If youwant one in a hog roast it will cost you around £400!
Mergansers on West Kirby Marine Lake.
On the Wirral Way.
Still on the Wirral Way.
Long-eared owl at Burton Mere Wetlands RSPB.
Long-eared owl at Burton Mere Wetlands RSPB.
Walk stats: Distance: 9.0 miles. Climb: 217'.
Time: 3 hours 57 minutes. On the move walking average: 2.7 m.p.h. Overall walk average: 2.3 m.p.h.
Group: Martyn, Sue and Michel, Phil, Celia, Annie and Wendy.
I nearly didn't make it to Royden Park, I hadn't looked at the blog for some time and was happily heading for West Kirby.Thankfully Wendy rang us and we quickly redirected to the correct start.
This was the first time we had started at Royden Park and most of the parking spaces had already been taken. This is apparently a very busy dog walking area!
Part of the walk was new to us, especially the approach from Frankby to Station Road in Hoylake.
Although some of this was across fields, much of it was along quiet roads and tracks with fairly good surfaces and any mud was easily negotiated even by Wendy in her ordinary shoes, having left her walking boots at home!
This was quite a pleasant route through the countryside to the East of Hoylake. On arriving at Red Rocks, the tide was well out so there were very few birds to be seen even with binoculars!
It was good to see the PC next to the West Kirby Marine Lake was again open and gratefully patronised by several of the group!
Lunch was taken at The Victoria Gardens in West Kirby where we could take advantage of the many benches overlooking the bowling green, and nicely sheltered from the cool wind coming off the estuary.
The section of the Wirral Way from West Kirby to Caldy included a good stretch that was new to me.
On arriving by the church in Caldy we decided to divert from the original path as we knew there was at least one section that was very muddy and boggy and needed to be avoided if I was not to get plenty of earache from the rest of the group. We ended up exploring a section of footpaths that took us back to Royden Park via Frankby Mere.
Birds seen or heard today were few and far between, hence the Long-eared owl photos. The birds we did see included: Pied wagtail, Greenfinch, House sparrow, Common starling, Chaffinch, Common kestrel, Mallard, Black-headed gull, Herring gull, Oystercatcher, Jackdaw, Carrion crow and Common blackbird.
After walk drinks were enjoyed at the Wheatsheaf Inn at Raby where Brimstage "Trappers Hat" went down well. I had to get a sub of Annie amd Michel so that I could have a take away, I'd forgotten to take my wallet with me!
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