Old Moor welcomed a group of Stockport birders today as well as the Merseyside Naturalists Association. The latter were kind enough to share their list from the day and had recorded over sixty species of bird! That’s a very impressive total and a top visit I’d say!
Here’s a summary of what was seen around Old Moor today…
For many, the stars of Wath Ings were those two spotted redshank who have been with us now for nine days. Today the pair spent much of their time feeding and preening on the right-hand side of the ‘spit’ at Wath Ings.
The two spotted redshank today
In fact the main marsh was the place to see a good variety of waders today with black-tailed godwit, dunlin, green sandpiper, little ringed plover and snipe all showing well throughout the day.
Far from shy, a snipe near Wath Ings hide
Another highlight today could be found in the skies above the marsh. Here were hobby, marsh harrier, sparrowhawk, kestrel and buzzard as well as good numbers of house and sand martin.
Excellent views of little egret today, especially from the Wader Scrape hide
And if all that wasn’t enough, on the Mere, watchers spotted not one but two yellow-legged gulls along with herring, lesser black-backed and black-headed gulls today. One of these was near enough an adult bird, the other a juvenile.
Although no one person (I think) saw everything, I counted sightings of a whopping sixty-seven different species of bird around the reserve today. A day’s total of seventy is looking increasingly likely (and probably very soon).
I’ll sign-off tonight with two of those fantastic black-tailed godwits as seen on Wath Ings today.
Until next time.