Hilbre Island and a diversion to Meols

A fabulous visit to Hilbre, started in the best possible manner, before we had even reached Middle Eye, when a phone call alerted us to the fact that an Osprey was flying over the West Hoyle. All of the gulls which roost on the bank were in the air and calling, and suddenly there was the bird, flying in amongst them. We watched it for a few minutes as first it seemed to be heading away into Wales, and then it came back and began hovering over the sea. Suddenly it dropped into the water and seconds later emerged with a large fish. It flew towards the sand bank, landed and proceded to eat the fish.

It was still in the same place when we arrived at the main island, but now the water was much closer to it, and soon it was forced to fly to higher ground on the bank with its prey. A Peregrine briefly mobbed it. Still we continued to watch, as once again the water closed in on the bird, and eventually, with the water seemingly around its ankles, it was forced to fly to even higher ground on the bank. An approaching shower made visbility very poor over the West Hoyle Bank and when we finally lost the bird in the murk, it was still sitting eating its prey.

After all of the seabird activity over the past few days, I awoke this morning with high hopes and expectations, but these were soon apparently dashed by the almost complete lack of wind when we arrived on the island at 8am. However as it turned out, there was a lot more activity than expected.

Star bird was the Hilbre speciality, Leach's Petrel. Breeding far to the north, in such remote places as St Kilda in the Outer Hebrides, where I have watched them entering their breeding burrows, Leach's Petrel is the one species which regularly draws birders from far and wide to North West England. It surely should be our "national" bird!

They are small dark grey birds, with a white rump and relatively long wings for a petrel, they glide and flutter across the surface of the water, sometimes pattering their feet on the surface, apparently uneffected by the ferocity of the storm. Not that there was much of a storm today, but at least by midday it was up to about force 5. There are few more evocative, or hardy birds than Leach's Petrel. We saw about 12 Leach's Petrels.

There were good numbers of skuas to be seen, I counted at least 25 Arctics and seven Bonxies. Quite a few Gannets on the horizon, and maybe 20 Manx Shearwaters went past, some quite close. Fulmars and Kittiwakes were seen, and small flocks of Common Scoter flew past, perhaps numbering 100 in total. Terns were mainly Sandwich, with a few Common and Little.

At least two Whimbrel are still on the shore, with a few Turnstones and Knot. Seven hours on the island today, five of which were spent sitting in one spot, but what a day!

The only bird I missed on Hilbre was a juvenile Sabine's Gull, but fortunately what was probably a different bird was on the beach at Meols in the late afternoon, and I was able to call in there and see it on my way home.

Thanks again to everybody at the obs for making me so welcome (and making me a cup of tea!).

Bonxie, Leach's Petrel and Sabine's Gull were all new for the year, putting me on a feeble 213.


Meols



This is a photo of a yellow buoy on the beach at Meols, with lots of waders around it. It was never meant to be a photo of the Sabine's Gull, which just happened to sneak into view (in front of the buoy)! One day I'll learn to get the horizon horizontal!