Bidston Moss

The weather today was rather disappointing today as it was warm but it was cloudy with showers until later on in the day when the skies started to clear. Today's WeBS was not to interesting either with the main birds of interest were 3 Tufted Ducks and the resident pair of Great Crested Grebe.  Besides that the count also came up with a passing  Cormorant  and Heron which is assumed to be nesting near by as it keeps flying back and forth from the same area. The Back pools and the Mainlake came up with 20 Coots  , only 3 Moorhen  and 16 Mallards which includes a nice looking hybrid. (image by Luke Anderson) The other residents to the Mainlake are the 2 Mute swans  which originally had 6 Cygnets but now down to 5 with the last which was probably predated or killed by something other. Not to do with the WeBS count but there was a large family of Reed Warbler  with about 6 in a small area as well as 2 Sedge Warbler  and they all seemed to ...

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 t...

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 ...

Yet again another great day for birding as well as insect searching. To start off the day I managed to run into a Male Sparrow Hawk  approaching the patch which was i nice kick start to the long day ahead as i needed to check the more unwatched areas of the reserve. First off it was a walk along the bridge where I then spotted the 2 Coot adults and the 2 coot Chicks  as well as a calling Reed Warbler  in one off the trees just above the water. When i go on the walks i usually just look at the things which catch my eye and i managed to spot a beautiful Leucozona Lucorum a type of hoverfly   resting on a bramble leaf. Leucozona Lucorum(image by Luke Anderson) Soon after that another little creature caught my eye which was a Dolerus aenus  which is a very common sawfly but interesting never the less as well as another species of sawfly which i am unable to identify as of yet. Dolerus aenus(image by Luke Anderson) Unknown(image by Luke Anderson) For a...

23/4/17 To start of the day it was a walk up to Bidston Moss my joint patch With Elliot Montieth. The very first thing which caught my eye was a pair of Green Finches as i walked up the bridge to get to the main part of the Moss where i had also spotted 2 Adult coots with 2 Chicks  overall adding up to 5 coots and 5 chicks  throughout the day. Coot with Chicks While walking around the main lake and the path leading towards it came up with 8 Specled Wood, 1 holly blue (first for this year) , 10 orange tip, 1 Brimstone, 1 peacock, 1 Cabbage White and only 1 comma butterfly . Male Orange tip Specled Wood Holly Blue Peacock Whilst i reached the lake i found and heard around 9 Chiffchaff and 5 Black caps which appeared to be all male. In the reed bed besides the main lake it was full of warblers which there appeared to be about 2 Reed and 2 Sedge warblers  but possibly may of been just Reed. Also I was quite suprised to see a male House Sparrow as ...