Meols and Burton Point, Cheshire. Friday 9th November 2018
A Pied Wheatear had been identified on Tuesday evening and has been entertaining all comers on the promenade at Meols, Wirral, Cheshire ever since. Steve B, Kevin C and myself headed towards The Wirral early on Friday morning. Going under the tunnel from Liverpool, after Steve had directed us through what is left of Old Liverpool and towards the promenade in Meols. We had a sat-nav 15 minutes as we tried hard to find the exact spot, but guess what, we had already been there a few minutes before?? As we pulled up the Pied Wheatear was sat on the sea wall looking at us, it then flew towards the toilet block (conveniently, get it?) closed. What followed was a magical 1.5 hours admiring and photographing this far from shy bird. At one stage it sat on a bench not 10 feet from myself. Lots of admirers came and went some with mealworms others with cameras, people passed by with dogs, husbands, wifes, kids none of these seemed to phase the smart little Wheatear. As a postscript the bird was not seen again after Friday afternoon.
A Water Pipit has been present at RSPB Burton Point for a few days and we all thought it would be nice to see it. A quick call at the Old Baths at Neston revealed: - 3 Hen Harriers, 2 Marsh Harriers, very nice place to have our breakfast to. At Burton Point we had a good look around from the various hides and screens and were told that the Water Pipit could usually be seen from the Inner Marsh Farm hide. Upon arrival lots of birds could be seen: - Dunlin, Lapwing, Snipe, various wildfowl. After around half an hour there was no sign of the Water Pipit, so we headed for home. A quick check of the bird news as we neared Manchester Airport revealed that 30 minutes after we left the Water Pipit had been seen, bad luck or what?
