I've been targeting Billinge Hill for the past few mornings hoping to pick up a few tree pipits on their annual August passage over the hill. I arrived this morning at 7:30am and did my usual walk up to the beacon and sat down with my coffee and waited.
Within a few minutes I saw a large raptor drifting towards me from the north, which I immediately knew was an osprey. It slowly circled overhead but all the time moving south and it seemed to me that it was heading for Carr Mill Dam, so I messaged Bill in the hope that he might be there and fortunately he was. A few minutes later he messaged me to say that he had watched it for 10 minutes at the Dam before it moved off east, perhaps towards Pennington Flash, which is ironic if it did, because neither Bill nor I were there to see it!
A very exciting experience, almost as good as it gets for me on a vismig watch from Billinge Hill! No sight or sound of any tree pipits though, so I decided to go back again this afternoon.
Wow! Only my third osprey ever in St Helens. My first was at Eccleston Mere on 9th April 1997, while the second was unbelievably over the car park at Ruskin Drive sports ground on 26th June 2005 as I waited with my son for his cricket team mates to arrive. These were my notes from the time:
"On a glorious sunny Sunday morning, I was waiting on the car park at Ruskin Drive with a few other parents, as we prepared to transport the Under 13s cricket team to Ormskirk for a game. Suddenly I became aware that a number of gulls were mobbing a large raptor, quite low down, roughly over the security hut.
Fortunately I usually have a pair of binoculars in the car, so immediately made a grab for them and was onto the bird straight away. I was astounded to see that it was an Osprey, a rare, migrant visitor to St Helens with less than 10 records ever, despite the species increasing nationally in recent years. The bird flew across the car park, up over the poplar trees and over Queens Park school playing fields, accompanied by its entourage of gulls and was lost to sight behind the trees. However, I could still hear the gulls, and a minute later it was back, having seemingly decided to ride the thermals over the school playing fields and over Queen Park itself."
This afternoon I decided to have a walk over to Billinge North Top which is just the other side of the road to the beacon. It was a good decision because two tree pipits flew up calling at point blank range and landed on wires above my head. Wonderful! In the photos you can see the fine streaking on the flanks contrasting with the thicker streaking on the breast, also the relatively short hind claw.
Two tree pipits!
Billinge Hill Beacon.
I'm not sure what this building was built for but it has some impressive graffiti and not just the dates, take a look at the fonts used! Can you imagine somebody carving their names on the stone with such precision these days?
Views from Billinge Hill
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