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May 02 2023
Woolston Eyes 2nd May 2023
The birding group were due to go to Macclesfield Forest on 2nd May but I chose not to go there because of the hilly nature of that particular walk. Instead, we decided to go to Woolston Eyes nature reserve and we had a very pleasant morning with a good number of species including the year-tick Black-necked Grebes that it is so famous for.
Continue readingApr 30 2023
April 2023 Summary
New “Year Ticks” in April 2023: 22
New “Life Ticks” in April 2023: 0
Total Species for 2023 so far: 114
Apr 18 2023
Birding Group visit to Pennington Flash 18 April 2023
The first birding group outing of the Spring Term was to Penningtion Flash on a lovely, sunny morning. In all we got half a dozen new year ticks and also had a chance to visit the new cafe and toilets that have recently opened there. What more could you wish for?
Continue readingApr 06 2023
Ham Wall and Shapwick Heath 6th April 2023
After a short visit to Bristol, to catch up with friends, we moved on to Montacute to see our friends who live there. The weather looked a bit uncertain on the day we had planned to go there but we gave it a shot and managed to both avoid any bad weather and get a couple of good year ticks.
Continue readingApr 02 2023
Slimbridge WWT Reserve 2nd April 2023
On a trip to the south of England to visit friends, we managed to get a couple of days with some birding. We drove down on the 1st April but we got stuck on the motorway almost as soon as we started. With the car parked and the engine off for three hours, we didn’t make it to Slimbridge that afternoon but we did get there for a few hours the following day and managed to get some good year-ticks in.
Continue readingMar 30 2023
March 2023 Summary
New Year Ticks” in March 2023: 10
New “Life Ticks” in March 2023: 0
Total Species for 2023 so far: 92
Mar 28 2023
Marbury Country Park 28th March 2023
The last birding morning of the winter term took us to Marbury Park with a lunch at the Bergamot and Spinner where we also had our planning session for the following term. When we first arrived at the car park it was a little damp but then it soon got much wetter. We hovered around for a bit before deciding that we would go to the new hide overlooking the mere; this was a replacement for the previous one that was vandalised to the point of destruction. We didn’t expect too much on such a wet day, but we were to be very surprised.
Continue readingMar 23 2023
High Tide at Riverbank Road and Burton Mere Wetlands 23 March 2023
We had a second go at a high tide a couple of days after our first visit when the tide was much better; 10.1 metres at 12:12pm. We started out at Riverbank Road on the Wirral. It was a bit wetter than on the Tuesday but the weather helped the tide come in a long way there. Unfortunately we didn’t see any Short-eared Owls or Hen Harriers- they have been scarce this Winter. In fact, we did not get a Marsh Harrier which is unusual – they must have been full up already!
Continue readingMar 21 2023
High Tide at Parkgate and Burton Mere Wetlands 21 March 2023
A hight tide of 9.8 metres at 10:49am took us up to Parkgate where, amazingly, the car park at the Old Baths was viertually empty. This was probably because it was the first day of high tides which were:
21st March, 10.49hrs (GMT), 9.8m.
22nd March, 11.31hrs (GMT), 10.1m.
23rd March, 12.12hrs (GMT), 10.1m.
24th March, 12.50hrs (GMT), 9.9m.
Being the first day the tide wasn’t particularly high and it wasn’t one of our best high tides but there were signs that Spring was coming and the smaller birds on the marsh were very active.
Continue readingMar 07 2023
Birding Group RSPB Marshside and WWT Martin Mere 7th March 2023
There were only five of the birding group available for the trip to RSPB Marshside. The day was uncharacteristically very sunny and the wind was less than usual so that made for a less arduous trip than is often the case here. We were surprised to see a lot of the inner marsh under water so the incredibly large numbers of birds usually there were less this time and crammed into a smaller area of firm land.
Continue reading