Juvenile Sabine's Gull, Hoylake
The gull remained semi-distant and the windy conditions and poor lighting didn't help. Typically in the afternoon when the proper photographers turned up the sun came out and the Sab's Gull decided to parade past saying cheese and giving slow fly pasts!
Sandwich Terns, Hoylake Beach
Gulls can be confusing - take these two. The front one is clearly much smaller than the adult Black-headed Gull behind. It has different colour legs - orange versus pink. The tertials are white rather than grey and the mantle appears paler. Two different species? If the front one had darker mantle I would be seriously thinking Bonaparte's Gull - in fact it is just a first winter Black-headed Gull and the features described are just typical variations between age groups. Gulls can be confusing!
Second winter Great Black-backed Gull asleep with its backing group - the Bar-tailed Four!xxxx
Thursday afternoon and back home – not exactly where I wanted or expected to be. Oh well… sod’s law. Thursday evening and a trip to HGF in grey and orrible conditions. Nice to see both Black-necked Grebes still present and a Common Sandpiper was patrolling the usual eastern stretch. Other numbers of birds appear to be falling slightly though.
Xxx
On Friday morning I wanted to go to New Brighton as I knew the winds would be northwesterly and I also knew the winds on Saturday were due to veer to the SW – not good for sea watching. Events conspired against me so I had to make do with a visit to HGF in the morning. It was nice to see over 40 House Martins and a few Sand Martins whizzing around the pool. The other main attraction was a sub-adult Common Tern which was fishing on the east side. I could hardly call it a juvenile as it had approx three quarters adult plumage. A Buzzard drifted over and most of the usual suspects were there – the fields around Midhops were deserted though and have been since.
Xxxx
In the afternoon I finally got a couple of hours to kill and shot off to New Brighton and plonked myself at the side of Perch Rock Fort. I didn’t see any other birders and I got that sinking feeling that says all the goodies have gone and so have the birders. I knew what had been seen earlier in the day – Balearic and Sooty Shearwaters, all four skuas and Sabine’s Gull. Bollocks!
Xxx
I started scanning the sea and the river mouth just in case and was rewarded after five minutes with a Black Tern which was drifting up river. A distant Gannet showed as did several Common and Sandwich Terns – then an Arctic Tern landed on the beach! At this point I was joined by another birder who had been watching me from the car – he soon struck gold with an adult Sabine’s Gull flying along the far side of the river. Superb! A few other birders joined us and we watched the bird for around an hour though it remained distant. Sab’s gulls are striking birds and wonderful to see – this one kept flitting around and then landing on the water for a rest. I don’t blame it – although it was sunny the wind was very strong. A Little Gull briefly appeared on the beach and before I knew it, I had to go home again.
Xxxx
In the evening a Sparrowhawk appeared briefly in the garden – I then took Billy out for a late evening walk. I was driving along Golbourne Road past the church in Winwick and I stopped when I saw some birds in the first field on the left. I got out and saw at least 31 Grey Partridges! I have been wandering the usual lanes for weeks since the fields started dropping and seen nothing. I have since been back to this field a few times at dusk and again seen nothing – I wonder where they are all hiding?
xxx
On Saturday morning I headed for Burton Marsh and walked Billy up to the Decca Pools. Along the way a Whitethroat showed nicely in a bush by the path, a single Little Egret flew past and a male Merlin was perched on a distant fence post. Two Buzzards and a few Kestrels also flew over. On reaching the pool I scanned along towards Neston and was rewarded with a smart ring tailed Hen Harrier performing some amazing aerobatics. It had to – the bird was being oined by some corvids. On the pool was a Ruff and plenty of Teal but not much else. I then spotted a fox approaching the far side of the pool. It caught and ate a vole and then loitered around the pool edge. Nothing seemed to be bothered by its presence – the Teal practically ignored it.
