Backdated post summarising a few walks on Ainsdale Dunes in May 2015

2014-05-13 15:40:41
Chaffinch
Reed bunting
White throat
Female wheatear
Swallows.

2014-05-14 11:29:17
Willow warbler
I think a lesser white throat
White throat
White throat song and alarm call
Something with trilly croaky sound (later decided it was sedge warbler)
Kestrel
Linnet?
Something with a red back flew from a post
Reddish back grey head black tail and wing tips bit if white striping to them eye stripe pale above yellowy tummy conical beak wings are really more brown than red pale under wing. Maybe it’s a female chaffinch if their wings aren’t boldly patterned at the shoulder.
Not a chaffinch, my best guess is a juvenile wheatear
Do mipits have orange legs?
Sedge warbler - pretty sure! Single colour to throat and belly. Striking supercilium. Mixed song
More than one by the slack and I think it’s what I saw skulking earlier
Gulls nesting
Tiger beetle
Lbj with reddish color thin beak probably a female whinchat
Orange tip?
Common blue

I’m not going to count the Lesser Whitethroat or the Whinchat; the latter is at least plausible but Stonechat more likely. The habitat is dunes with open scrubland - not Lesser Whitethroat territory at all but packed with Common.

2014-05-16 15:26:00 Sands lake willow warbler blackcap
Tiny little damsel flies
Huge black fly with orange body
Pheasant
Cuckoo spit
Lovely little tiny red butterfly
Mushrooms
Beach: curlew?
Looked like a sanderling. Wrong season? White flank brown back and head
Little stint perhaps

  • on it’s own
  • not terribly plump
  • beak perhaps finer
  • sanderling would be more reddish
  • didn’t notice pale under wing
  • however stint is streaker and also reddish?
  • no hind toe in my photo - that would resolve it!7

The mystery bird was surely a Sanderling.

2014-05-19 14:31:39
Cormorant
Scoter? Less pointy tailed than cormorant
Small wader flocks
Pair of Oystercatcher
Grey plover then wind got up

On this walk along the beach I spied a few things before the wind got too fierce to hold binoculars. I’m not awarding myself Common Scoter as it was really just “not Cormorant”.

3:29 pm May 27, 2014
Warbler thing with maybe hint if a white collar? Bit of an eye stripe? Not really warbler Stonechat? Tweet scratch Positive ID female stonechat Kestrel over woods Angry gulls Starlings Juvenile coot ???? White front black back fuzzy Other baby coots red faces

I spent a lot of time on a positive ID of a Stonechat and was pleased with that in the end. The Black-headed Gulls nesting in the slack were extremely aggressive and chased me off. If I mentioned Starlings there must have been a good flock!

At Sands Lake on the way back I was excited to see a black and white bird on the water. Some kind of grebe I haven’t seen before! After a while, it started interacting with some Coots and I realised what it was.