Our planned visit was supposed to be to Macclesfield Forest but the weather forecast was so poor that it made sense for us to swop that trip with the one for the following week – i.e. Pennington Flash. Pennington Flash has hides and is well provided with footpaths so it is much easier in poor weather \u00a0than the Macclesfield Forest site which has none of these luxuries.<\/p>\n
We started out at Hide 2 (The Horrocks Hide-the coldest and windiest) and immediately spotted two Little Ringed Plovers. There were lots of Coots on the water and several nests were visible, some with very young looking chicks. We went on to Hide 7 (Tom Edmondson Hide) where we tried for quite a while to locate a singing Reed Warbler. In the end it was in the nearest Willow shrub to us hiding around the back. We had a quick look at Hide 8 (The Ramsdale Hide) where we could see a couple of Great Crested Grebes but neither seemed to have chicks riding on their backs. There were several Coots around here as well.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
We then walked through the strip of land that runs parallel to the Leeds – Liverpool Canal and then turned right at the steps and continued on through the woodland where we saw a Song Thrush (we could hear more than one), a Chiffchaff and a Whitethroat. The latter was in a shrub rising out of the big bramble patch. Other birders there said that they had just seen Grasshopper Warblers there but they didn’t show for us.<\/p>\n
We returned via the other two hides, the Teal Hide (no 6) and the Lapwing Hide (no 7) where we saw further Coots, Moorhen, Tufted Duck etc. We saw more than one Blue Tit that had nested in he roofspace of the hides and were busy ferrying caterpillars to the nestlings. \u00a0By the look of some of the leaves around the hides there was no shortage of caterpillars. As usual, we dropped in finally at the Bunting Hide (no 4)which is usually teeming with birds but in this case there were three squirrels, a Moorhen, a Magpie and a Woodpigeon dominating the feeders. On the plus side there were lots of Bullfinch of both sexes, the males looking very splendid despite the rigours of the breeding season.<\/p>\n
| Species<\/th>\n | Count<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n <\/p>\n |
|---|---|
| Blackbird<\/td>\n | 2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| \u00a0Blue Tit<\/td>\n | 10<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| \u00a0Bullfinch<\/td>\n | 8<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| \u00a0Canada Goose<\/td>\n | 10<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| \u00a0Carrion Crow<\/td>\n | 1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| \u00a0Chaffinch<\/td>\n | 1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| \u00a0Chiffchaff<\/td>\n | 1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| \u00a0Coot<\/td>\n | 40<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| \u00a0Dunnock<\/td>\n | 1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| \u00a0Great Black-backed Gull<\/td>\n | 8<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| \u00a0Great Crested Grebe<\/td>\n | 4<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| \u00a0Great Tit<\/td>\n | 4<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| \u00a0Greylag Goose<\/td>\n | 4<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| \u00a0Jay<\/td>\n | 4<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| \u00a0Lapwing<\/td>\n | 8<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| \u00a0Little Ringed Plover<\/td>\n | 2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| \u00a0Magpie<\/td>\n | 4<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| \u00a0Mallard<\/td>\n | 40<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| \u00a0Moorhen<\/td>\n | 2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| \u00a0Mute Swan<\/td>\n | 2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| \u00a0Pheasant<\/td>\n | 1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| \u00a0Pied Wagtail<\/td>\n | 1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| \u00a0Reed Warbler\u00a0<\/td>\n | 1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| \u00a0Robin<\/td>\n | 1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| \u00a0Rock Dove \/ Feral Pigeon<\/td>\n | 1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| \u00a0Song Thrush<\/td>\n | 2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| \u00a0Tufted Duck<\/td>\n | 8<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| \u00a0Whitethroat<\/td>\n | 1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| \u00a0Woodpigeon<\/td>\n | 1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n |