Xxx
While walking by Burton Marsh it was so calm I had almost decided that there was no wind today and gone home. Fortunately some instinct took me to Leasowe Gunsite instead – it was bloody windy there! Around a dozen birders were scanning the water so I parked my car, got out my scope and sat on the boot lip to start sea watching. After fifteen minutes of nothing I spotted a juvenile Sabine’s Gull just east of the wind farm. I watched it for around 10 minutes before it dropped on the water and I lost it. I later learned other birders had watched it flying through the wind farm before I arrived.
Xxx
A short while later and a Bonxie seemed to just bomb from height into the water with an almighty splash – quite close in too. Two Red-throated Divers buzzed past, again quite close in and I also saw at least three Artic Skuas. Lots more birds were obviously moving through in the distance – I couldn’t make out what they were and was content to record what I could positively ID.
XXX
I had been joined by a couple of birders during the morning – one of them announced his pager had flagged up Wilson’s Petrel from Seaforth and also a juvenile Sab’s Gull on the beach at Hoylake. The three of us got our heads together and discussed options as everything seemed to have stopped coming through at the gunsite. The guy with the pager had seen Wilson’s on pelagics – his view was that it would need to be pretty close to positively ID it and the chances of seeing it were slim. Consequently we shot off towards Hoylake with me acting as guide – I was the only one that knew where the coastguard station was. We arrived and I parked up well short of the coastguard station as I had thought that it was double yellows all the way along. I was wrong and got some stick for it – however as soon as we started the trek along the road one of the birders with me casually glanced at a small group of Dunlin and found a Curlew Sandpiper leading it! Fortunately we all got onto the Curlew Sand before it disappeared.
Xxxx
The beach was full of waders and gulls – we didn’t stop to sift through them though as we saw some birders in the distance watching something with interest. We arrived to see the juvenile Sabine’s Gull (maybe the one I saw at Leasowe?) feeding along the water’s edge. It was there for around fifteen minutes before it took flight and headed back down the beach to where we had parked – it disappeared into a large group of waders.
Xxxx
I walked back slowly scanning the birds on the beach. I estimated the following numbers (couldn’t be bothered with the gulls):
Xxx
8000+ Dunlin
4500+ Oystercatcher
1000+ Knot
45+ Grey Plover
30+ Sanderling
15+ Bar-tailed Godwit
20+ Curlew
13 Sandwich Terns
Xxx
At one point I dropped onto a small group of Dunlin and spotted one bird with its bill up its arse! It was larger than the Dunlin and turned round to reveal a nice supercilium – was this the same Curlew Sand we had seen earlier or another one? It showed nicely though briefly before flying off. We didn’t relocate the Sabine’s Gull (although it turned up again late afternoon and showed much closer) so I headed home – well satisfied!!!
Xxx
On Friday morning I wanted to go to New Brighton as I knew the winds would be northwesterly and I also knew the winds on Saturday were due to veer to the SW – not good for sea watching. Events conspired against me so I had to make do with a visit to HGF in the morning. It was nice to see over 40 House Martins and a few Sand Martins whizzing around the pool. The other main attraction was a sub-adult Common Tern which was fishing on the east side. I could hardly call it a juvenile as it had approx three quarters adult plumage. A Buzzard drifted over and most of the usual suspects were there – the fields around Midhops were deserted though and have been since.
Xxxx
In the afternoon I finally got a couple of hours to kill and shot off to New Brighton and plonked myself at the side of Perch Rock Fort. I didn’t see any other birders and I got that sinking feeling that says all the goodies have gone and so have the birders. I knew what had been seen earlier in the day – Balearic and Sooty Shearwaters, all four skuas and Sabine’s Gull. Bollocks!
Xxx
I started scanning the sea and the river mouth just in case and was rewarded after five minutes with a Black Tern which was drifting up river. A distant Gannet showed as did several Common and Sandwich Terns – then an Arctic Tern landed on the beach! At this point I was joined by another birder who had been watching me from the car – he soon struck gold with an adult Sabine’s Gull flying along the far side of the river. Superb! A few other birders joined us and we watched the bird for around an hour though it remained distant. Sab’s gulls are striking birds and wonderful to see – this one kept flitting around and then landing on the water for a rest. I don’t blame it – although it was sunny the wind was very strong. A Little Gull briefly appeared on the beach and before I knew it, I had to go home again.
