Eccleston Mere

Water rail 1 in SW corner
Teal 3 in wet woodland
Grey wagtail 1
Buzzard 1
Chiffchaff 1
Tufted duck 2

It's hard to know if this is the same water rail as that seen yesterday. The south west corner is a favoured spot for water rail, but yesterdays bird was in the wet woodland. There's a lot of habitat for water rails, and it would be no surprise if there was more than one.

Eccleston Mere

Water rail 1 in wet woodland at the south end
Teal 2 in the wet woodland
Willow tit 1 in hedge by the stream
Tufted duck 6
Kingfisher 1

Eccleston mere

Teal 2 male and female
Little grebe 2 juveniles
Chiffchaff 2
Great spotted woodpecker 1
Tufted duck 2

A morning of dips

The only positive thing you can say about this morning (and yesterday afternoon for that matter) is that I hopefully got all of my autumn dips out of the way in one go. Yesterday I had a couple of hours at Leasowe and failed to see either the turtle dove or any of the three yellow-browed warblers that were present, and this morning, just to prove how much I enjoyed the experience, I was there at dawn and missed all of the same again, plus added Blyth's reed warbler to the collection at Red Rocks. Oh well, at least I don't keep a 2013 dip list....... or do I??

Turtle dove, Leasowe

So I got home at about 11:15 after a short detour to Eccleston Mere, turned on my computer, and guess what? The turtle dove had been seen again at 11am! I grabbed a sandwich, jumped back in the car and was back at Leasowe at 12:30. We waited and waited and waited, a Stonechat put in a brief appearance, a couple of Blackcaps flitted about, as well as the occasional Chiffchaff, but not much else. Yesterday the bird had shown at about 4pm after going missing for over four hours. Surely the same couldn't happen today could it?? Yep, at precisely 3:58pm it suddenly appeared from nowhere and sat in full view on a wire!

Year 236 (turtle dove)

Alas these two love birds were not the star of the show today, but they were much more obliging......

At last the main event! Only my second ever turtle dove in the North West.

Leasowe lighthouse.

Sunset over the Dee estuary and Hilbre island. I called in again at Red Rocks and waited for it to go dark in the hope that the Blyth's reed warbler would show itself, but no such luck.

Eccleston Mere

Swallow 5
Chiffchaff 3
Blackcap 1
Kingfisher 1
Mute swan 1 adult

Eccleston Mere

Blackcap 1 male
Willow tit 1
Grey wagtail 1
Chiffchaff 2
Treecreeper 2
Kingfisher 2