Ditton Brook
On a glorious Good Friday, I visited a new (to me) birding site with a friend. Target species: yellowhammer – another species in rapid decline, as I’ve mentioned before on this blog (https://wordsanddeeds.co.uk/not-the-bird-we-were-looking-for/). The reasons are numerous: farmers sowing crops in the autumn rather than leaving stubble for the birds to feed on during winter, and/or not leaving a field margin for wildflowers to grow – which provide more food in the form of seeds and insects; developers being allowed to build on green- and brownfield sites, eroding the countryside as surely and swiftly as a flash flood; and more. So going for a bird walk these days has, for me, a sense of sadness about it: I revel in the open air; the blackthorn bursting with blossom; the jaunty lesser celandine with its heart-shaped leaves. But I also lament the losses: where are all the birds?
We briefly heard one singing yellowhammer and were able to track him down to a hedgerow, where he was soon joined by at least one female, and stopped singing. But there should be more – many, many more. I only started birding in 2016, and I know I’ve left it too late: so many species in freefall just in my lifetime. We celebrate the joyful sound of one singing yellowhammer, a few larks ascending, a lapwing pair flapping floppy wings, and don’t miss the jangling corn bunting because we never heard him here, although this was once his home, and so the baseline shifts again. As one of the ‘powerless’ multitude, I despair – but despair doesn’t change the status quo. We all need to start making a stand: complain about the plastic littering that warehouse car park; complain again but via another channel if you’re ignored; politely ask the council/contractor to stop mowing the verges and explain why; reduce pointless consumption; sign petitions; connect with like-minded others; join and/or donate time and/or money, if you can, to organisations that share your aims – there’s strength in numbers, after all.
I have wandered away from the point of this post: recording a beautiful spring day spent in nature with a friend, so I will wander back to Ditton Brook in Hale and describe the dark, ploughed soil contrasting with the bright yellow rape and the deep blue of the sky, the brook itself meandering through green fields, under hedgerows, along banks dotted with star-like lesser celandine – because we have to delight in these days as well as mourn what’s been lost from them.
Lesser celandine dots the banks
There were little egrets and teal in the brook, species I more often see along the Estuary, but apparently just as happy in freshwater as in saltwater. A kingfisher sped past – a dazzle of azure, gone in the blink of an eye. Another bird that I also more often see fishing in the saltwater of Liverpool Marina during the winter, when it is often forced by frosts to move from its more usual freshwater breeding habitats. Three species of raptor graced the skies during our time there: buzzard, kestrel and sparrowhawk, each with its particular way of using the air. We sat quietly near the yellowhammers’ hedgerow and took it all in: even though we could still hear traffic on busy roads and see electricity pylons marching across fields, the peace of this place was soothing away cares and worries and it was a wrench to finally leave.
Yellowhammer hedgerow
We called in at Oglet on the way home, enjoying another sit down – this time on the ‘beach’, amongst rubble and rubbish, sadly, but, again, you take your pleasures where you can.
Oglet beach
As it’s more of a mixed site, with a variety of habitats (human dwellings, farmland, hedgerows, estuary), Oglet supports more species, and we were delighted to see wheatear, hear a willow warbler singing its descending liquid song from the trees, and watch the cheerful house sparrows that make the barn their home. A final stop at Speke-Garston Coastal Reserve – well, we were passing, so it would have been rude not to! – and then home. Tired but happy – but also still wondering: where are all the birds?
41 bird species seen:
Ditton Brook
Blackbird, buzzard, coot, crow, gadwall, kestrel, lapwing, little egret, moorhen, reed bunting, sparrowhawk, teal, woodpigeon, wren, yellowhammer
Oglet added
Black-tailed godwit, blue tit, Canada geese, chiffchaff, cormorant, greenfinch, great tit, house sparrow, jackdaw, linnet, mallard, mistle thrush, robin, shelduck, starling, stock dove, wheatear, willow warbler
Speke-Garston Coastal Reserve added
Blackcap, curlew, feral pigeon, long-tailed tit, magpie, pheasant, redshank, stonechat