Lesser_yellowlegs_bunche_beach_(31791842132) Russ, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
The lesser yellowlegs has been frequenting the far side of Marshside, right next to Glencoyne Drive, so it should be an easy ‘tick’, and so it proves to be: I climb the short but muddy slope to the path along the marsh, raise my binoculars to my eyes, and there it is. Bingo! It’s a medium-sized wader, with pale grey and white plumage, and long legs, which are an astonishing, egg-yolk yellow. It feeds nonchalantly a few metres away for a while and then flies, showing its startling white rump, a little further away.
Lesser yellowlegs site – RSPB Marshside
I head in the other direction, towards Marshside Road and the hides on Marine Drive. This part of the walk is always interesting: currently, there are teal, gadwall and wigeon on this side of the marsh, together with black-tailed godwits, and greylag and a few pink-footed geese, and they are very close to the fence, which makes viewing and picking out diagnostic characteristics easy. There are lapwing flocks, making that eerie ‘radiowave’ noise as they fly, house sparrows cheeping from hedgerows, the wigeon are whistling, and the blackwits are chatting to themselves.
About two-thirds of the way along, as I am scanning the scene, the lesser yellowlegs pops into view. It has obviously relocated from where I originally saw it. A passing photographer asks me if I’ve seen it and I am able to get him on it straightaway. He is very grateful and we exchange a few words about the bird. A pleasant moment of connection, especially if you spend a *lot* of time on your own!
I find the walk along the A565 less inspiring due to the ‘birdsong being drowned out by heavy, fast traffic’ vibe, but the Cetti’s warbler singing from behind the visitor centre makes itself heard over the vehicle noise. As far as I know, Cetti’s are very recent arrivals to Marshside – and to other northwest sites: I (accidentally) found the first for Speke-Garston Coastal Reserve in 2021, and they are not common here by any means.
Cetti’s warbler hedgerow – RSPB Marshside
The other side of the road is where the raptors and owls tend to hang out. If you have a good eye and/or a ‘scope, you’ve a good chance of spotting merlin, marsh harrier, etc. I have neither so, although I ferociously interrogate every fence post dotted across the marsh, no raptors appear. I circle back round to the beginning of the raised marsh path, decide I want to embrace this pleasant spot for a bit longer, and walk past the muddy slide/path to a lovely new bench, dedicated to a woman who loved to walk here, and eat my lunch. For the last day in October, it is unusually – unseasonally – mild. The oncoming climate catastrophe drives me to be more active, experience more of the beauty of life, before it’s too late – and I fear that it very nearly is.
Asters in full bloom – RSPB Marshside