(Sunday 21st June, 2026)
Over to Royden Park on the Wirral Peninsula this morning. It was sunny with a very light north-easterly breeze, the temperature a comfortable 21°C, though it climbed higher after midday.
We followed the path from the car park and cut through the woods to Roodee Mere. Here, there is a nesting platform in the water on which we often see a Grey heron perching while it surveys the mere for food. This time, however, the space was being shared by a Canada goose and a Moorhen. As you can see, each bird has a nest either side of the central box.
Judging by the number of chicks present in and around the water, many of the Moorhens had already produced their first broods. Moorhens might have two or even three broods during the breeding season and chicks from the first brood will often help their parents with feeding the later broods. While this obviously helps the parent birds, it’s also useful practice for when these first-brood chicks go on to have their own offspring the following year.
Moorhen juveniles negotiating the lily-pads …
Water-lilies were plentiful on one section of the mere and several young Moorhens took obvious delight in agilely skipping across the lily pads: they seemed to be doing this purely for the sake of it. The more responsible parents – who were probably too heavy now – simply swam through the pads, although this didn’t appear to be half as much fun!
…while the heavier adult has to swim
A Herring gull circled above the mere and dropped down amongst the lily pads: at first, we were a little concerned in case it was after one of the chicks but it seemed to have spotted something under the water. The gull made a couple of attempts to retrieve whatever fish or amphibian it had seen but eventually gave up and flew off.
It wasn’t clear what drew the Herring gull to the water (above), although this mystery fish appeared soon after (below)
By coincidence, we did see a large fish that was swimming close to the surface – you can’t really tell what fish it is, though it’s size might indicate a carp. It’s possible that this was what had interested the Herring gull but we can’t say for sure. In turn, the fish might have been interested in one of the many dragonflies that were zipping around the mere today.
A four-spotted chaser dragonfly resting on a hazel leaf
There were one or two Grey squirrels out and about, demonstrating their acrobatic skills. One in particular entertained us as it descended head-first from a nearby tree before jumping across the path in front of us and disappearing in the undergrowth. Moments later another squirrel appeared on the wooden jetty at the side of the mere, where it nibbled at some bird food that presumably had been left for the Moorhens.
Shameless squirrel
While we were stood there watching this scrounging squirrel, a small bird flew across from the surrounding wood and landed low on a tree just in front of us. It was a Treecreeper and we watched as it scaled the tree then fluttered down to the second trunk of the same tree and climbed again before repeating this procedure for a third and final time, after which we lost sight of it.
Although the Treecreeper is quite common throughout the United Kingdom, we were lucky to have seen it as its mottled brown back and wing feathers act as great camouflage against the bark of trees. It has a white underbelly that is generally hidden from view as it climbs, but we happened to catch a glimpse as it flew in front of us.
Treecreeper blending in against the lichen and bark
The tree was a common alder with its distinctive round leaves and it looked like it had been coppiced at some point in the past, which would explain the three trunks radiating from it. As it climbs, the Treecreeper uses its long, curved beak to probe cracks in the bark for insects to feed on. I reckon we were lucky here too in that the Treecreeper didn’t fly off to another tree but simply dropped down, enabling us to keep sight of it.
Treecreepers use their strong toes to grip the bark and they have very stiff tail feathers which offer extra support when pushed against the tree and this helps to reduce strain on their legs as they climb. Most references describe the Treecreeper as spiralling upwards around the trunk as it climbs and this is what I remember from the two previous occasions that I’ve seen them. However, this particular Treecreeper climbed vertically up the same side of the trunk without looping round until it was quite high up the tree. A fascinating little bird to see,
The important stuff
On to the Courtyard Café for cappuccinos and a slice each (or should I say ‘doorstop’ each) of Caramel biscoff cake (Stu) and Carrot cake (Col). Scrumptious!
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