Razor shells everywhere on the beach between Leasowe and Fort Perch Rock.
The first Irish ferry leaving Liverpool on the incoming tide.
Heading for Fort Perch Rock and the second Irish Ferry leaving Liverpool.
A small container ship passing the huge mega cranes at Liverpool Docks.
On the latest pirate ship at New Brighton.
An unexpected message on the flag flying at the back of the pirate ship.
Just two Purple sandpipers on the on the pontoons in New Brighton Marine Lake.
Wind turbine confusion.
Turnstones and a Sanderling looking for sand hoppers.
Walk stats: Distance: 9.2 miles (Over 10 if you go by Dave's Fitbit App). Climb: 200' (A little less than the wind assisted GPS reading of 1015').
Time: 4 hours 12 minutes. On the move walking average: 2.6 m.p.h. Overall walk average: 2.2 m.ph.
Group: Martyn, Phil, Wendy, David S., Sue and Dave P.
Everyone arrived early and we started the walk well before 10-00 a.m.
We set off optimistically hoping that the rain would keep away and that by walking on the beach we would be somewhat sheltered from forecast strong winds. At least it was going to be warm (12.5 Celsius on the car thermometer when we arrived back at the car). Thankfully too we didn't get sand blasted either. The Sun even came out for the last few miles.
As soon as we could, we went down to the beach. At this point the Mersey was still well out and the birds were too far off to identify except the Oystercatchers and Common redshank that were around in good number. David S manged to spot a Little egret.
The first thing of note was the five huge cranes on the side of the Mersey at Liverpool Docks. we could see them even from the car park and to us they seemed to be much nearer than Liverpool.
As we walked along the beach, huge piles of Razor shells seemed to be everywhere.
At first ships leaving Liverpool were ferries and we were hopeful that we would see one of the mega container ships come into Liverpool and we would actually see one of those mega cranes move.
After Fort Perch Rock we went as far as the "pirate ship", expertly created out of flotsam It must have been rebuilt since the last time we came at it was at a different angle to the sea wall than the previous one.
We usually go a little further down the promenade, but today this would have meant we were heading into the wind, so I thought it would be a better option to go back to New Brighton Marine Lake and have an early lunch in one of the shelters on the lake side.
This we did, and Phil was able to observe one of the mega cranes moving. It must have been in anticipation of a ship arriving, but alas it hadn't arrived by the time we set off on the return journey.
Bird spotting picked up after lunch and included: Common starling, Great cormorant, Black-headed gull, Eurasian, Curlew, Shelduck, Oystercatcher, Common redshank, Purple sandpiper, Sanderling, Carrioncrow, Feral pigeon, Herring gull, Little egret, Mute swan and Skylark.
We arrived back at the car quite early as no-one opted for the short extension past the lighthouse.
As we were changing at the cars, we were serenaded by Skylarks singing above the field opposite.
A perfect end to a good walk that could have been our first shorts walk of the year!
This was undoubtedly the fastest we have completed a walk for quite some time.
After walk drinks were enjoyed at the Wheatsheaf Inn at Raby, where Titanic's Plum Porter and Brimstage's Sandpiper Ale went down well.
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