Cheshire And Wirral Birding: Hills, Lowland and Coast (3 Viewers)

[DPR]

Well we've all been there at one stage or another! I will never forget my horror of seeing a cattle egret many many years ago without bins only to return to site with other birders to discover a White farm duck in the same field. I literally bent over with my hands over my head with the level of shame.

 

[Jane Turner]

I suppose that you'd expect a description of a Little Bittern seen by someone who hadn't seen one to start with... I saw a tiny heron, not I saw a bird the size of a Woodcock with a heron's beak and long legs.

Also you'd probably not expect the the tail to stand out as black compared to a uniform grey/brown body on a Little Bittern, but you would on a Blackwit and come to think of it, uniform grey brown is a great description on a Blackwit and rather less so of a Little Bittern.

I had to look a long time to find a Little Bittern standing in a field!

 

[HughPulsford]

I assume you were being sarcastic when you suggested Snipe.
All I can say you don't see many Snipe with Heron shaped beaks, long legs, black stubby tails..............

Not having seen the bird but having spoken to the person that did, I made my best guess which happened to be the best guess of two other birders as well as the finder himself. We may well be wrong but a woodcock size bird with a Heron shaped beak and black stubby tail etc doesn't leave many options other than a small heron/bittern.

I guess my concern with a Little Bittern ID is that by February, juveniles have undergone moult of body feathers and some secondaries, so some are actually sexable , with males looking like shades of an adult male, and similarly females looking less so but still somewhat capped appearance with some evidence of an emerging pale patch at rest on the wing. So if the bird is being aged as a "juv" because it was completely streaked, I struggle to agree with the proposed ID. Also with this family, as with other small herons that are trans saharan migrants, birds only migrate to breed, so sexually immature birds often remain for their second year of life at the wintering grounds, so you would expect the plumage of a migratory bird, even one this incredibly early, to be obviously 1st winter rather than juvenile.
Hope this helps

regards
Hugh

 

[Jay-Pea]

Today - 6 Spotted Redshanks and 40 Bewick's Swans at Inner Marsh Farm; 100+ Common Scoters and 100+ Kittiwakes at Hoylake; 2 Short-eared Owls at Parkgate; 200+ Kittiwakes and Fulmar off Meols;

Yesterday - Glaucous Gull and 11 Purple Sandpipers at Hilbre; 3 Yellow-legged Gulls at Hoylake; c40 Little Gulls reported off North Wirral shore plus 5 Mediterranean Gulls between New Brighton and Meols; 167 Brent Geese at West Kirby; 20 Purple Sandpipers at New Brighton ML; Merlins at Adlington and Winwick; Little Egret at Poynton; 2 Green Sandpipers at Rixton; at least 12 but possibly 20+ Woodcocks at Risley Moss;

CB

Popped into Risley Moss yesterday, hoping for Woodcocks. Didn't see any, but, wasn't sure where to look to be honest, never having been there before. Could anyone enlighten me?

Called in at the hide with the excellent feeding station. Plenty of activity with several Nuthatches and GSWs amongst the usual suspects. The latter were plentiful and there was a lot of drumming going on throughout the woodland. I also saw what I thought was a Willow Tit. Can't be 100% though as I didn't hear it sing, though it did have a 'matt' cap. Does anyone know whether Willow is most common here, rather than Marsh?

Thanks

Patrick

PS - The only Little Bittern I've seen lately was the one starring David Walliams and Matt Lucas ....;-)

 

[ta brandreth]

ran my Riverwatch 'Artery of Life' event this morning at Hale Point;
circa 40 Dunlin,23 Blk T Godwits,single Wigeon,lots of Curlew - 2male and one female Pintail,Mipits, 53 Linnets on the foreshore, 2 Buzzard, one female Kestrel, 5 Gull sp. (1 Common Gull on farm fields),37 Shellys and 2 noisy overflying Ravens - and the usual celtic invasion - lots of Rain from the direction of Wales...

 

[ta brandreth]

forgot - after dipping Peregrine (very unusual at Hale) had a female blast through Hale Marsh scattering all in its path...

