It's always worth a trip to New Brighton in winter. On the highest tides, the pontoon in the marine lake becomes a refuge for local waders. There will dozens of redshank with a good smattering of dunlin. Often there will be a local speciality, the Purple Sandpiper, but on this occasion the highlight of the day was tucked in with the redshank, this Greenshank showing a nice contrast in leg "shank" colour.
Another local treat was this Kingfisher, not a mile from home. The poor light robs the colours from the picture, but a real delight to see. We've seen reports of a bird at this site for some time, but this was the first time we'd actually seen him. It seems such an insignificant bit of water, with all sorts of junk dumped both on the banks and in the water itself, yet there must be enough life to support this fisher, and hopefully we'll see many more times.
We managed a return trip to Pennington Flash, near Wigan. The hides there provide great views, such as these of a Reed Bunting and a Bullfinch. The only downside with a popular place is that it can get crowded, and sometimes you meet a 'character'; we found one photographer with a lens the size of a rocket launcher running up and down in the hide, pushing the lens right out of the window in an attempt to get a 'better' shot. Needless to say the end result was the sight of lots of bird's bottoms disappearing rapidly into the trees. Sigh - time to move to a different hide...
Not quite as far away is Woolston Eyes; this is a much quieter place, not least because you need a key to get in! Woolston has been the scene of some amazing Starling murmerations this year, with some estimates as high as 500,00. The Starlings have been starting to arrive just before dusk, groups of birds flying in from all directions to merge with the growing mass. Sometimes a large group of maybe a 1,000 birds, other times just dozen birds at a time, indeed, even single starlings, each flying up to the main stream, and disappearing into the mass. Every now and again a sparrowhawk flew into the mass, and each time clear air formed around the hawk, like an invisible forcefield was around it. The mass of birds stratched from as far left as we could see to as far right; the sky was full of swirling wings. And then a group would peel off and dive into the reeds with a sounds like that of heavy rain, and then another group, and another, and another, until there was one final group. They too would dive into the reeds, and the sky was empty. Fascinating, and well worth the rushed trip from work, and the dark trip home.
Not far from Woolston is Moore Nature Reserve, no key needed, yet still much quieter than Pennington. From wigeon and teal whistling in the ponds, to the raptors soaring over, the wary goldcrests flitting around the trees, to the raucous great spotted woodpeckers pushing all out of the way at the feeders, there is much varied birdlife around. Even waders dropped in, these curlew feeding in fields by the road in.
Wherever you find woodland you are likely to find a great spotted woodpecker. These large birds, about the size of a starling, are easily identified, black and white with a bright red spot on their underparts, like this one.
As well as the great spotted, Moore has a small number of Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers, it's star resident. The Lessers are a smaller bird, not much larger than a sparrow. They lack the red under-spot, and have more white on their backs, in almost a polka-dot pattern.
Alas, they are not just lesser because they are smaller, they are also lesser seen - this is an increasingly uncommon bird. The most likely threat to them is from loss of habitat; they need an established wood with a good canopy. It's very important for the survival of this delightful birds, and many like them, that we protect established woodlands. The government is keen for economic growth - with good reason. However, they have indicated that they are willing to allow developers to destroy established woodlands, to replace them with newly-planted woodlands elsewhere. This policy makes no sense from a wildlife point of view - it could take a hundred years or more for a new woodland to mature sufficiently to again support Lesser Spotter Woodpeckers. So, please, support your local woodlands, and help to protect them.
And to finish, a 'cutey' shot, again at Moore, of a Grey Squirrel nonchantly munching on his lunch, seemingly oblivious to our presence.
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