Dee Estuary Birding
Monthly Newsletter...
February 2025
Newsletter
Highlights - March 2024 to February 2025
Here is my usual yearly summary on the 27th Anniversary of this Dee Estuary Birding website.
A mega!
There's certainly no doubting what was the bird of the year - a Hudsonian Godwit. This is a real mega rarity and it's only the sixth British record, and a first for Cheshire & Wirral, North-west England and Wales!
It was first seen briefly by Geoff Robinson on August 12th at Connah's Quay, but the bird was only there for three minutes before it flew off so he couldn't be certain. Luckily it then turned up at Burton Mere Wetlands that same evening, found by Colin Wells. News was released at 9am on the 13th, but there was no sign of it either at Connah's Quay or BMW - before being relocated in front of the Border hide at 10am much to everyone's relief. It then went missing for several days before returning to BMW on the 18th. On the 20th it relocated to Flint Marsh where it was more difficult to see but was present on most days up to September 11th. It was last seen on the Mersey estuary at Hale on September 27th.
The presence of many birders at Flint meant two other nice rarities were found, a Lesser Yellowlegs and an adult Sabine's Gull.
Leach's Petrels
A Leach's Petrel, which was spotted off New Brighton after strong SW winds in late March, was somewhat unexpected, there's only been one other March record on the Dee Estuary this century. Leach's Petrels in September were certainly more expected and we had decent numbers after some strong north-westerlies, 31 past Hilbre on the 11th being the highest count.
Yellow-browed Warblers
September also brought the earliest ever
Yellow-browed Warbler to Hilbre, on the 20th. This was the start of a
large influx into the country and we had our second highest number of
records on the Dee Estuary for these tiny birds - 32, just below the
record count of 35 in 2016. A detailed account, including details of
the mystery surrounding Yellow-browed Warblers, can be read in the December 2024 Newsletter.
Knots
At peak numbers Knots are our most numerous wader, so a big contrast to the species mentioned above. Most years they are largely absent in the Dee Estuary between early May and July but 2024 was different and it was a joy to have a large over-summering flock of around 4,000 second-year birds, they fed at Leasowe at low tide and roosted at high tide either at Seaforth or Hoylake (some of the roosts at Hoylake were spectacular - see photos and video here). There were also a good number of adults with them prior to their leaving in early May and on their return in July - I just love seeing them in full breeding plumage. We've also had some great views of Knots at Meols through this last winter with many roosting and feeding close to the promenade at Meols, sometimes so close you could almost touch them!
Other Highlights
March saw a series of big high tides resulting in good views of six Short-eared Owls over Burton Marsh and 45 Red-breasted Mergansers on the sea at Heswall, plus the usual spectacular numbers of raptors, waders and wildfowl. March also bought a Black Redstart to Fort Perch, New Brighton - was this the same one which then turned up in January at Fort Perch giving some great views?
October saw a remarkable 34 Cattle Egrets at Burton Mere Wetlands, they were only present early morning on the 24th before flying east. A Barred Warbler was a nice find at Hoylake in a sea-front garden in November, and among all the thousands of Knots and Dunlins at Hoylake a Little Stint over-wintered.
Richard Smith
Colour Ring Report
Turnstone
Blue - White flag (AA)
Ringed on Hilbre on 30/3/2024.
Recorded on Hilbre 30/01/2025.
This was the first sighting of this bird since it was ringed last year.
It was the first one ringed with a new scheme, we
look forward to seeing more.
Knots
January was another good month for spotting
ringed and flagged Knots and we had a total of 258 records at Meols,
Thurstaston, Hoylake and West Kirby. Here is a sample of some of the
knots we've seen over the past few months which show some interesting
movements.
Yellow flag (94N)
A lot of
the Knots which spend the non-breeding period on the Liverpool Bay
coast stage on the west coast of Iceland in May on their way to
north-east Canada to breed. In 2017 they managed to catch and ring
several hundred at a coastal farm called Skogarnes just to the south of
the
Snaefellsnes peninsula. Yellow flag 94N was one of these birds.
We saw it at Thurstaston the following December and it stayed in the
area until early March 2018. It was back at Skogarnes the following
May, and also in May in both 2023 and 2024, showing how site faithful
they are. It's been recorded most winters on the Dee estuary since 2018
(except for 2021/22), and it's only record away from either the Dee
estuary or Skogarnes was at Formby in December 2018.
Y8PPYG
Ringed on Griend (an uninhabited island in the Dutch Waddensea) in
November 2021, as a juvenile.
As a non-breeding second year bird it spent the following summer in the
Waddensea being seen on the islands of Ameland and Terchelling. The
following winter it was recorded once at Heysham on Morecambe Bay, then
in May 2023 it was in west Iceland.
It came back from breeding via the Wadensea (in September) then flew
west to Dublin Bay where it was recorded several times in November
2023. It then flew east again to the Dee Estuary where we had our first
sighting of it at Thurstaston in January 2024. Although it wasn't
recorded in Iceland in 2024 it came back again via the Waddensea after
breeding being seen at Griend (it's ringing location) before ending up
at Meols in January 2025.
