Photos:
Avocets and Black-tailed Godwits, Frodsham Marsh
Curlew Sandpiper, Green Sandpiper and Dipper, Pennington Flash
29th August
I started Bank Holiday Monday with a visit to HGF in the rain. A juvenile Little Ringed Plover was the best bird – obviously a migrant as I haven’t seen the local birds for nearly two months. Unlike last year I have not seen a single sign of LRP breeding on local pools this year. Last year there were two broods at HGF, at least three at Rixton and one or two elsewhere. Plenty of hirundines (3 species) were feeding this morning.
47 House Sparrows, 6 Tree Sparrows and 22 Collared Doves were at the feeding station this morning. I assume the Tree Sparrows are the local birds from Highfield Farm. At one point the sparrows all metled into the hedge – the usual sign of a raptor and sure enough a male Sparrowhawk came through and was mobbed by a Crow. In this case the hawk was hounded mercilessly with the Crow chasing it all over the place. There was also a build up of 50+ Lesser Black-backed Gulls in the field.
Mid afternoon I wandered over to Frodsham Marsh – still windy and showery and the rain heaved it down just after I arrived. I then got five minutes of quiet before all the waders decided to bugger off to the shoreline and disappeared. In the brief time I had I did pick up 5 Curlew Sandpipers, 3 Ruff, around 30 Dunlin and 85 Black-tailed Godwits. I then noticed a juvenile Avocet feeding nr the blackwit flock. This bird stayed and around 20 minutes later an adult Avocet dropped in and joined it. Migrating birds? There was a single Golden Plover on the mud and a drake Pintail dropped into the little pool in the top corner. The rain soon came back though. On my way home a Hobby dashed across the M6 at the Thellwall Viaduct and off towards Woolsten Eyes.
Later this evening (weather still miserable) I took Bill for a walk down Barrow Lane. I saw nothing at all until I reached the oat field. Here a Buzzard was perched on the ground and two Kestrels were nearby, one hovering over the field and another flying sluggishly and low over the field. The Buzzard suddenly lifted off and headed for the latter Kestrel. To my amazement it closed rapidly and lunged at the Kestrel with talons outstretched. The Kestrel side slipped at the very last second and flew off, now looking normal. Interesting – I wonder why the Buzzard thought it had a chance? Was the Kestrel ill or just being dozy?
A Brown Hare was also in the field and walking back down the lane a skulking little brown job kept flitting up from the verge and landing again a few yards down. It turned out to be a Meadow Pipit – probably reluctant to fly far in the weather and this close to dusk.
I then noticed quite a few coveys of Grey Partridges calling and here and there in the wheat stubble north of the lane I could see heads popping up. Trouble was they were all some distance away and the curvature of the field makes viewing to the north harder, particularly near Parkside Farm. I then decided to walk over to the back side of this field to see what was going on. To my surprise there were Grey Partridges everywhere in a strip which saddled the west-east running hedge which is at the north end of the wheat field (hope that makes sense). All told I saw at least 68 Grey Partridges in coveys of 10, 9, 7, 6, 6, 6, 5, 5, 5, 4, 3 and 2!!! There were probably more but the light was failing rapidly by then.
30th August
HGF this morning was pretty much as was. The current line up is:
57 Coot
27 Great Crested Grebe
4 Little Grebe
28 Tufted Duck
The Teal was rejoined by its friend this morning. A Buzzard was soaring around and a flock of 38 Collared Doves were on the wires by the kennels.
Mid afternoon I managed to escape work early and stopped by Pennington Flash – intrigued by the recent Dipper reports. I wasn’t too sure where it had been sighted so I followed the track next to the brook and initially saw nothing. At one point the track turns left and over a footbridge – from this bridge I looked back downstream and spotted the Dipper on a rock. It would have been obscured by vegetation further down.
The bird was a juvenile and didn’t do an awful lot - mainly stood there and bobbed before having a bath and then seeming to disappear in front of my eyes. A juvenile Curlew Sandpiper was another very welcome bird from Teal Hide where three Green Sandpipers were roosting. I had to be back home though and quickly ran out of time.
At dusk I took Bill for a walk down Barrow Lane. It really was very dark by the time we arrived – a couple of Kestrels were seen briefly and then a flock of 25 Swallows came flying through south.
