Friday, December 14, 2007


Well I never expected that!
I visited an area that I would probably not have bothered to go birding around only that it is in the tetrad that I am surveying. A small green area with a busy main road running alongside one side and the M57 along the other nestled between Prescot and Huyton. A pond, a small brook running through and a small field partially wooded. Its frequented by fishermen and dog walkers but its quiet early on. A couple of goldfinch, a chaffinch and a grey heron was a reasonable start but as I approached the brook a Dipper flushed from below me and landed on a branch across the brook a little way down giving stonking views for 20 seconds.
I could not believe it, a dipper 5 minutes from were I live in suburban Huyton on a brook 2 metres wide. I had only left the car and the busy main road 30 seconds before. I followed the brook only ever catching a glimpse of the dipper again as it moved downstream. The brook flows under the M57 and the last time I saw the dipper was when it flew into the 2 m wide pipe that flows under the motorway.
I know its not a rare bird but I was absolutely thrilled to find such a bird in deepest suburbia.

I later visited Prescot reservoirs and 3 female Common Scoter and an Ad med gull were showing well .

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