 

[HughPulsford]

Popped into Risley Moss yesterday, hoping for Woodcocks. Didn't see any, but, wasn't sure where to look to be honest, never having been there before. Could anyone enlighten me?

Called in at the hide with the excellent feeding station. Plenty of activity with several Nuthatches and GSWs amongst the usual suspects. The latter were plentiful and there was a lot of drumming going on throughout the woodland. I also saw what I thought was a Willow Tit. Can't be 100% though as I didn't hear it sing, though it did have a 'matt' cap. Does anyone know whether Willow is most common here, rather than Marsh?

Thanks

Patrick

PS - The only Little Bittern I've seen lately was the one starring David Walliams and Matt Lucas ....;-)

I am sure it would be a Willow Tit. Marsh Tits are not seen here, wrong habitat, wrong area, just dont appear here. This is currently an ongoing issue in Cheshire and Wirral, Birders are unfortunately struggling to get this ID right. Willow Tits are red data listed with the Mersey valley sites a key stronghold for this species in the UK. Marsh tits are a bird of mature woodland areas, mainly Oak and Beech, with an appropriate understorey, not the secondary growth sites of damp water logged willow/birch dominated areas favoured by Willow Tits. Marsh Tits rarely wander from their breeding sites, so if they dont breed there, they dont winter there. Willow Tits have a more extensive juvenile dispersal. CAWOS have requested descriptions of these capped poecile species in 2010 to attempt to really understand their true county locations, which was made clearer by the ATLAS work of 2004 -2007, but we still get out of context records from folks. There are in fact no 10k tetrad in Cheshire and Wirral in which both species are recorded together in the breeding season, and winter records of both species in the same areas are almost certainly mistaken identification.
I would really encourage people to hone up on the ID of these two species which are actually not that difficult to seperate in the field with reasonable views even without calls.
Thanks
Hugh

 

[cheshirebirder]

Hugh, how rare is marsh tit in Cheshire now? I remember seeing them years ago in Dane valley (Wincle area) but not seen one in Cheshire for a long time now. They are regular in the Derbyshire/Staffs dales so wondered if still any in east Cheshire ?
Bill.

 

[Cheshire Birder]

Popped into Risley Moss yesterday, hoping for Woodcocks. Didn't see any, but, wasn't sure where to look to be honest, never having been there before. Could anyone enlighten me?

Called in at the hide with the excellent feeding station. Plenty of activity with several Nuthatches and GSWs amongst the usual suspects. The latter were plentiful and there was a lot of drumming going on throughout the woodland. I also saw what I thought was a Willow Tit. Can't be 100% though as I didn't hear it sing, though it did have a 'matt' cap. Does anyone know whether Willow is most common here, rather than Marsh?

Thanks

Patrick

PS - The only Little Bittern I've seen lately was the one starring David Walliams and Matt Lucas ....;-)

At Risley Moss, you need to park outside the gates to the reserve otherwise you will be locked in. The reserve closes at 5pm (you can get out after this time on foot but you need to be inside the gates before they close them). Take the footpath to the Tower hide (only a 5 min walk) and view from there. Birds were flying over the trees but also coming off the moss. I have to say, I didn't believe the numbers of birds were so high until I saw them for myself. Unfortunately its difficult to get exact numbers because it could be some birds are counted more than once. Need to go just before dusk and the bird I saw a few days ago were all seen between 5.10-5.40pm.

As Hugh says the tits will have been Willow. I spoke to a warden who said they had not been reported to them since last year. Your sighting is the second I have heard of, from there in the last two weeks, so birds are clearly still present.

Hope this helps.

CB

 

[Cheshire Birder]

Hugh, how rare is marsh tit in Cheshire now? I remember seeing them years ago in Dane valley (Wincle area) but not seen one in Cheshire for a long time now. They are regular in the Derbyshire/Staffs dales so wondered if still any in east Cheshire ?
Bill.

I'm not aware of any in East Cheshire but they have always been rare on that side of the county. Not seen the latest Bird Report so maybe Hugh can give a better update. I didnt see one at all last year but there are several sites in the West Cheshire for them.

