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Leach's P and wader roosts

Posted by on December 9, 2006 4:38 PM | 


oycs191206.jpg

Went for a walk south through Taggs Island today from 11.30am to 2.30pm.
Inititially pretty quiet, with a reasonable sized gull roost and 150+ Jackdaws frequently flushed by dog walkers and their beasts - very frustrating.
A few Linnets and Skylarks about, but no Snipe or Jack Snipe in the marsh.
Walked down the beach - tideline corpses included two Guillemots and a Teletubby - before settling to watch the wader roost.
See above for how the Oystercatchers should look - and below is what they look like when two horse riders canter through them, oblivious to the energy expended by flushed waders at this time of year.

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Plenty of Bar Tailed Godwits, Sanderling, Redshank, Grey Plover and a few Turnstone on the shore and as I was scoping them, a Leach's Petrel came down the tideline, riding the wind north.
Amazing!
But not so surprising when you think 190 of the wonderful things came out of the Mersey mouth past Crosby Marine Park today - I expect there'll be more there tomorrow for anyone anxious to see a Leach's Petrel reasonably close....
Three Pink Feet flew overhead, aiming south.
Out over the mountainous surf a Kittiwake headed south too.
Walked back through the marsh - very wintry and wet, but still no birds.

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Nearer to Weld Road I had another look at the gull roost, which now comprised of several thousand birds, including a michahellis Yellow Legged Gull, which showed well, but distantly and a Black Headed Gull in full summer plumage.

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If the forecasters have got it right, Hell is coming to breakfast tomorrow, with gale force winds and driving rain, so there''s only one thing to do really:
Seawatch until your scope seizes up and your eyes fall out.....
Enjoy the Leach's while they're here!!!!!
Eyes to the skies everyone, eyes to the skies....

Comments (6)

Stuart wrote...

Fantastic set of photos John - what equipment are you using to take them?

Also where is Taggs Island?

Posted by: Stuart  | December 9, 2006 7:14 PM

john wrote...

Glad you like the pix Stuart.
I use a Nikon Coolpix L1 digital camera held to the lens of a Nikon 780 'scope with a 30x eye piece on it.
It seems to work ok if the sun is out, but generally I need to take about 20 billion shots before I get a few half decent ones.
Hand held camera means the slightest breath of wind makes things a little tricky....proper digi-scopers like Neill Hunt and Tropical use cameras fitted to their scopes with a special attachment.
I'd just lose things like that in the field.
Taggs Island is the area of evolving marsh between Weld Road, Birkdale and Ainsdale beach.
Reedbeds, low dunes and pools for about two miles, which are slowly expanding out onto the beach - a superb habitat.

Posted by: john  | December 9, 2006 9:46 PM

Stuart wrote...

Thanks for that John - was going to go today but the weather!!! Going to parents for a feast instead and to show my father the new scope - he's always wanted one as he's a ranger up at beacon fell (at 67 years old - nutter) so it's operation make him jealous.
Having a go at making an adaptor for our camera that i can slide on and off the scope using a small piece of sink type drainpipe - I'll keep you informed...

Posted by: Stuart  | December 10, 2006 12:31 PM

john wrote...


Neill Hunt used to use a pop bottle lid (with the top cut off) superglued onto a scope lens which worked very well as a camera holder, before he moved onto more sophisticated kit.
Neill never did reveal which type of pop bottle lid it was tho' and I'm still scraping the superglue off the lens today....

Posted by: john  | December 10, 2006 4:47 PM

Mary wrote...

Was visiting Liverpool at the weekend (9th December) and from the Mersey ferry to Seacombe, spotted a small completely black bird fluttering rather bat-like just about the water quite close to the ferry (beside not behind). I'd guess it was some kind of petrel but all black and within sight of the Liver Building?? Any thoughts?

Posted by: Mary  | December 12, 2006 3:41 PM

john wrote...

Hi Mary,
I'd say that your bird was almost certainly one of the 190 Leach's Petrels that took shelter in the Mersey in the big blow last week.
You can't always see the white rump on a Leach's - no matter what the field guides tell you.
Over 2,000 Leach's were seen around the UK last week, and the lion's share on Saturday were in the Mersey.
It's the biggest wreck of them since 1952, and certainly the first major "Leach's event" in the month of December.
A ferry good record! (sorry about that)

Posted by: john  | December 12, 2006 5:27 PM

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