The first birding group trip of November was supposed to be to Sandbach FLashes but road closures meant that we could not get there and the usual alternative emerge – Pennington Flash. The water there was also very high and it wasn’t possible to walk the circuit as usual because of flooding on part of the path.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
It wasn’t an especially great morning at Pennington. The water levels were very high and a lotof the grassy land was still very overgrown so Horrocks Hide was a little disappointing. SInce the flooding of the path meant that we could not get to a lot of the hides we had to turn back at the canal. I did actually walk a long way down the path but then it was impassable so it was a long walk back again. The leaves are coming off the trees so that made bird spotting easier – if only there were birds. Best birds of the day were a very few Redwing; but not even the first for the year since I saw some early in the year. The new visitor centre is still being built – not that anyone much is ever working there. A sign said that it was going to be closed Monday to Friday for 2 weeks in November due to the preparations for opening the new visitor centre – ridiculous!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
| Species<\/th>\n | No<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n |
|---|---|
| Black-headed Gull<\/td>\n | 40<\/td>\n <\/tr>\n |
| Blackbird<\/td>\n | 3<\/td>\n <\/tr>\n |
| Blue Tit<\/td>\n | 4<\/td>\n <\/tr>\n |
| Bullfinch<\/td>\n | 8<\/td>\n <\/tr>\n |
| Chaffinch<\/td>\n | 8<\/td>\n <\/tr>\n |
| Coot<\/td>\n | 160<\/td>\n <\/tr>\n |
| Cormorant<\/td>\n | 10<\/td>\n <\/tr>\n |
| Gadwall<\/td>\n | 12<\/td>\n <\/tr>\n |
| Goldfinch<\/td>\n | 4<\/td>\n <\/tr>\n |
| Great Crested Grebe<\/td>\n | 10<\/td>\n <\/tr>\n |
| Great Tit<\/td>\n | 4<\/td>\n <\/tr>\n |
| Little Grebe<\/td>\n | 2<\/td>\n <\/tr>\n |
| Long-tailed Tit<\/td>\n | 3<\/td>\n <\/tr>\n |
| Magpie<\/td>\n | 4<\/td>\n <\/tr>\n |
| Mallard<\/td>\n | 20<\/td>\n <\/tr>\n |
| Moorhen<\/td>\n | 2<\/td>\n <\/tr>\n |
| Mute Swan<\/td>\n | 16<\/td>\n <\/tr>\n |
| Nuthatch<\/td>\n | 3<\/td>\n <\/tr>\n |
| Redwing<\/td>\n | 3<\/td>\n <\/tr>\n |
| Reed Bunting<\/td>\n | 8<\/td>\n <\/tr>\n |
| Robin<\/td>\n | 2<\/td>\n <\/tr>\n |
| Shoveler<\/td>\n | 18<\/td>\n <\/tr>\n |
| Stock Dove<\/td>\n | 2<\/td>\n <\/tr>\n |
| Teal<\/td>\n | 20<\/td>\n <\/tr>\n |
| Tufted Duck<\/td>\n | 100<\/td>\n <\/tr>\n |
| Willow Tit<\/td>\n | 2<\/td>\n <\/tr>\n |
| Wren<\/td>\n | 1<\/td>\n <\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The first birding group trip of November was supposed to be to Sandbach FLashes but road closures meant that we could not get there and the usual alternative emerge – Pennington Flash. The water there was also very high and it wasn’t possible to walk the circuit as usual because of flooding on part of … <\/p>\n |