Winter Waders - Turnstone and Dunlin

There are large numbers of these birds present around the North Wirral Coast during the winter. Turnstone are generally quite approachable as waders go. This will probably be the last post of the mini series of winter waders in North Wirral but I will also add some curelw and purple sandpiper posts in the near future, hopefully!!!

First up the Turnstone

and the tiny Dunlin

Winter Waders - Redshank

Next up in line for this mini series is the Redshank. I realised the other day that I had not got any shots of these birds in flight and as the light was good decided to give it go.

This bird was battling to stay on the rock against a strong wind. Photographing pair of birds is always tricky at close range as you need a lot of depth of field to get both birds in sharp focus. This shot was taken at F14.

Winter Waders - Sanderling

Sanderling are great fun to photograph and I was happy to see them return to the local beach recently. As waders go in general they tend to be quite apporachable, especially if you sit in a position and wait for them to come to you. I have only done one short session with these birds so far of which these are a selection of shots.

Winter Waders - Knot

The waders numbers are now high on the Dee and Mersey estuaries close to my home, so thought it about time to take some shots of them. I will start off this mini-series of posts with Knot which forms impressive swirling flocks but for the time being I have been concetrating on individual birds.

and a fly-pass shot of one of these fast moving birds.

Bringing in the Woodpeckers

When I recently set up the winter feeding station I decided I would put in a couple of logs that had 1" holes drilled in to them in which a fat and crushed peanut mixture could be placed. The purpose of these was to try and attract some woodpeckers. I did not think that a male bird would start feeding on them only 1 day after they were put in!! Here are a selection of the shots to date.

New Feeding Station

A friend and I have recently set-up a new bird feeding station on a private site we have access to. The feeding station will be run right through the winter months and into the spring. It is always interesting to watch a new feeding station develop to see which species will turn up. Early results look promising for a busy winter there.

One of the first birds to arrive were, as might be expected, some tit species.

Great tit

and Blue tit
Chaffinch also soon arrived. We are hoping to build a good flock of these birds in the hope that we may get a brambling amongst them.

A flock of around a dozen greenfinch also quickly found the new food source.