Gatewarth

Early light frost made GW look almost picturesque this morning.
Single Fieldfare with finches (green and gold mainly) in bushes. 2 more over.
A Fox cantered by, along River, near-side. Semed to have prey in mouth,poss mouse. As it ran it put up Redshank and a single Snipe from reedy edge of River.

Thanks Ian, from about three miles distant I momentarily thought the gulls were the starling flocks there were so many! Pete

As well as the starlings displaying nicely at the bridge this evening there was an amazing stream of gulls heading out of the river and over the bridge - must have been several thousand in the five minutes or so I was queuing. I regularly see small and large parties of gulls there but these were remarkable for their numbers - guess the tide was coming in...

Pickerings Pasture
Single Fieldfare gorging on berries with Blackbirds on bushes right in front of screen.

M. Kestrel flying over River mobbed by a Herring Gull.

Mixed flock of Lapwing and Golden Plover on sandbank, maybe 100 birds.

WIDNES WARTH

2 meadow pipit
Grey Heron
poss. Redwing
Mallard
Gulls

The field facing the wooden walkway that has recently been used to graze the Longhorn is now much less sparsely grassed than last year. 2 Mippits flew over it today , compared with last year 50+ M.pipit,50+chaffinch,30+linnet along with pied wagtail,goldfinch,starling and possibly skylark.
If the fields higher up facing the start of the Widnes Warth NR trail are utilised for these, then i can see some long term benefits of attempting to add bio-diversity from grazing. They don't seem to be at the moment though.

Gatewarth :

Site tick for me today with a Green Woodpecker calling , heard from old tip area as I walked on to reserve. Eventually tracked the bird down to a Willow tree close to the Wind Pump. Called briefly then flew down into trees closer to the River ,quick view. Prob juv bird.

Long Tailed Tits, Jays, Kestrel.

Good nos of Gulls on River Bank being disturbed deliberately (for some reason?) by a couple in a small red sailed boat.

WIDNES WARTH - 12-2pm
close in
14 Redshank
25 Shelduck
Black-headed Gull
Lesser black-backed Gull
Cormorant
Carrion crow
1 Raven (tumbling)

further out towards Norton marsh
few hundred Lapwing
Herring Gull
Common Gull
Greater black-backed Gull
another 20+ Shelduck

surrounds
3 Jay (1 looked white capped poss.glandarius)
2 parties Long-tailed tit
50-100 Starling
6 Mistle Thrush (3 looked very small for missies)
2 Meadow pipit
Goldfinch
Robin
Wren
Blackbird
Kestrel

West of Norton Marsh / HWH

On the mudflats this morning :-

251 Golden Plover
750+ Lapwing
2 Dunlin
4 Snipe
3 Cormorant
1 Grey Heron

Gatewarth

A Kingfisher was perched on the dead tree branch on the riverbank after high tide this afternoon. Also noted were
Kestrel 1
Buzzard 1
Cormorant 2
Grey Heron 4
Lapwing 38
Mute Swan 4 (juveniles)
Canada Goose 1

A dog Fox was seen in the fields south of the river.

Cheers Brian

Gatewarth
At least one Chiffchaff in mixed flock of passerines, mainly goldfince and long tailed tits in hedges along top of RiverBank.

West of Norton Marsh

300+ Lapwing on the mudflats this morning with 2 Common Gulls, 200+ mixed Black-headed and Lesser Black-backed Gulls, incl. many juveniles, 10 Greylag Geese, 60 Canada Geese, 3 Cormorants,1 Grey Heron (juv) and 10 Sand Martins.

Whimbrel on the mudflats west of Norton Marsh today with a few Curlew and a single Black-tailed Godwit (possibly of the race islandica).

