Dee Estuary Birding
Monthly Newsletter...
April 2025
Newsletter
Rock Pipit colour ringing on Hilbre
Island. A
project update.
Hilbre is the largest of a chain of three islands in the mouth of the
Dee estuary. Hilbre is the largest of the islands, lying about 0.5 km
off the mainland, at its closest point, with an area of 4.65 hectares
and is made up of Bunter Sandstone with cliffs up to 5 m and a rocky
foreshore. The observatory was founded in 1957 and since then we’ve
ringed a small number of Rock Pipits. We’d suspected that we get a
small but regular passage of Scandinavian birds (littoralis) and this
was confirmed by the recapture of a Norwegian colour ringed bird in
October 2014.
It is only in recent years that Rock Pipits have
regularly bred on the
island(s) with 4-5 pairs nesting in most years. The observatory decided
to register a colour ringing project with the BTO in 2022 but it wasn’t
until June 2023 that we were able to start the project due to the delay
in getting the colour rings. The justifications for the project were to
monitor the resident population to determine the number of breeding
territories and their range (from field sightings from both Observatory
ringers and non-ringers), hopefully get some data on post juvenile
dispersal and get data on the winter movements of our breeding birds.
Of course, there’s always the hope that we’ll have one of our birds
controlled in Scandinavia on return passage! We are very lucky in
having a very active bird watching community in the area and it was
hoped that birders on the main land would be able to find and identify
Hilbre colour ringed Rock Pipits and we actively engaged with the local
birding community, through social media, to enlist their help.
Hilbre always ring birds on the left leg so we can easily identify
ringed birds seen around the island. Our colour making scheme consists
of a blue darvic with a three letter code engraved in white on the
right leg with a BTO metal ring on the left leg and a single red colour
ring above the metal ring. The purpose of the red colour ring was to
differentiate our scheme from a Finnish one that uses the same colour
darvics.
Results.
To date we have colour ringed 26 Rock Pipits (9 adults and 17
juveniles) and the project has generated over 140 subsequent field
sightings! Far exceeding our expectations. Many of these are
photographed and put on local WhatsApp groups or Facebook where we can
then provide the finder with the ringing details. Many thanks to all
the readers of this page who have submitted sightings to Richard Smith
or
posted sightings on local Facebook and WhatsApp groups. Please keep the
sightings coming!
Of the 26 colour ringed birds only 9 have not been resighted whilst 5
have been resighted on the mainland. The longest movement recorded to
date is 4 km but we have an intriguing recent record of a blue darvic
ringed bird further round the coastline in the Mersey Estuary at
Egremont. Unfortunately, the ring code can’t be read from the photos
but it’s clear the bird is wearing a red colour ring. This is a
movement of 9 km in a straight line but it’s likely the bird has moved
along the coastline making its journey much longer.
All the identifiable birds seen on the mainland have been birds ringed
as juveniles on Hilbre. This suggests post juvenile dispersal but two
birds, CAB & CAF, were photographed at Hoylake & Meols and then
made subsequent appearances back on Hilbre before returning to the
mainland.
Photo above: CAF ringed on Hilbre as a juvenile on 4th August 2023 and
subsequently photgraphed at Hoylake by Anthony Ramsden on the 13th
August
2023. This bird was subsequently seen back on Hilbre on the 14th August
2023 and was back at Meols on the 25th August 2023. It was last
reported at Hoylake on the 2nd of February 2025, by Graham Connolly,
alongside CAX which was ringed as a juvenile on 22nd July 2024. This
raises the possibility that these birds may have paired up and if so,
it will be interesting to see where they end up.
Future work.
One aspect of the work we are doing is to determine the number of
breeding territories on the islands and work out which pairs are in
each territory and site fidelity for each pair. With the project now
entering its third season we wait to see if any of the young birds get
recruited into the Hilbre breeding population as older birds are
replaced. The Hilbre Islands aren’t able to support a large population
of Rock Pipits and we are hoping that some of our dispersing birds will
be picked up breeding at other sites around Liverpool Bay. With
proposals for a Mersey barrage still ongoing it’s important we collect
as much data as possible on the movements of birds around the estuary
and their feeding habits.
Phil Woollen,
Secretary Hilbre Bird Observatory
© Elliot Montieth
Colour Ring Report
Little Egret
White 9 Green A
Ringed at Hale Duck Decoy (Mersey Estuary) in May 2023, as a chick
Recorded at Thurstaston Shore 20/07/2023.
Seen at Castlethorn, Dumfires and Gallaway, on 19/03/2025.
We know from colour ringing that juvenile Little Egrets disperse widely after leaving the nest and this is a good example.
Avocet
Note the ring is stained, originally white
White (RR9)
Ringed at Laguna de Los Tollos (NE of Cadiz, Spain) in June 2014, as a chick.
Recorded just east of the Donana National Park in SW Spain in February 2017.
Recorded at Burton Mere Wetlands 20/03/2025.
Mediterranean Gulls
Y-ATPC and Y-AYPS
Ringed on the Montrose Basin (East Scotland) in September 2013 as a
juvenile.
