Migration time

Migration is well and truly underway again, I had a quick look around a few sites today, all of which held newly arrived birds. The Riverside Drive area of Otterspool held a singing Willow Warbler, 5 Chiff Chaffs, 5 Mipits, and a male Sparrowhawk (complete with its prey). The shore adjacent to this site held small numbers of Redshanks and Curlews, with a female Merganser flying downriver being the highlight. The Japanese Garden in the Garden Festival compound, currently being refurbished looks amazing (a least when peering through the fence); I cant wait to have a look around, but its still a shame that this could only happen as part of a building contractual agreement! St. Michael's In The Hamlet wood held Blackcap and Chiff Chaff, and flowering Lesser Celandine accompanied by tonnes of (soon to be flowering) Ramsons (wild Garlic). The surprise of the day was yet another male Lesser Spotted Woodpecker calling along the Western flank of Sefton Park lake (near the Cedar of Lebanon) although by the time I got around the lake to it, it had shut up! This was around 11am, but again I heard it as I was coming back through the park at 12:30 pm; further North along the lake near to the tunnels. Although I have had Lesser Spots in the area during the early Spring before (annually), this year has been especially good, and it seems that their are indeed at least two male birds in the Sefton Park/Greenbank areas, yet a large part of the geographical area is in private land and these birds are mostly overlooked it seems. A Common Buzzard drifted high East and seemed to be migrating rather than a local bird, also:- 5 Cormorants, 2 Little Grebes, nesting Mute Swans, 5 Coot nests, 6 Nuthatches, 3 Greater Spotted Woodpeckers, 2 Grey Wagtails, and large numbers of Mipits overhead. Lesser Celandine, 2 Grey Wagtails, Cormorant, 2 Nuthatch, and a Great Spotted Woodpecker in Greenbank Park too.