After we had been to Hoylake for the high tide we had a little bit of time left and we fancied a cup of tea. Rather than just go to a cafe we decided to pay a flying visit to Burton Mere Wetlands. It was very crowded in the main hide as there were a couple of minibuses of people from a care home on an outing. This meant that it was all a bit chaotic and not exactly quiet but we had our cup of tea and got our usual Black-tailed Godwits and some Dunlin but not much else.
There have not been many high tides this year and at 9.6m (at 1.15pm) this wasn’t a particularly high one either. Nevertheless this can sometimes be enough for a good experience at Hoylake and so it turned out. With no wind the weather was nice (until it rained) but the lack of wind keeps the sea further out. This didn’t stop us having very nice views of the Terns; one person expressed pleasure at seeing all four common species of Tern on the beach at once but I am afraid we did not manage to convincingly see any Arctic Terns.
The majority of the Terns we saw were Sandwich with just a few Common Terns joining in as the tide came in and then eventually we started to see some Little Terns. Seeing all three together makes you appreciate just how small Little Terns are.
As the tide came in a bit more some Dunlin started to appear and mixed in with them were a few Ringed Plovers. To the right side of the beach a flock came in that comprised a smattering of Sanderling and a single Knot. Oystercatchers were as reliable as usual and there were lots of Cormorants flying around. There were also plenty of Great Black-backed, Herring and Black-headed Gulls. At one point a small group of Bar-tailed Godwits flew in but they didn’t stay long.
As usual the spectacle was disturbed by dog walkers; it being a Sunday there were lots of them around. In all honesty, though, it did seem that more than usual had decided to keep their dogs on leads as they neared the birds. Perhaps the RSPB efforts in this area have worked.
Anyway, another good Hoylake experience despite the lowness of the “high” tide. We decided to drop down to Burton Mere Wetlands just for a quick look in the reception hide and to grab a cup of tea.
A quiet month in the garden. A small group of Starlings eat daily, a Wren is an ever-present feature and is nesting in the Virginia Creeper at 1st floor level in the garden opposite our back garden. A juvenile Robin was seen once as were some juvenile Blackbirds. A small number of Goldfinch visit daily but it is generally quite quiet.
Having watched the postings about a Red-footed Falcon being seen regularly just outside the gates of Chatterley Whitfield Colliery near Stoke the temptation was eventually too much and armed with a post code we set off one morning wondering if we stood any chance of finding it. As it happened, it could not have been more obliging and with a simple one hour drive we had added a new bird to our life list. Not only that but we also added another lovely bird to our year list.
We filled in a spare Tuesday morning with a visit to Burton Mere Wetlands. It was a fairly overcast day but this can sometimes be useful at this site as bright sunlight causes a lot of glare. A quick look at the main scrape revealed the usual high numbers of Black-tailed Godwits nut there were also a couple of Ruff and a pair of Little Ringed Plovers. The ducks were all in eclipse plumage already. We had heard that there had been a Tawny Owl spotted by the fishing pond so we decided to have a look around there.
With the end of the birding group term, we have been looking for interesting places to go for short days out. Recent reports of sightings at RSPB Old Moore encouraged us; a possibly breeding Little Bittern seen many times over several days, an American Wigeon and a Gull-billed Tern were all birds we would be very happy to see. Unfortunately we didn’t see any of these but we were not on our own and even several days later the Little Bittern had, like the other birds, not been seen since. On the positive side we did get a lovely “year tick”
The year seemed to be rushing past so we took the opportunity of another fine day to visit the Woolston Eyes reserve to get our annual dose of Black-necked Grebes and, of course, a “year tick”. In this we were not disappointed and we also got a single Ruddy Duck, not a first for the year but a pleasant bird anyone and one we have come to expect to see from the last hide on our round trip of the site
The garden continues to be full of ravenous young Starlings. A Robin visits now and again but the neighbours House Sparrows seem to have decided that the gras is greener over our side. A pair of Dunnocks is seen and a few Blue Tits. A Great Tit and a Coal Tit have been seen. Woodpigeons, Collared Doves and Stock Doves can’t be kept away and the evenings are full of Blackbird song. It seems like there are many more than usual this year. We have seen a couple of juvenile Goldfinches as well as a few adults; this may be the first ones in two years and hopefully we will more soon. Swifts are occasionally seen overhead but nowhere as many as there were a few years ago; it is quite a worry. Locally the House Martins seem less common as well.
As we left the Fat Fox in Watlington to return to Manchester we stopped off at RSPB Otmoor with the hope that we might be able to see the Turtle Doves that breed there – one of the few places where you are in with a good chance of seeing this increasingly rare bird. As it happens, we did not manage to see them or even hear them as most other people we ran into that morning had but that didn’t stop us having a fantastic sighting and another sighting that was a life tick.
Having spent the morning ot RSPB Dungeness we spent some time walking around Rye Town and we found ourselves with a little time at the end of the day so we made a return visit to Rye Harbour Nature Reserve. This time we took another path to reach the “Steve Denny Hide” where we hoped to try again for Little Terns. This involved entering the Leisure Park (actually a static mobile home park) and walked through the middle of it, turning slightly left near the far end and walking over a bridge over a small stream. Following this round took us to a more inland part of the reserve than we had been to before.
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