January 2012 archive

Jan 31 2012

Summary January 2012

Summary January 2012

Garden

The new year started with very mild weather with some wet days and some quite windy days. The Tits seem to be finding lots of insects already and some days you can see a mist of hovering gnats over the lawn in the back garden. Goldfinch numbers on the feeders peaking at around 18 but Greenfinches not evident. The Blackcap we had occasionally wasn’t seen for a bit but towards the end of the month it returned. The Blackbirds are back on the lawn and the Wood Pigeons and Collared Doves that have been absent for a while have started to reappear dominating the bird table when they can.

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Jan 31 2012

Birding Group Day Out to Martin Mere WWT 31st January 2012

Birding Group Day Out to Martin Mere WWT 31st January 2012

The last day of the month was due to be a visit to Martin Mere and Mere Sands Woods but, in the end, it was decided that there was so much to see at Martin Mere that we would stay there all day rather than leave early to go to the nearby Mere Sands Woods. This decision was made quite early as we had, from the start, started to see some good sighting, especially of raptors.

We started off by going to the Ron Barker hide where we saw three Marsh Harriers.  Although the Pink-footed Geese were mainly all out in the fields for the day, there were a few there and indeed one was grazing just in front of the hide so we got good close views. We also saw around 40 Ruff mixed in with the Lapwing and the very large numbers of Wigeon. Many of the smaller bodies of water were  largely frozen over and as the day went on it got colder still.

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Jan 24 2012

Birding Group Visit to Pennington Flash 24th January 2012

Birding Group Visit to Pennington Flash 24th January 2012

Today the birding group was due to go to Redesmere but a poor weather forecast put a lot of people off given that there is no cover there, so instead we followed the usual standby plan which was to go to Pennington Flash where there are at least a few hides to, well, hide in ! Fortunately there are plenty of birds there for whom the weather is just water off a duck’s back. So we still had some good sightings despite the weather. There were even some songbirds around

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Jan 17 2012

Birding Group Visit to Tatton Park 17th January 2012

Birding Group Visit to Tatton Park 17th January 2012

Our morning trip to Tatton Park was made more pleasant by it being a cold, bright, crisp winter morning. We parked up as usual in the lay-by on Mobberley Road and walked down Mallard Close and over the railway bridge to the south entrance. We walked through Dog Wood where we saw Goldcrests, a Nuthatch and Long-tailed Tits. The wood was full of Blue and Great Tit calls as well. We turned down the path to the left that runs near the edge of Tatton Mere and stopped there to see what was on the water.

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Jan 11 2012

New Birding Group Schedule

Due to issues concerning the correct dates for high tides, the original schedule for this session has changed to the following :

New Birding Group Schedule

Date Venue
Jan 17th Tatton Park
Jan 24th Redesmere
Jan 31st Martin Mere and Meresands Wood day trip
Feb 7th Neumann’s Flash
Feb 16th Hilbre Island (weather permitting)
Feb 21st Sandbach Flashes
Feb 28th Bramhall
March 6th Wigan Flashes
March 13th Frodsham Marshes (weather permitting)
March 20th Moore
March 26th Burton and Inner Marsh Farm
April 3rd Marbury CP (pub lunch and summer programme setting)

Jan 10 2012

Birding Group Visit to Pennington Flash 10th January 2012

Birding Group Visit to Pennington Flash 10th January 2012

This was the first day of the new birding group term and it started with a regular of the group – Pennington Flash. Unusually for the time of year, the weather was really quite mild and even the usual wind tunnel effect in “Horrock’s hide” was ameliorated by the mild weather ; last year at this time it was a different story. The birding was good all round with sightings of Goldeneye (male female and juvenile) and also Goosander and,more usually, Tufted Duck. At the Tom Edmonson hide there were lots of Teal but, particularly pleasing, there were three (at least) Snipe sitting on the left hand bank just behind the reeds.

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