Summary March 2013
Garden
The first week of March was an unusually dry spell and sometimes quite warm. After that the weather got wetter and a bit colder. By the start of the second week it was snowing a bit and very cold but by the 17th it was drier and a bit warmer. Towards the end of the month the snows started to fall again, this time much more heavily, and the temperatures were freezing. Actually Manchester seemed to get off lightly compared to the rest of the country and by the end of the month there was some sunshine even though it was still cold. In fact the coldest March for fifty years.
In the garden there are the usual suspects, Dunnock, Blackbird, Blue, Great and Coal Tits, Goldfinches, a pair of Robins and the occasional Wren. Collared Doves and Wood Pigeons are back with a vengeance and we have yet another black and white cat – making three – trying to establish a territory in our garden. A couple of Starlings reappeared and on the 17th I saw the two Robins sitting shoulder to shoulder in the rose bush so they evidently have paired up nicely. Blackbirds are also pairing up and the males are competing for territory.
Birding Group Days Out
We have had ongoing work being done on the house and this has impacted on our birding group attendance. We missed Moore Nature Reserve on the 5th and also Burton Mere Wetlands and Parkgate on the 12th. I believe that nothing special was spotted at Moore but a blogger had posted photos of a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker that they had seen at Moore on the same day – it had been seen at the feeder station hide and was apparently chased off by a Great Spotted Woodpecker. I subsequently found out that Parkside had been dull but Burton produced good close views of Snipe by the reception centre, Hen Harrier (ringtail), Ringed Plovers and Avocets which were taking possession of a shingle island & seeing off all comers. They also saw Siskins as well as the usual waterfowl, ducks and waders. We did manage to get to Frodsham Marshes on the 19th, where the highlights were a pair of Ruddy Shelduck and a pair of Barnacle Geese, but we didn’t make the last date of the term because we were in Norfolk and Cambridgeshire. A provisional schedule was written up though and emailed to us.
Walks and Days Out
On the 2nd March we went up to Hoylake again for the high tide as we had done in the middle of January. It was a little disappointing compared to the previous time but we did get proper sightings of a number of Grey Plovers and there were masses of Knot, Dunlin, Sanderling, Curlew, Redshank and Oystercatchers.
We drove over to Sheffield on 8th and returned 10th. On our way there was sleeting and as we went over the Snake Pass we saw two female or, more probably, Juvenile, Red Grouse sitting on a dry-stone wall. On our return journey the surrounding countryside was in deep snow and we saw a single one on that journey.
On the 14th we went to WWT Martin Mere where I picked up my new Swarovski ATX scope and APO adaptor for my Nikon D300. The new system is miles better than for digiscoping with a DSLR than the previous arrangement. I got the 95mm objective lens and it may even magnify too much for some situations – I suppose I will just have to get a 65mm as well !! We gave it a test run on a walk around the hides. Highlights were about a dozen Avocets from Ron Barker and Siskin from Janet Keir. We also got extremely close views of a Ruff a Snipe and a Black-tailed Godwit from the Swanlink Hide – all just a few feet away from us.
The major birding event of our month was a visit to Norfolk and Cambridgeshire mixing some birding with visiting friends. This netted us a couple of species for the life list (Caspian Gull and Goshawk) and 15 more for the year list. Especially interesting was views of two Black Bellied Dippers.