Both Garganey and 2 Little Stint with about 20 Dunlin from Nel's Hide. Taking my friend Vince for his very first experience of birding about a mile from his house!

This a.m. 1 Little Stint a GB 1st for me, also 2 male Gargany plus all the usual marshside birds, 4 Avocet on eggs in front of main hide also.
Cheers Ian

The last stop on our mega twitch saw us at Marshside where the Lesser Scaup showed well for us. Also seen Snipe Redshank Black Tailed Godwit Pintail and a few more although time constraints meant we didn't have chance to spend as long as we would have liked there

nice to meet you to Steven and welcome to Ians forum .Hope to see you about and look forward to reading any more reports cheers Gary

had much off the same as gary minus wheatear & grey partidge but had hundreds off grey plover on the beach near southport pier mixed with redshank,dunlin,curlew,blacktailed godwit and golden plover. plenty off shelduck and meadow pipits on the walk up to nels hide,sadly found a dead common scoter. at nels lots off black tailed godwits,golen plover and usual stuff shoveler,gadwall,teal,wigeon,mallard,tufted duck,pintail,lapwing,b-h-gulls,l-b-b-gulls,herring gulls and a few oystercatchers about. at junction pool great views off lesser scaup(lifer) nice to meet gary & vernon at sandgrousers all the usual stuff + i counted 44 avocet. went to have a look at the distant pink foots (thousands off them) hard work at distance but did manage 1 barnacle. 2 little egrets buzzard,sparrowhawk,kestrel,merlin & pair of peregrines who put on a show for me buy catching and eating a wood pigeon,awsome also had chiffchaff and 2+3 sand martin. all in all a great day.

lesser scaup still showing well all day on the junction pool,the geese were well out on the marsh and I realy dont enjoy looking at birds so far away. Nice to here a couple of chiff chaffs and the skylarks were in fine voice also. 2 merlins were zipping about along with a buzzard and 2 peregrines . A single male wheatear was on the sandplant along with a few meadow pipits and a small flock of linets. The avocets were showing off for the photographers on mass infront of sandgrounders and nels hide was busy with 10 ruff , 20 avocets and i left vernon to count the golden plover ,redshanks and godwits. Also had a little egret and 2 grey partridge ,oystercatchers and curlew plus all the usual stuff . Another great days birding with my second best friend Vernon . Pat you are number 1 thanks for the cream egg and the fairy cakes

Real good time we three had. It was nice to see the Avacet(loads) A Lesser Scaup Large flock of Golden Plover Little grebe All the usual stuff Not far away on the drive in, I saw a 20 or so birds in a tree. We stopped, and after much scoping and book reading came up with Corn Buntings, so that was a bonus for the day

Went Goose hunting at Crossens inner marsh this morning - arrived at 0630 and the view from the "old sea wall" was almost zero with only a couple of Greylags disappearing into the fog. Eventually the sun started to take over, the fog cleared and the geese started to arrive and with almost the first skein of Pinkfeet there was the target bird - a White fronted Goose . Also during that first session found 2 Barnacles, 8 or so Canadas and 2 hares.

Later in the morning having been over to Marshide found 2 more White fronts plus another one distant. The two together were much closer and showed big orange bills indicative of probable Greenland race. The sun by now was well up and was able to pick out a single pale bellied Brent Goose amongst the hundreds of Pinkies as well as the Barnacles again. Also had debates about a possible Bean Goose but could not positively ID the one candidate that myself and four other birders checked out.

At Marshside thought I should try to find the Lesser Scaup but despite it having been reported present at 0800 it was not to be seen shortly afterwards. However always nice to see the first Avocets of the year as well as good numbers of Golden Plover and Blackwits.

Decided to have another ride up here this afternoon with John Barber as he hadn't seen the Lesser Scaup.

We soon found the bird actively feeding on the junction pool and after a few more photo's we then went around to Crossens marsh to check the geese. Today however, the majority of the geese were on the inner marsh, so after a short walk across the bund near the treatment works we were in a good position to scan through the 1500 or so pink feet that were present.

We soon found two Greylag and shortly after we found the first Eurasian White fronted goose. More checkng then produced a Pale bellied Brent, a Barnacle and two more Greylag followed by another White fronted goose.

We then called it a day as we were beginning to go 'goose blind'!!

A cracking few hours birding in brilliant weather.

Quick afternoon visit with Henry Cook in the glorious Sunshine for the Lesser Scaup which was showing well at Junction Pool. Nice to get good views of this Male through the 'scope to study some of it's features.

