Moore local birding.

Moore nature reserve is one of the most reliable places in Cheshire to see Willow Tit (apart from Woolston but you need a permit for there and its a bit off the beaten track.............) as they come to a well stocked feeding station. Great little birds but hyperactive and not easy to photograph. To many E numbers in the sunflower seeds I reckon!  Still, a quick visit at the tail end of last week as it was getting dark was rewarded with great views of these and other woodland species.

Now the snow is melting birds are beginning to return to the stubble fields with Reed Bunting and Yellowhammer still present amongst greatly reduced numbers of finches. Star find though was a Raven  feeding on a Wood Pigeon corpse before flying west towards N Wales 'cronking' as it went.

Saturday morning saw Steve and me on a very blustery Hilbre. With the island virtually to ourselves apart from the Ranger it was a great place to destress after an eventful week at work. Following on from my opservations of birds returning locally the theme of the day was passage - loads of Skylarks passing overhead and some hugging the wave tops to try and keep out of the wind. A seawatch produced good numbers of Red-throated Divers, Great-crested Grebes and Common Scoter whilst a flock of 39 Scaup were the most I've seen together for many years. As usual the Brents and Purple Sandpipers put on a good show with the first Dark-bellied brent of the winter being found between Middle Eye & Hilbre as the tide forced all the geese together in one flock.

With a lunch of beans on toast followed by a whole packet of chocolate fingers the stress levels certainly dropped although the cholesterol levels probably rose a bit but sod it who cares.

Garden visitors.

Not much in the way of birding action this week apart from a quick call in to a partially frozen Rostherne Mere on the way home from a meeting in Bury. My endeavours were rewarded wit hflight views of a Bittern flying across the mere and landing in the reeds below the hide and the later as it flew from here to the reed bed at the east end.

The garden feeders still dragging in the crowds and I'm having to top them up virtually every day. I spent some time  trying to photograph the Bullfinches but they're very timid so I had to settle for shots through the window. Two Moorhens now feeding on scraps as the pond still frozen.

Even the Meadow Pipits are trying to get in on the act proving its not only Tree Pipits that perch in trees. Maybe this is a new species - Wirral Tree pipit.

Shag movements.

These photo's really are poo! Those with a week disposition should look away now...........
A trip to  Hilbre Obs started at first light yesterday with a search of West Kirby marine lake as the sun rose. With many local freshwater ponds iced over the marine lake was heaving with birds.

I don't know where all these 'record' counts of Shags on the Marine Lake are coming from but yesterday morning I only saw 3 shags and 10 Cormorants! Plenty of Goldeneye & Red-breasted Mergansers also present along with a flock of displaced Tufted Ducks presumably from nearby Ashton Park. Star birds however were a pair of Scaup.

Hilbre was a superb place to spend the morning with the Obs staff being kept busy logging the various birds either on the island or overhead. The island itself provided temporary refuge to a Woodcock and two Snipe whilst on the sea Fridays fem / imm Velvet Scoter was viewable with a telescope off the north end. With several small parties of Scaup being logged and Pinkfeet overhead the morning could only be improved with bacon butties and Christmas cake!

After leaving HilbreSteve Williams & I drove along the West Kirby prom checking the marine lake. No sign of the early morning Scaup but a good oppurtunity in better light to get a few shots of some of the temporary residents including this immature Shag showing its disugst at being confused with a Cormorant. You can tell its a Shag by the colour and parabolic effect of its discharge. Cormorant poo is white............

So there you have it. A fail safe way to separate Shag from Cormorant!

        Drake Goldeneye

        Drake Red-breasted Merganser.

A walk round Stanney Woods late afternoon was rewarded with 2 Woodcock - a sure sign of cold weather if ever one was needed and part of a localised movement in Cheshire. Not much to report else where from the S Wirral but a morning spent garden bird watching was well spent as I logged 21 species around the feeders  including Moorhen, Redwing, Fieldfare, Song Thrush, Blackbird, 3 Bullfinches (2 males and a female), Sparrowhawk as well as the more regular species. The poor Moorhens on our local pond have been reduced to visiting the garden feeders and eating ivy berries.

More cold weather movements.

For the last week or so temperatures haven't risen above freezing in my corner of Cheshire and a heavy snowfall Tuesday compounded the problems faced by both the feathered and non-feathered inhabitiants of this borough. Thankfully Landrover power has seen me through the worst of it and I even got my daughter and son in-law back to Manchester airport amidst all the mayhem of Tuesday night for their home trip to Australia. Today the temperature on the way to work hit a low of -9 C - you know its cold when the toilets inside the office start freezing!

Deciding to leave early and enjoy the snowy scene I headed back towards the Wirral only to see a skein of geese flying towards me. Stopping in a convenient layby I grabbed the binoculars and was stunned to see approximately 20 White-fronted Geese flying towards me and heading towards the Dee Estuary.
Ringing the lads on Hilbre I was pleased to get a call back from Degsy saying he'd had my skein and a larger one heading out over the sea towards Ormskirk. Its nice when other people get to see the birds you've found. Similarly, my mate Al Orton whose doing a Cheshire year list, managed to locate one of the Bramblings I saw nearby last week and got onto 'my' local Little Owl for good measure.

