As you have gathered one of my favourite places to visit for a bit of bird and other wildlife watching is the Wirral.  I do not go as much as I used to because t is time consuming but hope to make at least one trip per year during the spring migration to se what is passing through.  Craggy also came.  I did a brief visit to Holden Wood about 6.45am and saw 2 pairs of Great Crested Grebe, another bird had joined the three already present.   They were displaying to one another.  I could also hear a Grasshopper Warbler reel. 

We decided to cut through Liverpool to get to Leasowe Country Park.  I mentioned to Russell that along the way we pass Wavertree Botanic Gardens.  At this time of year the avenue of Cherry Trees is in full blossom - a glorious archway of pink.  It can be easy to miss but right at the very last minute I noticed the pink and stopped.  It was looking splendid especially with the Herring and Lesser Black Backed Gulls resting under it.   We drove on to the tunnels and emerged onto the Wirral where we followed onto Leasowe.

Leasowe is part of the North Wirral Country Park and hosts a lighthouse.  Around the Lighthouse there is some scrub, a pond, some reed beds, a field with horses in it, sand dunes and of course the sea.  As soon as we opened the car door a Whitethroat serenaded us with it's scratchy warble, taking off into te air and coming back down onto the bush again - when they song flight they remind me of gymnasts flipping themselves into the air.  There were Willow Warblers, Chiffchaffs, Blackcaps and new for the year list was Reed Warbler and Sedge Warbler.   A small warbler landed on a post near a hedge and it looked beautifully brown - it was a Garden Warbler but was gone before I could take a photograph.  We walked alongside the area known as the horse paddocks.  A fairly non-descript bit of land, small fields in fact with daisy and dandelions this area could host Wheatear in double figures, Whinchat, Redstart, Tree Pipit, Yellow wagtails, Ring Ouzels and most Warbler species on spring passage.  Today there was nothing - not even a single Wheatear.  Wheatears, Whinchats, Redstarts could often be observed flycatching or running along the ground picking up protein packets.  We were told of a male Pied Flycatcher a couple of hundred metres away which we managed to see.  It would work it's way through the trees.  It was my first of the year and a lifer for  Craggy.  There were not many records of Pied Flycatcher here and it did attract a small crowd who we had a good chat with. 

Next stop was Red Rocks Marsh nature Reserve run by the Cheshire Wildlife Trust.  A mixture of sand dunes, grassland, scrub, salt marsh, reedbeds and fresh water pools and a location by the coast meant 258 bird species had been recorded here.  We took a walk and managed to see and hear more Whitethroats, Reed Warbler, Sedge Warblers as well as many tadpoles in the pool ad a Common Lizard which hid in some undergrowth. 

We moved onto Burton Mere Wetlands, run by the RSPB and present were Spotted Redshank, Little Ringed Plover, Avocet, Ruff and other usual suspects.  We were alerted to the presence of a female Redstart which did not show again.  As we waited Craggy managed to locate something in the bushes which at first I thought was a Blackcap  due to te dark cap but I noticed it had a white throat and a dark zorro-esque mask.  It skulked in the bushes without a sound and I was confident it was a Lesser Whitethroat.  The Egrets were nesting and were making their weird breeding calls.  We walked to the Marsh Cover Hide and then the Inner Marsh Farm hide.  We managed to see 5 Wheatear in the field having a quick refuel.  There is a small patch of woodland at the reserve and here the Bluebells are out, in peak bloom.

Our next and final stop was Burton Marsh where we hoped to see more migrants but we managed to see 3 Wheatear, a stunning pair of Linnets and a reeling Grasshopper Warbler which reeled away giving very brief views.  We also managed to get some photographs of a very under-rated bird, the Rook as it fed in the fields with it's companions.