Shenton's Smew

I have been out and about over the last few days, including an excellent Saturday morning at the Point of Ayr.

If the seawatch at this site on Friday was a little sketchy, it redeemed itself the following day with some excellent birds.

Contrition was not the order of the day early on though; although the area was thronged with birds there was little variety on the wader and wildfowl front and more gulls then you could shake a stick at.

In fairness, the immature Spoonbill put on a show, but it was a good hour and a half before the first raptor appeared on the radar – a fem/imm Merlin that buzzed the roost a couple of times before docking on a mound in the middle of the marsh.

Eagle-eyed Mark Murphy then caught a glimpse of a possible Jack Snipe disturbed by the incoming tide, but the bird was not playing ball and promptly buried itself in a clump of Sea Purslane.

A Ron Atkinson spotter’s badge was then duly earned after he picked out a female Goosander that had stealthily drifted in.

For afters it was over to Warren Fields and after setting up scopes near the railway bridge I located a group of five grey geese. My thoughts were initially White-fronts, but with my only experience of these birds a fleeting glimpse of a pair of juveniles about two miles out into Banks’ marsh near Southport, I was a little unsure.

Thankfully there was one adult replete with diagnostic great whacking white band around the base of its bill – the other four being juveniles.

A Barnacle Goose was also found with a group of Canada Geese, but the most intriguing bird was what appeared to be a drake Smew roosting on the bank of one of the pools.

Sadly, the opportunity of a life bird for Mark was taken away when it revealed itself to be a Muscovy Duck, or to give it its new name – Shenton’s Smew.

Until later.