Eccleston Mere

Swift 50

Eccleston Mere

Common Sandpiper 1
Swallow 4
Willow Warbler 5
Chiffchaff 2
Blackcap 2
Mute Swan 2 ads

Eccleston Mere

Swift 1
Swallow 20
Sand Martin 5
House Martin 1
Gadwall 2 m & f
Kingfisher 1
Mute Swan 2 ads
Coot with 2 chicks

A common roadside plant in full flower at the moment, this is Garlic Mustard. Try crushing a leaf in your fingers!

At this time of year, not everything that is blue is a bluebell. This is one of my favourite plants, Wood Forget-me-not.

Rainford Mosslands

White Wagtail 5 Inglenook Farm
Wheatear 6 Inglenook Farm, 3 King's Moss, 4 Old Coach Road, 1 Catchdale Moss
Shelduck 2 Dairy Farm Road
Willow Warbler 3 singing Berrington's Lane, 5 Old Coach Road
Tree Sparrow 4 Reed's Brow, Rainford

Pennines birding

I've been away for a few days, doing some Breeding Birds Surveys at various sites in the Pennines. Really tough going at times, but some tremendous birding. It's just wonderful to see birds like Golden Plover, Curlew and Snipe calling and displaying at close range, and also good numbers of Ring Ouzels and Short-eared Owls. Lots of Red Grouse of course, but the highlight was two male Black Grouse.

Wood Anenome, here growing at about 450m with not a tree in sight. It always seems slightly strange to see an ancient woodland indicator species growing in a place like this, but it seemed to be thriving.

Rixton Clay Pits

Today we visited Rixton Clay Pits, just south of Warrington. It's a SSSI largely on account of it's large population of Great Crested Newts, and this is one of the best sites in the North West (and possibly the UK) for the species.

Great Crested Newts are an endangered and protected species, and it's illegal to disturb them in any way. This particular individual was in a pond quite close to a viewing platform, and though the water always makes them diffficult to photograph, you can at least get an idea of what it looks like. This is a large species, which can grow up to 18cm long. This individual was about 15cm. There were also Smooth Newts in the pond, and these reach about 10cm.

This looks like a Chironomidae species emerging. Also known as non-biting midges, there were lots of empty cases floating on the surface of the water, and we watched as adults emerged from others.

Eccleston Mere

Common Sandpiper 1
House Martin 2
Swallow 20
Sand Martin 20
Blackcap 4 singing
Chiffchaff 2 singing
Willow Warbler 4 singing
Lesser Redpoll 2
Tufted Duck 4

Old Coach Road

Wheatear 10
Willow Warbler 5 singing
Chiffchaff 3 singing
Blackcap 2 singing

Strangely, 7 of the Wheatears flew out of the remains of a fallen tree by the side of the road as I cycled past! It was either good shelter or they had found a good food source. All of the Wheatears today were males.

Eccleston Mere

Swallow 20
Willow Warbler 2 singing
Whitethroat 1 singing
Chifffchaff 1 singing
Blackcap 2 singing

I've never seen the mere as low as it is at present. There's a nice delta forming at the point where the stream enters the mere! Hopefully it will keep going down and give us chance of a decent wader or two over the next few weeks! Not such good news for  the grebes though, one of the nests is about a foot out of the water already, yet there is still a bird sitting. Perhaps it can't get off......

Billinge Hill

Ring Ouzel 1 male still on old landfill site near stone circle. View from the beacon.
Whitethroat 1 singing in scrub near horse paddocks
Willow Warbler 10 singing
Chiffchaff 1 singing
Blackcap 2 singing
Yellowhammer 5 singing
Grey Partridge 2

Billinge Hill - Ring Ouzel

Ring Ouzel 1 male on the site of the old landfill "stone circle". Best viewed from the Beacon.
Willow Warbler 2
Chiffchaff 2

This is a cracking bird. Hopefully it will stick around over the weekend. Get to see it if you can.