Xxxx
In the evening a Sparrowhawk appeared briefly in the garden – I then took Billy out for a late evening walk. I was driving along Golbourne Road past the church in Winwick and I stopped when I saw some birds in the first field on the left. I got out and saw at least 31 Grey Partridges! I have been wandering the usual lanes for weeks since the fields started dropping and seen nothing. I have since been back to this field a few times at dusk and again seen nothing – I wonder where they are all hiding?
xxx
On Saturday morning I headed for Burton Marsh and walked Billy up to the Decca Pools. Along the way a Whitethroat showed nicely in a bush by the path, a single Little Egret flew past and a male Merlin was perched on a distant fence post. Two Buzzards and a few Kestrels also flew over. On reaching the pool I scanned along towards Neston and was rewarded with a smart ring tailed Hen Harrier performing some amazing aerobatics. It had to – the bird was being oined by some corvids. On the pool was a Ruff and plenty of Teal but not much else. I then spotted a fox approaching the far side of the pool. It caught and ate a vole and then loitered around the pool edge. Nothing seemed to be bothered by its presence – the Teal practically ignored it.
Xxx
While walking by Burton Marsh it was so calm I had almost decided that there was no wind today and gone home. Fortunately some instinct took me to Leasowe Gunsite instead – it was bloody windy there! Around a dozen birders were scanning the water so I parked my car, got out my scope and sat on the boot lip to start sea watching. After fifteen minutes of nothing I spotted a juvenile Sabine’s Gull just east of the wind farm. I watched it for around 10 minutes before it dropped on the water and I lost it. I later learned other birders had watched it flying through the wind farm before I arrived.
Xxx
A short while later and a Bonxie seemed to just bomb from height into the water with an almighty splash – quite close in too. Two Red-throated Divers buzzed past, again quite close in and I also saw at least three Artic Skuas. Lots more birds were obviously moving through in the distance – I couldn’t make out what they were and was content to record what I could positively ID.
XXX
I had been joined by a couple of birders during the morning – one of them announced his pager had flagged up Wilson’s Petrel from Seaforth and also a juvenile Sab’s Gull on the beach at Hoylake. The three of us got our heads together and discussed options as everything seemed to have stopped coming through at the gunsite. The guy with the pager had seen Wilson’s on pelagics – his view was that it would need to be pretty close to positively ID it and the chances of seeing it were slim. Consequently we shot off towards Hoylake with me acting as guide – I was the only one that knew where the coastguard station was. We arrived and I parked up well short of the coastguard station as I had thought that it was double yellows all the way along. I was wrong and got some stick for it – however as soon as we started the trek along the road one of the birders with me casually glanced at a small group of Dunlin and found a Curlew Sandpiper leading it! Fortunately we all got onto the Curlew Sand before it disappeared.
Xxxx
The beach was full of waders and gulls – we didn’t stop to sift through them though as we saw some birders in the distance watching something with interest. We arrived to see the juvenile Sabine’s Gull (maybe the one I saw at Leasowe?) feeding along the water’s edge. It was there for around fifteen minutes before it took flight and headed back down the beach to where we had parked – it disappeared into a large group of waders.
Xxxx
I walked back slowly scanning the birds on the beach. I estimated the following numbers (couldn’t be bothered with the gulls):
Xxx
8000+ Dunlin
4500+ Oystercatcher
1000+ Knot
45+ Grey Plover
30+ Sanderling
15+ Bar-tailed Godwit
20+ Curlew
13 Sandwich Terns
Xxx
At one point I dropped onto a small group of Dunlin and spotted one bird with its bill up its arse! It was larger than the Dunlin and turned round to reveal a nice supercilium – was this the same Curlew Sand we had seen earlier or another one? It showed nicely though briefly before flying off. We didn’t relocate the Sabine’s Gull (although it turned up again late afternoon and showed much closer) so I headed home – well satisfied!!!
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