Oflag(79P)/G
Ringed
at Ainsdale in May 2024 this was one of several thousand second year
birds which spent the summer at Leasowe and Seaforth.
After summer many of these second year birds dispersed away from
Liverpool Bay, some flew east to the Waddensea, but this one decided to
head to southern Ireland, being recorded at Dungarvan, Wexford, in
October 2024 and at Clonakilty (west of Cork), in January 2025. Of the
birds recorded on the Dee Estuary/north Wirral this is only the second
one to be found on the southern coast of Ireland.
Oflag(27E)/G
This bird has been ringed twice. It was fitted with Orange flag LEU in
January 2020 at Dublin Bay.
The following summer it was at Ainsdale after returning from breeding,
and back in Dublin Bay in early 2021. In March 2022 it was a part of a
catch at Ainsdale, and, because the original flag showed some wear, it
was fitted with a new orange flag - 27E.
Since then it has been showing some interesting movements being
recorded in Iceland in May 2022 and 2023, as well as Formby and
Heysham.
Our first sighting of it came at Meols on 20/11/2024 and just over a
week later it was at Strangford Lough, Northern Ireland, on 1/12/2024.
This interchange between the east coast of Ireland and Liverpool Bay
seems to happen quite frequently and we've seen birds which have flown
in both directions at least once during the winter.
Ringed at Ainsdale in March 2022 it was recorded at both Meols and
Thurstaston in the winter of 2023/24. In March 2024 it decided to do
something different and flew all the way east to the small island of
Sylt in the German Waddensea, just south of the Danish border. As well
as Iceland, some birds stage on the northern tip of Norway in May, so
maybe that is what it was going to do. Whatever it was doing, it was
back at Meols early December 2024.
'Photographic Guide
to
Colour-marked Red Knot' - download the PDF file by clicking here.
Colour Rings were recorded by Richard
Smith, Stephen
Hinde, Tony Ormond, Matt Thomas, Colin Schofield, Steve Williams, Alan
Hitchmough and David Leeming.
Richard Smith
January Bird News
A Little Stint continues to over-winter and was seen several times at
both Hoylake and Meols. Other waders included at least 10,000 Knots
giving spectacular views at Meols with birds both roosting and feeding,
often a few feet from the promenade. On Hilbre there was a good count
of 27 Purple Sandpipers on the 12th. At Heswall there was an exellent
count of 660 Bar-tailed Godwits and 237 Golden Plovers on the 26th.
During some calm weather at least 14 Red-throated
Divers were on the sea off Hoylake on the 16th and 430 Great Crested
Grebes the following day off Meols and Leasowe.
Although often somewhat elusive, this Black Redstart, first seen on the
9th, was a very showy bird at Fort Perch on New Brighton - lots of
photos were taken! At Neston Sewage Works a Siberian Chiffchaff arrived
on the 11th and stayed a few days, and over at Flint at least 20 Twite
were on the marshes.
What to expect in March
No less than five 10 metre high tides are forecast for March, including
two of 10.2m. This should result in some spectacular birding with
Short-eared Owls, Hen Harriers and Marsh Harriers showing well, and I
just love seeing, and hearing, thousands of Pink-footed Geese which
will be flushed by the sea covering the marsh. Parkgate is traditionally the best place
to see these spring tides but on the very high ones Neston and
Burton can be even better, and anywhere along the Welsh coast should be
good.
It's the first month of spring and we can look
forward to seeing the first migrants. The first arrival dates haven't
been particularly early over the past two years, it is not unknown for
the first Sand Martin to arrive as early as late February, so it will
be interesting to see what happens in 2025. If you see an early migrant
please email
and,
if it's a first,
I'll put it in the 2025 table.
As well as the tabulated migrants above we should
get our first Ring Ouzels coming through, these early ones will
probably be British breeders. Avocets will be in good numbers at Burton
Mere Wetlands, many are probably just passing through to breed further
north. Out to sea will be our first Sandwich Terns and Gannets. Look
out also for Little Gulls, these days they are somewhat elusive and
unpredictable but they do seem to stage in Liverpool Bay in March and
we often see them out there, before their onward journey across the
country in April, on their way to the Baltic (see Species Spotlight - Little Gull).
Some of our waders will be on the move with Redshank
numbers increasing as they gather here to feed up before the breeding
season, many make their way to Iceland. There will still be good
numbers of Dunlins early in the month but there will be a lot fewer by
the month-end as these Siberian breeding birds start to head east.
March Highest
Tides:
1st 12.00hrs (GMT) 10.0m
2nd 12.39hrs (GMT) 10.1m
3rd 133.20hrs (GMT) 10.0m
29th 10.53hrs (GMT) 9.9m
30th 11.33hrs (GMT) 10.2m
31st 12.15hrs (GMT) 10.2m