Bill Neil

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Hoylake, Parkgate and Burton High Tide 1st September 2019

There haven’t been many high high-tides on the Wirral recently so with a poor weather forecast for home and a better one for the Wirral we headed up there. It was a Sunday and we had forgotten that it was the “Wader Festival” as well so there were plenty of people at tall the sites. High tide was 9.89metres at 1:28pm.

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August 2019 Summary

August 2019 : Summary

UK Species Year List to August: 177
Total UK Species in August: 53
New “Year Ticks” in August: 1
New “Life Ticks” in August: 1

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Leighton Moss and Martin Mere 29th August 2019

I had read that a Little Stint and a Green Sandpiper were both to be seen from the Eric Morecambe hide at RSPB Leighton Moss and, since the weather forecast was good, we decided to go up there and give it a shot. As it happened, we were wrong on both counts as the weather was heavy rain – not unusual for the sea hides at Leighton Moss. We didn’t see either of our target birds but the day was not entirely lost as we got some Curlew Sandpipers which was a good year tick for us.

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Little Bustard Mickletown Ings 8th August 2019

Very distant Little Bustard Mickleton Ings 8th August 2019
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Heswall Fields 1st August 2019

On the Deeside Birding Web Site there are daily reports of bird sightings and counts. One of the places that I had often wordered about was Heswall Fields. Some time ago, we did a ranger-led walk from Thurstaston Country Park along the beach to a good viewpoint at Heswall Fields. Then we returned back along the Wirral way to Thurstaston but I was curious about how you might get there from the other direction so we decided to check this out.

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July 2019 Summary

July 2019 : Summary

UK Species Year List to July : 175
Total UK Species in July : 65
New “Year Ticks” in July : 1
New “Life Ticks” in July : 0

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Bittern, Spoonbills and Pectoral Sandpiper at RSPB Leighton Moss – 16th July 2019

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Dove Stones Reservoir 4th July 2019

We were meeting friends near Holmfirth but they were delayed and this gave us a chance to have a look at the Dove Stones reservoir which was en route. Oddly enough, this had cropped up as a possible site of interest to the birding group at the meeting on the 2nd of July when we were working out the autumn schedule

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Birding Group Marbury Park 2nd July 2019

Proposed Dates for Autumn Term 2019

The first birding group day out of July was also the last as it was “end of term”. It was quite a nice day and although cloudy it meant that the lighting was very suitable for birding. There wasn’t much around but we had a nice walk anyway and ended up at The Spinner and Bergamot pub for lunch and our planning session for next term. See below for schedule.

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June 2019 : Summary

June 2019 : Summary

UK Species Year List to June: 173
Total UK Species in June: 92
New “Year Ticks” in June: 12
New “Life Ticks” in June: 0

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