Mosslands birding

Ring Ouzel 1 male
Golden Plover 300
Merlin 1
Wheatear 5
Grey Partridge 2
Barn Owl 1
Shelduck 150
Curlew 25

It was a bitterly cold wind first thing this morning, nearly cut me in half! I arrived at my first stop at 7:15am, stopped the car, lifted my binoculars and the first bird I saw was a male Ring Ouzel! Nice!

I was on the mosslands between Ormskirk and Southport, the same place where previously I had wonderful views of the harriers in the winter. No Harriers today, but I was more than compensated by a flock of 300 Golden Plover, many in spectacular breeding plumage. A Merlin dashed across and briefly spread panic, there were Shelduck everywhere and five Wheatears were my first of the year, as were two Grey Partridge. At dusk I watched a Barn Owl hunting.

Year 159 (Ring Ouzel, Grey Partridge, Wheatear)



Golden Plover.


Ring Ouzel and Shelduck. Shelduck are one of my favourite birds, partly because I always used to associate them with Llandudno Junction station, where I saw my first on the Conwy estuary in about 1972! I counted about 150 Shelduck today, of which this was the largest flock, with nearly 60 birds in this one field.