I suppose this could be called my first proper twitch: a trip to the Wirral to see two specific birds that I learned about on the Internet.

First stop was New Brighton, where a 1st Winter Laughing Gull has been wintering on the Marine Lake in front of the Mexican restaurant, rather than in Mexico with the rest of its kind. It wasn’t visible on the jetty when we first arrived, so we set to scanning the breakwater where Oystercatchers, Redshank and Turnstones were distantly visible, but no dice. On turning back to the jetty, there it was: a dirty, grumping looking gull with a big dark bill and a shadowy mask.

The bird was entirely obliging, repeatedly taking off for a good flap around the promenade and car park before returning to the jetty. It’s much more charismatic in flight, with its long wings noticeably dark from the elbow down, and bold tail band, making a much more striking impression than the static bird.

Further along the road towards Wallasey is a good spot for Snow Buntings, which we failed to spot. On a mild Sunday around lunchtime the place was seething with dogs and children so I was more surprised that other birders did see the birds than I was at our dip. Our misguided search on some land away from the beach did turn up some nice views of Mistle Thrush, and some ‘Linnet’ that with hindsight I can’t say for sure weren’t Twite. I need to get a better grip on my LBJs.

Next we travelled the length of the Wirral to Burton Mere RSPB, where a Long Eared Owl has taken up residence in a hawthorn. A crowd of observers marked the spot, and even so it was hard to spot the bird deep in the tangled branches. I take my hat off to anyone who spots one of these roosting owls; they’re essentially invisible.

Like last weekend’s Tawny Owl, there’s no way I’d have found the beast myself, but there we have it, five owl species in a fortnight and I’m very pleased with myself.

We spent so long admiring the owl that we had no time for any of the other delights of this marvelous reserve before chucking out time, and we ate our sandwiches at Parkgate as the daylight died. One distant, unidentified raptor was the highlight there, but other than a few Little egets moving around we saw little other action. The best raptor action of the day wasn’t on the Dee estuary at all, but instead was a pair of Buzzards wheeling over the Formby bypass in the morning.