I spent the late afternoon at Leasowe on the north Wirral coast looking for spring migrants. I started off by checking out the horse paddocks down Lingham Lane and was rewarded with 7 Wheatear.
Wheatear
There was no sign of the Ring Ouzel that had been seen this morning. I continued through to the duck pond area, where I counted at least 10 Chiffchaff and 2 Willow Warblers. The horse paddocks were very quiet with not one Wagtail around, which was quite surprising, but held 5 Shelduck and 2 Swallows over.
Shelduck
Moving on down Park Lane, I met up with Steve Williams, who had found another Ring ouzel, a male which was distant and very elusive.
Ring Ouzel
Walking back to the lighthouse along the sea embankment, there were good numbers of Linnets and Goldfinches. Another 14 Wheatear were seen on the sea wall along with a Skylark over the paddocks.
Views from the sea embankment looking over Leasowe
A great afternoon's birding, which was topped off with a Willow warbler in song next to the lighthouse. Spring is here!