CB

 

[Cheshire Birder]

Todays news -Caspian and 2 Yellow-legged Gulls at Richmond Bank; Bittern at Budworth Mere;

Yesterday - Glaucous Gull at Richmond Bank; 32 Waxwings at Northwich; 2 Med Gulls at New Brighton; 2 Greenshanks at Leasowe;

CB

 

[Cheshire Birder]

On Saturday I managed to bag all 10 gull species present with the help of some gull experts which I think probably included Snowcap. Caspian Gull was a lifer for me and the other rare gulls provided a much needed boost to my yearlist!

Thanks to all those for taking time to point out all the relevant species to myself. Up to 20 birders were present during the time I was there. Usually when I visit I never see a birder here.

Day totals for Saturday were - 3 Caspian Gulls, 1 Glaucous, 2 Iceland, 8 Yellow-legged and a Med Gull

CB

 

[sylvia staffs]

Am i right in thinking its a spring tide this weekend at parkgate? What time is it and what is the height? Taking a South African Guy who loves birds and hoping to see good selection of Raptors, waders ducks and small mammals!!!!

Thanks in advance any info appreciated.

 

[Mark Payne]

I'm not aware of any in East Cheshire but they have always been rare on that side of the county. Not seen the latest Bird Report so maybe Hugh can give a better update. I didnt see one at all last year but there are several sites in the West Cheshire for them.

CB

Marsh is still common in the south. Peckforton is the site.

 

[Jane Turner]

Am i right in thinking its a spring tide this weekend at parkgate? What time is it and what is the height? Taking a South African Guy who loves birds and hoping to see good selection of Raptors, waders ducks and small mammals!!!!

Thanks in advance any info appreciated.

Here is the tide table

On Monday, I'm hoping the Dee down towards Burton might go under, its the biggest tide I recall!

 

[Bananafishbones]

Mealy (and Lesser) Redpoll update:

Original Mealy has now been a dialy visitor for 65 days.... and counting

A second Mealy pops in now and again but nowhere near as frequently, the Lesser Redpoll daily count is now reducing slowly from the 40+ (max 47) that were here a couple of weeks ago... its seems to be around 12-20 at any given time of the day now

Dave

 

[Jane Turner]

County rarities

The latest version of the decisions databse is now live here. I'm finally on top of the records that have been submitted!

http://www.cawos.org/raritiesdatabase.htm

Its a good time to check if a bird you think you have submitted has made it into the system. I'm finding some big files are bouncing from the CAWOS server before they make it through to me and there is always a worry that paper submissions don't make it.

If you can fill in any gaps e.g. with finders, that's great. If you have any county rarities that you want to see in the 2010 report, its a good time to submit them - that way we don't have a huge rush just before the publication deadline! No one has sent in the Frodsham RB shrike yet.

We are working through the backlog of c.60 records at about two a day and finders who sent their record in electronically will be informed of the decision before the online database is updated.

 

[Cheshire Birder]

Todays news - Kumlien's, 4 Caspian, Iceland and 14 Yellow-legged Gulls at Richmond Bank; Glaucous Gull at Gowy Meadows; 2 Rock Pipits and Hen Harrier at Denhall Quay; 14 Purple Sandpipers at New Brighton Marine Lake plus 5 Med Gulls between Fort Perch and Harrison Drive; 2 Peregrines, 2 Stonechats and c650 Pink-footed Geese at Heswall; 4 Stonechats at West Kirby Marsh;

CB

 

[Cheshire Birder]

Yesterday - Iceland, Med and 8 Yellow-legged Gulls at Richmond Bank; Yellow-legged Gull at West Kirby Marine Lake; 10 Woodcocks and Water Rail at Risley Moss; 2 Red-throated Divers and 42 Scaup at Dove Point, Meols; 48 Bewick's and c60 Whooper Swans on the outer Dee Marshes (in Clwyd), plus an escaped Cape Shelduck;

Feb 15th - Caspian, Iceland and 10 Yellow-legged Gulls at Richmond Bank; 7 Waxwings at Sandbach;

CB

 

[David Smith]

10 Woodcocks and Water Rail at Risley Moss;CB

After reading of these sightings over the last week or so I called in and asked a warden where they had been seen..........she looked at me as though I was mad and told me she had not heard of such sightings???