Gatewarth
This year's brood of Mute Swans almost fully grown and starting to get white adult plumage. Still cramming onto nest on canal, though. Looked a bit overcrowded.
Fiddlers Ferry to Gatewarth 2.00pm
Really high tide.
Reed Warblers and Whitethroats arrived en masse. Loads of both.
3 Grasshopper Warblers reeling
Single Blackcap seen
Single Lesser Whitethroat rattling from hawthorns at top of bank at Gatewarth.Seen briefly.
2 Buzzards hunting together, low over Old Tip then drifted higher over River. Kept v close to each other .
Gatewarth
8.00-9.00pm 18th/04
At least two Grasshopper Warblers reeling in reeds/scrub at bottom of field in between reserve and Ferry Pub. One showed briefly
Willow Warblers all over.Easily double figures
1 Chifchaff
1 Reed Warbler singing
Buzzard and Kestrel still flying.
Firecrest singing and showing superbly well at 11:30 today, flycatching occasionally from the hawthorns along the bank at Richmond Bank, but moves through fairly quickly.
High water at Fiddlers Ferry today was 4.0 metres at 14.56, despite a WNW wind the river didn't come over Norton Marsh, so no small mammal activity but had a good view of a juvenile Glaucous Gull, also an adult Yellow-legged Gull as well as Redshank, Snipe, Lapwing, Curlew, Shelduck and cormorant.
Flock c30 Redpoll high in trees near the Water Plant between Gatewarth & Fiddlers Ferry. Mobile but didn't seem to be feeding, I didn't see any go to the alders here.
F Great Spotted Woodpecker vocal in trees near Penketh Old Hall
F Grey Wagtail in stoney gutter adjacent to Old Tip
Pair Bullfinch Old Tip
1 Great Crested Grebe on River
Fieldfare over
Gatewarth
Plenty of Redwings in the hedges with Blackbirds and Tits. One Redwing absolutely hoovering up the berries on a hawthorn.
Single Kestrel hunting.
3 or 4 Meadow Pipits on Old Tip.
Gatewarth
Flock of 20+ Fieldfares flying from the hedges ;First of the season for me.
3 Grey Partridge flushed from top of bank.
1 Grey Wagtail in yard of Penketh Hall Stables.
Low tide (0.5m) late morning yesterday and good for waders on the mudflats west of Norton Marsh, totals:- Lapwing 1254 Golden Plover 7 Redshank 36 Black-tailed godwit 11 Curlew 9 Also a steady passage of Skylark overhead with a few meadow pipits and 2 swallows. Red Admiral, Speckled Wood, Common Darter and Migrant Hawker still on the wing.
Few hours this morning over high tide at wigg Island viewing from the tower hide highlights
Along the river Lapwing 45 Curlew 20 Shelduck 53 Redshank 2 Great white Egret 3 on far bank of river along with 4 Little Egret and 5 heron as the tide came up in the same scope view
Buzzard high over
Gull numbers up on River
Toadlet-this year,s young
Fox on far side of River up and down edge of water. Drinking from River at one point
Osprey was present and in full view (although distant) of the hide overlooking Norton Marsh, on a large rock on the far banking of the Mersey, it didn't move from there for approx 1 and half hrs and was still present until we left the hide at roughly 5pm. Other birds from the hide included an increasing number of Great Black-backed, Herring, and Black-headed Gulls gathering on the mud bank not far from the Osprey.
Many thanks to the couple coming away from the hide who told us the Osprey had just landed, and good to meet the 2 Mersey birders in the hide who reported the Peregrines were on show earlier towards the gas towers, but me and Mum missed them. They also saw Tree Sparrows in the vicinity but again we missed them.
Other birds of note: 5 Buzzard 4 Reed Bunting 2 Linnet 1 Yellowhammer (more heard) 1 Whitethroat 1 Jay Plenty of Swallow and Swift.
Some of the sightings seen on way back from the hide to the car.