Saturday 2nd March
With the weather forecast favourable and a high tide, i headed up to 'The Wirral' for the second time this year. New Brighton was first point of call hopefully for Purple Sandpiper as i had dipped on this bird in January. There were only Redshank and Turnstone on the pontoon, high tide was still three hours away so i popped into Morrisons for some grub and drove the short distance to Hoylake.
On arrival 'The RSPB' wardens were only just setting up as were a small gathering of birders with there scopes but the waders were just distant dots. Eventually they came closer but because of the high pressure the tide wasn't as high. Another target bird was Grey Plover of which there were a reported 4,000 out of impressive 30,000 waders included Knot, Dunlin, Redshank and Oystercatcher.
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| Knot |
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| Knot |
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| Dunlin |
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| Redshank |
After a couple of hours of mainly distant bird watching i decided to go back to New Brighton for another stab at the Purple Sand. Once i got there the place was packed with shoppers and finding a car parking space wasn't going to be easy. 'Third' time lucky, there was a small number amongst the other waders but the light had gone and i had to change my camera, but with a record shot in the bag i headed home.
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| Purple Sandpiper |
