Today I made another visit to The Wirral to look at waders and gulls on the high Spring tide.
This time I started at New Brighton at the mouth of the River Mersey. Behind the shopping centre is a pool with a pontoon used by birds at high tide. Six Redshanks in with a group of very blotchy-looking Turnstones.
There were several hundred Turnstones. The local web site guide notes that in Winter these are sometimes joined by Purple Sandpipers. Not today.
The groyne separating the 'beach' at New Brighton from the river was being used as a pre-roost gathering by Herring Gulls – yes: all this variety of plumages can be seen on Herring Gulls. On the lower right is an interloper – a lone Oystercatcher.
Did someone say Herring Gulls? There are a scatter of Oystercatchers with them – I can see eleven. If you look hard at the top middle there is also a Curlew...
...enlarged as much as I dare to prove the point.
Next photo stop was at Heswall again where there were fewer waders but some species giving better views. Sadly there doesn't seem to be a collective noun for a group of Knots for this is what these are. These birds are properly Red Knot (to separate them from another species - the Great Knot). Only when in breeding plumage are they red. There is a hint of a red wash remaining on the front middle bird. The groups of many thousand that are seem overwintering at favoured spots in the UK are grey.
Here are three more with a Black-headed Gull behind for size comparison.
There are ten Knots here if you look hard. Two with some red wash. You could count the legs and divide by two, but several are standing on one leg! On the extreme right foreground is a smaller Dunlin. These too are grey in Winter plumage.
A closer view of five of the Knot with a Dunlin behind. This Dunlin still has some dark on the belly from the breeding plumage and is much browner than it will be when it completes its moult.
A trio of waders in the far distance here. At the back are six Curlew. In front of them about 20 Knot. Closest are Dunlin – I make it 12? Under the fourth from the left Curlew is a very pale wader – a Sanderling.
Two weeks ago there were throngs of Ringed Plover (that's not a formal collective noun either). This visit just one or two. It is the wrong habitat to find the smaller Little Ringed Plover. That would show orange on the bill, a yellow eye-ring and duller pinkish legs. Relying on leg colour can be difficult on a muddy shoreline.
A size comparison. A Dunlin in front of a Black-headed Gull.
A side-elevation of a Sanderling showing a few new grey winter plumage feathers. The bill is very obviously a 'black' black (unless covered in mud).
Another size comparison. A Sanderling is dwarfed by two Common Gulls – and these are not large gulls.
While on the subject of Common Gulls here is a winter plumage adult. The dark mark across the greenish-yellow bill is less distinct in winter. The legs too are greenish – never pink or yellow.
As it turns its head the bolder 'necklace' of spotting is obvious. In summer the head and neck are pure white.
Lower centre is a Common Gull in flight. Even though this birds is still moulting the outer primaries is shows a feature that I use to pick adults of this species out in flight – the black and white wing-tip pattern is the same on the upper and lower surfaces unlike all other gulls in the UK. There are two others in different states of wing moult partially hidden above and behind. Immediately above is a big brute of a Herring Gull well in to winter plumage with much head streaking. Three Black-headed Gulls complete the foreground.
Herring Gulls anyone. Look carefully and there are two Great Black-backed Gulls here. One is slightly right of and above centre with its legs hanging down. The other is second from the left at the bottom showing obvious pink legs. Even female Great Black-backs are bigger then any Herring Gull and have a lumbering flight. Apart from a faint grey wash on the heads of juveniles this species has a white head at all ages and all times of the year.
(Ed Wilson)
