Hugh’s News – 1 March 2021

How upbeat a few mild and dry days in a row made me feel!  Not quite on a par with Namibian skies that Keith Offord showed us on Thursday, but welcome nevertheless! There has been a definite feeling of Spring over the last week, not only with the weather but also the emerging flowers.  The birds know the change is coming too.

I have heard Blackbirds, Song and Mistle Thrushes, Robins, Dunnocks and Greenfinches all in song recently, plus a single Skykark.  A pair of Starlings is nest-prospecting in the (damaged) eaves of a neighbour’s house, the same hole as for the last 3 or 4 years.  The first Avocets arrived back at Burton on Tuesday, always one of the first summer visitors to return.  They will not start to nest for a few weeks yet and numbers will continue to build up, but it is another sign of the coming breeding season.  Other early migrants will soon start to appear, like Sand Martin and Wheatear.  Please let Bill or me know what summer visitors you are particularly looking forward to seeing again!

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Bill saw a party of 12 Crossbills in the pines at Ness Gardens.  His attached photo is of a green female.  More common in north Wales pine forests and woods such as Clocaenog. Crossbills are quite a rare bird on Wirral, and this party has proved very popular amongst local twitchers and photographers!  Their crossed bills are designed to extract seeds from conifer cones.

Following on from the piece from Martyn Jamieson on White-tailed Eagles last time, he rubbed salt into the wound before the Zoom meeting by telling us that a pair of eagles were nest building close by his home!  I have to settle for humble Robins!!

Finally comes a report of two birds stuck together in a Wirral garden.  I think they were Velcrows! [Sorry, I’ll get my coat!].

Hugh Stewart