Over this past week I've birded both sides of the peninsula, from the Wyre Estuary to the Irish Sea coast, a whopping one and a half miles between the two! A week ago, Gail and I had a late morning walk along the quay alongside the Wyre estuary, and we were hoping for a migrant or two. There are a few wrecks dotted about on the edge of the mud and the saltmarsh, and they always attract a pair or two of nesting Swallows, and this morning there were at least two pairs displaying, singing and having a look round the wrecks.
It was very quiet out on the mudflats, and all we had were three Shelducks and four Redshanks. Out on the estuary, something had flushed the Oystercatchers from the muscle beds, and 430 flew up-river. Invertebrates were thin on the ground, with just a couple of Small Tortoiseshells on the wing, and under the cool north-easterlies not even the Wild Pear blossom was attracting anything. A handful of Linnets headed north, and that was that. We called in at the coastal park briefly, but all we could muster was a single singing Willow Warbler.
We were back a few days later, and the wind was now from a more promising south-easterly direction. A few Meadow Pipits, Linnets and Lesser Redpolls trickled north, and four Wheatears were feeding in the old ferry car park. We had hoped for a Whimbrel or two, but it wasn't to be.
This morning I headed to the coastal farm fields on the Irish Sea coast of the peninsula, and I set-up at my sea-watching location under 7 oktas cloud cover with a 10 - 15 mph NW wind. Straight away a few Alba Wags headed north, and the northerly passerine passage was joined by five Linnets, 19 Swallows, six Goldfinches, a House Martin and a Lesser Redpoll.
I had a decent count of Turnstones for this site, and as the tide ran in 99 were roosting on a rock groyne, until this got covered with water as well. Talking of water, there was some passage at sea and I had 39 Sandwich Terns, 122 Common Scoters, three Auk sp., 37 Gannets, four summer plumaged Red-throated Divers, a dark morph Arctic Skua, seven Cormorants and a male Eider.
I didn't have anything that I would class as 'grounded', but it was good to hear singing Whitethroat, Lesser Whitethroat and Sedge Warbler. The site does seem to be holding several pairs of Meadow Pipits now, and a singing Skylark is always great to hear. Raptors were thin on the ground with just a male Kestrel perched up on a fence post. And that was it, a couple of hours bank holiday birding before most were up!
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