Good bye to Mary the Kiwi.

The Kiwi is one of the special birds of New Zealand. And as Capital of Culture draws to an end, we have had to say good bye to our Kiwi. Mary Thompson came to Liverpool in January this year to do some work and bird at the same time. Mary got to see the our wonderful estuaries and the large number of wading birds we attract. Mary lives on South Island and is used to watching around 130 bar tailed godwits on there winter haunts and not much else, apart from all the UK birds we took and released over their. We at Liverpool hope the flight home went OK and keep in touch.

GET ON BOARD ME HEARTIES!!!

LIVERPOOL RSPB ARE CRUISING THE MERSEY - GOT YOUR TICKET YET?

JOIN US AND OUR EXPERT BUDDIES FROM LIVERPOOL MUSEUM ON OUR ANNUAL LIVERBIRD DISCOVERY CRUISES.

WEDNESDAY 13th & THURSDAY 14th AUGUST
WEDNESDAY 24th SEPTEMBER

'AH THERE'S NOTHING LIKE THE SMELL OF FRESH CHUM IN THE MORNING' ... right chris!

http://www.merseyferries.co.uk/special/index.aspx

http://www.rspbliverpool.org.uk/ferrypageevent.htm

See you there ...Laura

Sunday 29th June - Sefton Park Gardens Open Day

LIVERPOOL RSPB will be at Sefton Park's Gardens Open Day on Sunday 29th June - 12pm to 5pm .

Why not join us at the event at the Palm House.

Closely observe the birds at our feeding station's through telescopes. Volunteers will be on hand for bird identification, general information on garden birdwatching and the RSPB.

Kids, make your own pine cone feeder to take home.

http://www.rspbliverpool.org.uk/top%2050%20garden%20birds.htm

See you there ... Laura

Spot of Mothing?

So do you know your Drinker (pictured left) from a Herald or an Old Lady from a Elephant Hawk Moth . Enter the fascinating world of Moths.... No, not just the flittery things some of you squidge in your clothes cupboard.

National Moth night is Saturday 07th June 2008. If you know your moths count them.

If you need some help go the National moth websites or you you can find a few of the more common ones on our webpage :http://www.rspbliverpool.org.uk/Helpbutterflies.htm

More information : http://www.nationalmothnight.info/index.php http://www.mothscount.org/

Happy mothing ...Laura

Elephant Hawk Moth

Know Your Farmland birds

Today the group walk was around Tarbock looking at farmland species. We parked up by the now closed Brickwall pub and were greeted to a singing yellowhammer, swallows, swifts and woodpigeon. The idea of these walks to look at birds in their habitat and learn and understand more of the pressures they face. We headed off along the Netherley Rd towards Ox Lane and the new housing development of the old farm.

We seem to have walked into the yellowhammer capital as eventually I counted possibly 8 pairs holding territory in this small area. Whitethroat, willow warbler chiffchaff and skylark were all singing away as was a single lapwing we noted in the centre of a autumn sown crop. Farmland birds have been declining over the last 30 years due to the changes in farmland production. My favourite butterfly the orangetip was also showing its self to the group. We soon added linnet, goldfinch, robin, pied wagtail, kestrel but were have the tree sparrows gone! Further down the road we found blackcap, sedge warbler and grey wagtail. On the way back to the cars we watched a single buzzard and found just one tree sparrow close to one of the yellowhammers area. I have to say the best bit of the day was watching the swallows collecting nesting material.

Keep birding.

Chris

Know your farmland birds

The groups next field trip is Saturday 10th May. It is the 'know your farmland birds' walk at Tarbock just on the farm edge of south Liverpool. Meet at the Brickwall pub on the Netherley rd at 9.30am.
See you there.
Chris

D-Day

I have walked up Pendle Hill a few times but normally in good weather and I know how strenuous it can be. As a group of birders it is famous as a stopping off point for Dotterel and this was the target get species for the group outing.

Unfortunately being a Bank holiday the weather turned wet and nasty. There had been 7 birds the day before but they had left by 12.30. 6 of us started the accent at 10.45 and reached the split in the path or base camp. At this point Bren decided that the chest infection she picked up travelling back from Belize made the walk a bit too much. 5 of us pushed on to the summit and started the search. Meadow pipits, skylarks, wheatears were seen easily the song of curlews were also noted. We got to the wall and started looking for dotterel. I quickly found 1 then 2 more and a golden plover. As we all got on the birds were started to count and ended up with 6 of these wonderful birds.

A long walk down and a trip into Barley village helped us added a number of species such as woodland birds, warblers, ducks. A female blackcap was fly catching on the stream and a robin held about 10 flies in its beak on its way to feed its young.

We carried on checking the stream looking for the other D bird of the day. I quickly found the Dipper and got the rest of the group on to these smart birds.

A good outing for the group.

Keep birding

Chris