Little Ringed Plover 0. Rhubarb and Apple Crumble 1

Winwick puddle from the pub window!

What should a girl do, it’s not raining, hairdresser hasn’t got a slot for me, the grim prospect of hoovering back home.  Too right, where’s the binoculars..Where’s Winwick?

Well Chris says the area is worth checking and is really close, so.

Fiddle i'th bag pub found, pulled up into car park, landlord putting out the bins, didn’t appear to mind, phew!

Here was a pond, part of the stables, extending out into a big puddle in the stables fields.  Little ringed Plover… yer right, nipped into another field or just got off...knew the scouse bird was coming!  Still a few paddlers were about, Mallard, Teal, fence perched Grey Heron, Moorhen, wheeling Lapwings, Pied wag, Crows.

Detour 1.  Houghton Green Flash, mmh, pretty empty for such a large expanse, (unlike its local neighbour - Pennington) noticeably exposed barren of other vegetation, shrubs etc around the flash, nowhere for the bird life to run and hide into? Great crested grebes displaying, Tufties, Mallard, 2 Oystercatcher, Black headed gulls and Crows.

Detour 2. Newton Lake/Willow Park. I quite like this little lake with its muddy silted up islands, Newton Brook flows in and out of the lake and the area has been landscaped with benches to sit on. Sadly as in a lot of out parks, discarded rubbish was evident. No hoped for Kingfisher but more of the ones that had gone before Teal, Mallard, Tufties, Moorhen, Canadian Geese, balck headed and 2 very loud Lesser Black Gulls. The wooded area of Willow Park flitted with Long tailed tits, Nuthatch and Song thrush of note.

Homeward I guess, back to Winwick puddle on the way, just in case. No luck, that sort of a day, no new arrivals but plenty of Chiff chaff and Skylarks singing heartily, Finches/Tits in the hedgerows.

Well it would be rude not to pay the landlord back for using his car park. The Fiddle, as Dave Hardy told us is something to experience...first thing you see as you walk through the door is stuffed animals, Badger, Fox... Crikey stuff everywhere, an Aladdin’s cave of antiquity, has to be seen to be believed. Books, toys from bygone years, military memorabilia, and life size mannequins propping up in the bar, various musical instruments, anamatical skeletons. If you’ve ever thrown it out, its here!

Stuffed, every nook and cranny

Consolation Rhubarb and apple crumble, and Coffee snaffled whilst sitting at the window, overlooking the puddle!  Only other visitor to the puddle was a birder with a 2ft lens, who left after a thorough scanning of the fields, he resisted the pub, obviously on a detour!        

        

Birding Winwick

A mate of mine has been telling me about a pub that he goes to and I would like it. So a quick drive to Winwick and I was on Alder Lane heading towards the Fiddle Inn I'th Bag pub. Opposite the pub there is a flooded horse field which held two little ringed plover, 8 teal, lapwing and meadow pipits. The plovers are below the white piece of plastic.

I then headed up to Houghton Green Flash to see if there was any black necked grebes but there was only 4 great crested grebe, 10 tufted duck and a wigeon of note.

All this area is worth checking and is really close.
Chris

                           FIRST SWALLOW OF SPRING.      10th April.

Returned to Frodsham Marsh this afternoon....4-7pm.

Having had great day out on Sunday visiting first Moore NR and then Frodsham with Ann (Thomo)....when we saw lesser spotted woodpecker, thought I would have another look at Frodsham.

1 ring tailed hen harrier 4pm.......dropped into reeds and not seen again, 1 male marsh harrier 5.30pm good but distant views hunting over reedbed and edge of tank,  and then just as I was leaving 1 superb male hen harrier, really close view quartering over reedbed. Unfortunately had just packed camera away !  Also 1 ruff, chiffchaff singing, 6 sand martin and best of all 1 swallow......first of the year.
All sightings over no6 tank.

Sean.

                                               
                male and female great spotted woodpecker

     
                          female reed bunting

 
                shelduck and black tailed godwit

                           ruff

                          chiffchaff

Fire destroys wildlife habitat

Staff and volunteers from RSPB Dee Estuary joined fire fighters in a bid to tackle a blaze at the weekend, which destroyed the habitat of nesting birds and wildlife.

The fire, which police believe was started deliberately, spread across Neston Reedbed and Parkgate Marsh on Sunday afternoon, causing damage to the reserve and a number of residents’ garden fences. No-one was injured in the blaze.

The incident has raised repeated safety concerns from RSPB staff as arson attacks on the site have been an ongoing problem for a number of years.

