September 2005 Archives

The barn owl was hunting around the edge of Thornton as I came into the city again this morning (5.30am) in heavy drizzle.

This is more like it...force 6-7 north westerly blasting hell out of the windsock at RAF Woodvale as I tazzed into work this a.m.

Pausing to stare out at the sky...hey, we all do it...I was blown away to see a hobby come tear *rsing low and west over the garden at Dempsey Towers yesterday evening.

Sunny periods and a strengthening south westerly were good enough for a poke around Marshside in the early morning yesterday.

With a north westerly picking up speed and bringing rain into Liverpool Bay today, but no decent tides, it's hard to plan ahead for the weekend.

I've never been very good at joining things _ RSPB, Wildfowl Trust, BTO etc etc _ all hugely valuable organisations, but I get uncomfortable in a big crowd.

We thought we'd arrived in the Village of the Damned as Jellyhead's car nosed into the Dog and Duck Square in the middle of Flamborough as mist swirled around the low terraced cottages and a bell tolled in the dark night from an invisible church tower.

If I was a betting man (and I haven't done that since I put my shirt on Liverpool to beat Wimbledon at Wembley all those years ago _ ouch!), I'd say the Great Orme would be worth a look this weekend.

Tickets please! Tomorrow's your last chance to set sail into Liverpool Bay on the RSPB/Mersey Ferries birding "cruise" this year.

Bright as a button, the juv white winged black tern drew a steady crowd of admirers to Crosby Marina over the weekend.
Most mere mortals had great views of it as it flew up and down the water's edge, or craned through the fencing to watch it feeding over "the other place" now out of bounds to most of us.
I wonder what would happen if someone got their head stuck in the fence????

There goes the neighbourhood...the first pink feet flew back into Marshside on Thursday and Friday last week for the winter.

John Bannon just called me with news of a juvenile white winged black tern at Crosby marina....

Photographer Ken Lewis called me yesterday after seeing two red kites on the Upper Dee while on a fishing expedition on Sunday.
Ken, from Wirral, had the kites circling by Llandderfel Byrgoed in north Wales, and kindly sent this super-duper red kite shot (taken in the more traditional kite haunt of mid-Wales) to celebrate his reds.

With a warm south easterly at my back, Marshside came up trumps on Sunday, with my first osprey at the reserve (Marshside ticks are best!!), adult female marsh harrier, little egret and arctic skua.

Richard Smith, of www.deeestuary.co.uk fame (great site) e-mailed after a day on the briny on the Mersey Ferry birding cruise yesterday.