17th October 2023

 Weather: SE force 2, mist to the west, E 5/6 in the afternoon.

Best bird of the day was a ringtail Hen Harrier that flew south towards Middle mid-morning. It flew back over Hilbre less than an hour later and then was lost to sight again.

Despite wintering on the Dee estuary they are far from annual at Hilbre, the last record being October 2016. It was a fantastic morning for finch movement with 156 Chaffinches and 140 Sisikins counted, this is the sort of happening which is often confined to the Wirral coast at this time but is seldom seen here. A Fieldfare early morning was a first for the autumn and later there were 3 Redwing over the island. Other passerine movement included 11 Skylark and 25 Starlings, a few Meadow Pipits, 4 Goldfinches and 3 Pied Wagtails. Apart from the harrier, a Merlin on the west side, Kestrel and Peregrine were all recorded. 

 

On the island from the start 3 Goldcrests and a Chiffchaff may have been new or from previous days. A round up of the wildfowl would not be complete without Eiders, there were 9 today, also 148 Brent seen, 28 Shelduck, 3 and then 6 Wigeon, while roosting birds included 6 Little Egrets and 4 Grey Herons with 6,000 Oystercatchers. No Gannets were noted today, just a Great Crested Grebe and 120 Common Scoter were seen. 

 

Six Bar-tailed Godwits were the pick of the waders and after the tide a flock of about 200 Sanderling were feeding with Dunlin on the shore. 

The young seal from yesterday which had now been out of the water for at least 2 days was this morning at the top of the west cliff and so a joint rescue team from the Obs, residents at Cox's bungalow and visitor Dan was formed. The seal was caught with specialist equipment (a rubble sack and broom) and transported back to the sea where thankfully it swam off happily.

 

 Three more Red Admirals took advantage of the benign weather. 

Now that the autumn/winter season is here we like to keep a close eye on the West Kirby marine lake, today there were a Great Crested Grebe, 4 Goosander and 9 Red-breasted Mergansers.

On the rocks at the lake were Redshank, a Knot and 320 Turnstone some had been ringed in Norway and Finland.

 

 

 Photos AEH, AS, SRW