New Brighton, on the north Wirral coast, is one of the best-known places in Britain for watching Leach’s petrels from land. The birds are normally pelagic, spending much of their lives far out at sea, but strong autumn weather can transform the Liverpool Bay coastline into a spectacular sea watching location.
The key ingredient is strong north-westerly or westerly weather. Gales and prolonged periods of rough seas push Leach’s petrels towards the coast and into the Mersey and Liverpool Bay. Around New Brighton and nearby Leasowe, birds can sometimes pass remarkably close inshore, making this one of the few places where a species that is usually so difficult to see can occasionally be enjoyed at closer range.
Timing the visit around the tide is also important. The best conditions are generally around high tide, with the two hours either side of high water often particularly productive, probably more so the two hours before as the sea retreats very quickly after high tide. Leasowe and New Brighton have produced impressive movements in the past, including dozens of birds during major weather events.
There is something particularly exciting about watching for them from the shore. One minute the sea can appear almost empty; the next, a small, dark bird comes powering through the spray, skimming low over the waves with its long wings and distinctive forked tail. In really good conditions, several can appear in a single sea watch.
Leach’s petrels are rarely the only reward. Strong north-westerlies can also bring other storm-driven seabirds and migrants into the area, making a sea watch there an unpredictable but potentially memorable experience.
Britain and Ireland hold less than 1% of the world's breeding Leach's petrels, but the UK population is nevertheless internationally important. The species breeds in a small number of colonies on remote islands, particularly in northern and western Scotland. The largest UK colony is said to be on Dun, St Kilda.
The most recent BTO information gives a UK breeding population estimate of around 48,000 pairs, based on the 1998–2002 Seabird 2000 census. However, Leach's petrels are notoriously difficult to census because they nest in burrows and visit their colonies almost exclusively at night. Subsequent surveys at some colonies have indicated substantial declines; BTO reports a 54% decline at Dun, St Kilda, which held roughly 58% of the UK population at the time of the Seabird 2000 survey.
Outside the breeding season, they disperse widely across the Atlantic. Birds breeding in Britain can travel huge distances over the ocean, with individuals potentially travelling up to 1,000 km from their colonies while foraging during the breeding season.
Their distinctive long, narrow wings and deeply forked tail are useful identification features, although the combination of distance, poor light, spray and fast-moving birds makes them a notoriously challenging sea watching species.
Having visited New Brighton and Leasowe just a week earlier and failed to record a single sighting, Kev and I were determined to give it another go. On that occasion, the birds had passed through much earlier than expected, with most of them apparently making landfall along the North Wales coast rather than the Wirral. Kev @kev07713 had received the nod from a local birder that Wednesday was looking promising, but I was tied up, so he went with his wife Karen instead and managed to see three.
There is always an element of uncertainty with Leach’s petrels. Even at one of the country’s best sites, you can spend hours staring at a heaving sea without seeing a single bird, as had been the case for us the previous week. This time, however, the conditions seemed to be falling into place.
Now free on Thursday, and looking at the forecast, I felt it should prove to be exactly the sort of day that gets sea watchers excited. A stronger westerly to north-westerly wind was blowing, and Leach’s petrels had already been recorded passing Blackpool first thing. At Leasowe, high tide was around 3.20–3.30pm, giving me what looked like the perfect window to get there and scan the sea as the tide rose.
I arrived at 'The Gunsite' car park at Leasowe at 11.45am, having spent just under an hour beforehand at the mouth of the river. I had decided to relocate after a sighting was posted on BirdGuides from this area. A handful of birders were already in the car park, scoping the sea from the comfort of their cars, windows down and scopes balanced on the ledges of their doors.
I jumped out and asked the chap parked next to me if he’d had any luck. He told me he was watching a Leach’s petrel at that very moment. I asked for some idea of the bird’s range before returning to my car, where I trained my scope out to sea. It took a little searching, but soon I picked it up, a fair way offshore. I followed it as it worked its way along the coast from right to left, working steadily against the wind.
A short time later, I picked up a second bird, again some distance offshore. By now the sea was moving in quickly, and I followed it as it traced much the same path as the first. The chap beside me then signalled that he had two together, but despite searching the area I never managed to pick either of them up.
Now having got my eyes in I spotted my third bird well along the beach, only just visible above the bonnet of the car beside me. As it continued towards me and came into view directly in front of us, it was considerably closer than the first two. This time, I decided to try to get some photographs and video of it.
Its plumage is predominantly sooty brown, almost black, with a contrasting pale rump that flashed into view whenever the bird twisted in flight. Its long, slender wings were held slightly swept back as it angled into the wind, using the air rising from the wave faces to maintain height.
Despite the turbulent sea, the petrel looked remarkably steady and controlled, seemingly completely at home in conditions that made the water almost impossible to watch for long. It weaved effortlessly between the troughs and crests, alternating short bursts of wingbeats with long, graceful glides. Every so often it would dip towards the surface before rising again, following the contours of the waves. Watching it work its way through the rough water, it was easy to appreciate just how perfectly adapted Leach’s petrels are to life at sea.
At one point I jumped out of the car to grab a drink from the boot and have a chat with a couple of birders who had been braving the conditions outside. It didn't take long to realise that the car was probably the sensible place to be, with the wind driving sand and rain across the car park. I quickly retreated to the driver's seat, where I could continue watching through the windscreen. Occasional showers swept across the glass, but with the car angled into the wind and the window still open, I remained surprisingly well protected from the worst of it.
The birds continued to come through. I would go on to see more than ten Leach's petrels, along with an Arctic skua, a couple of terns, sanderlings, dunlin, oystercatchers, curlews, and bar-tailed godwits. At one point, two petrels appeared close together on the water, briefly feeding amongst the waves before separating and continuing independently.
A grey phalarope was reported, and the birder in the car next to me said that he had been the one to report it. His views had been extremely distant, however, as the bird flew steadily from left to right. It was also picked up from the river mouth at New Brighton, so it was clearly moving along the coast rather than remaining in one area. Despite the distance, it was another reminder that in these conditions, you never quite know what might appear in the scope next.
As high tide arrived, I packed away my kit and loaded everything into the boot. It had been a thoroughly enjoyable sea watch, and with plenty of Leach’s petrels and a good selection of other birds under my belt, I headed home to join the family for dinner, more than happy with the day’s sightings.
Year list: 291.
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