The high tide at Hoylake was not huge – 9.9metres and we were a bit concerned that with high tide due at 10.42am that we wouldn’t have a very satisfactory experience as most of us would get there only an hour before. There was a chance the weather would be foul as well but, as it happened, it turned out to be quite a mild day and, although not a spectacular, it was at least better than I had experienced on the 23rd of December.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The tide came in reasonable far and there were a couple of hundred Knot (it’s hard to estimate, perhaps it was more) and similar numbers of Dunlin putting on an occasional show. There were quite a few Grey Plovers and amongst them was the breeding plumage male we saw last year still looking very dark.<\/p>\n
We only stayed about an hour because it was a bit so so and I had mentioned the possibility of seeing Purple Sandpiper at New Brighton. Quite a few of the group had not seen this bird before so we decided to go on there and try to locate them.<\/p>\n
| Species<\/th>\n | Count<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n <\/p>\n |
|---|---|
| Common Shelduck<\/td>\n | 40<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Great Cormorant<\/td>\n | 100<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Eurasian Oystercatcher<\/td>\n | 400<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Grey Plover<\/td>\n | 40<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Common Redshank<\/td>\n | 4<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Eurasian Curlew<\/td>\n | 40<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Red Knot<\/td>\n | 200<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Sanderling<\/td>\n | 20<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Dunlin<\/td>\n | 300<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Black-headed Gull<\/td>\n | 200<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Herring Gull<\/td>\n | 30<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Lesser Black-backed Gull<\/td>\n | 2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Great Black-backed Gull<\/td>\n | 4<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Pied Wagtail<\/td>\n | 1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n <\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" High tide at Hoylake 20th January 2015 The high tide at Hoylake was not huge – 9.9metres and we were a bit concerned that with high tide due at 10.42am that we wouldn’t have a very satisfactory experience as most of us would get there only an hour before. There was a chance the weather … <\/p>\n |