Hoylake and Burton Mere Wetlands 11th October 2022

We joined the birding group on our first group day since our Scotland trip and it was for a high tide on the Wirral – 9.5 m at 12:48pm. With such a late tide we were able to stop off at Moels first, where we saw a small flock of Common Scoters out at sea on a quiet, sunny day. There were also the usual Redshanks, Shelducks and Dunlin but we only stayed a little while before going on to Hoylake to meet the rest of the group.

Hoylake is much changed – even in a few months. Since the council stopped managing the beach in 2019 it has progressively been reverted to a sand dune system with plants and grasses growing rapidly. The plants have now extended past the lifeboat station and the whole area looks like it will turn into a saltwater marsh, though the expert view seems to be that the clumps of grass will attract the wind-blown sand and start to create dunes.

However it works out, it is radically changing Hoylake and we may not see the flocks of birds we are used to seeing in the future. There is an article about it here.

For the moment though, we still had a good display; perhaps not as many Oystercatchers as usual but still plenty. The smaller birds were mostly Dunlin but there were a couple of Sanderling mixed in among them and I thought there may have been a pair of Curlew Sandpiper as well, though it was hard to be sure. There was also a string of some sixty or so Ringed Plovers and quite a lot of Grey Plovers mixed in with the Oystercatchers. We also saw a couple of Bar-tailed Godwits. Out on the sea there were more Common Scoter on quite a flat sea – but still frustratingly going up and down on the waves. As we were standing there, small numbers of Pied Wagtails flew over and also a year-tick Raven cronked as it passed over our heads.

After the tide was in, we decided to drop down to West Kirby Marine Lake but the whole promenade was closed due to the construction of the new sea defences which will probably much improve conditions for the locals both in terms of inundation but also wind-swept sand. There is more about it here.

Instead we drove down to Burton Mere Wetlands which was pretty quiet. All the Canada Geese that so dominate at a certain time of year had gone bar a couple. Some Pink-foots had arrived to take their place. We saw a couple of Marsh Harriers and a Kestrel displayed well right in front of the hide. There was a nice flock of Linnets near the feeders and also a Greater Spotted Woodpecker but generally it was quite quiet. Recently there had been sightings of a Yellow-browed Warbler and a Firecrest down at the picnic table on the path to the Inner Marsh Farm hide but nobody I spoke to had seen it this day so we didn’t go that far as the afternoon was getting on.

All in all, a good day at Hoylake and nice and wind-free and sunny. Common Scoter and Raven were the only year ticks.

Bird Sightings : Hoylake 11th October 2022

Bird Sightings : Burton Mere Wetlands 11th October 2022