Daffodils before the years end.....always a good sign!

I was surprised to see the first signs of spring today as a number of Daffodils have began to flower in Sefton Park near to the bottom of Greenbank Lane, wishful thinking I presume!

A pair of Ring Necked Parakeets where squawking away today in the Beech trees at the Greenbank Lane entrance to Greenbank Park, also in the park 2 Nuthatch, Grey Wagtail, Mute Swan, Great Spotted Woodpecker, and the GreylagxCanada Goose hybrid.

In Sefton Park dell area another Grey Wagtail, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Goldcrest, 20+ Long Tailed Tits, 2 Ring Necked Parakeets, Treecreeper, 4 Jays, and 3 Stock Dove. Walking towards Aigburth Vale I found Redwings, a Jay and a Great Spotted Woodpecker.

Whilst walking through the Albert Dock this morning I was surprised to see a pair of Raven around the area, at one time a bird was perched on a Liver Bird (a first for me!), they frequented the area for over ten minutes; moving around the building tops on Liverpool One, Mann Island, and the Dock Road. This may well be a pair in courtship as they are one of our earliest breeders, with birds high up in the Cumbrian fells breeding in February, a breeding pair in the near future may well be on the cards.

SEASONS GREETINGS

Firstly can I thank all of you who have continued to visit South Liverpool Birder of the last twelve months and hopefully you will continue to do so, and a special thank you to those who have left comments; which really improve the effectiveness of the blog. I hope everyone had a great Christmas period and you have a fantastic New Years Eve and not to groggy New Years Day!

 

I visited Sefton Park yesterday where on the lake around the island I found a male Pochard dozing by the island (we seem to be getting these in the park annually now), female Mandarin, three Tufted Ducks, 6 Little Grebes (with some males in song), female Sparrowhawk, three Mute Swans, with a further twenty Mute Swans and five Little Grebes at the south-end of the lake (unusual to see the Grebes down that end), on the field between the cafe and the cricket club 150+ Goldfinches could be seen together with 65 Redwings feeding on the ground with the finches. Plenty of birdsong can be heard around the area at present.....warming up for spring I presume!

Odds and Sods

I checked the Cotoneaster trees on Aigburth Road opposite St Margarets playing fields this morning in the hope of finding Waxwings, but I drew a complete blank! These trees attracted Waxwings during the last influx a couple of years back and they are full of berries....so fingers crossed. Ten Redwings where feeding away on the berries and a pair of Pied Wagtails scuttled along underneath. There must be Waxwings around in South Liverpool but pining them down is another thing altogether, there have been birds in Wavertree and Garston recently, and my own recent sighting in Sefton Park; but they dont seem to be sticking around, which is quite surprising really because unlike the last influx a couple of years back the berry crop seems poor, the trees on Allerton Road central reservation and the chandlers, and the junction of Booker and Brodie Avenues have no berries on them; so the trees on Aigburth Road may prove to be a magnet for them. There have been two separate flocks in Formby today and 16 just up the road in Court Hey Park, Roby.

9 Swans which looked to be Whooper flew south over Penny Lane today as did a calling Redshank and 2 Rooks.

A Cold Start

I visited Sefton Park early this morning together with twelve day old Connor (my new addition to the family) on his first ever birdwatch!

In the dell plenty of small birds could be seen and heard, with over thirty Long Tailed Tits amongst other Tit species, Chaffinch, Greenfinch, 3 Goldcrests, Nuthatch, and a female Blackcap could all be seen. On the feeders behind the Palm House 5 Stock Dove and a Great Spotted Woodpecker, and a female Sparrowhawk zooming through livened things up a bit. On the main lake it was very easy to see what was around as only the extreme ends of the lake are ice free! 10 Little Grebes, 7 Tufted Duck, 17 Mute Swans, 75+ Coot, Goldfinches on the Alders near the island, Grey Heron, with the female Mandarin returning again. On the ice a large flock of mixed Gulls could be seen; with Common Gulls of varying degrees of plumage detail showing how diverse this species is: some having yellow legs and bills and light streaking on the head, and the other end of the spectrum some showing grey-blue legs and bills and very heavy streaking on the head. At least 500 Gulls where on the lake around 9:30am with nearly all of them moving off shortly after. Whilst walking past the main island the alarm calls of Blue Tits alerted me to a Common Buzzard which flew in very low over the lake in between the island and the Rathbone statue, from the direction of the Palm House and was obviously trying to spook some of the wildfowl, it then landed in trees behind the main path, after going looking for the bird I spooked it and it flew into the wooded section behind the cave/tunnel.

Waxwings are possible anywhere at the moment with 10 near to Wavertree Technology Park roundabout on Rathbone Road and 50 over the Matalan on Wavertree Road today alone!

female Mandarin - Sefton Park, December 2012