Last week it was Ruth’s birthday.  She was working all day and Alan was away too so not really a day to remember. With the weekend here it was decided to try and make it up to Ruth so she had choice of a destination for a day out on Sunday. Ruth chose to disregard one of the busiest weekends of the autumn for bird migration and chose squirrels! Not any old squirrels but wild red squirrels, a species she had not seen in the UK before but had become enchanted with on visits to Finland. Sadly there are not so many of these lovely animals left in Britain so you have to go to one of a few sites to have a chance of finding one. Ruth had seen a feature on the BBC programme Spring Watch earlier in the year about Formby Point National Trust reserve north of Liverpool where these fluffy-tailed beauties can be found, so off we went.
The route took us past Frodsham, Cheshire, a top birding site, so of course we just had to pop in and have a look. We scanned the shallow lagoon, known as Number 6 tank, and soon saw hundreds of Eurasian Teal loafing in the shallow waters. This can be a good site for waders but none could be seen during the first scan, very disappointing. Then a fast tight-packed flock of birds swept across the mud and wheeled around and around. Most were Dunlin but as they passed closer two Curlew Sandpipers and a Little Stint could be picked out amongst them. The flock eventually dropped down but way off on the far side, no chance of adding a rarity at that range. A second flock flew in, more Dunlin and this time six Knot and a gang of Ringed Plover with them.  This flock circled then flew away high to the east.
We moved further round to the far west end of the tank to a damp area of disturbed ground which had held good numbers of birds recently. The area is drying out sadly so not as attractive as it had been, but still held birds. A gang of Pied Wagtails were busy hoovering up insects and amongst them at least six Yellow Wagtails, these included two canary yellow males, little gems. A Common Redstart, a good bird for this site, flew into a small bush on the edge of the muddy field. Time was ticking away and Ruth mentioned squirrels, time to go!
Arriving at Formby Point it was not quite what we had imagined, the place was heaving with people. A nightmare! The entrance road was jammed with cars, people, kids, push chairs, dogs, horse riders, ice-cream vans and not a squirrel to be seen.
Eventually finding a parking space, now way past the woodland out near the beach, we walked back to the pine trees. Our hearts sank as we saw and heard the masses of people thronging the paths and making enough noise to frighten an SAS army unit let alone a fluffy animal. But this was Ruth’s birthday treat so we could not just give up.   We tried to find a likely patch of open pine trees with enough peace and quiet for a squirrel, but everywhere we went, we met hoards of people, screaming kids, barking dogs, droning ice cream vans, galloping horses, low flying helicopters, and microlights buzzing overhead – everyone having fun in their own particular way, but did they all have to be so LOUD!  Surely no self-respecting squirrel would hang around in this area.
After nearly 2 hours of searching, we finally found ourselves in a more secluded area, far from the madding crowds.  The habitat looked good: open pine forest, and there were even a few birds here: Goldcrests and Coal Tits moving through the needles above us.  This looked more promising.  We thought it would be nice to get some better views of these charismatic woodland birds so Alan indulged in some pishing (making a bizarre noise somewhere between a squeak, kiss and a psssht!).  This sometimes attracts small birds into coming closer to investigate the peculiar noise, and luckily this time it worked.  Both Coal Tits and Goldcrests swooped down towards us.  Suddenly, something else came in to investigate, something red and fluffy.  At last, a red squirrel!  All our efforts had paid off and Ruth had her birthday treat after all.  Not just one, but two of these enchanting little characters chased through the trees around us but all too soon their thick bushy tails vanished into the canopy.
Not content with this brief view, we set off in hot pursuit.  Thankfully one of the duo was quickly relocated and, with a little more enthusiastic pishing, was encouraged to come and investigate us.  Amazingly, this female red squirrel just kept coming closer and closer in its curiosity.  Eventually she came head first down the trunk of the tree that Alan was standing against, until she was within about 8 feet of his head.  Just wonderful!  Sadly the squirrel was so nimble and acrobatic it was a real struggle to get a good sharp photo.  But we certainly enjoyed our close encounter of the squirrel kind.
Just to complete the day, from Alan’s perspective at least, as we turned to head back to the car, a text message arrived announcing that Manchester United (the Red Devils) had just beaten their local rivals, Manchester City, in a thrilling 4-3 match, and what’s more, the winning goal was scored by that ex-Liverpool (the Reds) star, Michael Owen, making the victory so much sweeter.