Friday, 13th Feb. afternoon.

Located 5 a couple of hundred metres south from end of sand racing ( or whatever it's called ) section of the beach. The tide had just turned and they were feeding at the tideline in the debris, seaweed etc. They were moved on by a dog and nicely flew north towards us. Views down to 20 metres or so. Given my limited knowledge of the species, I reckon 4 male and 1 female, some of which appeared to drink sea water from puddles in the sand. I suppose that's normal for a species that acts quite wader-like at times.

Adam, yes it looks as though there are possibly +/-ten Snow Bunts given the two locations and how they tie in with previous reports. Your experience of not finding them going south was the same as mine - in fact I had nearly given up and was freezing when I found them on the way back to the car-park. So anyone else going over there needs a bit of patience and hopefully we'll get the ten confirmed by a Manc birder. Congrats to your Dad for his 200th species, glad to have helped.

yes sid i did see the report you posted on the martin mere/marshside thread and me and my dad decided to have a ride up to see if we could get them. We walked quite along way south down the beach (probably 1km - 1.5km) and then it was on the way back to the car park i spotted a group of small birds flutter down onto the rubbish that the tide swept up closest to the dunes (about 200 yards south of the car park). I got the bins out just as they fluttered away towards the car park. We carried on further up the beach until we saw some birds feeding on the seed/weed amongst the tideline (again closest to the dunes). We managed to get the scope and bins on them and they stayed for about a minute to a minute and half. This was about 100 yards from the car park. they then fluttered into the dunes directly behind pontins. Couldn't tell how many were male or female because we were pretty excited ( it was my dads 2ooth specie ). it was definatly only a small group of about 5 maybe 6. It does seem as though there is more than one group

Adam

You may have seen that I also found Snow Bunts at Ainsdale on Thursday last week and reported them under the Martin mere/Marshside thread following on a discussion that was going on about Green Winged Teal at Marshside. Anyway I'm curious to know where you found the birds - the ones that I found were a good way down the beach about 1.5 km south from the car park near a barrier that separates the sand yachters from the rest of us. Much further South than the Pontins camp. The group I saw was definitely 5 (two male three female I reckon - what did you think) and feeding on the tideline which at that point is close to the dunes where they have been reported previously.

I am curious about these birds because it is the third year at least that I am aware of them being at Ainsdale and it looks like they may become regular visitors in increasing numbers, at least 5 possibly more if we had two different groups.

According to reports the 5 birds that I found would have been eating washed up seed/weed on the beach in the place where I found them. Don't suppose that you could tell what your group was eating?


P.S. added Monday 09 Feb - Adam just been going back through John Dempseys reports form Ainsdale and he reported ten Snow Bunts on 19th Jan he saw the first 5 on the beach where it sounds as though you were so that seems to answer my question - it looks as though you saw one lot of 5 and I saw t'other - good stuff eh?
Sid A

-- Edited by sid ashton at 12:33, 2009-02-09

approx 5 just south of the car park on the beach. showing well and then fluttering into the dunes behind pontins.