March 2014 archive

Mar 31 2014

Summary : March 2014

Summary : March2014

Garden

With the weather being changeable so was the garden birding. On colder days nothing much was about but on the warmer, sunnier days, we had quite a few visitors. On the 13th we had pairs each of Goldfinch, Blue and Great Tits, Dunnock, House Sparrows, Blackbirds and even Mistle Thrushes. A single Starling also seems to be hanging around. The inevitable return of the Woodpigeons has also taken place. Towards the end of the month the birds were starting to think that spring was in sight and the garden started to fill with displaying Dunnocks and contending Blackbirds. A Blue Tit checked out the nest box on our chimney and a day or so later it started working on it. It seemed content with the box itself but kept pecking at the hole and trying _ I believe – to smooth it out. It continued doing this until the very end of the month when it then disappeared for a day. What would April bring ?

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Mar 25 2014

Birding Group Visit to Pennington Flash : 25th March 2014

Birding Group Visit to Pennington Flash : 25th March 2014

On another wet Tuesday the birding group’s planned visit to Frosdsham Marsh was rescheduled and we went – again – to Pennington Flash. The highlights were my first Sand Martins of the year, good numbers of Goosander and, although we did not manage to see it, we had prolonged singing from a Cetti’s Warbler – just near the Tom Edmundson Hide. It was loud and clear and totally unmistakable.

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Mar 18 2014

Birding Group Visit to Marshside and Mere Sands Woods : 18th March 2014

Birding Group Visit to Marshside and Mere Sands Woods : 18th March 2014

The birding group visit to Marshside was hopefully going to be a chance to get a year-tick on the first winter drake Long-tailed Duck although I am pretty sure that the Ross’s Goose has already gone. Additionally, it is usually a good time to see Golden Plover at Marshide.

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Mar 11 2014

Birding Group Visit to Moore Nature Reserve : 11th March 2014

Birding Group Visit to Moore Nature Reserve : 11th March 2014

At this time of year Moore is well known for its Lesser Spotted Woodpecker/s and it is also good for Great Spotted Woodpeckers and Green Woodpeckers so a big hope of mine was to get the holy grail of the hat-trick of all three in the one site in one day. The question was – would we get lucky ?

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Mar 09 2014

WWT Martin Mere : 9th March 2014

Ruff in Breeding Plumage, Martin Mere

Ruff in Breeding Plumage, Martin Mere

WWT Martin Mere : 9th March 2014

On a lovely Sunday morning we decided to drive up to WWT Martin Mere. I had been reading lately that there was a male Ruff there in nearly full breeding plumage and I really wanted to this quite rare event – rare especially in the north of England. We had an early and pleasant truck-less drive up there and were ready for our cup of tea before setting out for the hides. As it happened they had lost all their electricity and the place was plunged into darkness. Well at least the hides didn’t depend on electricity so we immediately went out in search of our Ruff.
We popped in to the In Focus shop and asked Andy Bunting where the best spot was to look for it and he said that it was quite often on the Mere and could be seen from either the Swanlink hide or the Raines Observatory. On the grounds that we usually see the Ruffs quite closely from Raines we headed off there first.

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Mar 04 2014

Birding Group Visit to Burton Mere Wetlands and Parkgate : 4th March 2014

Birding Group Visit to Burton Mere Wetlands and Parkgate : 4th March 2014

The first birding group trip of the month was to Burton Mere Wetlands and Parkgate. This was perhaps a little bit of bad timing because I had already been there two days before but that was just the way it panned out. We started off at Burton Mere whilst we were awaiting the high tide of that day – due to be 9.9 m. In truth there wasn’t anything special there and we didn’t see the Water Rail I had seen a couple of days before. Undaunted we decided to get up to Parkgate which we hoped would not be too busy it being a lower tide that over the weekend when it had been incredibly busy.

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Mar 03 2014

Rostherne Mere : 3rd March 2014

Rostherne Mere : 3rd March 2014

On a lovely sunny Monday morning we had the idea to go to Tatton Park and walk through the woods there looking for Woodpeckers – hopefully (very hopefully) all three species. Unfortunately we forgot that out of season Tatton Park is closed on Mondays. Because we were near Rostherne Mere and because we had not been there for a while we decided to head off there instead. As we walked across the fields to the car park we saw two Kestrels in the trees, one chasing the other. We walked down to the observatory and let ourselves in. Initially we were the only people there but after a bit a chap came in who I think I recognised from a previous visit as one of the recorders for the observatory. We got talking and he proved to be a most interesting, informative and friendly individual. It was he who pointed out to us two Goosanders (the first for the year) at the far end of the mere, unfortunately always trying to keep just out of sight.
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Mar 02 2014

High Tide at Hoylake, New Brighton, Parkgate and Burton Mere : 2nd March 2014

High Tide at Hoylake, New Brighton, Parkgate and Burton Mere : 2nd March 2014
On the 2nd of March decided to go to Hoylake and possibly New Brighton for the high tide, due that day for 11.42 at a great height – 10.1 metres. We got to Hoylake for around 10.45am and to our complete amazement the water was all the way in already and half way up the promenade wall. We had never even seen all the sand covered before and clearly there was going to be no chance of seeing any birds.

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