Checking the stubble fields revealed all the birds appear to have moved off to warmer climes. The only birds of note were a large 600 + flock of Wood Pigeons pillaging the rape and a few lone Chaffinches feeding on seed some kindly person had scattered for them.

Opting for a bit of a gull watch I headed to Stoak where I knew lots of gulls could be found loafing in the fields adjacent to the Gowy tip. Sure enough the area was heaving with gulls - I estimated 8 -10,000 - and walking a footpath down towards the Gowy River enabled me to 'scope them as the loafed in the snowy fields.

Amongst them was a juvenile Glaucous Gull and at least two adult Yellow-legged Gulls with possibly a couple of first winters as well.

Great stuff. Hopefully this area will bring in more white winged gulls as they start moving north again in the spring.  With a move to ban carrier bags perhaps theres better advertisement for the problems they can cause in the environment than this shot of a juv Herring Gull carrting around its own windsock in the form of a Tesco's disposable bag.................................................

A quick stroll around the adjacent fields was rewarded with a small flock of Yellowhammers and two Red-legged Partridges before Molly decided to revert from staid 13 year old Labrador to puppy again and spooked them by suddenly charging into a snow drift and rolling over and over on her back. Snow has the effect of turning normally sensible individuals into big kids again!

A birthday treat.

A quick trip down to Parkgate this evening as a treat to myself paid dividends when a female Marsh Harrier flew through without stopping - just enough light for a record shot!

The light was pretty spectacular for photography giving a very atmospheric feel. With 200+ Pinkfeet, Hen Harrier and three Short-eared Owls it was a real mid-winter birding bonanza.

With a supporting cast of Raven, Stonechat, Little Egret and plenty of wildfowl even the -3C temperature couldn't deter me from staying until it was really dark.

A tale of two Pipits.

Went down to Frodsham on spec today to see if the Water pipit was showing and photographable. It didn't take long to re-find the bird but it resolutely refused to come close enough for anything more than record shots. The whole flooded area was heaving with birds - Redwings, Fieldfares, Song Thrush, Pheasant, Skylarks and Meadow Pipits. A fantastic little area.

A female Merlin glided over causing panic and I lost the Water Pipit just as Frank phoned to say he'd found another one near Delamere and this one was probably more photogenic. Don't you believe it!

I eventually found the spot and the Water Pipit showed well but was quite flighty as the local Pied Wagtails were taking exception to its presence. Just as I got the camera set up for the killer shot it flew off never to be seen again......................

Still, at least the photo's show the all important white outer tail feather!

Stanney Woods provided winter interest this morning with a Woodcock flushed whilst walking Molly. Interestingly one of the local residents told me he'd heard Tawny Owls calling in the woods recently so I'll have to get down and check it out. All the usual woodland suspects were present but no sign yet of the Lesser-spotted Woodpecker.

Final act of the day was checking out two local areas for Owls and sure enough the resident Little Owls showed sunning themselves in their favourite tree whilst a Barn Owl showed in its preferred box. The game crop planted near the Barn Owl box hosted a big mixed flock of finches wit hat least 2 Bramblings amongst them. A great way to end my holiday. Back to work tomorrow......................

Happy New year.

Well 2010 is here. A late night celebrating with the family whilst having a barbeque meant the early hours of New Years day were spent tidying up the debris. Great fun but bitterly cold.

Spending a couple of hours in the garden enabled me to log a good number of species both within the confines and flying over including 3 Bullfinches on the sunflower hearts, Sparrowhawk & Pied Wagtail.

Most of my birding was done locally with some real surprises - as usaul the stubble fields were heaving with the usual suspects but 10 Skylarks were  fantastic local total. Nearby a cold weather movement resulted in 300+ Lapwings on the winter wheat but best of all there were 5 Golden Plover amongst them.

Just before New Years Eve I found a Jack Snipe in a marshy corner of one of the local fields. The farmer has left the whole corner fallow for several years as its been to wet to plough. Sure enough the Jack Snipe was there again New years day.

New Years Eve saw me on the N Wirral coast looking for a recently reported Black Redstart. Unfortunately there was no sign but the bird below gave me a surprise flying overhead!

A quick look at the rocks below Wirral Coast Guards revealed a few waders but no Purple Snadpipers although there were plenty at Hilbre today. Other good Hilbre birds included Red-throated Diver, Rock Pipit, Red-breasted Merganser and Common Scoter as well as a good selection of waders.

Interesting to see someone from the Wirral has posted a Cheshire Year List on the Focalpoint Forums including some pretty scarce birds which it appears no one else saw or even heard about including Dotterel and Lapland Bunting! The list also includes White-fronted Goose (one was reported at Gilroy but turned out to be a Greylag hybrid being the same size as a Greylag and no where near as small as a Whitefront), Red-crested Pochard, Balearic Shearwater, Great-white Egret, Long-eared Owl and Turtle Dove but doesn't include Terek Sandpiper (claimed at West Kirby Marine Lake) or Red-necked Phalarope of which there were two on the Wirral. None of these birds have been reported through the bird information services but as the list also includes the short staying Ring-necked Duck its obvious the birder involved got the details through one of the networks. It's just a shame he didn't report his birds for others to enjoy......................