February and March Mersey Estuary WeBS Counts
In view of the restrictions due to Coronavirus this will probably be the last Mersey WeBS summary for some time. The February count was only a partial count as there was an enormous tidal surge and we were not allowed to count at Eastham and I concluded that some of the sites at Stanlow, particularly the Point would be quite vulnerable, so we didn’t count many of the areas. February did include one new species and one record number. The new species was a barn owl seen at Oglet fields; I suspect barn owl has been seen before but we didn’t always count non-water birds. The record count was three cattle egrets at Frodsham Marsh Farm.
Photos of Hale Marsh about half an hour after the high tide: giving some idea of the tidal surge. The road had only just re-opened after the tide went over & into Carr Lane Pools. © Mersey WeBS
Hale Marsh towards Decoy
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Town Lane, 1/2 hr post tide
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Ramsbrook & Carr Lane Pools
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Hale Marsh towards Within Way
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March was a full count and included some interesting birds and one record breaker, though many winter visitors like dunlin have now departed. Canada geese had dropped from 3,000 in January to about 1,000 and would drop further into April and May before bouncing right back in June when the post breeding moult flock builds up. Alas we may not be there to see them.
Pink-footed geese are now a feature of the estuary with over 3,000 on Ince Marshes, while our record count was set on the 26th January when Andy counted 7,420, from his house that overlooks the estuary at Ince, leaving the marsh at sunrise. 20 whooper swans were still about.
Pink-footed geese are now a feature of the estuary with over 3,000 on Ince Marshes, while our record count was set on the 26th January when Andy counted 7,420, from his house that overlooks the estuary at Ince, leaving the marsh at sunrise. 20 whooper swans were still about.
Shelduck numbers were nearly 2,000. Other duck numbers were generally low. Wigeon have been very low all winter with less than 1,000 being the highest this winter - recorded in November, 600 below our 5 year average. However, 26 goldeneye, including many displaying males, were the highest count of the winter and the long-tailed duck was still about on the Weaver, though now it has moved to no 6 bed.
Heron numbers were very low with just 26, they are probably on their nests. There were 37 little egrets which is frustratingly just below the nationally significant threshold of 41. There was one great egret.
Wader numbers were low, as expected, with dunlin dropping from 40,000 in January to 4,000 in March. The most interesting wader record was the six avocets that had just returned to the Weaver from their wintering quarters: later that week we had a new record of 88 seen by Bill. 1,170 black-tailed godwits was internationally important but well below our 5 year average of 3,200 in what is usually a good month for godwits. In February eight whimbrels on the Weaver was remarkably early. Over 3,000 redshanks was internationally important and continues a really good winter for this species with each of the last 6 months having internationally important numbers with a maximum of 5,240 in December.
There was nothing remarkable amongst the gulls, raptors or passerines except 49 ravens was the highest count this winter.
Let’s hope this crisis is over soon and we can get out on the marshes counting soon.
There was nothing remarkable amongst the gulls, raptors or passerines except 49 ravens was the highest count this winter.
Let’s hope this crisis is over soon and we can get out on the marshes counting soon.
© Mersey WeBS.
January 2020 Mersey Estuary WeBS Count
This month we had another new species for our webs counts and some unusual ones. The new species was cattle egret. There have been three around the cattle by Frodsham Marsh Farm for a while. The unusual birds were the long-tailed duck and scaup on the Weaver.
Although we saw several skeins of pink-footed geese flying over this month we didn’t find any on the ground during the count. However, we know they are still using the estuary for roosting and last Sunday morning a count by Andy, whose house overlooks the estuary, was an amazing and record breaking count of 7,420!!! These birds have really gone from rare visitors to internationally important in just a few years. 3,000 Canada geese is fairly similar to the last three months’ counts.
It was International Swan Census weekend, a 5-yearly count of all the whooper and Bewick’s swans in Europe. We contributed with 19 whooper swans in the fields by Lordship Lane.
2,300 shelduck was the highest count since August. Amongst other ducks 163 pintails was the second highest count for 15 years.
97 herons were just 4 short of our record of 101.
Amongst the waders the outstanding species was the 342 ringed plovers at Eastham which was nationally important on its own and our highest so far, with the usual August peak only totalling 110 birds. Also at Eastham was 218 knots the highest so far and the highest for 6 years. 2,400 redshanks was the fifth month in a row we had an internationally important count, though this was half last month’s 5,000.
Amongst gulls it was Eastham who had the best record with a yellow-legged gull seen. The usual 6 raptor species were seen. Dermot Smith
Although we saw several skeins of pink-footed geese flying over this month we didn’t find any on the ground during the count. However, we know they are still using the estuary for roosting and last Sunday morning a count by Andy, whose house overlooks the estuary, was an amazing and record breaking count of 7,420!!! These birds have really gone from rare visitors to internationally important in just a few years. 3,000 Canada geese is fairly similar to the last three months’ counts.
It was International Swan Census weekend, a 5-yearly count of all the whooper and Bewick’s swans in Europe. We contributed with 19 whooper swans in the fields by Lordship Lane.
2,300 shelduck was the highest count since August. Amongst other ducks 163 pintails was the second highest count for 15 years.
97 herons were just 4 short of our record of 101.
Amongst the waders the outstanding species was the 342 ringed plovers at Eastham which was nationally important on its own and our highest so far, with the usual August peak only totalling 110 birds. Also at Eastham was 218 knots the highest so far and the highest for 6 years. 2,400 redshanks was the fifth month in a row we had an internationally important count, though this was half last month’s 5,000.
Amongst gulls it was Eastham who had the best record with a yellow-legged gull seen. The usual 6 raptor species were seen. Dermot Smith
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