2022 Annual Summary
January saw us catch some high tides at Hoylake, New Brighton and Denhall Quay. On the 4th of January our sightings included Marsh and Hen Harriers, Purple Sandpipers, Grey Plovers, Sanderling and, generally, a good range of birds. A visit to the Wirral towards the end of the month (20th January) gave us Short-eared Owl and Peregrine and Marsh Harrier.
The first birding group visit was to Pennington Flash on 11th January and again we got a good range of birds and a visit to Wigan Flashes on 25th January got us Willow Tit.
At home we had a Blackcap and our returning Grey Wagtials.
February was a good month and saw further trips up to the Wirral, highlights being Snow Buntings at Wallasay Beach. A visit to Neumann’s Flash got us Goldcrest and Mealy Redpoll and on the 15th we went to RSPB Conwy and Little Orme. Most of the birding group had not been to Little Orme so they were pleased to get Chough, Red-throated Diver, Shag, Fulmar and even an Icelandic Gull.
In the garden, we continued to have our Grey Wagtails.
March was a marked change this year from the previous Covid years. By the end of March we had 99 species – the year before we had 17! This month we got our annual Twite at Connah’s Quay and, equally annual, Black-necked Grebes at Woolston Eyes. The marsh at Parkgate was set on fire by children but despite it being a huge fire, it seemed to recover very quickly and since it didn’t happen at the height of the breeding season it may not have caused much havoc among the wildlife.
Other monthly ticks were Long-tailed Duck (at Burton) and Brambling (at Woolston Eyes)
April was a bit of a quiet month for us birding-wise. We did do a return visit to Burton and got much, much better views of the Long-tailed Duck which stayed on the surface long enough for great views. Nothing seems to be interested in our tit box on the back wall this year which is a shame but our need for wildlife was helped by the (late) return of our Hedgehog. With my nature-cam, I even managed to catch a pair of them mating right in front of it – she didn’t look very interested!
Some summer visitors have started to arrive so w got Reed Warbler, Willow Warbler, Whitethroat, Common Tern and Little Ringed Plover. We also started (on the spur of the moment) booking out holiday in Norfolk.
May was the month of our holiday in Norfolk. There is too much to mention here but the summary can be found here (Norfolk Birding Holiday Summary May 2022 )
Apart from Norfolk we also had another visit to the Goyt Valley and Danebower Quarry. We did get Tree Pipit, Pied Flycatcher but not Spotted Flycatcher on the 24th May.
It was a great month and our annual list stood at 142 by the end of May.
June was quieter for us and the highlight was definitely our birding group overnighter to Blacktoft Sands, North Cave and Bempton Cliffs when we got a total of sixty-three species.
July was also a quiet month for us with some very hot weather followed by some very wet weather that meant we were either at home in the garden or at home inside all month. No new species were added to our annual list.
August again featured either very hot or very wet weather. Our sole outing was to Burton on 21st August where we did get nice year ticks in the form of Green Sandpiper, Knot, Ruff and Yellow Wagtial.
September continued our quiet spell but a visit to Burton on the 6th got us Curlew Sandpiper and Little Stint – the latter at the Donkey Stand Flash at Parkgate.
We had a family visit to Aberdeen and Musselburgh between the 19th and 26th September and we manage to get a little bit of birding done including visits to the Ythan Estuary and Musselburgh Lagoons.
October seemed to all be about the Wirral and highlights included five Marsh Harriers interacting with each other n Burton Marsh and the sight of at least seventeen Great Egrets dotted around the fishpond at Burton Mere Wetlands. So more a month of interesting and unusual behaviours rather than large numbers of species.
November was again a quiet month – we do not seem to have entirely got back into the swing of local birding since Covid. Visits to Pennington Flash and Matin Mere, together, netted us about fifty-two species. Our first Whooper Swans of the winter were at Burton Mere Wetlands.
December was another quiet month. We had a birding group visit to Moore Nature Reserve which turned out to be more interesting than I had imagined but towards the middle of the month I started to get a bit ill and that put an end to anything much for the month.
