Life's a Beach ...

'Life's a beach', or so they say in that well-known phrase which has been corrupted from a similar phrase which people use when things aren't going so well.  Well the beach in question today was Ainsdale Beach near Southport and I was going to approach it from a different direction to my normal route.

I parked up in the small piece of rough ground at the bottom of Weld Road which they laughingly refer to as a car park , having cut though to Birkdale from my journey via Ormskirk to get there. I normally park near the Pontin's Holiday Camp at Ainsdale, but I always seem to end up walking miles before I reach any roosting birds.  So today I was hopefully going to take a shorter route.

The high tide was at 10:20am and, after a late start, I only just arrived around that time, when I normally aim to get there for at least an hour before.  Not that it mattered today though because, at only 7.3 metres, the tide wasn't ever going to get anywhere near coming in close.


I decided to walk out half a mile or so to the distant tideline, as that's where most of the activity happens and thankfully fro once there was nobody else about to disturb the birds.  The forecast was for cloud with the odd sunny spell in the morning followed by rain later in the afternoon - unfortunately it was mostly cloudy so the photos aren't that great.


There were decent numbers of Sanderling and Ringed Plovers about, but not many Dunlin. I saw one Grey Plover in breeding plumage, only five Oystercatchers and the ubiquitous Gulls, mainly Herring and Lesser Black-backed, with the odd Great Black-backed, Common and Black-headed Gull thrown in.

The Cormorants were roosting in their usual spot on the sandbank, and indeed I did reach them much faster than if I[d gone the other way.  I  think I'll be using this route in the future.


After a couple of hours I noticed that a large area of black cloud had developed over the sea and it seemed to be coming inland. The wind picked up and it started to blow the sand over the beach in a (very) mini sandstorm - time to go I thought.

But just as I was turning to leave a small flock of Sanderling and Dunlin suddenly took off in front of me - I quickly scanned the sky and there was a Peregrine Falcon flying overhead which had obviously spooked them.  Now it was time to head back to the car before I got wet.

I'd already decided that I was going to visit Marshside RSPB a little further up the coast as I'd not been for a while and so, after a quick bite to eat, off I drove along the Southport coast road.

To say I was gobsmacked when I saw the state of Marshside today is an understatement. No water at all at Junction Pool, Nel's Hide and Fairclough's Pool and a farmer mowing the grass where the water used to be!  I've seen it very low but never like that before.

No birds there then and very few about anywhere else too. Luckily for me half a dozen or so of these gorgeous Black-tailed Godwits saved the day. Most looked they've just recently returned from Iceland.  The one below is an adult bird.

With so little about it was nice to spot this Common Sandpiper at Sandgrounder's Hide. It was Ken Morrison who I met outside the hide before I went in who had alerted me to the fact that one of these was here.  Thanks Ken!

There were also quite a few Pied Wagtails about, although I did think this one might have been a White Wagtail for a while - apparently not, as the flanks are too grey.

On leaving Sandgrounder's Hide and with Nel's Hide being closed for refurbishment, I had a quick walk around the old sand works. before leaving.  This area has been decimated over the last couple of years with most of the area being flattened to return it to being salt marsh again.  I really don't know why they want to do this because it used to be a fantastic stopping off pace for migrants such as Wheatear, Whinchats and warblers as well as freshwater drinking spot for Swallows and Martins and the resident Skylarks and Meadow Pipits.


They have put up a rather feeble fence with notices around saying keep dogs on a lead to protect the ground nesting birds are here, particularly Ringed Plovers which use the gravel patches, but I'm afraid these are not going stop anybody wandering around the area and indeed, whilst I was there a dog walker did. It was not really a problem on this occasion as the breeding season is mostly over, but there's not point in fencing off just half the area.  Anyway, just as I left for the car this Redshank flew up into the air and over my head.

On the way home I stopped off briefly at Southport Marine Lake where I saw this continental or 'sinensis' race Cormorant.  Telling the difference between the various races of these birds is all to do with the angle of the gular pouch you know.

So 'Life is a Beach', well as far as I'm concerned - I just love them.