The West Kirby Marine Lake - the start of the walk and the end of the walk! 
Waiting at the Margaret's mince pies stop!Walk stats: Distance:7.4 miles; Climb:264'.
Time:3 hours 7 minutes; On the move walking average:2.7 m.p.h.;Overall walk average:2.4 m.p.h.
Group:Martyn, Richard, Roger, Time, Sylvia, Dave J., and Georgie.
Not the best of weather conditions, but at least it was dry and the wind on the coast was almost none existent! Distant views were another matter with low cloud/mist accompanying us throughout. Hopeful of some good birdwatching, but alas the tide was too far out and the birds near enough to see were only few. The star birds on the Marine Lake were the Goldeneye (male and female) and the Mergansers (also male and female).
Not to be outdone, we decided to make a detour to the Gilroy Nature Reserve where the drama of the day was to take place. Georgie the Jack Russel, no longer a puppy, decided to chase some ducks on the pond by running across thin ice. Unfortunately she went through the ice and had to be rescued by Dave wading knee deep in cold icy water!
At this point Dave, Sylvia and Georgie made a rapid return to the car while he rest of us carried on the planned route, at this point just over a mile away from the start.
We stopped at the War Memorial on the top of Grange Hill, where we had the luxury of park benches to sit on and Margaret's mince pies to savour.
Birds seen or heard today included:Goldenye, Merganser, Black-headed gull, Herring gull, Common gull, Redshank, Curlew, Shelduck, Oystercatcher, Meadow pipit, Blue tit, Great tit, Coal tit, Blackbird, Coot, Moorhen, Mallard, Fieldfare and Dunlin.
After walk drinks were taken at the Dee View in Heswall, where the beer sampled was a Cottage brew called "Christmas Cracker", which didn't quite live up to its name.
Both photos were taken by Richard.
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