Quiet weekend

Male Song Thrush singing in the garden yesterday

Pair of Wigeon asleep at HGF yesterday

Black-necked Grebes at HGF yesterday. In the interests of hoping they will stick around I remained on the opposite side of the pool and resisted the temptation to wander round for better photos. I really should get an adapter for digiscoping though!

Pair of Grey Partridge nr the now defunct feeding station in Waterworks Lane.

Grey Partridge with a male Reed Bunting in the garden yesterday.

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With my brother-in-law Mark visiting with his fiancee Becky this weekend, opportunities for birding have been few and far between. However there was lots of activity in the garden and at HGF. First thing yesterday morning I popped around to the feeding station on Waterworks Lane. A pair of Grey Partridges were the only birds present in the ploughed strip - these flew off. Another pair posed for photos in the field opposite.

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Off then to HGF where I quickly confirmed, to my delight and some surprise, that the Black-necked Grebes were still present and ignoring the disturbance from the dog walkers. I stayed on the opposite side to avoid any more disturbance. 84 Wigeon were present with 13 Tufties - no Pochard today. A pair of Teal were also present with 40 Coot and 4 Redshank. 5 Great Crested Grebes were around with 2 pairs engaged in courtship displays. A single Pied Wagtail was patrolling the north bank.

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It's worth noting that the Wigeon have now largely separated into pairs (this has been going on for the last 2 weeks) and both courtship displays and mating were observed this morning. 4 Skylarks were present in the thistle field and a single Common Gull was present with around 420 Black-headed Gulls.

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In the garden yesterday morning was one of my favourite sounds in the world - a male Song Thrush singing his heart out. He remained all day virtually without stopping and was still busy after 6pm! 8 Goldfinches and 10 Greenfinches were on the sunflower hearts feeders and 12 Chaffinches were feeding on the ground nr the back hedge with 3 Reed Buntings. The usual pair of Grey Partridges made a couple of visits. Also around were 25 Collared Doves, 2 Robins, 2 Dunnocks, 2 Great Tits, 3 Blue Tits and the usual male Feral Pigeon. A Crow was annoying by constantly calling from one of the trees throughout the morning and the Magpies have nearly finished building their nest.

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The excitement started in the afternoon. The female Sparrowhawk made a dash through, followed minutes later by the male who perched briefly on a branch outside the conservatory. He looked magnificent. Things quietened down until about an hour later the male was back. He perched on Blue's run (Blue is our large silver fox doe rabbit) and then on the bird table. At this point the Magpies both saw their arses and mobbed him, driving him off. Before he was out of sight, the female appeared over the field just beyond the back hedge. She struck at a Collared Dove in flight and although it rained feathers the dove escaped. She then perched in the smaller Ash tree and was quickly accompanied by the returning Magpies. She completely ignored them and it was obvious the Maggies were very wary of her. Meanwhile, completely oblivious to all this, a sick Collared Dove that has been hanging around recently (fluffed up feathers, small sunken eyes, very lethargic) was asleep all afternoon on the little table near the conservatory. How both Sprawks missed it I will never know.

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In the afternoon I went back to HGF with Mark and Becky. I was busy showing them my Kowa scope as we walked round, suddenly a small flock of wagtails dropped in to the NE corner right in front of us. They were very agitated and kept zooming around. As I was showing the scope off I turned it on the waggies and immediately spotted a White Wagtail with the 10 or so Pied Wagtails. A bit early though some were seen at Hoylake earlier in the week. The wagtail flock quickly moved on heading north. Two adult Lesser Black-backed Gulls came down, as did a Mute Swan.

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This morning I decided on a swift trip to Frodsham. The weather was attrocious with the wind blowing the scope all over the place and it was also very cold. After a lot of hard work I got onto one of the Little Stints with approx 40 or so Dunlin in the NE corner of No. 6 tank. They were very difficult to spot, they kept weaving in and out of vegetation. Also present were 6 Ringed Plovers, 40+ Curlew, 700+ Golden Plovers, 12 Shoveler, 40+ Teal, 50+ Ruddy Ducks and 70+ Redshank. 3 Greylags were feeding on No. 5 tank. A trip to Pennington was a bad idea so I came home.

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In the garden today the sick Collared Dove was missing and a pile of feathers was found in a corner. Enough said. Just one brief sighting of a Sprawk today - the male dashing through mid afternoon. 10 Goldfinches and 7 Greenfinches were on the feeders and 5 Reed Buntings, 15 Chaffinches and a male Brambling were feeding on the ground by the back hedge. The Grey Partridges visited twice today and 4 Mistle Thrushes also flew through. The male Song Thrush was singing early on then disappeared. He came back late afternoon and was still singing at dusk. A pair of Stock Doves were in the field by the back hedge.

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Had a quick run over to HGF at 4-30 this afternoon. The first thing I noticed was a small brown job skipping low over the thistle field. When I got the scope out I found a nice female Stonechat. After posing she disappeared off towards Midhops Farm - I looked for her there later but to no avail. The Black-necked Grebes were still present, Wigeon flock was still 84 but many more Mallards in this afternoon. Tufties same as yesterday and the Teal pair were also still present. The Oystercatchers and the 4 Redshanks were patrolling the shoreline with a pair of Pied Wagtails. Two adult Lesser Black-backed Gulls and a Common Gull were mixed in with the 50+ BHG's.

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Interesting weekend and the gig in Manchester last night was superb. Went to see Snow Patrol, however one the support acts is an up and coming band called White Lies - they are excellent!