Another great set of digiscoped shots from Jason: the juvenile Herring Gull above was on Hilbre Island last August, the Redshank below was at Leasowe yesterday.
Sunday 1st February 2009 on the corner of Battersby Road and Forshaw Street. Bones & I jumped the first Miseryrail Merseyrail northern line train of the day, changed at Liverpool South Parkway, and had this lot in the can by 11am. There were around 37 birds altogether.
We then went on briefly to Moore nature reserve, which was superb – Willow Tit and Green Woodpecker were good for us.
Just an hour at the marsh to clear my head today. I saw three Wheatear round the sandplant – some were reported yesterday on http://www.marshsidebirders.com so these were the first for me this year, but not for the site. Merlin perched up on Crossens outer late on as the light was going, and avocets hard at it in their attempt to take over North Meols. The light had gone by the time the Merlin fulfilled all our wishes, swooping down to tear the avocets to shreds. We can dream …
This was taken a couple of years or so ago, when a pair of drake Garganey – a relatively scarce UK duck – spent a few months at Marshside in the spring. Photo from Nels Hide, on an old Coolpix 995, through the ‘scope.
This blog originally had a grand purpose for birding around Marshside and beyond. The map and info Pages section is still useful for that, but for rolling news of sightings and general discussion that purpose has perhaps been overtaken by the ease of use of other web developments, and I’d particularly recommend taking a look at the Ribble Estuary Nature Facebook Group.
These pages are now a repository for me to share photos and videos of my birding in and around Merseyside and occasionally further afield, and to provide me with an outlet for the occasional rant. You’ll find digiscoped photos and videos with a bit of reportage as the main posts; some useful birding info and resources are in the static Pages section.
For other, more regular, blogs I recommend that everyone keeps a daily eye on John Dempsey’s Birdblog – probably the best online birding journal in the world (Theakston’s Best please, John …) as well as other local blogs of which there are links below. Of these, Colin Bushell’s Ribble to Amazon is currently the most regularly and enthusiatically updated and carries most useful information.