Hale village circular walk

Have you walked along the river Mersey starting at Hale village?

I recently took a walk here, starting in Hale village, specifically St Mary’s Church, where on Sundays from 2-4pm, tea and cake are offered for a donation. I walked along Within Way toward the river, joining a footpath overlooking the river to Hale Head Lighthouse, before heading back to Hale village via Lighthouse Road and Church Road.

If you haven’t walked this route before, I would highly recommend it. This 2.5-mile walk offers expansive views of the estuary, with plenty of opportunities for viewing many species of birds. From wading birds such as black-tailed godwit and shelduck, to smaller birds such as goldfinch and reed bunting.

Through this blog, I will share my experience and photos of (some of) the birds I encountered. Perhaps it may inspire you to choose this as your next Mersey-side adventure.

Walking along Within Way, there are excellent views of the Silver Jubilee and Mersey Gateway Bridges to be seen. This part of the estuary can be particularly windy, but on this day, there wasn’t even a breeze, the water of the estuary was glassy still.

The marshes along this part of the river were full of several flocks of birds. Canadian Geese were flying in flocks over the estuary, a sight and sound to behold.

There are many different habitats along the path beside the river. On my right there was private farmland, which visitors should keep away from and stick to the path, including dogs. This may seem like an ideal area to let dogs run off lead, but there are lots of nesting birds in both the farmland and marsh, which dogs can easily scare away.

To my left there were a variety of habitat types, including shrubs, reeds, marsh, and mud flats. Which provided a variety of bird life to observe.

The tide was on its way out, leaving some of the mudflats exposed. This gave a great opportunity to spot some wading birds as they moved from the marshes to the mud to feed. The species I spotted on the mud flats included…

These adorable juvenile common shelduck, being watched over by their parents.

This amusing juvenile gull, which kept popping up whenever I got my camera out, wanting to be photographed.

This grey heron, hunting small fish and invertebrates in the shallow waters.

And these black-tailed godwit, who were wonderful to watch but particularly difficult to photograph, as they were very active and kept flocking to the skies together.

There were smaller birds to be observed in the shrubs and reeds. An observant eye was needed to spot them from afar, as they would quickly disappear once I got too near.

This photogenic goldfinch caught my eye with a flash of yellow.

There were several reed bunting flitting in and out of the reeds too quickly to be photographed, but this one settled on a branch long enough for me to capture these images.

By the time I had walked along to reach Hale Head Lighthouse, I had spent a good few hours photographing birds. But I was in for a treat as the lighthouse had been taken over by Starlings which had decided to use it as their perch. I was able to capture the below photo which was my favourite of the day.

Among the starlings were these two barn swallows that had taken residency with them.

It was a wonderful, easy-going walk that I would recommend to anyone with an interest in Mersey views and spotting birds.

There is plenty of parking in Hale Village, and even a pub (Child of Hale) to finish off the walk with some food or a well earned drink.