1st March 2004
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Bird Highlights March 2003 to February 2004

As well as the White Throated Sparrow, the past 12 months have been very good for rarities around the estuary. The spring saw the return of the over wintering Long-billed Dowitcher to Inner Marsh Farm, this stayed into April when it was seen moulting in to summer plumage. Three Slavonian Grebes which spent three days off Hilbre was an excellent spring record, as was a Montague's Harrier flying over in May.

A White-winged Black Tern passed through in July in hot weather more like it's native east Mediterranean than the Irish Sea. First seen at Gronant, it then over several days made it's way eastward past Hilbre and along the north Wirral shore - last seen at Seaforth. The autumn was exceptional for American waders across the country, and we had our fair share. These included Wirral's first American Golden Plover, seen running around on the sea defence at Meols. Pectoral Sandpipers were at Point of Ayr, Hoylake and Inner Marsh Farm.

The good summer weather which brought in the White-winged Tern also meant that our local tern colonies did very well. The Little Terns at Gronant smashed the record both for numbers of pairs (110) and number of fledged young (190). The numbers of Common Terns at Shotton continue to increase with a total of 622 pairs this summer. This colony is now not only the largest Common Tern colony in Wales but the second largest in the whole of the UK¹.

Wader numbers were good through the winter, with the largest counts being in November and December. Unusually the Wetland Bird Survey (WeBS) counts in these two months were undertaken on neap tides, instead of the usual spring tides. When all the data is gathered together it will be very interesting to see what effect this has had on numbers. In theory many more birds, especially on the North Wirral coast, should have stayed in our area during high tide instead of flying over to the River Alt where many tend to go on spring tides. There was certainly a very high count at Heswall in November with the counter complaining 'did I have every bird on the bloody estuary?'. This included 17,600 Knot, 9,340 Oystercatcher, 8,700 Dunlin and 2,660 Black-tailed Godwit. Of course it is Hoylake which traditionally has the really big counts and December saw 30,000 Knot and 20,000 Dunlin. Leasowe shore is always a good place to see waders feeding at low tide, the highest count of Bar-tailed Godwit there this winter was 6,400 - a typical low tide count for this species. Black-tailed Godwits are still increasing on the estuary. There were two very high counts, one in November and one in February. The February count was at least 4,600, easily beating the previous record of 4,231 set in October 2002.

Brent Geese reached their highest ever numbers on the estuary, at least in modern times. The highest count at Hilbre was 54 in February. Shelduck were at high levels in the autumn, with over 10,000. But apart from Brent Geese and Shelduck I've received very few wildfowl counts on the estuary so I assume that numbers have been unremarkable. However,  on January 26th over 2,000 Pink-footed Geese flew through the estuary on their way to South Lancashire. They flew by in many small skeins over a period of two hours, a lovely sight on a glorious sunny day. 880 Common Scoter in September was a good count for the Point of Ayr.

It was an excellent 12 months for raptors. At least five Hen Harriers spent the winter on the marsh between Burton and Heswall , a very welcome increase for this species. A remarkable 45 Kestrels were counted in one sweep of the telescope hovering over the marsh off Heswall and Parkgate in August. Probably at least 55 in total were present presumably attracted by a bumper crop of voles. This may also be the reason why it has been a good year for Short-eared Owls on the marsh, with a count of 13 on Burton Marsh in December most likely a record for this site. The spring and autumn migrations saw the usual handful of Marsh Harriers and Ospreys. A couple of Red Kites drifted over the estuary on separate dates, as did two Honey Buzzards.

September was disappointingly windless, but a gale in October resulted in 27 Leach's Petrel off Hilbre. Also seen in the same gale were 2 Pomarine Skuas, 4 Great Skua, 1 Balearic Shearwater, 2 Sooty Shearwater and 2 Sabine's Gull. Of course the same gale in mid-September might well have blown in ten times this number!

Reference:
1. Neil Friswell and Colin Wells, Dee Estuary WeBS Annual Report, 2002/2003.

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Count from Heswall Shore - (Kindly provided by the Wirral Ranger Service), 21st February.
17 Cormorant, 304 Shelduck, 13 Mallard, 19 Red-breasted Merganser, 1 Water Rail, 5 Snipe, 3,230 Oystercatcher, 327 Lapwing, 15 Grey Plover, 59 Golden Plover, 160 Knot, 9,980 Dunlin, 409 Black-tailed Godwit, 808 Curlew, 2,800 Redshank, 142 Black-headed Gull, 38 Common Gull, 4 Lesser Black-backed Gull and 88 Herring Gull and 5 Great Black-backed Gull, also 2 Peregrine  and 1 Hen Harrier (ring-tail).