It undergoes post-breeding moult (August and September) on the Dee
Estuary before spending the winter in the Chichester Harbour and Pagham
Harbour area, and in the Gulf de Morbihan on the south coast of
Brittany. In April 2017 it was spotted on the island of
Tiree , the godwits often touch down on the Hebrides on their way to
Iceland. See the map below for more details.
Collar (HPU)
It was fitted with the collar at High Cunsey by Lake Windermere in June
2024. By the end of July it had flown to Martin Mere before flying on
to Burton Mere Wetlands where it was recorded in August and September.
It was in the same field as a couple of White-fronted Geese between
Thornton Hough and Brimstage in February 2025.
This is only the second marked Greylag in our
database, the other one, which had a ring, also came from Windermere.
We also have seen four ringed Canada Geese - and they were all
ringed at Windermere, as well!
Grey Plovers
I know this one wasn't on the Dee Estuary or North Wirral but it
was seen by a North Wirral regular and not far away at New Ferry, and,
as I thought it was a particularly interesing one, I thought I'd
include it.
White (J1U6)
Ringed at Stravanger, Norway, in July 2011.
Between 2011 and 2018 it was seen every year back at, or near, the
ringing site and always between April and June.
Since then there has been just a single record of it in Stravanger, in
June 2022.
Recorded at New Ferry, Mersey Estuary, on February 22nd 2025.
Tim's sighting is the first outside of the
Stravanger area and the first outside the breeding season. At 14 and a
half years old it's a good age but nothing too exceptional as the
longetivty record for Black-headed Gulls is over 32 years old, but it
is the oldest colour-ringed Black-headed Gull in our database.
As they can be read in the field the colour rings tell us far more about a bird than metal rings do, but they don't last forever and you can see this ring is showing signs of wear.
Blue (248L)
Ringed at Ainsdale on 01/12/2023.
It was seen again at Ainsdale in January and October 2024.
Recorded at Crosby in December 2024 and three times at New Brighton
Marine Lake in February 2025.
We don't know where this one breeds, but we know
from our other Black-headed Gull records it could be anywhere from
Poland in the east to Norway in the north, and all points in
between!
Colour Rings were recorded by Richard
Smith, Stephen
Hinde, Tony Ormond, Matt Thomas, Paul Ralston, Charles Farnell, Steve
Round, Tim Kinch and Tony Ramsden.
Richard Smith
March Bird News
White-fronted Geese are scarce in our area so it
was nice to get good views of a couple this month. They were first seen
with large numbers of Pink-footed Geese on Burton Marsh on the 8th
before moving inland to fields between Brimstage and Thornton Hough
where they were associating with Greylags for several days. They are
not quite annual here and normally we only see one or two but
occaisonally more appear and we had a flock of 58 of the Russian race
in the winter of 2011/12 and nine of the Greenland race in the winter
of 2017/18.
The Little Stint which has over-wintered at
Meols/Hoylake was seen several times through the month, and the Black
Redstart was still at New Brighton for a few days early in the month.
The 8th saw a Caspian Gull, 4 Water Pipits and a Long-tailed Duck at
Gronant with another Long-tailed Duck off Hoylake on the same date.
Also out to sea were two Little Gulls off Leasowe on the 18th,
Signs of the coming spring included the arrival
of 14 Avocets at Burton Mere Wetlands on the 21st and a passage of
Stonechats at Parkgate, Heswall and Leasowe. And just at the end of the
month, on the 27th, our first two White Wagtails of the year were seen
at Leasowe.
What to expect in April
April is a month we always look forward to with the spring migration in
full flow.
Many species we only see this time of year and these will include Whinchats, Pied Flycatchers, Ring Ouzels and Common Redstarts. In particular we look forward to seeing Yellow Wagtails, as well as our British Yellow Wagtails we sometimes see birds originating from the continent including 'Channel' and Blue Wagtails, with the chance of seeing something much rarer such as a Spanish Wagtail recorded here in 2019. As it happens 2019 was a particularly good year for yellow wagtails and you can read about that spring by clicking here.
White Wagtails are the continental race of Pied
Wagtails and they will be coming through here on their way to Iceland
to breed. You can often see these on newly sown fields or coastal
paddocks, and they also feed on sand flies on the shore with Hoylake
being a particularly good spot for them. I look in awe at these
delicate looking birds knowing they will be flying over the Atlantic
Ocean in their thousands.
On the estuary the Pink-footed Geese will be leaving, early morning is usually best when you could see flocks several thousand strong heading north. Whimbrels will be flying up from their wintering grounds in West Africa on their way to Iceland. I always love seeing them and hearing their whistling calls. Numbers will increase steadily through the month with well over a hundred present by the month-end. The best place to see and hear them is between West Kirby and Heswall on an incoming tide. They often walk over the rocks next to the beach between Caldy and Thurstaston.
If you see a load of Herring Gulls in the air making a racket there's a good chance an Osprey is flying over. Sometimes they will catch a fish and eat on a sandbank, a thrilling sight.
For a more detailed look back at previous spring
migrations see "The
Spring Migration" (Dee Estuary Newsletter April 2024).
April Highest
Tides:
1st 13.57hrs (BST) 10.0m
27th 11,23hrs (BST) 9.8m
28th 12.08hrs (BST) 10.0m
29th 12.53hrs (BST) 10.0m
30th 13.39hrs (BST) 9.7m