Eccleston Mere

Great Crested Grebe 22
Pochard 4
Goldeneye 1 m
Tufted Duck 8
Buzard 1

Hilbre Island and Crosby Marina

A dull, cold and drizzly early morning, with the sun occasionally breaking through to provide spectacular skies, was transformed by lunch time into a pleasant, still and sunny day. The dominant sound was the wild calls of the Curlew on the beach, perhaps up to 150 individuals.

The highlight of the day was a female Snow Bunting on Little Eye, which flew in from the direction of Middle, and landed on the sand in front of me. These confiding birds are always a pleasure to see.

The flock of 110 Pale-bellied Brent Geese were feeding on the rocks between Middle Eye and Hilbre, and there was a Shag sitting on the rocks. At the north end of the island there were another 5 Shags, whilst the Cormorant flock totalled at least 1200 birds, perhaps upto 2000.

There were at least two Rock Pipits on the island today, up to five Purple Sandpipers, plus a selection of other waders, Turnstones, Redshanks, Grey Plover and Knot.

On the way home, I called in at Crosby Marina and saw a Grey Phalarope.

Grey Phalarope: Year 225

Starlings at Marbury Country Park

Starling roost at Marbury Country Park. Apologies for the running commentry in the background, it's just one of those things you have to put up with when you're birding in a public place :-(

Shore Lark, Birkdale

Absolutely stunning Shore Lark on Birkdale beach today, one of the nicest I've ever seen in the UK and a strong contender for bird of the year this year. I've never seen one so yellow, or with such distinct horns. It was also a very obliging bird. Also on the saltmash, a mixed flock of Twite and Linnets.

Shore lark: Year 224

Eccleston Mere

Kingfisher 2
Great crested Grebe 20
Pochard 2
Goldeneye 1
Teal 2

A few days in the Big Apple

Just got back from a wonderful holiday to New York, just me and my non-birding son. We stayed on 34th Street, right by Madison Square Garden and Penn station. As you can probably imagine, birding was very much a secondary activity, but even so I took the binoculars and managed to see quite a few decent birds.

The account that follows ignores all of the non-birding activities, such as the Greenwich Village Halloween parade, the Broadway show, the rock concert at Madison Square Garden (U2, Aretha Franklin, Mick Jagger, Bruce Springsteen, Ozzy Osbourne, Sting, Black Eyed Peas, Jerry Lee Lewis, Metallica, Ray Davies, Lou Reed, Annie Lennox and the singer from ZZ Top all on the same bill). It also ignores the visit to the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, Wall Street, Brooklyn Bridge, the New York Marathon, the Natural History museum, the Dakota building where John Lennon was shot, the bar where Bob Dylan wrote "Blowing in the Wind", live music at Cafe Wha where Dylan and Hendrix performed early in the careers, Washington Square, Times Square, the shopping and Thai meals, Japanese meals and Mexican meals, plus loads more.

No, lets just forget all of that and concentrate on the wildlife and countryside.....


It was Fall, and the trees in Central Park were a wonderful spectacle, yellow and red and gold.


I didn't actually have any spare time to go birding in Central park, but we did wander around a couple of times. American Robins (above) were one of the commonest birds, in fact I saw at least 40 on one particular lawn. I've never seen them in Britain, but in Central Park they were quite tame and approachable. Other birds seen in the park included Mourning Dove, Red-shouldered Hawk, Song Sparrow, American Herring Gulls, Ring-billed Gulls, Laughing Gull, Wood Ducks, White-throated Sparrow, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Grey Catbird, several Hermit Thrushes and a few Red-bellied Woodpeckers.


Breathtaking colours!

Central Park

Midway through the holiday, we had a break from the city, and headed out to La Tourette Golf club on Staten Island. We caught the (free!) ferry across which took us right past the Statue of Liberty, as well as several Laughing Gulls, Ringed-billed Gulls and a few Pale-bellied Brent Geese. We saw more of these geese on a lawn by the sea in Brooklyn as we walked across the bridge on another day.

However, back to the golf. I don't play, so I just followed behind my son, birding as I went, and I was so lucky to stumble across possibly the bird of the holiday, a Belted Kingfisher (above). Certainly it was my most exciting find. It's a big Kingfisher, over twice the size of the bird we are familiar with in Britain.

