Secret Six
No.6 tank at noon as viewed from the eastern corner.
An area of No.6 tank which perhaps doesn’t get much coverage is the secluded pool that hides behind the bank between six and No.3 tank. The best area to watch is the parking bank at the junction of tanks No.3-5-6.
Birds to be expected are usually the ones you least expect to find on such a small pool and can include:Little Egret, Avocet, Little Stint, Green, Wood and Curlew Sandpiper, plus shorebirds like this juvenile Knot which are flushed off the river by the big tide. Greenshank are often found hiding in the pools and at times in double figures.
In Spring as good a place to find a Garganey as anywhere else on the marshes. With its isolation it often gets overlooked by birders but with the coming Spring it looks set to attract something a little more entertaining?
The pools often attract the attention of passing raptors and it is not unusual to see the Marsh Harrier quartering the reed beds and in a good owl year, a place for Shorties to hunt the banks at dusk.
The willow trees bordering the reed bed are slowly encroaching this corner of No.6 tank and will eventually take over. The image above shows how habitats at Frodsham Marsh and in particular on the sludge beds are often made unintentionally and go on to attract wildlife.
This pool generally fills with rain water during the winter and slowly evaporates throughout the summer to leave an area suitable for those secretive water birds like the Water Rail. It is also a havern for Reed and Sedge Warblers in the Spring and Autumn and wintering Chiffchaff.
The pools biggest ‘goodie’ (for 24 hours at least and before its true origin was revealed, when it flash a leg to the crowds to reveal a fetching brightly coloured red ring) was a Marbled Duck discovered here in 2013.
Do what the penguin says…No.6 tank is both private and a working site please keep off the banks and don’t flush the birds.
All images by WSM except for # 4 by Stuart Maddocks
