I should have known it was going to be a quiet day as a Force 4 on the Hooley Scale (passerines unco-operative, just stay in bed) was blowing in from the south west and it was grey, grey, grey.
Checked out Churchtown Moss (9 Whooper Swans on Woodmoss Lane), and 11 Corn Buntings on wires outside the Mere.
Martin Mere itself was pretty quiet - one or two Ruff, 100+ Golden Plover, Lapwing, a few hundred Whoopers, Chaffinches (see above), Reed Buntings, Tree Sparrows etc coming to the feeders and small numbers of Pinkies.
A Sprawk tazzed thro' past the In Focus shop, spooking everything and a male Ruddy Duck was on the water.
Whoopers asleep.
From there I headed out to Banks Marsh, where the wind really was a pain - everything was keeping low.
A small group of Linnet, Skylarks and Meadow Pipits were feeding below the bank, and Wigeon, Goldies and Lapwing were out around the lagoons.
A single male Stonechat was north of Old Hollows Farm.
About 15 Twite were around the pools 200 yards out, but the yellow-billed little weasels wouldn't keep still.
Never mind, it was far too blowy to attempt a picture.
Ten out of ten for effort then for the female Merlin that came hurtling down the bank and right past me, putting the fear of God into everything.
There's always something to see.
Went for a walk at Taggs Island with Mrs D in the afternoon, but the gull roost was pretty small, and the beach practically deserted.
Anybody have anything else today?
Eyes to the skies everyone, eyes to the skies.....
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Bit of ringing return info about a Black Headed Gull found dead in Prescot.
Ring - Kaunas HA 01814
Species - Black-headed Gull
Age - Nestling
Date - 15/06/2006
Place Striunos Tvenkinkys, Kaunas, Lithuania
Ringer - D.Vinskas
Finding Data
Date 11.08.2006
Place - Prescot Merseyside
Condition - Freshly Dead
Circumstances - Bird Found
Finder - Stan Shaw
Ref - 635 06 United kingdom
Distance 1723km Direction 264 Elapsed Time 57 Days
Walking along the cliffs in Caldy recently (25th Jan) and high up in the beautiful clear blue sky were four or five enormous flocks of geese flying in W's and V formations. They were so high up it was difficult to see what they were. You could hear them before they came into view.
On Amberswood Lake (Wigan/Gtr Manchester) there are great c grebe, tufties, coot, moorhen, canada geese, mallard, family of swans.
Amongst the trees blue, great, willow,long tailed tits, reed bunting, skylarks and meadow pipits also i think i saw a chiffchaff.
last year the place was invaded by twitchers for some sort of shrike i didnt manage to see it, but did see a cuckoo.
Hello John,I was walking the beach from New Brighton towards Leasowe Bay and came across 5 dead Razorbill no oil no visible sign of death.
I have come across Guillemots before but not Razorbill, have you had any on your coastline?
Pete.
Oddly enough Pete, I found a dead Razorbill in the high tide rubbish at Marshside on January 20.
It was pretty far gone, having being pecked and gnawed at by God knows what, but I don't think it was oiled.
Razorbills do sometimes stay closer inshore in winter than other auks, so I guess they could have succumbed in the hard core hooley weather.
Anyone else find any dead Razorbills?
A dead Razorbill at Banks last week, plus a Grey Partridge corpse a few yards away. Contrasts, though the partridge was partly eaten.Both corpses subsequently removed by ? dogs? ?
59 ducks cannon netted there today. All except one Wigeon were Shelducks of which 12 were re-traps, some local , others?
Lots of ' Feet around and some, those panicking when BAE sent their finest overhead, appeared to be relative newcomers to the estuary unlike the hard core regular flock of one to two K who stay put when the jets appear,
Ron
PS 39 Twites ringed last week. I gather, though need to check ,that 50%, more or less, were previous Ribble ringed birds