New Brighton Marine Lake 24th January 2015

New Brighton Marine Lake 24th January 2015

After we left Riverbank Road we went on to New Brighton to find the Purple Sandpipers again as Anne had missed them. A note to myself, NEVER go there on a weekend; parking is impossible ! Would we have a bit more luck that we had had on the birding group visit a few days prior ? Well the answer was a limited yes.

We learned a few lessons here. The first was about the parking. New Brighton is a phenomenally popular place and even though it has more parking than you can shake a stick at it is still hard to find a space at weekends. The second was that despite the tide being nearly the same technically as a few days previously when we were here, the weather can lift the water a lot and the same tide height doesn’t mean the same wave or water height; a lot depends on the pressure (low pressure is good for high tides) and favourable winds. A third lesson we learned was to never assume that just because roosting birds all look pretty much asleep that that is how they will remain.

We arrived at the marine lake about an hour after high tide and on the pontoon we found about 100 Redshank, 100 Dunlin, 20 Turnstone and 8 Purple Sandpipers all roosting there. By the time Anne had satisfied her Purple Sandpiper curiosity we went to the cafe for a cup of tea. As I was nearing the end of the walkway this chap asked me what the birds were and as I turned round to look at them again every single one of them shot up in the air and flew away over the sea wall never to return (at least not in the next hour) There seemed to be no cause at all unless they saw something in the air that I didn’t. So, you need a bit of luck and you need to take advantage while you can.

This was my third visit to New Brighton in the last couple of months but I never tire of seeing the Purple Sandpipers; a beautifully subtle plumaged bird with real character.

Bird Sightings : New Brighton Marine Lake