Wirral - 7 Dec to 9 Dec 22

I have been staying with friends on the Wirral and making short visits to some of the local birding locations. Here are a few images from my visit.

I started at Hoylake where it was high tide. Not high-enough to move all the birds off the foreshore. This group of Redshank was resting up while their favoured feeding areas were still covered by the tide.

A trio of waders here with, from the left, a Redshank, an Oystercatcher and a Dunlin.

A better view of a Dunlin (left) with a Redshank.

Here a Redshank alongside an Oystercatcher with a very muddy bill.

An Oystercatcher in search of a meal. The white chin-strap indicates this is a first winter bird.

Another muddy-billed Oystercatcher complete with a meal in its bill. I didn't manage to capture what happened next: it took its meal and dropped it in one of the many puddles to wash the mud off before swallowing it.

An Oystercatcher flies by. This one seems to have been feeding in grass areas resulting in an earth-coloured bill.

Oystercatchers can be quarrelsome and noisy birds. Here two square-off.

Over the winter several thousand Oystercatchers gather together when there are the highest of Spring tides. Here two fly-by a distant small gathering.

A Redshank leaving its roost. The distinctive white trailing edge to the inner wing and rump and barred tail are clearly seen in this view.

A Redshank also searches for a meal.

A trio of Redshank on the dropping tide.

I only noted one of these (Common) Ringed Plovers.

The Dee Estuary is a wintering area for many thousand of these Shelducks. 

Also gathering along the shore-line are large numbers of Cormorants. Careful examination finds Great Black-backed and Herring Gulls amongst them with six (and a half) Curlews nearer the camera.

In the sand dunes Meadow Pipits can be found. A few breed: these are joined by many that move off the hills after the breeding season.

Wherever there might be food on offer there will be Starlings. Here is a trio. The blue base to the bill of the middle bird indicates it is a male – blue for a boy. A pink bill-base would indicate a female. The left-most bird shows a black mask indicating it is a first year bird yet to moult in to full adult plumage.

This is a rather splendid-looking Starling. Field guides tell you that the breast of Starlings are spotted but careful examination shows the pointed breast-feathers have 'V'-shaped white tips.

With a slight turn of its body the green gloss is more evident.

A visit to the West Kirby Marine Lake did not go quite as planned. South Parade alongside is being reconstructed with much disturbance. In normal winters it is the site to visit for Red-breasted Mergansers, the salt/brackish-water equivalent of what we see here (and at The Flash): a trio of drake Goosanders.

I could find no Red-breasted Mergansers: here are two brownhead Goosanders. This species has been in record numbers of the lake this year.

Two drakes and a brownhead Goosander.

Two of each with one brownhead having a distinctly 'bad-hair' day.

In the distance were these waders waiting for the tide to drop. Most of them are Knots: there can be tens of thousands on the Dee Estuary during winter. In the front there at least three Dunlin and careful examination shows a red leg of a Redshank in the main pack.

One pontoon was sufficiently far from the workings. On it are a group of Redshanks (at the back) and Turnstones (at the front).

A real brute of an adult winter Herring Gull.

There had to be some 'planes of the day'. This is a Singapore Airbus A350-900 series leaving Manchester on the second leg of its flight to Houston, Texas.

On a training flight from RAF Valley on Anglesey was this Raytheon-built Beechcraft Texan II known to the RAF as the Texan T.1. This aircraft had completed a low pass along the runway of Liverpool's John Lennon International Airport and was heading low-level up the River Mersey.

(Ed Wilson)

USA - 2022

As some of you know I have recently spent two weeks in the USA for two weeks. Here are just a few images from there.

The target was to attend the air show commemorating the 75th Anniversary of the United States Air Force (USAF). Previously it was known as the US Army Air Corps (USAAC). In 1947 the army air support was split off and integrated with the US Army ground forces. The air show was held at Nellis Air Force Base just outside of Las Vegas. For me the highlight of the show was this close formation trio of a WWII North American P-51 Mustang with two fifth generation fighters, a Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor alongside the latest Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II.

