Spoonbills on the Wirral

Going to the Uists on my own for two weeks left me shattered - I was out for 12 hours every day, driving, looking through binoculars, taking photos and walking places. With all the intense searching for birds I felt my eyes were dropping out by the end of the trip. So, apart from a couple of very local excursions, I did very little birding for the following week or so.

My first real trip was to Burton Mere Wetlands RSPB on the Wirral, where my main target was to get some shots of the three Spoonbills there. They didn't come really close in the three or four hours I was there, but I was quite pleased with a couple of habitat shots. A Greenshank was also present as well as Avocets with lots of chicks.

Spoonbills have been increasingly regular here over the last few years and I can remember one particular time when there were twelve birds on an island in front of the main Visitor Centre.  This year there are only three birds present up to now and there is hope that they might actually breed here at some point in the future as indeed they do at Fairburn Ings in Yorkshire.

Here's a Spoonbill practicing gathering nesting material at Burton Mere Wetlands RSPB this afternoon. I say 'practicing' because it just kept picking it up sticks and dropping them without ever flying off to the trees.

It always nice to see a Black-tailed Godwit in flight as it makes it much easier to separate from the Bar-tailed species. Once you see the white wing bars you immediately know what it is and don't need to worry about the tail colour, leg length above the 'knee' or indeed anything else.

I was shooting into the sun all afternoon and so many of my shots from today are backlit to some degree, requiring a little shadow reduction to reveal any detail.

I'm pretty sure this Grey Heron was looking for Avocet chicks, of which there were quite a few running round at Burton Mere Wetlands this afternoon. Avocets don't always seem to be the best parents to me, but for once, this bird actually did something to prevent an untimely end for one of its babies.

There used to be a time when Little Egrets were highly twitchable, but nowadays they seem to be two a penny in most places and so often get ignored like Mallards, Collared Doves and other very beautiful common birds. 

But they're a very elegant bird with stunning features such the pure white feather colour, the yellow feet and the sharp black bill. In this photo the wings are so translucent that you can see the bone structure inside!

Third Time Lucky for Another Lifer

It's always nice to get another lifer, particularly when you have to work hard to see it. It was third time lucky for me with this Spotted Crake at Burton Mere Wetlands RSPB - perhaps even fourth if you count the fact that I'd spent a couple of hours trying in the morning trying to see it before returning at 6pm to finally get lucky at around 7pm as the sun was dropping down. Fortunately it was a beautiful evening and despite the little bird being amongst the reeds and in the shadows, I managed to get this record shot.

There was also a Green Sandpiper on the reception pool and strangely enough I haven't had a good view of one this year until now.

The lighting conditions kept changing and so the colours in these record shots vary quite a bit.

Yet another Grey Heron Shot - YAGHS! Well, you've got to do something while you're standing around for hours waiting to get a very brief glimpse of a Spotted Crake! And Grey Herons are the 'Robins of the Water' photographically speaking.

I also took these Meadow Pipit shots out on Burton Marsh at Denhall Quay earlier in the afternoon. There was very little else about part from a solitary Marsh Harrier, the occasional Little Egret and a few Gulls.

Not tonight, Josephine!

Well, I had to choose an interesting title for this post because the photos I took today weren't going to hold anyone's interest for long.  See if you get the reference by the end of the post.

Paul Richardson and I went out to the Wirral today in search of two lifers.  He got both but I only got one and none of the views either of us had were truly satisfying.  We first visited Burton Mere Wetlands RSPB to try to see the Spotted Crake which had been showing on and off for a couple of weeks.  I'd been previously with no luck, so I was up for trying again.  We stayed for a couple of hours or so during which time Paul had a glimpse of it for about five seconds but I didn't see it at all.

We then moved on to Parkgate where we saw six Greenshank which was nice, but not a lot else.  Finally we headed off to Red Rocks near Hilbre Island for the high tide because a Bonaparte's Gull had been showing around the beach area for over a week.  We spent a lot of time looking here to no avail, and the so-called high tide didn't show up, so we moved along Kings Gap to the Lifeboat Station at the other end of the promenade.