The Kingfisher pond is in the background.

Another star bird on the golf course for me was this Hairy Woodpecker. I was delighted to get such a good photo on my first attempt, because it really was just point, click and hope!

Also on the golf course I saw hundreds of American Robins, there must surely have been a passage of these birds while we were in New York. Other birds included Lincoln's Sparrow (2), Dark-eyed Junco (3), Blue Jay (10), Northern Harrier (1), Turkey Vulture (1), Tufted Titmouse (1), Black-capped Chickadee (1), Red-tailed Hawk (2), Northern Flicker (1), Yellow-rumped Warbler (1), Ovenbird (1), Red-bellied Woodpeckers, Northern Cardinal (15), Ruby-crowned Kinglet (1), Great Blue Heron (1) and Mourning Dove (2).

Oh, and lots of Grey Squirrels exactly where they should be, in a tree in North America. On the way back to the airport via the train, several Snowy Egrets and a Little Blue Heron.

Sorry, couldn't resist this one - this is yours truely walking down Jones Street, Greenwich Village. "So what?" you might say, well this is the very same street, and almost exactly the same position where Bob Dylan and Suzi Rotolo where photographed for the most famous of all Dylan album covers, "The Freewheelin' ".

Pennington Flash

Slavonian Grebe - Year 223

Eastern Crowned Warbler, South Shields

Possibly the birding event of the year (the finders of the Tufted Puffin might disagree!), an Eastern Crowned Warbler at South Shields was identified from a photograph on Thursday evening, and was relocated yesterday and again today. A first for Britain and only the fourth ever in Europe, I decided that it would be rude not to make its aquaintace.

I took it at a leisurely pace, only leaving home this morning at 8:45 once I was certain that the bird had been seen again today, and spurred on by positive texts (thanks John) I arrived at South Shields at noon. Though it was dull and breezy, the forecast rain and gales had not arrived yet.

I saw the bird about five times, twice through the scope, but the best view of all was through the bins at a distance of about 10m for about 2 minutes. The bird had flown straight towards me and landed in a bush next to where I was standing! I saw all the relevant features, crown stripe going down to its nape, broad eye stripe, yellowey / green fringed flight feathers, couple of wing bars, white underparts with yellow vent and generally a bulky bird, not unlike a vireo. Easy to dismiss this bird as just another Leaf warbler, but it's actually quite a nice bird, in the same way that Pallas's Warbler is a nice bird.

Also flitting around was a Yellow-browed Warbler.

Yellow-browed Warbler: Year 221
Eastern Crowned Warbler: Year 222

Rainford Mosslands

Pink-footed Goose - 8,000
Barnacle Goose - 1 juv.

Not quite the spectacle of yesterday, but still plenty of activity around the flock which today (this evening) was in fields along Dairy Farm Road. The Barnacle Goose brought the goose species count on the mosslands this weekend to four, following Greenland-white front, Greylag and of course Pink-foot yesterday. It's always nice to see unusual species in the flock, and though we can never be sure that any Barnacle in St Helens is wild, a juvenile with 8,000 Pinks is surely just about as wild as it gets.

If you go to see these birds, please be aware that Dairy Farm Road and the Old Coach Road are private, with no access to vehicles. You can walk or ride a bike, but no cars please.

Awesome Pink-feet eclipse even a dowitcher!

Today I found my new local patch. It’s called North West England! I covered it from dawn until dusk and did it all by push bike, a grand total of 55 miles! I’ve seen some great sights this year, and been to some fabulous places, but today is my best birding day of the year so far.

As a confirmed lover of geese, it’s not unusual for me to spend a lot of time watching these birds at this time of year, but never have I seen them so well or so many. Breathtaking is the only word for it!

