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.
Birding Group Days Out
We missed the first birding group date of the month (2nd October) to Neumann’s / Haydyn’s Flashes because we were still on holiday and we also missed the second date (the 9th of October) which was to Sandbach Flashes (due to a dental appointment) but we did try to keep up by going to Sandbach Flashes on our own the following day (see below). The scheduled trip to Wigan Flashes was, yet again, changed at the last minute to Pennington Flash due to bad weather but this was a bit of a wash out anyway and only three other people apart from us three turned up. On 22nd we got our annual Brent Geese fix with a rather pleasant and wind-free walk out to Hilbre Island. We also dropped in at Burton Mere Wetlands on our way back but we just missed a Hen Harrier and apart from that there wasn’t a great deal to be seen. On the 30th we went to Frodsham Marshes where we got lovely views of a large roosting flock of Golden Plover as well as some interesting views of four Buzzards being bothered by Rooks
Walks and Days Out
Because we missed the birding group day out on 9th October we decided to catch up by going on the following day to Sandbach Flashesby way of keeping up with what the birding group is doing. It wasn’t that good actually so a little bit disappointing. That afternoon we also dropped into Rostherne Mere which turned our day around a bit with first ever sightings of Common Scoter.