The birding group outing this week was to Brockholes. We decided not to go there.; instead we went to Burton Mere Wetlands where, last week, we had gone before going up to Parkgate for the high tide. Unfortunately they were strimming all around the scrape that morning, so we had very little chance to see anything there as everything had gone somewhere quieter. This week there were repair works down at Inner Marsh Farm so there wasn’t much prospect of seeing anything there. However, the rest of the site was free of uproar so we had a chance to catch up on a couple of things. When we arrived there were already a lot of cars in the car park, presaging something special. It turned out that an Otter had been seen at the screen hide.
Continue readingCategory: Solo Days Out
Birding on Days Out
May 16 2023
Wirral Birding 16th May 2023
The birding group had appointed the 16th as a day for a visit to WWT Martin Mere but, as a lot of people couldn’t make it, we just went up to the Wirral to mooch around a couple of sites that I wanted to do that we don’t always do. We went to Leosowe Lighthouse, Parkgate and Denhall Quay.
Continue readingMay 02 2023
Woolston Eyes 2nd May 2023
The birding group were due to go to Macclesfield Forest on 2nd May but I chose not to go there because of the hilly nature of that particular walk. Instead, we decided to go to Woolston Eyes nature reserve and we had a very pleasant morning with a good number of species including the year-tick Black-necked Grebes that it is so famous for.
Continue readingApr 06 2023
Ham Wall and Shapwick Heath 6th April 2023
After a short visit to Bristol, to catch up with friends, we moved on to Montacute to see our friends who live there. The weather looked a bit uncertain on the day we had planned to go there but we gave it a shot and managed to both avoid any bad weather and get a couple of good year ticks.
Continue readingApr 02 2023
Slimbridge WWT Reserve 2nd April 2023
On a trip to the south of England to visit friends, we managed to get a couple of days with some birding. We drove down on the 1st April but we got stuck on the motorway almost as soon as we started. With the car parked and the engine off for three hours, we didn’t make it to Slimbridge that afternoon but we did get there for a few hours the following day and managed to get some good year-ticks in.
Continue readingMar 23 2023
High Tide at Riverbank Road and Burton Mere Wetlands 23 March 2023
We had a second go at a high tide a couple of days after our first visit when the tide was much better; 10.1 metres at 12:12pm. We started out at Riverbank Road on the Wirral. It was a bit wetter than on the Tuesday but the weather helped the tide come in a long way there. Unfortunately we didn’t see any Short-eared Owls or Hen Harriers- they have been scarce this Winter. In fact, we did not get a Marsh Harrier which is unusual – they must have been full up already!
Continue readingMar 21 2023
High Tide at Parkgate and Burton Mere Wetlands 21 March 2023
A hight tide of 9.8 metres at 10:49am took us up to Parkgate where, amazingly, the car park at the Old Baths was viertually empty. This was probably because it was the first day of high tides which were:
21st March, 10.49hrs (GMT), 9.8m.
22nd March, 11.31hrs (GMT), 10.1m.
23rd March, 12.12hrs (GMT), 10.1m.
24th March, 12.50hrs (GMT), 9.9m.
Being the first day the tide wasn’t particularly high and it wasn’t one of our best high tides but there were signs that Spring was coming and the smaller birds on the marsh were very active.
Continue readingFeb 23 2023
High Tide Birding on the Wirral 21st and 23rd February 2023
The birding group had a morning out to Brockholes planned but because there was a high tide on the Wirral, we decided to there ourselves. We hadn’t had a high tide there this year because we had been on holiday in Lanzarote and, since the February high tides are usually good, we decided that that was what we would do.
Continue readingFeb 15 2023
Birding group Trip to Conwy and North Wales 14-15th February 2023
The first birding group outing of the year that we could make it to (we had been on holiday in Lanzarote) was to RSPB Conwy and North Wales. We decided, though, that we would rather stay overnight and come back the next day. This gave us a chance to see some other sites than we had time for just doing the 14th of February. We stayed at the Groes Inn just outisde Conwy again but it wasn’t as good as previous visits. Wethought that perhaps we should try the Tal-y-Cafn Hotel but it is a bit pricey and perhaps not any better. Still, the ovvernight stay gave us a god chance to fit in a couple of extra birding sites.
Continue readingNov 29 2022
WWT Martin Mere 29th November 2022
This was only the second birding day out of the month. A combination of factors had led to us not doing much birding so it was good to get out again, especially to Martin Mere which had been closed for some months due to Bird Flu.
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