October 2012 archive

Oct 31 2012

Summary October 2012

Summary October2012

Garden

The start of October was very wet with some really torrential downpours. A few days towards the middle of the month were sunny and cold but the rain kept coming back in, sometimes, biblical quantities. October saw the return of Blackbirds and we have had a noisy pair in the garden recently. We also had a Nuthatch on the peanut feeder on 6th October and our neighbours told us they saw a GS Woodpecker on the feeders one day. There seems to be fewer Goldfinches around at the moment. We have been away for ten days and the weather was apparently very wet and cold so perhaps they have dispersed a little. On the other hand, a Robin visits occasionally and a Dunnock is singing frequently. By the last week of the month everything seemed to have gone a bit quiet again and apart from a few Goldfinches and a couple of Great tits there wasn’t much bird life to be seen. On 29th we found a dead squirrel in the garden looking entirely unharmed but laid out on its back and clearly  a goner. We noticed it when a Magpie was pecking at it on the lawn in a gruesome manner ! By the end of the month we had a return to wet weather and then the temperature dropped and it dried up a little. Everywhere we go, however, displays signs of the huge rainfall we have had over this summer.

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Oct 30 2012

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.

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Oct 22 2012

Birding Group Visit To Hilbre Island 22nd October 2012

Birding Group Visit To Hilbre Island 22nd October 2012

Usually when we go to Hibre Island we have to brave a lot of wind and usually some rain as well. Today was completely different and the day was warm and completely windless. This mean that a t-shirt would have been the best attire because after a brisk walk across the sands we got pretty warm. We were surprised to see three  Mergansers on the sailing lake although it wasn’t too clear what they could find to eat there. As we walked across the sand we started to see Curlew which were scattered about the place and getting more frequent as we neared the island. We could also hear the eerie “singing” of a large number of Common Seals relaxing on a sand bar.

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Oct 16 2012

Birding Group Visit to Pennington Flash 16th October 2012

Birding Group Visit to Pennington Flash 16th October 2012

It seems that every time that the birding group schedules Wigan Flashes the weather conspires to be so bad that it is changed to Pennington Flash at the last minute, primarily because at least there is shelter there. This time was no exception. The weather wasn’t any better there but at least there was cover on what was a cold blustery and rainy day without much going for it except that it blew the cobwebs out of our heads.

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Oct 10 2012

Afternoon Visit to Rostherne Mere 10th October 2012

Afternoon Visit to Rostherne Mere 10th October 2012

After our rather disappointing visit to Sandbach Flashes we decided, after a spot of lunch at the Bells of Peover, to drop in on the hide at Rostherne Mere. We had previously been there most recently during the Open Day when we joined the Cheshire and Wirral Ornithological Society (CAWOS) and also got an eighteen month’s subscription to use the hide at Rostherne Mere. When we arrived there were, as we expected, a few local birders installed in one of the two sections of the hide. They looked like they were permanent fixtures and I think we expected this sort of thing. However, instead of steely looks, as we reached the door of the hide a chap who was smoking his pipe outside the hide made us feel very welcome and for starters straight away pointed out to us a lifer for us – a pair of Common Scoter near the far side of the mere.

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Oct 10 2012

Morning Visit to Sandbach Flashes 10th October 2012

Morning Visit to Sandbach Flashes 10th October 2012

We missed the first birding group date of the month which was at Sandbach Flashes due to a dental appointment but we did go there the following day by way of keeping up with what the birding group is doing. We started off by parking on the left side of the road overlooking Pump House Flash and the higher ground behind it. There were were around 250 Lesser Black-backed Gulls, 100 Wigeon, 1 Mute Swan, ten Mallard, a few Cormorants, Moorhen. Lapwing and Coot. In the surrounding trees we saw a Sng Thrush and Chaffinch, Wood Pigeon and Magpies.

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