Bidston Moss

14/5/17 A nice day for WeBs (Wetland Bird Survey) as it was sunny with little wind in this inland area. Straight away Picked up 2  Eurasian Reed Warbler  calling and a further 6 around the B&Q reed bed and backpools as well as main lake. The morning was rushed so i quickly headed off the the backpools were i seen a Stoat  walking on the edge of the train track which is quite a rare sight but a exciting one. The count for the Backpools and B&Q reed bed came up with 8 Greater Canada geese as well as a few Eurasian Coot adding up to about 14  over all. Nothing to interesting at the backpools and Reed Bed with over all counts of 8 Mallard, 4 Moorhen and 2 Grey heron. A nice suprize though was the 3 Tufted Duck as well as 3 Little Grebe with one being a chick which means they have bred for the first time in years. As you can see there is an Adult Little Grebe with chick (Image by Luke Anderson) After the nice finds at the backpools area it was a walk to the mainlake. Walkin

A night south easterly winds combined with that of heavy rain can only mean one thing, migrants. In such conditions migrants are brought up to the north with the rains preventing them from pushing north any further with the end result being what we call in birding world as a "fall". Kicking off at Gilroy NP, Hoylake Shore & Leasowe Lighthouse I finally worked myself round to the Back Pools were the first trickle of migrants were present: 1 Tufted Duck (drake), 2 Sedge Warbler , 1 Eurasian Reed Warbler , 1 Little Grebe & 2 Common Chiffchaff along with 1 Spotted Flycatcher *First of Spring* fly-catching from the willow on the eastern pool. Spotted Flycatcher ( Muscicapa striata ) - 1st of the Spring but also only the 2nd record for the site! (Image - Elliot Montieth)  The B&Q Reed Bed was however counter productive with just a single Eurasian Reed Warbler singing with 1 (2?) Great Spotted Woodpecker picked up on call & 3 Mallard over).

7/5/17 Same again. Another fantastic day for migrants. To start of the day There was the coot pair which has been seen for the past few weeks with the 2 Coot Chicks  which seem tobe growing well. Coots which have been here for about 3 weeks (image by Luke Anderson) Walking my regular route there were about 9 ChiffChaff  heard throughout the whole day. A disapointing count from previous times. First off i tought to have a little insect search which came out with a Birch Shieldbug and around 3 Cucumber Spider  which were a fairly large size, adding to that there was a displaying pair of hoverflieswhich was quite nice to see. Birch Shieldbug resting itself on a birch leaf (Image by Luke Anderson 1 of 3 Cucumber spiders which had wrapped itself between the  leaves in the trees (Image by Luke Anderson Displaying Hoverflies (Image by Luke Anderson) Further down the same path i managed to come across a tree with around 4 Willow Flea Beetles  and running across the path