After some early morning confusion, we found our way to the Kingsway tunnel and then over to West Kirby Marine lake on the Wirral. Rumours proved correct and we started the day with a pair of Red breasted mergansers. From here we dashed down the coast to Park gate in the expectation that a high tide would deliver a rich variety of feeding raptors. It was soon apparent that the water wasn't going to rise sufficiently to flood the marsh, but consolation came in the form of a female Hen harrier flying relatively close by across the marsh. The final destination was Inner Marsh farm. An RSPB members site which has a second high quality hide (full plated glass viewing room on stilts) in production. There has been some interesting birds reported during the early part of the day but the Merlin seen in the morning failed to show for a second time and a Peregrine that flew past at high speed was missed by both of us. Mitchy may change his mind on this depending on possible future sightings!
A kindly gent lent us his scope so we could get the Golden plover in the far distance and this remained the highlight although we both added a few standards; Black tailed godwit, Siskin, Wigeon, Teal, Pheasant, Raven. It was noted that RDO failed to dress appropriately for the day's extremely low temperatures and howling winds and was chastised by Mitchy (father of 3) for his failure to prepare correctly.
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