High Tide at Hoylake, New Brighton, Parkgate and Burton Mere : 2nd March 2014
High Tide at Hoylake, New Brighton, Parkgate and Burton Mere : 2nd March 2014
On the 2nd of March decided to go to Hoylake and possibly New Brighton for the high tide, due that day for 11.42 at a great height – 10.1 metres. We got to Hoylake for around 10.45am and to our complete amazement the water was all the way in already and half way up the promenade wall. We had never even seen all the sand covered before and clearly there was going to be no chance of seeing any birds.
I suppose it should have been obvious that with a tide that high we would need to be there at least two hours before high tide at least. Somewhat peeved we headed off for New Brighton hoping to see the Purple Sandpipers that roost there but the sea was so high that there was nothing to be seen there either.
Cheesed off by now we thought we would head back to Parkgate to see what might be there and as we were arriving, everyone else was leaving. Be that as it may we did get views of a couple of Short-eared Owls which was some consolation.
We had a spot of lunch in the Boat House and then headed off to Burton Mere Wetlands and here we were a bit luckier seeing the first two Avocets of the year and getting a look at the usual range of Waterfowl and some waders including a very large number of Black-tailed Godwit – I counted 110. We also had an extremely close view of a Common Snipe feeding just a few feet from the hide. The high point, however, was a really good view of a Water Rail hiding in the reeds just off to the left side in front of the reception hide. It hid there for a while before coming out eventually and actually showing quite well before it scuttled off into the reeds further along and disappeared from sight.
As we left we got an additional bonus of a single Redwing in a tree on the side of the road leading out of Burton Mere Wetlands. However the day taught us a hard lesson. If the tide is going to be that high we need to be at a site at least two hours before high tide !!
Bird Sightings : Parkgate
| Species | Count |
|---|---|
| Canada Goose | 20 |
| Common Shelduck | 12 |
| Mallard | 30 |
| Common Teal | 20 |
| Great Cormorant | 30 |
| Grey Heron | 4 |
| Little Egret | 12 |
| Common Redshank | 100 |
| Eurasian Curlew | 40 |
| Common Snipe | 2 |
| Black-headed Gull | 40 |
| Herring Gull | 60 |
| Short-eared Owl | 2 |
| Carrion Crow | 30 |
Bird Sightings : Burton Mere Wetlands
| Species | Count |
|---|---|
| Canada Goose | 30 |
| Common Shelduck | 20 |
| Gadwall | 6 |
| Eurasian Wigeon | 20 |
| Mallard | 20 |
| Northern Shoveler | 8 |
| Common Teal | 30 |
| Tufted Duck | 6 |
| Common Pheasant | 2 |
| Grey Heron | 1 |
| Little Egret | 1 |
| European Water Rail | 1 |
| Eurasian Common Moorhen | 2 |
| Common Coot | 10 |
| Northern Lapwing | 30 |
| Eurasian Oystercatcher | 2 |
| Pied Avocet | 2 |
| Black-tailed Godwit | 110 |
| Common Snipe | 1 |
| Black-headed Gull | 30 |
| Lesser Black-backed Gull | 1 |
| Eurasian Magpie | 4 |
| Eurasian Jackdaw | 8 |
| Great Tit | 6 |
| Common Blue Tit | 6 |
| European Robin | 1 |
| Redwing | 1 |
| Chaffinch | 10 |
| European Goldfinch | 8 |