Reconnaissance

With its range of habitats and relative ease in which tricky birds such as Willow Tit, Kingfisher, Tawny Owl, Tree Sparrow, Yellowhammer and Bittern can be found, I reckon Moore Nature Reserve makes for the perfect destination to kick-start my year-list.

Hangover permitting, I reckon a full day could produce around eighty five species, but like a host of recent Australian batsmen the magic 100 looks just out of reach – unlike our boys!

This year looks especially promising as the high tide predicted for late morning should hopefully produce a smattering of commoner coastal waders from the hide overlooking the River Mersey – and with a little luck this may edge me closer to the nervous nineties.

And being ludicrously optimistic, throw in a couple of white-winged gulls, three woodpeckers, some more owls and something from totally leftfield like a Spoonbill, the century could just be attainable.

In the hope of giving myself a sporting chance I had a good walk around the Upper Moss Side and River Mersey section of the site this morning with the hope of locating a few tricky species.

Little Owl must surely inhabit one of the many old brick barns, but the grey and pallid sky before lunch must have discouraged them from peering outside. On an up note, a couple of House Sparrows were near one of the farms – birds that are perhaps more difficult to find than Tree Sparrows here of which there was a healthy flock of 25 or so today.

Walking further on I decided to check-out the River Mersey at low tide with the purpose of sussing the wader situation. Disappointingly, there was no evidence of any Curlew, Oystercatcher, Dunlin, Golden Plover or indeed much else apart from roosting gulls and a handful of Canadas – things are going to have to improve somewhat by Friday!

Upper Moss Side 29.12.09

Tree Sparrow c25
Bullfinch 1
Kestrel 1

Until later.