4 |
| European Goldfinch | 4 |