Local 'mega' and not a pear tree in sight.

With Jan being safely dropped off at the airport Saturday for her week with the girls it was left to me to start gutting the kitchen as its being rebuilt whilst she's away. Well, most of it will be finished & I'm living out of the microwaved contents of cans until its completed.

Having to be at the airport by 06.00 meant I couldn't get to Hilbre before the early tide so I waited until Cheshire year lister Mark picked me up for a scout around the N Wirral coast. We explored the wooded area adjacent to the biscuit factory in Meols before heading to the more heavily watched areas around Leasowe Lighthouse. Sedge Warblers were back in large numbers and we also found a few Common Whitethroats and Wheatears.

Star bird though was a lone Whimbrel that hunted crabs along the tidal gutter and proved confiding enough to let us photograph it.

It wasn't until I processed the pictures on the laptop that I realised I'd managed to photograph it mid dump!

From here we drove down to RSPB Burton Mere Wetlands just in time to see a Cuckoo perched up on a distant gate. The male Garganey also showed well but a Little-ringed Plover was more elusive. Two Common Sandpipers and a handful of summer plumaged Dunlin amongst the non-breeding flock of Black-tailed Godwits were nice to see but it wasn't long before fatigue broke out and we headed for home. However, news that a Pectoral Sandpiper was still showing well at Carr Lane pools and that a Wood Warbler had been seen nearby in Hale Park banished all thoughts of rest and I headed the short way down the motorway hoping for some photo's. By 'well' read distant but on show all the time. A definite 'scope job. The Wood Warbler was still present in 'Ice House Woods' adjacent to Hale Hall but was right up in the sycamore canopy.

Sunday saw a dawn start on Hilbre where the S W wind didn't help with any drift migration but we did catch a few Willow Warblers and it was a pleasant if rather blustery day.

Bank Holiday Monday and the builders started work in the kitchen! After sorting them out with keys etc. I took a wander down the lanes hoping for Lesser Whitethroat. There were two singing males in the usual locality with the bonus of a Raven, singing Yellowhammer, two Greenland Wheatears hunting flies amongst the cow pats and the first Spotted Flycatcher of the year - not in its usual spot but along the railway embankment so presumably on its way somewhere else.

Star birds though were these pair of Grey Partridge. After patiently sat in the Landrover and using it as hide for more than 2hrs in the sweltering heat they came into the open to be photographed for posterity.

Its really nice to see these birds locally. A covey of birds that spent a winter in a stubble field near the house a few years ago mysteriously disappeared about the same time two men started hunting 'rabbits' with Harris Hawks on a regular basis.