Prescot reservoirs

An adult ring billed gull briefly this morning. Still growing outer primaries.

Lots of leach's petrels today.

Prescot res,
 Adult black necked grebe,fem redstart, 2 chiffchaff, green sandpiper, common sandpiper,snipe, greenland wheatear, peregrine,58 barnacles, red breasted goose and 2 pochard

A red kite at Seaforth today, Nicely picked up by Pete about a mile away over Crosby it drifted south over the eastern edge of the reserve.

A sparrowhawk causing havoc at seaforth today

Inner Marsh Farm RSPB
Another yellow legged wading beauty in the shape of a lesser yellowlegs Tringa flavipes was the main attraction today. A very fine bill and long yellow legs made this a rather delicate looking American wader. A greenshank and 3 ruff kept it company on the pool in front of the hide. It was initially on no1 pool showing about half a mile away. A hobby gave good views over the pools also.

The Gower
A short family holiday on 'The Gower' South Wales produced some interesting species. On the birding front 3 chough and a goshawk were nice birds and 3 red kites were seen from the car on the way home.

A small blue butterfly

A brown argus on evening primrose

A 3ft long grass snake was a nice suprise. My wife screaming SNAKE alerted me to its presence.

A tortoise shield bug Eurygaster testudinaria final instar

Prescot reservoirs

Prescot reservoirs,
Some newly hatched ducklings today. The gadwalls had eight and the shellducks seven.The shellducks always struggle to get any ducklings through to adults so hopefully this year will be better. A lapwing was still on eggs in the meadow and a couple of pair of swallows are still nest building. The buzzards now have chicks and the 5 pied wag fledglings are doing well. The Lrp's are still hanging around but no sign of breeding yet.
2 male broad bodied chasers on the pond today.

A big bird in the sky today

The A300-600ST Super Transporter was designed to replace Airbus Industrie's Super Guppy transports, used by the consortium to ferry oversize components such as wings and fuselage sections between Airbus' partners' plants throughout western Europe.

Seaforth NR,

2 Artic terns, 2 sandwich terns and 500 common terns today.

A flyover by a Spitfire in honour of TC's birthday was great to see!! Tally ho

Port police leaving after checking permits today.

A dark billed common tern

Seaforth NR

With a clear sky last night and with the white-tailed lapwing feeding eagerly yesterday it was no surprise that it had departed after a 2 day stay . TC had already put the negative news out but there was still a couple of hardy souls viewing from the fence in the pouring rain.

A little owl was on the mound and a whitethroat sang in the pouring rain as I came down to the hide. 22 dunlin,43 bar tailed godwits, 5 knot and 2 turnstone were present and 2 sandwich terns were among the common terns. An dark billed common tern was interesting. A peregrine over also.

A visit from the port police to check out all the birders present had permits was a sign that they were determined not to allow birders without permits on to the dock complex. Permission was sought but flatly denied by the authorities.

Seaforth NR,
Another absolutely stunning bird in the shape of a WHITE-TAILED LAPWING today. Only the 6th UK record of this Asian wader. Eye popping views of it, as it showed down to 10 metres on the scrape next to hide A. It had flown off over the fence before I arrived but luckily it returned. What an excellent purple patch Seaforth is having at the moment. Long may it continue.
I managed to see the Leighton Moss bird a couple of years ago but only very distantly so this bird was a real treat.

White-tailed lapwing 'The movie'

Leasowe, Wirral, Merseyside,
A female bluethroat was playing hard to get this evening and I only managed a couple of brief views of it. It was in a ditch under a small wooden bridge near the pond. My 2nd Merseyside bluethroat after seeing the beautiful male on hilbre a few years ago.

Seaforth n.r.

A stunning female wilsons phalarope showed very well today in the morning sunshine. A black tern hunted insects over the pool and landed briefly in front of the hide. An adult little gull and 1st summer med gull also.