Birding in the wild west

This weekend was spent in Liverpool, enjoying some birding and my mate Dave's stag do; so on Saturday he took me round all the hotpots on Merseyside. We began at Green Bank Park with a couple of Ring-necked Parakeets, before moving onto Garston Coastal Reserve, where we came across a few waders including 3 Sanderling, 2 Whimbrel, 13 Ringo's and 10 Dunlin. Hale Pools held single Redshank and Black-wit, and there were around 12 Wheatears in the fields and on the grazing marshes nearby.

After a couple of other brief stops, we headed on to Seaforth/Crosby Marine Park - one of those site you know by reputation, even if you've never been there. Best were a big group of c.140 Common Terns with one or two Arctics amongst them, as well as 2 1st summer Little Gulls and another 3 Wheatears.

We finished the day on Plex Moss, looking for Dotterel. We failed to find any (but did meet a chap who checks the area twice a day for them during spring!), but did get around 12 Whimbrel, 2 'northern' Golden Plovers, a pair of Grey Partidge, a couple of Corn Bunts, and big numbers of Wheaters - maybe 30 (or more) in a single field, with others dotted around (bring our day's total to over 50); we scrutinised these, and concluded that at least some looked like leucorhoa, as may've been expected, including some very peachy-washed females.

Plex Moss - a lot like Gringley Carr

Not a Dotterel

And then it was out into Liverpool...