Crosby to Hightown

The weather wasn’t promising, but 7 of us gathered in the car park at Crosby, all togged up prepared for rain. It was already raining when we set off up the coast keeping as close to the beach as possible. The tide was already part way out, but there still seemed plenty of birds about. We immediately saw 4 black-tailed godwits probing in the mud, quite close in. Whilst viewing was difficult with rain spots on glasses and binoculars we soon saw oystercatchers, curlew and a single turnstone. Then followed grey plover and ringed plover with plenty of dunlin scattered about. The rain wasn't heavy or constant and we had the wind behind us. It was obviously windy on the beach as the sanderlings ran even quicker than usual and were quite comical. As we approached the spit a third of the way up the path we could see a flock of Lapwings which occasionally rose up in agitation before settling down again. As the tide went further out flocks of pink-footed geese flew over to land in the distance at the waters edge to feed. Moving further up the coast the rain eased off, and we stopped to admire the sea buckthorn with lovely orange berries. We dropped onto the beach itself and made our way up to the where the river Alt comes out from the mainland at the firing range. Here there were shelduck feeding on the mud, and more curlew and several redshank. Retracing our steps we stopped for lunch at the picnic tables by the sailing club. As we walked back the light had improved, but we were now walking into the wind. There were still quite a few birds about, but nothing new, so we set a faster pace on the way back. As we neared the coastguard station the Antony Gormley statues could be seen – a welcome sight, just as it started to spit again.

Species - 22:
starling, black-tailed godwit, curlew, dunlin, ringed plover, turnstone, redshank, grey plover,
sanderling, great black-back gull, black-headed gull, herring gull, lapwing, shelduck, pink-footed goose,mallard, moorhen, pied wagtail, wren, crow, magpie