100 up for Hilbre

Way back in 1973 my Dad and I walked across the sands of Dee to Hilbre Island. He'd been there many times before since the 1950s and it was a place he really loved, but it was my first visit and it made a great impression. Since then I've had many great adventures here, and adventures they really are when you're walking for 45 minutes across the beach at sunrise into the teeth of a North Westerly gale with black, threatening clouds rolling in, and waves crashing over the north end. These days they have loos that you can use but for many years there were none and you could be stuck on the island for up to six hours with no shelter. Meanwhile these storms can bring seabirds from remote oceanic islands in the North Atlantic, the most iconic of all the Leach's petrel, but also gannets, skuas and shearwaters. Sometimes the wind is so strong that the birds can go right over your head. It truly can be an adventure! 

Today it was somewhat calmer and there were no seabirds, ironic really since just yesterday there was a Leach's petrel at Pennington Flash! Still it was nice, with many highlights, including a wheatear, brent geese, a juvenile merlin which flew low right over my head, a peregrine and two ravens, plus a nice selection of waders. A flyby greenshank was new for the island for me.

It was also great to bump into Steve Williams on the island who very kindly invited me back to obs for a brew. It's a really great place Hilbre, makes me wonder why I don't come more often.

According to my database this was the 100th visit that I have made to the island where I have recorded birds. I suppose it's possible that some early visits may not have made it from my notebooks to my database if there wasn't much to record, so perhaps it would be more accurate to say that this was the 100th noteworthy visit!

My first ever wheatear was on Hilbre on 15th April 1973, so the timing of this bird was perfect.

Pale-bellied brents have started to arrive back for the winter, with 42 birds present this morning. My first ever pale-bellied brents on Hilbre were in 2004 and I think they're a relatively recent new addition to the fauna of the island, apart from occasional records. According to J.D. Craggs in his excellent book "Hilbre, The Cheshire Island" (1982), such records as there were related to dark-bellied birds, with only c.30 pale-bellied across the whole reporting period (1957-1977).

Certainly they were not on our radar back in 1973!

I don't think if I'd have believed my eyes if I'd seen even a single little egret on that first visit, yet today I counted 11 and apparently up to 30 have been present recently.

Around 110 grey seals were hauled out on the West Hoyle Bank today. Just to the left of this photo there were over 1000 black-tailed godwits which were another new species for me on Hilbre today, bringing my Hilbre list to 135.

Around 40 common scoter were dotted across the sea at the north end, this was the closest.

I was surprised to find a few flowers on this rock sea-lavender. This is a Hilbre speciality and virtually the only place it grows.

These two Sandwich terns were on the beach from Leasowe Gunsite this afternoon.