My route took me first north along the Old Coach Road, a farm track which is devoid of cars, but ideal for the birder on a bike. This is a good spot for Pink-footed Geese, and in recent years there has been a roost here of over 10,000 birds. Soon I could hear their calls, and eventually I found the flock, feeding in a field at the side of the road. I abandoned the bike and almost crawled through the under growth and into a ditch alongside the field. Here I sat patiently and waited, with just my head showing above the ditch. It really felt like pioneering work, it seemed to me that this was the sort of thing that Peter Scott must have done in the early days just after the second World war. As I watched, more and more birds landed in the field, and many where now quite close. I estimated about 6000 Pink-feet in the flock. Then, just to my right, I noticed a bird which was different. It was altogether darker, and bigger, and had a large bright orange bill. A juvenile Greenland Whitefront! Exactly what I was hoping for! A few minutes later I had also located a Greylag. I watched these wonderful birds for an hour, and then slowly crept away and back to my bike.

I continued north, through Bikerstaffe, Aughton, and Halsall, and across Plex Moss, which was disappointingly quiet. Finally I reached the traffic lights at the start of Southport marine drive, which I followed to the Birkdale roundabout. Here I stopped for a while. It was just on high tide and there were good numbers of Bar-tailed Godwits, Sanderling and Oystercatchers.

I pressed on, with just a brief stop at Marshside, where I found both hides packed and not much to see from either. I wasn’t in the mood for being sociable, so I decided to head for Banks marsh.

It’s been fairly dry recently, and I was able to bike it right along the sea wall from Crossens pumping station to Old Hollow Farm. Lots of Little Egrets seen along the way, I counted at least 40. I could see another birder in the distance and when I got to him he told me that he had just relocated the Long-billed Dowitcher which has been in the area on and off for a couple of weeks. I had a look at it through his scope, and also managed to see Peregrine, two Spotted Redshanks and a Stonechat, before I put the bins down and had my lunch. How could the day get any better?

I knew that it was going to be a special day at Martin Mere, because before I even got in, I could see geese flying around, and the noise was incredible. I went first to Swan Link, and the mere was just covered in birds. Somebody said that there were 20,000 and I have no reason to challenge that! I was in United Utilities hide when they all took off . The noise was deafening, the sky was black, like a huge cloud had just covered the sun. An awesome spectacle. Three Barnacle Geese with the flock.

Finally I decided to head home. I was going to go straight home, but something in the back of my mind told me to head back down the Old Coach Road. I think that I just wanted to be sure that the birds I had seen earlier were still there, and had not joined the Martin Mere birds.

Sure enough they were there , but now there were even more, at least 10,000 birds I estimated. I watched them in awe as the sun started to set, and I saw a 1000 Peter Scott paintings. Then they took to the air, in one huge mass, and just like at Martin Mere the sun was blotted out, and the noise was deafening.

Half an hour later I was home, worn out, and not just physically. All of my senses had been stretched to their limits today. And the total cost for today was £1.30 for a cup of tea at Martin Mere!

Greenland Whitefront - Year 219


Yes the sea does occasionally come in at Southport!


Pink-footed Geese Old Coach Road


Banks Marsh



Juvenile Greenland White-fronted Goose, Old Coach Road

Turn your speakers on and the volume up before clicking on this video! Pink-footed Geese, Old Coach Road. Hard to believe that this is St Helens!

Even more geese at Martin Mere.

Santa Claus releases Christmas album following a night on the town!

So Bob's done it again and surprised us all! His first ever Christmas album was released on 13th October and contains such Christmas classics as "Here comes Santa Claus", "Little Drummer Boy" and "Hark the Herald Angels sing". It's all for charity of course, you can read more about it at http://www.bobdylan.com/. Dylan is donating all royalties to help homeless people.

The reviews have been generally good and some have made me laugh, such as "it sounds like he just smoked 20 ciggies before going into the recording studio", "....Bob Dylan's Christmas album is here, its arrival harkened by the 68-year-old legend's fearsome wheeze —a sound more Beelzebub than Jolly Old Elf", and my personal favourite "Dylans voice adds menace to these chirpy old Christmas favourites."

But the point is, despite some fans wanting him to become a greatest hits artist, he's ALIVE and well and continuing to surprise and shock. Two studio albums this year, the first of which was all new material and reached number 1 on both sides of the Atlantic, 150+ gigs this year all over the World with more to come, a radio program (Theme Time Radio) and rumours that his voice is to be used on a SAT NAV system! What will he surprise us with next?