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Steve Andrews - Black-tailed Godwits at Inner Marsh Farm

Flocks of Knot at least 10,000 strong where seen at both Thurstaston and Leasowe, 9,000 Dunlin was a good number for Heswall at high tide and 5,700 Bar-tailed Godwit were counted off Leasowe at low tide. But the most remarkable count was of over 4,600 Black-tailed Godwit, most off Connah's Quay and Flint. This species has been steadily increasing on the estuary for about 15 years, an increase that looks set to continue.

I couldn't believe we were so unlucky with the weather at Parkgate again for the high tide birdwatch, exactly the opposite of what was required to bring the tide over the marsh. But at least the week before at the raptor watch an excellent selection of birds were seen. With Iolo Williams putting in a guest appearance several hundred people turned up to see Hen Harriers, Short-eared Owls, Peregrines and Merlins. However they didn't see the Rough-legged Buzzard which was over the marsh two days later. Unfortunately it was only observed by one birdwatcher, but a good sighting of what was presumably the same bird was had at Risley Moss a couple of days later. Nine Short-eared Owls at Burton on the 9th was the highest count this month.  

Brent Geese numbers at Hilbre increased yet again with 54 on the 14th, another record high. Two of these were dark-bellied. Interestingly some people seem to be having difficulty in identifying this race at Hilbre. This seems to be because many are intermediate in plumage - pale grey underneath instead of dark grey. Possibly these are hybrids, certainly the normal dark-bellied birds seen on the east coast, and occasionally on the Dee, are noticeably darker. Other wildfowl of note have been the over-wintering Smew and Green-winged Teal at Inner Marsh Farm, both drakes, and 2 Velvet Scoter off the Point of Ayr.

A Little Auk spent a couple of hours on West Kirby Marine Lake after being blown in by strong westerly gales. West Kirby also had a Black Redstart, and the Snow bunting was last seen on the shore on the 8th.

What to expect in March.
Winter is almost over and the first of the spring migrants should be well on their way. The table below shows the dates when some of our regular migrants were first seen over the past four years. Last year we had some very early arrivals so it will be interesting to see what happens this spring.  Please let me know by    if you see an early migrant, thanks.

Out to sea the first Gannets and Sandwich Terns will be passing through, and we often get good numbers of grebes and divers. Last year we had a remarkable three Slavonian Grebes together off Hilbre, plus Red-throated, Black-throated and Great Northern Divers. Other migrants will include Meadow Pipits, on a good day in their hundreds, plus possibly a Ring Ouzel or two, and even an early Osprey at the end of the month.

Redshank numbers will increase during March, gathering before their flight to Iceland to breed. Spotted Redshank prefer a more fresh water habitat and a few should be seen at Inner Marsh Farm. Rare migrant waders are much more frequent in autumn than spring but one or two Little Stints may well turn up - and last year we even had a Long-billed Dowitcher.

Although there are no very high tides predicted for this month keep an eye on the forecast for the weekend of 20th/22nd March. A strong west wind may well push the tide over the marsh, and this month has often brought some really spectacular birdwatching at Parkgate and Heswall in previous years. One high tide in March 2001 produced over 17 Water Rail, 5 Short-eared Owls and 8 Jack Snipe.

Many thanks go to Colin Jones, D.T. Davies, Clive Penson, Jeff Stephens, Nick Moss, Keith Lester, Colin Davies, T. Morton, Bryan Joy, Steve Ainsworth, Ian Dyer, Dave Haigh, Carl Traill, Margaret Twenlow, John Campbell, Andrew Brewster,  Ken Peacock, Cathy McGrath, Dave and Emma Kenyon, Matt Thomas, Mark Smith, Bernard Machin, Alan Jupp, Clive Ashton, Alan Patterson, John Eliot, Steve Round, Tanny Robinson, Dave Wilde, David Esther,  John Campbell, Brian Grey, John Harrison, Allan Conlin, Mike Hart, David Harrington, Colin Wells, Phil Woollen, Stephen Williams,  Chris Butterworth,  Martyn Jaimeson, Jean Morgan, the Dee Estuary Voluntary Wardens and the Hilbre Bird Observatory for their sightings during February. All sightings are gratefully received.

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All material in this newsletter, and indeed the whole web site, has been written by myself, Richard Smith, unless specified.

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