The American Kestrel is smaller and more brightly coloured than our kestrels. A rather distant bird enlarged as much as I dare.

Here is one in flight.

Turkey Vultures can be seen quartering the ground almost anywhere in the US in Summer. At this time of year they are mainly confined to the South with many thousand passing through Central America to the northern part of South America for the Winter.

As with all vultures they have unfeathered heads so they can stick their heads in all manner of unsavoury places without getting matted feathers. They detect their prey by smell.

Thrashers are a group of species mainly seen in the southern states. This Curve-billed Thrasher is by far the most common species.

There are many species of flycatcher in the New World. They are mostly migratory as they need to go where the insect are. This Say's Phoebe finds enough food to stay in the Arizona area.

Another flycatcher that can stay in the US all year is this Western Flycatcher. Hard to separate visually from Eastern Flycatcher the location of California provides the clue.

This cricket was one of many thousand seen and a plentiful food source for the flycatchers.

There are very many warblers in the US, none of which is related to any of the Old World species we are familiar with in the UK. Most migrate to South America for the winter but some, like this Yellow-rumped Warbler, often stays in border states.

There are plenty of introduced House Sparrows in the US but one of the most common urban birds is the House Finch. Here is a female.

And here is a splendid male House Finch on a TV aerial in Las Vegas. They are not all as brightly coloured as this one.

Gronant - June 2022

In early June I made two separate visits to Gronant in North Wales. A rather unprepossessing location for birding as it is the site of many caravan parks. In the a small part of the miles of sand dunes nearby the North Wales Little Tern Group (NWLTG) undertake voluntary wardening of the only Little Tern colony in Wales. More information on the site and the work of the group can be found here:

Here is a collection of images I made on these trips.

Little Terns are small – about Blackbird-sized but with 50% longer wings. The black-tipped yellow bill with the white 'forehead' is diagnostic.

There is 4 kilometres of netting around the terns' nesting area as protection against foxes and errant dogs. When the wardens locate a nest scrape – there is no nest as such – they place a numbered marker. Sadly they do this in front of the bird from the viewing point. I did ask them to put the marker the other side in future!

Probably a pair by this marker.

This passing bird is against the backdrop of two of the many wind turbines in the Dee Estuary.

Another one against a whole line of turbines.

Like most terns the species has a forked tail.

A plan view, this with tail closed.

And here with tail partially open

The tail appears longer when viewed from above as there is no distinction between the back, the upper tail and the tail itself.

The tail fork is not apparent when the tail is fully spread.

One returning from a fishing expedition. They always seemed to hold the fish in the very tip of their bill. It is just possible to make out that this bird has been ringed – on its right leg.

This passing bird has the ring on its left leg.

Like all terns they are noisy with a constant cacophony of calls. These calls are not so far-carrying as with many species of tern. At the start of the half-mile walk to the viewpoint no sound can be heard. The ring on the left leg of this bird is clearly visible.

It has been a successful year with the largest number of birds recorded – over 400. As with most tern colonies large groups can suddenly take off for no apparent reason. These are known as 'dreads'. They will also take-off to gang-up on any Kestrel or Carrion Crow that appears.

The formation team practising.

Other Species

It is not all Little Terns. There are many rare and protected species of plants and insects inhabiting the area and, next, a few other bird species I saw.

An unexpected sighting was this distant passing group of c.25 all-drake Common Scoter. A strange date as this species moves North in April and it is normally mid- to late-July before the drakes start to return, leaving their mates to finish raising the off-spring. The site is well inside the Dee Estuary. Not at all the place you would expect to see this sea-duck pass on what was a calm day.

Other species take advantage of the protective fence around the terns. An Oystercatcher with young.

Here a Ringed Plover sits on its nest scrape.

This Skylark decided to save energy. It had been singing while standing on the edge of the boardwalk which leads to the tern viewpoint.

While this Skylark has found a beetle for a snack.

(Ed Wilson)