Species List for 2022
| 1 | Avocet |
| 2 | Barnacle Goose |
| 3 | Bar-tailed Godwit |
| 4 | Bearded Tit |
| 5 | Bittern |
| 6 | Black Kite |
| 7 | Black Swan |
| 8 | Blackbird |
| 9 | Blackcap |
| 10 | Black-headed Gull |
| 11 | Black-necked Grebe |
| 12 | Black-tailed Godwit |
| 13 | Black-winged Stilt |
| 14 | Blue Tit |
| 15 | Brambling |
| 16 | Brent Goose |
| 17 | Bullfinch |
| 18 | Buzzard |
| 19 | Canada Goose |
| 20 | Carrion Crow |
| 21 | Cattle Egret |
| 22 | Cetti’s Warbler |
| 23 | Chaffinch |
| 24 | Chiffchaff |
| 25 | Chough |
| 26 | Coal Tit |
| 27 | Collared Dove |
| 28 | Common Gull |
| 29 | Common Sandpiper |
| 30 | Common Scoter |
| 31 | Common Tern |
| 32 | Coot |
| 33 | Cormorant |
| 34 | Crane |
| 35 | Cuckoo |
| 36 | Curlew |
| 37 | Curlew Sandpiper |
| 38 | Dunlin |
| 39 | Dunnock |
| 40 | Egyptian Goose |
| 41 | Eider |
| 42 | Fulmar |
| 43 | Gadwall |
| 44 | Gannet |
| 45 | Garganey |
| 46 | Goldcrest |
| 47 | Goldeneye |
| 48 | Goldfinch |
| 49 | Goosander |
| 50 | Great Black-backed Gull |
| 51 | Great Crested Grebe |
| 52 | Great Spotted Woodpecker |
| 53 | Great Tit |
| 54 | Great White Egret |
| 55 | Green Sandpiper |
| 56 | Greenfinch |
| 57 | Greenshank |
| 58 | Grey Heron |
| 59 | Grey Plover |
| 60 | Grey Wagtail |
| 61 | Greylag Goose |
| 62 | Guillemot |
| 63 | Hen Harrier |
| 64 | Herring Gull |
| 65 | Hobby |
| 66 | House Martin |
| 67 | House Sparrow |
| 68 | Iceland Gull |
| 69 | Jackdaw |
| 70 | Jay |
| 71 | Kestrel |
| 72 | Kingfisher |
| 73 | Kittiwake |
| 74 | Knot |
| 75 | Lapwing |
| 76 | Lesser Black-backed Gull |
| 77 | Lesser Whitethroat |
| 78 | Linnet |
| 79 | Little Egret |
| 80 | Little Grebe |
| 81 | Little Gull |
| 82 | Little Ringed Plover |
| 83 | Little Stint |
| 84 | Little Tern |
| 85 | Long-tailed Duck |
| 86 | Long-tailed Tit |
| 87 | Magpie |
| 88 | Mallard |
| 89 | Marsh Harrier |
| 90 | Meadow Pipit |
| 91 | Mealy Redpoll |
| 92 | Mediterranean Gull |
| 93 | Mistle Thrush |
| 94 | Moorhen |
| 95 | Mute Swan |
| 96 | Nuthatch |
| 97 | Osprey |
| 98 | Oystercatcher |
| 99 | Peregrine |
| 100 | Pheasant |
| 101 | Pied Flycatcher |
| 102 | Pied Wagtail |
| 103 | Pink-footed Goose |
| 104 | Pintail |
| 105 | Pochard |
| 106 | Puffin |
| 107 | Purple Sandpiper |
| 108 | Raven |
| 109 | Razorbill |
| 110 | Red Kite |
| 111 | Red-breasted Goose |
| 112 | Red-legged Partridge |
| 113 | Redshank |
| 114 | Red-throated Diver |
| 115 | Redwing |
| 116 | Reed Bunting |
| 117 | Reed Warbler |
| 118 | Ringed Plover |
| 119 | Ring-necked Parakeet |
| 120 | Robin |
| 121 | Rock Dove / Feral Pigeon |
| 122 | Rook |
| 123 | Ruff |
| 124 | Sand Martin |
| 125 | Sanderling |
| 126 | Sedge Warbler |
| 127 | Shag |
| 128 | Shelduck |
| 129 | Short-eared Owl |
| 130 | Shoveler |
| 131 | Siskin |
| 132 | Skylark |
| 133 | Snipe |
| 134 | Snow Bunting |
| 135 | Song Thrush |
| 136 | Sparrowhawk |
| 137 | Spoonbill |
| 138 | Spotted Flycatcher |
| 139 | Starling |
| 140 | Stock Dove |
| 141 | Stonechat |
| 142 | Stone-curlew |
| 143 | Swallow |
| 144 | Swift |
| 145 | Teal |
| 146 | Temminck’s Stint |
| 147 | Tree Pipit |
| 148 | Tree Sparrow |
| 149 | Treecreeper |
| 150 | Tufted Duck |
| 151 | Turnstone |
| 152 | Twite |
| 153 | Wheatear |
| 154 | Whitethroat |
| 155 | Whooper Swan |
| 156 | Wigeon |
| 157 | Willow Tit |
| 158 | Willow Warbler |
| 159 | Woodpigeon |
| 160 | Wren |
| 161 | Yellow Wagtail |
| 162 | Yellowhammer |