11.06.15. Birdlog
A late start but we wanted to get there as the sun was ready to slip below the Liverpool skyline.
The mitigation area on No.3 tank conjured up 4 Black-tailed Godwits that hightailed it out to the Mersey Estuary before I could get the scope on them. A pair of Ringed Plover had two fluffy chicks to care for and with 2 Dunlin nearby and a late or early Green Sandpiper depending on how you look at it bird was feeding on the drying up pools.
The secluded pool held a surprise with 3 drake Wigeon which flew out to the main water body when a male Marsh Harrier was quartering reed beds nearby.
No.6 tank had good counts of Common Shelduck with 230 birds, 32 Tufted Duck, a pair of Shoveler, 23 Gadwall, 5 Cormorant and a couple of drake Pochard. While the WD Sospan Dau busily dredged the Manchester Ship Canal into the small hours (pictured above)
A bat watch revealed a few Pipistrelle over the horse paddock and a Water Vole was swimming across the ditch by the motorway bridge.
Observers: Emily Traynor, WSM (and images).
