Weather: SW force 1/2, bright but coldA very quick visit before the tide enabled a Blackbird to be the first bird to be ringed this year (left, CJ). Also present was a Song Thrush, a Dunnock and several Meadow Pipits. A look around the island before the tide rushed in found a Common Scoter, 2 Great Crested Grebes, many Turnstones, 2 Purple Sandpipers, and a few Dunlins and Ringed Plovers.
A visiting birder staying the tide noted the following: 48 Brent Geese (all pale-bellied)
3
Red-breasted Mergansers
800+
Common Scoter (all but a few very distant)
5
Red-throated Divers (+2 unidentified Diver spp - prob also Red-throats)
4
Great Crested Grebe 1
Peregrine 1
Great Skua.
Andy Thomas writes about a fascinating incident during the day: A
mini-drama about 45 minutes after high tide: a Peregrine hit Middle Eye
and got an Oystercatcher but when mobbed by a couple of crows dropped it on the
water. Great Black Backs tried to get in on the meal but were driven off by
a Bonxie which then sat on the tide and ate the victim while drifting past
Hilbre and out into the bay shadowed by unhappy gulls and a Red-throated Diver
that came to see what was up. All very tasty!
(AEH,CJ, et al) also Andy Thomas
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