Colin Wells, site manager at RSPB Dee Estuary Reserve, said: “There is a team of volunteers who warden the area in the evenings to try and discourage people from starting fires, which has successfully prevented any for a few years, but sadly not this year. We are concerned this could lead to a more serious accident.”

The fire has had a damaging impact on local wildlife, particularly harvest mice, as many may have been killed in the blaze.

Colin said: “The last few weeks have been fine and combined with a cold easterly wind, the conditions on the marsh have been brittle and dry, which meant the fire spread quickly.

“The harvest mice will have lost their habitat and many of them may have been injured or killed. The area is an important breeding ground for birds such as reed warblers, reed buntings and water rail. They will have lost their nesting areas. This loss of habitat is devastating.”

Police are treating the fire as a potential arson case. Anyone with any information is asked to call Ellesmere Port and Neston Neighbourhood Policing Team on 0845 458 6373.

                   SPEKE-GARSTON.     3rd April 2013.

Great numbers of black- tailed godwits feeding on shoreline of rising tide this afternoon  2-4pm.
Counted three seperate groups of 183, 361 and largest group near sailing club of 530+.  Guess they are stocking up before moving on to Iceland, Greenland. Loads of birds in fantastic summer plumage.

 Also large numbers of oystercatcher, redshank, dunlin, shelduck and quite a few knot, curlew.

Chiffchaff in woods nearest to Speke Hall, with goldcrest, long-tailed tits.

Snipe in flooded corner near road.

Sean.

April Fools on a bit of a twitch

Marsh from Denhall Lane

Whilst Chris was in Speke/Garston, Sean and I decided to go and see what was happening in Leasowe as far as migrants were concerned.  A cold easterly wind blowing, there was nothing unusual about, no doubt the cold weather holding the migrants back. A few linnets, meadow pipits and pied wagtails on the paddocks.  A bitterly cold walk along the front produced little other than a few gulls and redshanks.

On then to Red Rocks which again was quiet, a few shelduck on the sands and a solitary knot and a redshank.  A brief stop in West Kirby by the Marine Lake which only seemed to have a selection of gulls.  Were we doomed?

No, as they say no gain without pain, on to Denhall Quay, by The Harp at Neston.  We parked up where there were already a few birders with scopes lined up in search of the drake American Wigeon.  After only a couple of minutes the bird which had been quite elusive appeared.  Larger than our Eurasian one and with a cream rather than yellow stripe down the face we were in luck at last.  There was no sign of the female black redstart that had been reported in a garden near The Harp so it was on to Neston Sewage Works for the Ware Pipit.  A muddy walk in parts (wellies advisable) with a great spotted woodpecker and a few redwings on the way took us to the view point over the fence on to number 4 bed.  A selection of birds were around the sewage works including grey and pied wagtails, wren, song thrush, chiffchaff and a couple of goldcrests displaying right in front of us in a tree.  There was also a meadow pipit which we were trying to convince ourselves could be the water pipit in winter plumage until of course the real thing appeared on the metal rail in front of us in full summer plumage.  What a little stunner with pinky peach chest and a grey head with a distinct white eye stripe.  Back to the car and a short walk further up past The Harp for another look for the Yankee wigeon produced our first Wheatear of the year and another view of the wigeon.  Finally, on to Denhall Lane near Inner Marsh Farm, in the hope of a hen harrier to round up the day, found another two wheatears (male and female)here, but  no such luck on the hen harrier front unfortunately but a grand day out never the less.

Ann(Tomo)

Speke Garston Coastal Park

With the extended Easter break I headed down to Garston in search of some spring migrants following on from a report of a black redstart somewhere between Garston and Speke on Saturday.
Saturday had been a warm day but Easter Sunday was yet again a blast of cold.

Tide was just on the turn so it was great to see around 200 + black tailed godwit along the shore and some had started to moult into there summer plumage. A ringed plover, couple of sanderling, dunlin and oystercatchers were probing around. The redshank were bobbing u and down while the shelduck were trying to sort out who was more dominant.  

Someone has been setting fire to the grass's, bracken and reeds on the site. Lots of dog walks today and a few meadow pipits bouncing about. Mallard and teal were on the river and a buzzard cam out for the trees and headed to the lapwing breeding pools for a drink.


 3 kestrels were around the reserve and as I walked off the reserve to check if the lapwings were holding territory on the pools a peregrine flew past and dived over the bank on to the estuary in search of a meal. I soon lost sight of him and continued searching for lapwings and grey partridges but there was none around.
A grey heron flushed out of the pools and a single snipe lifted and zig zaged away.

It wont be long before these area are full of waders and birds song. Oh yer and it better warm up too.
Chris