The garden - the area at the back of the field behind the right one of the two apple trees is Waterworks Lane feeding station!
Breakfast time in the garden
Blackbird feeding in the garden
The champion Fieldfare in Cheshire - hard as nails this one!
Jackdaw thieving the peanuts
Moat Lane pool, Rixtonxxxxx
Sunday afternoon in the snow I stupidly decided to take Billy for a walk around Shotwick Boating Lake. Stupid because a) I was ill and b) it was very windy and so all the boats had been out. Guess what – no birds! A few Redshanks were on the rocks around the edge and 4 Little Grebes were fishing – otherwise the water was devoid of life. Around the edge two groups of Linnets totalling around 150 birds were flitting around the fields surrounding the lake. 12 Fieldfares also dropped in – there were no signs of any swans in the surrounding area. Driving back across the bridge later I did see what could have been swans way out on the estuary – just too far away to be certain.
Xxxxx
Mid afternoon I set off back and decided to pop into Frodsham – mainly because I had been studying Peel Holdings plans for the wind farm here and wanted to get a feel for what would be disrupted. The future for Nos. 4 and 5 tanks doesn’t look too clever though No. 6 tank should be unaffected. Anyway on No. 5 tank in amongst the grazing sheep were 700+ Golden Plovers, around 280 Dunlin and 48 Curlews. I do like watching Golden Plovers and I much prefer them in winter plumage. No. 6 tank was largely frozen with the one small free patch of water crammed with Mallard and around 70 or so Teal.
Xxxx
I drove around the track looking for raptors – although 4 Buzzards and 4 Kestrels were observed during my wander, I saw nothing else of interest. I have never seen a SEO here – it looks perfect for them around No. 2 tank and yet none ever show when I turn up. As I drove past No. 4 tank I remembered a Water Pipit had been seen around here so I got out and scanned the area. I remember Jonathan commenting on this flooded area in the summer that something good should drop in – it has!. It was very windy and keeping the scope still was problematic and the sun was shining directly into my eyes so viewing was difficult (heroic, herculean struggle to find the bird!!!!). I looked through the 45 or so Meadow Pipits a few times and saw nothing interesting when I remembered the Water Pipits I had recently watched at Blacktoft Sands had kept a good distance from the local Mipits. I looked in a few areas where there were no Mipits and sure enough I soon found the Water Pipit feeding on its own. Coincidence? It was a nice bird to watch, unfortunately too far away in the poor light to digiscope.
Xxxxx
Yesterday I worked from home due to a chest infection which is driving me nuts. Consequently I got to also watch the garden for a while and during the day I recorded 25 species doing something in the garden. The Chaffinch flock had increased to around 25 birds with 4 Reed Buntings also present. These were a surprise as I don’t normally see them in the garden until at least mid Jan. Three were present early this morning too. A Song Thrush was a welcome and now somewhat rare visitor – I do like these birds and thankfully it stuck around for a while.
Xxxx
A Stock Dove joined the Chaffinches feeding away at the back, a male Sparrowhawk paid a couple of swift visits, a couple of Tree Sparrows were very welcome and all day there was activity somewhere. Over the last few days a Fieldfare has taken up residence in the large berry bush outside the conservatory. Although it is full of large orange berries in winter (I have never gotten around to identifying it), the local Blackbirds only seem to eat them as a last resort and then just a few at a time. The Fieldfare seems to like them, however, and spent all day chasing all comers out of the bush, including the local Mistle Thrushes. It has its work cut out though as at least 11 Blackbirds are keeping it busy – as soon as one is chased off another slips in behind the Fieldfare. Even when 10 other Fieldfares briefly visited this bird remained behind – it was back again first thing this morning!
Xxxxx
The birds in the garden today were:
Xxxx
7+ Woodpigeons
17+ Collared Doves
1 Stock Dove
1 Feral Pigeon
2 Magpies
2 Rooks
4 Jackdaws
11 Fieldfares
3 Mistle Thrushes
7+ Blackbirds
1 Song Thrush
2 Robins
2 Dunnocks
1 Wren
3 Blue Tits
1 Great Tit
1 Coal Tit
1 Greenfinch
25+ Chaffinches
1 Goldfinch
4 Reed Buntings
1 Sparrowhawk
2 Tree Sparrows
2 House Sparrows
3 Starlings
xxxxx
I only had a brief visit to the feeding station early afternoon. The Tree Sparrow numbers have been around 45 birds for the last couple of days and little was moving at the feeding area itself, despite fresh seed yesterday. It is clear that pigeons, Starlings and corvids are all now helping themselves. A few Fieldfares, 6 Stock Doves and 8 Grey Partridges did show. There was more interest in the field opposite though – the flock of around 130 Linnets was present in the strip near the water treatment works fence along with 47 Skylarks, at least 7 Corn Buntings, a Grey Wagtail and 25 Yellowhammers. This section of the field seemed to be alive! At HGF a drake Goldeneye was new.