There were only a few people out looking for this rare gull today, and we all focused on a small group of gulls roosting on the beach about a hundred yards away. After a short chat with the others we decided it wasn't there and headed back to Red Rocks for another look there. We met Ray Banks and his friend and whilst we chatting I got a text on the North West Birding WhatsApp group to say the Bonaparte's Gull had just come in to the very group of gulls we had been watching - so we shot off back to the Lifeboat Station, with Ray and friend in hot pursuit.

Sure enough there it was, but now asleep with it's head tucked in.  Unfortunately, although it's a smaller bird than a Black-headed Gull, you really do need to see it's head to pick the dark bill and black smudge behind the eye to be sure you've seen it. In all the time we were there it only lifted its head up a couple of times and so it was very difficult to pick out, especially when most of its body was masked by other gulls.

After checking that nobody minded, I tried to get a closer photo from a different angle by going down onto the beach and getting the sun behind me.  There had been plenty of dog walkers passing in front of us, so I knew the birds weren't going to be easily spooked.  However, when I got there, I couldn't pick out which bird it was, and so I returned to the promenade to take this photo.  It's not great, but you don't often get one with a Black-headed Gull, Common Gull, Bonaparte's Gull and Lesser Black-backed Gull all lined up to show their relative sizes for comparison.

So 'not tonight Josephine', do you get it now? Answers on a postcard please.

Not A Shot Was Fired!

For once I had a rare non-photo birding day yesterday, although I did take my camera with me. I went to Burton Mere Wetlands RSPB on the Wirral in search of the elusive Spotted Crake which had been present on and off for most of the week.

I'd usually only travel for an hour or so like this after a confirmed sighting report, but yesterday I just had to get out of the house, having not done any birding since going to Yorkshire a couple of weeks back.

Well, unsurprisingly, the Spotted Crake didn't show despite an array of birders all eagerly looking through their scopes trying to spot it. That said, there was a really good range of other species on show from the reception centre including Little Ringed Plovers, Avocets, Ruff, Water Rail, Black-tailed Godwits, juvenile Shelduck and Starlings, Teal, Lapwings and the ubquitous Canada Geese, Moorhens, Coots and Black-headed Gulls with young.

Although I didn't go looking, I believe a juvenile Redstart, two Hobbies and a Cattle Egret were on site at the Inner Marsh Farm end, with Greenshank and Green Sandpiper having been seen recently too.

Some good banter with the watching birders made for a very pleasant few hours before the rains came down. Not a shot was fired - I should have more days out like this.

'Dipper' at RSPB Burton Mere Wetlands RSPB

It was another classic 'you should have been here yesterday' or 'I'll go tomorrow' incident for me today. A Buff-breasted Sandpiper had been showing at RSPB Burton Mere Wetlands over the last few days and intended to for it yesterday, but after discussing a day out in our old motorhome with my wife Sarah, we mutually agreed to leave it for a day (well, she told me we agreed).  Bad decision!

As soon as we arrived I was asking about sightings only to be told that it had been chased off by a Peregrine last evening and hadn't been seen again today.  Oh well, it might return during the day I thought, but unfortunately it never did - hence the title of this post.

So we had to be satisfied with a Great White Egret and a few Black-tailed Godwits, which was nice to see but not what I was really looking for.  It's a mistake I've made a few times to my cost and I should have learnt by now that if you have any chance at all of going you should take it, as birds can fly you know!

We did actually have a very nice day out however as we took our bikes in the motorhome and I fulfilled a long term ambition to cycle along part of the Chester Cycleway from Denhall Lane to the Harp Inn at Neston, where we had a pint sitting outside in glorious sunshine whilst overlooking the saltmarsh.

We then finished off the day by cycling back to Burton Point where I picked up a pair of Stonechats (always very reliable for good photos here) before cycling back up the hill to the RSPB car park. So although we dipped on the target bird, we had a good day out.

Burton Mere Wetlands RSPB and Parkgate

Well, I thought the three Cattle Egrets at Marshside last week were a good record, but with five of them reported at Burton Mere Wetlands RSPB this week, well I just had to go to see them.  When I first arrived the vegetation had just been cut and most of the birds had been flushed from in front of the Visitors' Centre. The Cattle Egret were in the long grass with the cattle and I couldn't really see any of them. In fact I couldn't really see much of anything!