Checked the Mersey mudflats from HWH mid evening yesterday - 1 adult Med gull amongst 2500 BHG, 1000+ LBBG, a couple of GBBG, 1 adult YLG and a yellow legged Argenteus Herring Gull.
Lapwing flock now 1000+ also 243 Curlew, and singles of Dunlin, Black-tailed Godwit and Greenshank.
Earlier in the day en route to HWH came across a 'new' Purple Hairstreak tree - a relatively small tree and had excellent views in the sunshine, also 2 Commas.

John,

We found at least nine Bee Orchids along the canal towpath on Friday, mainly concentrated by the bridge at the end of Hall Nook, we also found a mole on the towpath by the Ferry tavern, eating a worm, before moving into the grass, only the second time we have ever seen a live one!

Dave Riley

Gatewarth

A stroll around here in the sunshine this afternoon produced at least -
12 Common Whitethroat, 4 Willow Warbler, 4 Greenfinch, 4 Goldfinch, 3 Linnets, 2 Reed Bunting, 2 Sedge Warbler, 2 Blackcap, 2 Swift, 6 Swallow, 2 Stock Dove, 2 Gadwall,1 Chiffchaff, a very busy Great Tit and 2 Buzzard hovering and circling over the area before being mobbed by 4 Crows.

Hi John, HWH is the abbreviation for Halfway House which was the name given to the derelict bungalow on the track between the Mersey and the ship canal about 30 metres east of Wigg Island. When we refer to HWH now we mean the general area east of the bungalow but in particular Owens Wood where for some years myself and other patchers have regularly watched the river, fiddlers and Norton Marsh. Over the years we have had some good stuff there, it was a bit quiet this morning, I would normally expect to get a few waders on the mudflats but there were several Wheatears in the area and a male Whinchat.

Lesser Whitethroat singing and showing quite well in Hawthorns on the track leading to HWH today also 2 male and 1 female Wheatear on the opposite bank of the ship canal. 1 male wheatear on Norton Marsh showing characteristics of the Greenland race.
Male Whinchat in the eastern section of Upper Moss-side on the 3rd

Gatewarth

8.00/9.00pm "Wall of sound" produced by four (poss five) Grasshopper Warblers reeling incessently from reedbeds and bramble bushes in field sloping down to Ferry Pub. One showing relatively well in reeds.
3 Whitethroats seen.
Sedge Warblers singing.
Willow Warblers noticeably numerous.

Gatewarth
8.30 2 Grasshopper Warblers reeling tonight.

At least one Whitethroat singing.

Gatewarth

The highlight this afternoon was a Ringed Plover on Richmond Bank.

Otherwise fairly quiet with Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff, Blackcap, Skylark, Dunnock all singing plus Linnet and Greenfinch over. A male Kestrel was seen chasing another over the river and a Buzzard hunted across the area.
Pairs of Shelduck, Gadwall, Canada Goose and Mallard with two Cormorants also on the river.
Less than 100 Gulls present, mostly Black-headed and Lesser Black-backed on Richmond Bank.

Gatewarth

At least 4 Willow Warbler plus 3 Chiffchaff and a Blackcap singing this afternoon.
Skylark, Linnet, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Blackbird and Robin all in good voice too.
The resident Kestrel was hunting over the area and a Common Buzzard circled over the east side pools.
A pair of Coot with 4 tiny young was observed in the canal as I was leaving.

2 Ruddy shelduck on pools in fields opposite hale marsh. 1 was dark necked and dark headed so a hybrid of some sort the other 1 looked fine for a ruddy but in all likelihood both escapes , also a pair of Gadwall with many teal.

Gatewarth :
Cold and damp today, feeling very Wintery.

Gull numbers up on the River,1000 s present in flighty flocks. One Iceland Gull in the crowd, seen well, close in, just before Richmond Bank.

18 Linnets in trees by railway line was biggest flock I've seen here for months.

Gatewarth

2 Chiffchaff singing today, with Song Thrush, Blackbird, Robin, Dunnock, Reed Bunting and Linnets also in song, but only a single Skylark heard.
The pair of Oystercatchers were still on the south side river mud and a pair of Grey Partridge were flew over the path in front of me.