A Midsummer Evening in Lovely Lunt Meadows

 Lunt Barn Owl

On midsummer's night twenty or so members of the group gathered for our first evening trip to Lunt Meadows, and were rewarded with a wonderfully peaceful walk, with some delightful sightings. First and foremost, we encountered dozens of swifts, not way up in the heavens as so often, but flying as low as head height, to make the most of the plentiful insects, and giving us excellent opportunity to admire their aerobatic skill. As we left the arable land and walked along the edge of the woods, thrushes and blackbirds were heard singing constantly, along with the wheezy call of greenfinches, among others. Then the path comes Into the open grassland and reedbeds of the nature reserve proper, and here we saw reed buntings, whitethroat and sedge warblers, as well as a particularly fine linnet posing on top of a reed. 

While the swifts and swallows continued to circle and weave around us, high above we saw 19 cormorants flying in a v formation, as well as a loose flock of starlings heading home to their roost. 

Lunt Meadows, pools & River Alt 

Over the pools, almost hidden by the tall vegetation, we saw the occasional oyster catcher and lapwing, but of course the real hope was to see owls, and right on cue, as the sun began to reach the horizon, a barn owl appeared and began to fly slowly to and fro across the grassland in front of the woods, occasionally dropping down into the grass in search of prey.

The Lunt Little 'un 

The return journey took us past Lunt Farm and back to Sefton village, where we were looking out for a little owl. In the end, some of us heard it, but only a few actually caught sight of the bird perching, before it flew off.  One up to Chris T. !

All in all, it was a lovely outing, and one that will certainly appear on the programme again( if only we could guarantee such perfect weather!).

Anne Pope

(all photo's L Bimson)

Birding with Rodders and Peaty

Our Sunny Sunday in Liverpool – 16^th June, 2013!

This Sunday saw Jenny and I  tripping the light fantastic along the coast from Hale, heading towards the Lighthouse then back to the village, and no, there was no pub stop, although I nearly suggested it, but who would drive me home??

It started out as quite a quiet day for birds, and then we saw the scrawniest Robin I have seen in years, he looked exhausted trying to find food for his brood.  Shortly afterwards we saw a very smart Mistle Thrush getting enormous worms out of the ground, then taking them off to a tree.  Then 5 male blackbirds all in a very small amount of field, I was surprised there were no fisticuffs amongst them.  

We carried on along the path, the reeds and grasses at times totally obscuring our view, and the cow parsley etc., waving over our heads.  We were lucky enough to see a couple of Reed Buntings, every time we spotted one, down he would go and disappear, to then re-appear on another reed!  Why don’t they keep still? 

Whitethroat R blythe

Shortly after we heard the lovely song of a Whitethroat, who rewarded us for our patience - not a word usually in my vocabulary – by sitting on a tree reasonably close to us. 

In the distance we could see lots of Lesser Black Backed Gulls, Shelduck, Black Headed Gulls, and 5 Grey Herons, as well as Crows.  A pair of Oystercatchers decided to shout at the world and the Mallard just sat and watched, preening and feeding in the very low waters of the Mersey and a couple of Cormorant flew by.

As we walked back towards Hale village a Buzzard came overhead and was set upon by a Crow, it was great to watch the dog fight over our heads, and yes, the Buzzard won!

In the lane we saw and heard numerous Goldfinches, chit chattering away to us.  House Martins darted overhead on both sides of path, not forgetting the Meadow Pipit and the glorious song of the Skylark.  

Rhodie