Then a single Marsh Harrier gave a brief but good view from the Visitor's Centre and flew off in the direction of the old Inner Marsh Farm hide. So I decided to go for a walk down to the new hide in the hope of getting better views of it from there. On the way down I heard a Cetti's Warbler calling in the reeds along the footpath along  with hundreds of Pink-footed Geese flying overhead as indeed they did for much of the day.

There was not much to see when I got to the hide except for a distant Green Sandpiper which flew off when I tried to photograph it. However I did see this Kestrel being mobbed by a Lapwing of all things!

So then I went back to the Visitors' Centre in the hope of getting better views of the five Cattle Egret together, which eventually I did. The cattle had moved out of the long grass by now and the Egrets had moved with them before eventually flying off to an island to do a spot of preening.

Here they are all together - it was quite difficult to get them all in one shot with a 300mm prime lens.

The closest views were from inside the Visitors' Centre and so these shots had to be taken through the glass window as they don't open in here.

As I was watching the Cattle Egrets, two Marsh Harriers appeared and were sometimes involved in chases. They looked to be both female, with one perhaps a juvenile or immature bird.

When they had gone I decided to go down to Denhall Lane to eat my lunch where I saw absolutely nothing! From here I moved on to the old baths car park at Parkgate where I had been told a grey male Hen Harrier was frequently being seen. I was told that the bird generally comes into roost between 3pm and 4pm and so I was in good time to see it if it appeared. 

Arriving at about 2:45pm, I waited a good hour along with three other birders before it eventually did appear. I only managed a couple of record shots but I had a great view through my scope. The photographs are good enough to clearly see what the bird is and I also saw a ringtail Hen Harrier whilst I was there.

Grey male Hen Harriers are rarely seen nowadays as they are persecuted by landowners and gamekeepers who wish to protect their grouse and so-called sport of driven grouse shooting.  If things carry on like this these glorious birds will be driven to complete extinction in England - this surely can't be right, can it? A petition to ban driven grouse shooting which received over 22,300 signatures will soon be debated in Parliament and we await the outcome. Read about it here: 

https://petition.parliament.uk/archived/petitions/65627

This Little Egret is probably the best photograph I took today, but I did see some good birds.

Burton Mere Wetlands RSPB

I returned to work this week after injuring my leg four weeks ago.  I can't say I was really looking forward to it as I'd got used to being early-retired again without the pressures of the daily work ritual.  It's not that I don't like my part-time job, but the journey to and from work each day is a real pain - it takes me an hour and half each way to do a 35 minute trip and it's traffic jams and stop/start all the way. So I was really looking forward to going out somewhere today on my day off and Burton Mere Wetlands RSPB is the place I chose.

The main reason for coming here today was to see the Long-eared Owl which has been around for a few weeks now.  I didn't doubt that I was going to see it, but the main question was how good a view would I get.

The bird has been seen by many people over the last three week including birders, photographers and the general public.  However it seems that some people are just not satisfied with the view they get, and they have to get even closer.  Apparently, some members of the public have even thrown things at the bird in an attempt to make it fly. This type of behaviour from whosoever is just not on - the birds' welfare and protection is paramount and all those who perform such selfish acts should consider their actions and think about whether or not they did the right thing.

When I at arrived the Burton Mere Visitors' Centre I quickly asked if and where the Owl was showing and then made a bee-line for its location. The bird had recently been flushed by the aforementioned people from its original position close to the Inner Marsh Farm Hide to a new location a little further down the path.

When I arrived another bird photographer pointing his lens at the bird, so locating it was quite easy.  It was only 15 metres or so off the path and 3-4 metres off the ground. However, from a distance it did look like it was actually part of the tree!

I spent quite a while here trying to get a decent shot without leaving the path.  Although this is the closest I've ever been to a Long-eared Owl and it wasn't particularly deep in the vegetation as they so often are, there were quite a few annoying pieces of bramble criss-crossing it's face most of the time as well as leaves with spots on that sometimes looked like the bird's eye. And to cap it all, the bird hardly moved at except for the very occasional bit of preening.