Also present:

200+ Golden Plover
Big flock of Pink-feet on far side
20+ Meadow Pipits
5 Avocets
Black-tailed Godwit
Shoveler
Shelduck
Pintail
Teal
Wigeon
Lapwing
Little Egret
amongst others

An enjoyable visit!!









-- Edited by Phil Owen on Tuesday 22nd of March 2011 08:31:25 PM

Called in here this morning at 11.00pm to see the Lesser Scaup. The bird was easily found at the top of the pool in between the road junction and Sandgrounders hide. Managed to get a few record shots which show the peaked head quite well.

Luckily, it was also almost high tide too and the water was nearly at the road side. I took the opportunity to scan the large numbers of geese over Crossens marsh just north of Marshside. There were already a few birders present here and this made much easier work for scanning the many thousands of Pink feet that were present. A pale bellied Brent goose was found by one guy along with a couple of Barnacle geese and another guy picked out a Tundra Bean goose which actually turned out to be the nearest goose to our position and gave us great views. Again, I managed to get a few good record shots of this.

Also seen was a female Hen Harrier and a Merlin.

Brief visit yesterday (Saturday) afternoon.

Usual stuff, including 12 Avocets and a Sand Martin

Popped over to Marshside prior to high tide yesterday, but not a particularly high one, so didn't push much up to the reserve area from the sea. It was a little wet at times, with a bit of a wind blowing in from the sea, but clear enough. Despite this there was still plenty about, including:

Near the old Sandworks:
Grey Partridge 2
Skylark 6
Stonechat 1

Shoreline/Beach:
Knot 3-4,000
Bar-tailed Godwit 1,00+
Dunlin 400+
Grey Plover 20+

Main Reserve:
Little Egret 3
Little Grebe 2
Mute Swan 4
PF Goose 500+
Shelduck 30+
Wigeon 3,000+
Teal 400+
Shoveller 60+
Pintail 20+
Gadwall 10+
Avocet 20+
Redshank 100+
Oystercatcher 10+
Golden Plover 400+
Lapwing 100+
Black-tailed Godwit 1,000+
Ruff 2
Peregrine 1 (looked like a first winter bird)

a.m. today, on the saltmarsh 1 female Hen Harrier and a Merlin also small number of Grey Plover with many Curlew, Redshank and Shellduck. From the hides huge numbers of Wigeon, Teal, Pintail, fewer Pintail, Shoveller and small number of Gadwall. Waders included 100's of Black tailed Godwit(some in breeding plumage) and Golden Plover and Lapwing, small number of Ruff but no Avocets yet. Also lots of Pinkfeet and a single Little Egret. To top it all off the weather was also fantastic
Cheers Ian

Minimum 5 Short-eared Owl and 3 Merlin, plus a Peregrine came in with the tide this morning

Saturday late morning visit. Masses of birds including:

Golden Plovers, Curlews, Blk T Godwits, Redshanks and Lapwings.
Little Egret 1
Merlin 1
Sparrowhawk 1
Greylag/Pinkfeet/Canada Geese.
All usual duck species represented.
Little Grebe 2
BH/C/H Gulls.
etc.etc.etc.

If this is in the wrong thread i apologize i cant find a thread for Weld road anywhere and none appears neither using the search facility


A very nice flock of 30/40 Twite going up and down the area around Weld road on sunday,

Also reports of a Franklins gull seen on Saturday but not seen since after a good looking for by locals later, there are photos of this bird knocking around on the net, this sighting had not been definatly confirmed and some discussions say it could of been a Hooded common gull as the one recently seen a Seaforth

Please note that this thread has been re-opened to act as the sites main dedicated thread. I would ask that all posts for this excellent area are now put on here.

Please note though that other sites in the Southport area (such as Weld Road and Hesketh) have their own thread too.

Hi Simon welcome to the forum its great to have one of Marshsides finest on board and please let us see some of your photos ,Although Johns have improved slightly yours just simply take some beating

-- Edited by Gary Gorner on Friday 15th of May 2009 06:02:14 PM

Hi Sid,

Just to say that the marshsidebirders.com url you mention now points to a new site with up to date sightings, often submitted by the warden, and works alongside John's excellent blog ...

Cheers

sid ashton wrote:

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Ian

I think that site has only recently been started up again and perhaps for that reason the Harriers we saw were not reported. A good up-to-date site covering Marshside is Jonn Dempseys site birdblog.merseyblogs.co.uk - he's talking about the Water Rail that has been showing in front of the Sandgrounders hide all day today for example.

Cheers

Sid A

-- Edited by sid ashton at 23:23, 2008-10-30

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