The bird moaners.

A new phenomonen during this relatively quiet spring on Hilbre - the Bird Moaners. Forget the Dog or Horse Whisperer this is the real deal. A lack of birds prompts a load of moaning and suddenly something turns up either flying over or on the Islands. The recent Marsh Harrier was 'moaned' in as were the Sedge Warblers.

Yesterdays visit prompted plenty of moaning. A slight south east  wind brought relief fro mthe cold north westerlies of recent weeks but brought with it heavy rain meaning we were all soaked within a very short time and had to resort to trying to dry off in front of the calor gas heater in the Obs. Moan, moan, moan..........

Mind you it worked! This 2nd calender year male Redstart was briefly seen skulking in the blackthorn but not conclusively identified before it ended up in one of the heligoland traps.

News of two Curlew Sandpipers at Inner Marsh Farm RSPB led me to visit for the first time for several months to find a virtually empty hide and the Sandpipers shwoing well but quiet distantly (from a photographic point of view!) from the hide. No other waders around apart from the summering flock of Black-tailed Godwits but 2 -3 Yellow Wagtails were nice to see as were the hordes of Sedge Warblers seemingly singing from every bush.

Earlier in the week two Wood Sandpipers at Sandbach Flashes tempted me away and I picked up Malc Curtin and Mark Payne on the way down. More locally a Spotted Flycatcher is back on in one of the few

territories I know of locally.