Twite, Birkdale Beach

Twite 55 (Birkdale Beach)

Great views of the Twite as they fed on the edge of the saltmarsh just north of the car park at Weld Road, Birkdale.

Rainford Mosslands

Merlin 2 (Dairy Farm Road / Inglenook Farm)
Lesser Redpoll 10 (Dairy Farm Road)
Fieldfare 100 (Dairy Farm Road)
Tree Sparrow 40 (Old Coach Road)
Bullfinch 1 (Old Coach Road)
Pink-footed Goose 600 (Old Coach Road)

The Merlins were so intent on chasing each other, twisting and turning, that they failed to notice that I was standing about 20 metres away from them. My 5th and 6th Merlins on the mosslands this year.

Moore

Iceland Gull 1 (1st winter on Birchwood Pool)
Yellow-legged Gull 1 (adult on Birchwood Pool)

Despite the fact that it was apparently much quieter today than is usual on Saturday, there were still a lot of gulls on the water. We spent about two and a half hours in the hide, without seeing anything unusual, until at last the Iceland Gull flew in and almost immediately we also saw the Yellow-legged Gull.

For those people who don't know the set up at Moore, if you want to see the gulls, you need to go when the nearby tip is open, either on a weekday or Saturday morning.

Game Bird, East Lancs

Pink-footed Geese 1000 (in fields alongside the pub)

Eccleston Mere

Willow Tit 1 (still on feeders in SE corner)
Goldeneye 10 (5mm, 5ff)
Tufted Duck 16
Pochard 4

Moore, Marshside, Martin Mere

Bittern 1 (Moore)
Tawny Owl 1 (Moore)
Glossy Ibis 1 (Marshside)
Hen Harrier 1 male (Marshside)
White-fronted Goose 2 (Marshside)
Little Egret 3 (Marshside)
Barn Owl 3 (Martin Mere)

We started our day at Moore Nature Reserve near Warrington. This is an excellent reserve which has really developed well since I first visited the place in 1983 (25 years ago!). The main reason for our visit was to try to catch up with some of the interesting gulls which frequent the place these days in winter, and especially Caspian Gull, which apparently was seen as recently as yesterday. Needless to say we didn't see anything other than the common species. (Note to self: next time you go looking for a difficult to identify bird, try to at least have an idea of the identifcation features before you go).

Anyway, we were more than compensated by stunning views in full sunlight of one of the three Bitterns which have been in the eastern reedbed recently. It walked across the ice in front on us, and then stood there in full view for about 15 minutes. A cracking bird.

Then it was off to Marshside. We hoped to catch up with Glossy Ibis, which would be a Merseyside tick for one of us. The Ibis took a bit of finding, but eventually we saw it on the seaward side of the road near the Sandgrounders hide. Quite difficult to spot, because it's a much smaller bird than you think. Also in this area we had a spectacular male Hen Harrier and two (probably Greenland) White-fronted Geese. The grass is so long out there on the marsh, that only the heads of the geese were visible when they looked around. They were quite invisble when feeding.

Finally we headed off to Martin Mere, truth to tell, just to get a cup of tea, but we decided to have a quick look around in the fading light. Glad we did, because at the Ron Barker (Millers Bridge) hide, we saw three Barn Owls hunting. Not sure I've ever seen three birds together before.

Eccleston Mere

Willow Tit 1 (on garden feeder in SE corner).
Nuthatch 1
Goldeneye 11 (inc. 3 males)
Pochard 13
Tufted Duck 13
Mute Swan 3 (ad & 2 juvs)

Good to see a Willow Tit at the mere once again. It took me 15 years to see my first at the mere, but now I've seen them for at least 4 consecutive years.