Xxxx
This morning on my way into work I spotted at least 10 Grey Partridges in the field in front of Frank’s Farm – just further down 2 Corn Buntings were fighting on the wires. At lunch I checked out Moat Lane pool again – still largely frozen with a narrow strip of free water across the middle. This was packed with 2 Mute Swans (one a ringed 3.5 yr old female which has spent most of her life around Congleton), a female Teal, 2 Little Grebes, 37 Mallards and 86 Coots plus 2 Great Black-backed Gulls, 15+ Herring, 8+ LBBG and 120+ BHG.
Xxxxx
Mid afternoon I set off back and decided to pop into Frodsham – mainly because I had been studying Peel Holdings plans for the wind farm here and wanted to get a feel for what would be disrupted. The future for Nos. 4 and 5 tanks doesn’t look too clever though No. 6 tank should be unaffected. Anyway on No. 5 tank in amongst the grazing sheep were 700+ Golden Plovers, around 280 Dunlin and 48 Curlews. I do like watching Golden Plovers and I much prefer them in winter plumage. No. 6 tank was largely frozen with the one small free patch of water crammed with Mallard and around 70 or so Teal.
Xxxx
I drove around the track looking for raptors – although 4 Buzzards and 4 Kestrels were observed during my wander, I saw nothing else of interest. I have never seen a SEO here – it looks perfect for them around No. 2 tank and yet none ever show when I turn up. As I drove past No. 4 tank I remembered a Water Pipit had been seen around here so I got out and scanned the area. I remember Jonathan commenting on this flooded area in the summer that something good should drop in – it has!. It was very windy and keeping the scope still was problematic and the sun was shining directly into my eyes so viewing was difficult (heroic, herculean struggle to find the bird!!!!). I looked through the 45 or so Meadow Pipits a few times and saw nothing interesting when I remembered the Water Pipits I had recently watched at Blacktoft Sands had kept a good distance from the local Mipits. I looked in a few areas where there were no Mipits and sure enough I soon found the Water Pipit feeding on its own. Coincidence? It was a nice bird to watch, unfortunately too far away in the poor light to digiscope.
Xxxxx
Yesterday I worked from home due to a chest infection which is driving me nuts. Consequently I got to also watch the garden for a while and during the day I recorded 25 species doing something in the garden. The Chaffinch flock had increased to around 25 birds with 4 Reed Buntings also present. These were a surprise as I don’t normally see them in the garden until at least mid Jan. Three were present early this morning too. A Song Thrush was a welcome and now somewhat rare visitor – I do like these birds and thankfully it stuck around for a while.
Xxxx
A Stock Dove joined the Chaffinches feeding away at the back, a male Sparrowhawk paid a couple of swift visits, a couple of Tree Sparrows were very welcome and all day there was activity somewhere. Over the last few days a Fieldfare has taken up residence in the large berry bush outside the conservatory. Although it is full of large orange berries in winter (I have never gotten around to identifying it), the local Blackbirds only seem to eat them as a last resort and then just a few at a time. The Fieldfare seems to like them, however, and spent all day chasing all comers out of the bush, including the local Mistle Thrushes. It has its work cut out though as at least 11 Blackbirds are keeping it busy – as soon as one is chased off another slips in behind the Fieldfare. Even when 10 other Fieldfares briefly visited this bird remained behind – it was back again first thing this morning!
Xxxxx
The birds in the garden today were:
Xxxx
7+ Woodpigeons
17+ Collared Doves
1 Stock Dove
1 Feral Pigeon
2 Magpies
2 Rooks
4 Jackdaws
11 Fieldfares
3 Mistle Thrushes
7+ Blackbirds
1 Song Thrush
2 Robins
2 Dunnocks
1 Wren
3 Blue Tits
1 Great Tit
1 Coal Tit
1 Greenfinch
25+ Chaffinches
1 Goldfinch
4 Reed Buntings
1 Sparrowhawk
2 Tree Sparrows
2 House Sparrows
3 Starlings
xxxxx
I only had a brief visit to the feeding station early afternoon. The Tree Sparrow numbers have been around 45 birds for the last couple of days and little was moving at the feeding area itself, despite fresh seed yesterday. It is clear that pigeons, Starlings and corvids are all now helping themselves. A few Fieldfares, 6 Stock Doves and 8 Grey Partridges did show. There was more interest in the field opposite though – the flock of around 130 Linnets was present in the strip near the water treatment works fence along with 47 Skylarks, at least 7 Corn Buntings, a Grey Wagtail and 25 Yellowhammers. This section of the field seemed to be alive! At HGF a drake Goldeneye was new.
Xxxx
This morning on my way into work I spotted at least 10 Grey Partridges in the field in front of Frank’s Farm – just further down 2 Corn Buntings were fighting on the wires. At lunch I checked out Moat Lane pool again – still largely frozen with a narrow strip of free water across the middle. This was packed with 2 Mute Swans (one a ringed 3.5 yr old female which has spent most of her life around Congleton), a female Teal, 2 Little Grebes, 37 Mallards and 86 Coots plus 2 Great Black-backed Gulls, 15+ Herring, 8+ LBBG and 120+ BHG.
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