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Welcome to the St Helens Birds and Wildlife blog. We welcome your reports from across the borough regarding all forms of wildlife. Please click on the "Report a sighting" tab if you would like to contribute to this blog.

We ask that you refrain from posting exact breeding locations of any species which may be considered scarce or vulnerable, and in particular schedule 1 species. In the context of St Helens, schedule 1 species usually means kingfisher and little ringed plover. Little ringed plover should not be reported at all on this blog between 1st May and 1st August.

Scarce or vulnerable species include but are not restricted to any species of wader, ducks other than mallard, all owls, any birds of prey, grey or yellow wagtails, grey heron, all grebes, Cetti’s warbler, water rail, willow tit, corn bunting etc. If in doubt, please ask.

We reserve the right to edit or delete posts which contravene this rule.

Eccleston Mere

I got an unexpected extra day off today so had time to go around the Mere again. I had really good views of the water rail in the ditch after the water outlet. I was stood looking across the fields and heard a splashing noise at my feet, the water rail was about 3 metres away from me and didn't seem at all bothered by my presence. Getting decent photos is very tricky though in the dim light and through all the foliage.
The little grebe were all feeding together close to the west side of the island. I definitely saw three, but think there might be four although it was hard to tell as they kept diving out of sequence!
 
Little grebe 3+
Water rail 1
Goldeneye 2 (1m,1f)
Kingfisher 1
Pochard 2m
Cormorant 3
Siskin 5
Buzzards 1
Kestrel 1m
Damian P
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1 comment :

  1. Colin7 January 2014 at 15:58

    Hi Damian, I've only just noticed this photo. It's a great photo, a pity about the vegetation in the way perhaps, but actually it shows the bird as it is in its dark ditch! It's difficult enough to see most of the time!

    ReplyDelete

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