Parkgate used to be small port on the river Dee. Over the last couple of hundred years it has silted up and is now mostly saltmarsh. The Dee flows in a narrow channel next to the north Wales coast. Over a decade ago, high tides used to flood the marsh and brim over the low sea wall onto the road. All the little creatures from the marsh would run about on the tarmac in panic. The RSPB dug out a few deep pools, mostly to control the mosquitoes, and now it hardly floods at all. Birds of prey still find it worth their while gather at high tide though, because the little mice and voles are easy for them to spot and catch. It was expected to be a good high tide, 9.65m at about 1.30pm, so we were expecting to see raptors gather. The other attraction was a flock of half a dozen Spoonbills, which had been lingering here for the last month or two. We were hoping to see them.
Last night we had Storm Ashley, with strong winds up to 40 mph, but they blew from the south, so it wasn’t cold. Our bus route took us across the Wirral, where all the street trees were green and gold, with occasional red-leaved Cherries and flashes of crimson from front garden Maples. The rain was lashing the bus but it stopped just as we arrived. Almost immediately we spotted a big brown bird with a lighter-coloured head, far out, flying south and occasionally wheeling and dropping into the reeds. I’m pretty sure it was a Marsh Harrier.
We could see a very distant cluster of big white birds, at least half a dozen of them, showing just their heads and necks. Were they the Spoonbills? It was hard to be sure, they were too distant. But we headed that way, towards the Old Baths area, hoping for a closer view. (When we were nearer we didn’t think any were Spoonbills after all. They were most likely to be Great White Egrets accompanied by about a dozen Little Egrets flying about. Such a large flock was unheard of just a few years ago.)
A Kestrel was hovering near the road, then it was harassed by several young gulls and flew off.
Also easily visible close in was a brightly-coloured male Pheasant with a drabber companion. We assumed it was a female, but I looked them up later, and the drabber one was a juvenile male. Father and son?
There were lots of ducks along the edge of one of the big pools. Definitely two Shovellers there, the ones with the bright white fronts, but the others are harder to identify at distance. Looking at the photo at home I realised there was probably another raptor in that picture. Near the top, left of centre, is a brown bird with a bright white mark between its body and tail. It looks like a “Ringtail”, a term used for “not-an-adult-male” Hen Harrier, i.e. a female or a juvenile. We didn’t notice it at all while we were there. A Hen Harrier is a pretty rare bird, so it’s a very good “tick”.
There were many other birds on the marsh, mostly concealed in the vegetation until some threatening predator put them up. Lapwings, Crows, Coots, Mallards, Moorhens, Greylag Geese, Wood Pigeons (and probably lots more). Sitting up on a tall plant was a Stonechat.
At the Old Baths, our usual picnic bench and its overhanging Tamarind tree were gone, with a new row of seats looking out over the view. Next to the owl sculpture was some White Poplar in the hedgerow. The undersides of its leaves are white and downy, and the last few clinging on in autumn make the tree look like it is blooming out of season.
As we ate our sandwiches we heard the unmistakeable calls of Pink-footed Geese, and then several hundred flew over our heads, out over the estuary and made for North Wales.
As we returned past the Boat House pub we noticed that Parkgate has now been designated part of the King Charles III England Coastal Path.
And the day isn’t complete without a tree to puzzle over. One front garden had this unusual pendulous tree, which we thought was a Weeping Larch, or was it some kind of Cedar? Never seen anything like that before. Which is it?
The arrangement of the needles was similar, the bark doesn’t solve the problem. When I looked closely at the picture at home I spotted some red-brown male pollen cones high up on the right side, so it must be some kind of Cedar. I think it also has some arrangement of scaffolding at the top, near the graft, to spread the branches and stop them falling straight down next to the trunk. It’s a bit of a dog’s breakfast! Apparently these are sold as “Weeping Cedars of Lebanon” but most experts think they are the commoner Deodar or Himalayan Cedar, just given a romantic name to inflate the price!
Public transport details: Bus 487 from Sir Thomas Street at 10.29, arriving Parkgate, Mostyn Square at 11.25. Returned on the 487 from Mostyn Square at 1.30, arriving Liverpool 2.45.
Next week we plan to go to Landican Cemetery, meeting at 10 am at Sir Thomas Street.