Birding Group Visit To Frodsham Marshes 30th October 2012

Birding Group Visit To Frodsham Marshes 30th October 2012

As soon as I got out of the car I had a quick look at the telegraph wires that run across the field to the left side of the parking place we use and they had scatterings of Starlings lined along them. Occasionally something would get them going and many more would rise up from the field that the posts edged. Then it became clear that there were several hundred of them roosting in the field. Obviously autumn was upon us. When we were last at Frodsham Marshes it was spring and the air was full of Skylarks. In October it is a little different and there are no Larks around at all. We had a very, very  muddy walk along a ditch to the river and when we got there, unfortunately, the tide was high so our chances of seeing waders was small.

We saw one Redshank fly past but other than that there were no other waders. There was a small flock of Goldeneye and around ten Little Grebes. A few Cormornats and Mute Swans and some Canada Geese in the distance were really about it.  flock of Lapwings were getting up occasionally and it may have been a pair of Rooks that were spooking them. We walked to the bend in the river but with the tide so high we thought we would do better at the tanks and indeed that was the case. On the water, there, there were large numbers of Golden Plover looking particularly pleasant in the winter sun. At the edges of this flock there was an equally large flock of the somewhat smaller Dunlin and in the distance a scattering of Shelduck could be seen. On the far bank there were a few Pochards and lots of Teal that eventually came over to our near side.

In the field opposite we saw more Starlings flying around and we saw four Buzzards in a group all being bothered by a group of Rooks. On a telegraph pole we saw what we took to be a Kestrel and there were small flocks of Goldfinch as well, I did get a couple of glimpses of what I took to be winter thrushes but the glimpses were a bit too brief to made a positive id.

All in all, the river had been a bit disappointing due to the high tide and the rather unpleasant muddy walk we had but the tanks were the saving grace for the day and a flock of Golden Plover in the low winter sunshine takes a bit of beating.

Bird Sightings : Frodsham Marshes