On the highest tides, a most unusual sight occurs in the Mersey Estuary: a tidal bore travelling upstream from Widnes and Runcorn to Warrington. Although on a smaller scale than the better-known Severn Bore, it is still a great example of this natural phenomenon, and one of only about twenty that occur in the UK. What to see The tidal bore forms when water levels rise so quickly that a wave forms as the tide comes in, meeting the river flow. At its best, it reaches heights of 60cm or more, accompanied by the sound of rushing water and waterbirds startled into flight from the sands Continue Reading
Bird photography: murmurations
One little known highlight of the UK's coastline is a beautiful aerial dance called a murmuration, which is performed by dunlins and some other waterbird species. Starlings also exhibit similar behaviour. However, for someone new to bird photography like myself, photographing murmurations turned out to be one of the more challenging aspects and this post gives a few tips that I've picked up along the way. Dunlins frequent the UK's coasts and estuaries in the winter months so a first question was which sites to visit, and when. Some online research helped here on the websites of the RSPB and Continue Reading
Wild Mersey: wildlife of the Mersey Estuary
Sometimes a title is just too good not to use and Wild Mersey was the name of a superb article by Chris Baines celebrating the return of wildlife to the Mersey Estuary. This appeared in SourceNW magazine in 2009 which highlighted some of the achievements of the Mersey Basin Campaign. The campaign began in 1985 and lasted for 25 years, bringing together industry, communities and government in a huge effort to clean up the Mersey. To give an idea of how bad things once were, P. D. Jones, in an article on the water quality and fisheries of the estuary, suggested that: Everyone living Continue Reading
