thanks for the advise, people. decided to give formby a miss but thought going east side was a bit much for one day as im unfamiliar with the best sites. so red rocks on the wirral over high tide, with crosby before, and marbury after seemed a decent sunday mooch.
i`d only walked a quarter of the way round crosby marine lake when i clocked 2 little stints feeding on the waters edge. as i slowly crept up to get closer views, i noticed a strange looking duck a bit further round. it was only a summer plumage drake long tailed! half an hour in and a lifer . after a singing chiffchaff, a wigeon and a daisy-cutting sprawk, i was off to morrisons at west kirby for a fry-up.
the seawatching was quiet as expected, with gannet, scoter, rock pipit, red t. diver and grey seals on a calm sea.
next was marbury park and neumanns flash - redwings, kingfisher, green woodpeckers, bullfinches, black swans, a bar headed goose with the greylags, 2 wood pigeon nests with chicks and plenty of bats later. buzzards seemed to be everywhere i went, wherever i looked!
enjoyable day and well chuffed with the l.t.duck.

Quite. And Saturday will be best day as the winds tail off Sunday & Monday. The latter days however will pay rewards in the form of plenty of migrants.

Forget seawatching this Sunday on the west coast,there won't be any winds at all.Try the East coast if you want to see some birds.

If you get the tides right - hike across to Hilbre Island. They've had all sorts of birds this week including , Manxies, Leach's Petrel, Sabine Gull and a Firecrest !

There's lots of useful infomation on www.deeestuary.co.uk such as latest sightings, tide tables and advice on which location is best at which tide.

With any sort of NW or W blow the Wirral would be a good choice - you've options all the way from New Brighton to Hoylake to choose from.

There were 2 Leach's past Red Rocks this afternoon in fairly light winds.

NW will give you the best chance of Leach's, whilst more westerley will improve the chances of Shearwater or Skua.

Sea-watching can be excruciatingly dull - or fantastic - either way you have to give it time!!

I have to say though, looking at the wind forecast ( I use www.xcweather.co.uk) I think you'd be better getting across to Spurn or Flamborough!

Hi Mevan,

I'm not much of a seawatcher in the NW of England so dont know too much about which winds are best, but I will say that when I have tried formby point its been dire - that could be due to my lack of knowledge like I said before but overall I just thought stuff was waaaay too far out. Even with the high tide stuff was passing so far out it wasnt even worth having a shot at the id.

Have you thought about Heysham. Its not the nicest of places by any stretch of the imagination with the nuclear powerstation buzzing away behind you, but last time I was there it wasnt too bad with a bit of passage.

i fancy having a go at seawatching this sunday, maybe formby point or north wirral. i know the winds are far from perfect but with migration underway its got to be worth a dabble, or am i wasting precious time that could be spent elsewhere? any tips would be greatly appreciated