After a couple of hours here I went off to the Inner Marsh Farm Hide, a few hundred metres down the path. Here I saw Teal, Shoveler, Coot, Moorhen and Mallards and that was about it.  I didn't stay too long as a bloke sat down next to me and started eating a large biscuit in a very crinkly package that made a lot of noise. I moved on quickly grumbling to myself.

On my way back I stopped at the Owl's roosting place again, but all that had changed was that there was now a different group of people looking at it - the bird hadn't moved an inch. So the shots you can see here are the best I could do today under the prevailing circumstances and, with everything considered, I am fairly satisfied with the results. Incidentally, a Goldcrest also put in a brief appearance in the same bush as the Owl, but there was no chance of getting a photograph of it.

On my way back to the car we were treated to a fly-over by a couple of thousand Pink-footed Geese which were flying up the estuary towards the sea.  They made amazing fractal-like patterns with their overlapping v-shaped flight formations.  I'll put a couple of photos here later, but none of them do justice to the spectacle - you had to be there to appreciate how wonderful it was.

I picked up a pair of Wrens on the marshy land crossed by the boardwalks and several Grey Herons flew over me on their way to a Heronry in the tall trees bordering the reserve. On my way down to see the Owl I'd heard a Green Woodpecker yaffling in the trees near the mere, so I had a look for it on the way back, but I didn't see or hear it again.

I also stopped at a couple of the feeders hoping to see some Siskin (which have been very scare this year) somewhere, but all I saw were Goldfinch, Chaffinch, Blue Tit, Coal Tit, Great Tit and a Brown Rat feeding on the seed droppings under a feeder.

I decided to go home via Denhall Lane where I could have something to eat in the car whilst looking out for Short-eared Owls and Hen Harriers on the saltmarsh. I was also hoping to see a Great White Egret and after a short while I did.  At one point a Little Egret landed alongside the Great White which looked huge in comparison.  There weren't any raptors around though which was a little disappointing.

So I'd had a pretty good day on the whole - funny how seeing just one bird can make your day and your trip worthwhile.

Five Lifers in One Day!

Today I went to Burton Mere Wetlands RSPB on the Wirral where I saw five birds I'd never seen before, namely: Cattle Egret, Red-necked Phalarope, Little Stint, Curlew Sandpiper and believe it or not, Whinchat.  I only got record shots of all of these except for the Whinchat which is shown below.

I also saw a Pectoral Sandpipee, Greenshank, Spotted Redshank, Lapwing, Teal, Shoveler, Ruff, Black-tailed Godwit, Knot, Little Egret and several superb flypasts by a Hobby as well as all the usual suspects. 

Note To Self

Phew! I've done quite a lot of birding this last week or so. This is just a quick post to remind me where I've been and what I've seen recently so that I don't forget.

16th January 2012

• Warton Bank, Lancashire- Great White Egret, Little Egret, Whooper Swans, Curlew, Peregrine, Greylag Geese, Starling, Grey Heron over

• Lytham, Lancashire - Jackdaw, Redshank, Sanderling (Dunlin), Oystercatcher, Shelduck, Black-headed Gulls

• Fleetwood and Rossall Point, Lancashire - Eider Duck, Turnstone, Sanderling (Dunlin)

15th January 2012

• Dovestone Reservoir and Binn Green - Siskin, Lesser Redpoll, Dipper, Mistle Thrush, Goldfinch, Chaffinch, Raven over

14th January 2012

• Three Sisters Country Park, Ashton, Wigan - Great Spotted Woodpecker, Jays, Reed Bunting, Willow Tit, Coal Tit, Great Tit, Blue Tit, Long-tailed Tit, Chaffinch, Bullfinch, Sparrowhawk

13th January 2012

• Parkgate, Wirrall - Great White Egret, Little Egret, Hen Harrier

• Burton Mere Wetlands RSPB, Wirral - Common Snipe, Great Spotted Woodpeckers, Nuthatch, Redshank, Shelduck, Canada Geese, Curlew, Mallard

11th January 2012

• Rindle Road, Astley Moss - Tree Sparrows, Blue Tits, Coal Tits, Great Tits, Willow Tit, Yellowhammer, Chaffinch, Woodpigeon

I may write some of these up in more detail later - or maybe not!