31st August
11 Goldfinches on the feeders in the garden today. Sum total of today’s birding!
I started Bank Holiday Monday with a visit to HGF in the rain. A juvenile Little Ringed Plover was the best bird – obviously a migrant as I haven’t seen the local birds for nearly two months. Unlike last year I have not seen a single sign of LRP breeding on local pools this year. Last year there were two broods at HGF, at least three at Rixton and one or two elsewhere. Plenty of hirundines (3 species) were feeding this morning.
47 House Sparrows, 6 Tree Sparrows and 22 Collared Doves were at the feeding station this morning. I assume the Tree Sparrows are the local birds from Highfield Farm. At one point the sparrows all metled into the hedge – the usual sign of a raptor and sure enough a male Sparrowhawk came through and was mobbed by a Crow. In this case the hawk was hounded mercilessly with the Crow chasing it all over the place. There was also a build up of 50+ Lesser Black-backed Gulls in the field.
Mid afternoon I wandered over to Frodsham Marsh – still windy and showery and the rain heaved it down just after I arrived. I then got five minutes of quiet before all the waders decided to bugger off to the shoreline and disappeared. In the brief time I had I did pick up 5 Curlew Sandpipers, 3 Ruff, around 30 Dunlin and 85 Black-tailed Godwits. I then noticed a juvenile Avocet feeding nr the blackwit flock. This bird stayed and around 20 minutes later an adult Avocet dropped in and joined it. Migrating birds? There was a single Golden Plover on the mud and a drake Pintail dropped into the little pool in the top corner. The rain soon came back though. On my way home a Hobby dashed across the M6 at the Thellwall Viaduct and off towards Woolsten Eyes.
Later this evening (weather still miserable) I took Bill for a walk down Barrow Lane. I saw nothing at all until I reached the oat field. Here a Buzzard was perched on the ground and two Kestrels were nearby, one hovering over the field and another flying sluggishly and low over the field. The Buzzard suddenly lifted off and headed for the latter Kestrel. To my amazement it closed rapidly and lunged at the Kestrel with talons outstretched. The Kestrel side slipped at the very last second and flew off, now looking normal. Interesting – I wonder why the Buzzard thought it had a chance? Was the Kestrel ill or just being dozy?
A Brown Hare was also in the field and walking back down the lane a skulking little brown job kept flitting up from the verge and landing again a few yards down. It turned out to be a Meadow Pipit – probably reluctant to fly far in the weather and this close to dusk.
I then noticed quite a few coveys of Grey Partridges calling and here and there in the wheat stubble north of the lane I could see heads popping up. Trouble was they were all some distance away and the curvature of the field makes viewing to the north harder, particularly near Parkside Farm. I then decided to walk over to the back side of this field to see what was going on. To my surprise there were Grey Partridges everywhere in a strip which saddled the west-east running hedge which is at the north end of the wheat field (hope that makes sense). All told I saw at least 68 Grey Partridges in coveys of 10, 9, 7, 6, 6, 6, 5, 5, 5, 4, 3 and 2!!! There were probably more but the light was failing rapidly by then.
30th August
HGF this morning was pretty much as was. The current line up is:
57 Coot
27 Great Crested Grebe
4 Little Grebe
28 Tufted Duck
The Teal was rejoined by its friend this morning. A Buzzard was soaring around and a flock of 38 Collared Doves were on the wires by the kennels.
Mid afternoon I managed to escape work early and stopped by Pennington Flash – intrigued by the recent Dipper reports. I wasn’t too sure where it had been sighted so I followed the track next to the brook and initially saw nothing. At one point the track turns left and over a footbridge – from this bridge I looked back downstream and spotted the Dipper on a rock. It would have been obscured by vegetation further down.
The bird was a juvenile and didn’t do an awful lot - mainly stood there and bobbed before having a bath and then seeming to disappear in front of my eyes. A juvenile Curlew Sandpiper was another very welcome bird from Teal Hide where three Green Sandpipers were roosting. I had to be back home though and quickly ran out of time.
At dusk I took Bill for a walk down Barrow Lane. It really was very dark by the time we arrived – a couple of Kestrels were seen briefly and then a flock of 25 Swallows came flying through south.
31st August
11 Goldfinches on the feeders in the garden today. Sum total of today’s birding!
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