High Tide at Hoylake, Riverbank Road and Burton Mere Wetlands : 1st October 2016

High Tide at Hoylake, Riverbank Road and Burton Mere Wetlands : 1st October 2016

The weekend of the 1st and 2nd of October was “Wirral Wader Festival” with lots of events at Thurstaston, Hoylake and Red Rocks etc. With a “low” high tide, only 9.2 metres, at 12.30pm we thought that Hoylake was probably the best chance of a bit of a show. As it happened we did get a nice spread of birds despite the water not coming too far in.

Highlights were nice groups of Knot, Dunlin and Sanderling (this last a “year tick” as well as Grey Plover, Bar-tailed Godwit and good numbers of Ringed Plovers. There were the usual high numbers of Curlew and, in particular, Oystercatchers. A single Sandwich Tern was nice and, of course, there were lots of Shelduck, Cormorants and Gulls out in the water.

Unfortunately it rained steadily for all the time we were there so when we judged that there wasn’t likely to be anything else new arriving, we headed off to have a look at Riverbank Road. We usually go there at high tides these days in preference to Parkgate but we wanted to see what it was like with just a 9.2m tide. Well, the water had not come very far in but we were rewarded as soon as we arrived with a Marsh Harrier that soon disappeared in the direction of Parkgate. There were also a good number of Redshank and Little Egrets and a nice group of House Martins.

It was very pleasant with the car park all to ourselves but there was a scaffolder banging away at one of the houses nearby so we headed off to Burton Mere Wetlands to see what was there.

Even before I got to the front door, my attention was drawn to a group of birds off to the left of the scrape and closer examination showed them to be a group of Black Swans – a nice year tick. In total there were six there which was surprising to me because I do not know if I have ever seen more than two together. On the scrape there were good numbers of Snipe and a single Cattle Egret (another “year tick”). Other than that there were the usual good mix of ducks. The rain prevented us from going out to Inner Marsh Farm where there was supposed to be four Little Stints but I will be back there with the Birding group in a few days’ time so I was content to keep dry.

So, all in all, not a bad day despite the weather. Also three”year ticks” and at least it wasn’t windy. There is a much higher high tide on the 17th/18th of this month but I am going to miss this because I will be up in the Highlands birding !

Bird Sightings : Hoylake

Bird Sightings : Riverbank Road

Bird Sightings : Burton Mere Wetlands : Reception Hide

Bird Sightings : Burton Mere Wetlands : Environs