A beautiful day in glorious sunshine and a walk along Moorditch Lane produced a locally uncommon family group of three Mistle Thrush in the horse pasture. A bare elder bush had a Great Spotted Woodpecker perched on its top, but a jogger flushed it before I could get a picture.
I continued my walk and looked across the (filled to the brim with rain water) No.6 tank and ducks were well scattered with a small group of Tufted Duck at the eastern end and c750 Eurasian Teal, c45 Northern Shoveler, 10 Gadwall, 32 Mallard and a Common Shelduck.
The first Whooper Swan of the autumn was alone on the water without any mates.
A flock of c350 Black-tailed Godwit, 4 Common Snipe, 3 Common Redshank and 5 Ruff were acceptable considering the height of the water.
A pale morph Common Buzzard was on No.5 tank, while Kestrel and Eurasian Sparrowhawk kept the passerines on their toes.
A traffic incident on the M56 saw JS stuck on it for an hour and a half.
Observer and images: WSM.
A Cetti’s Warbler burst into song near the old bird log and c 40 Northern Lapwing were in a field along the lane. On the River Weaver c150 Tufted Duck were joined by Mallard, Eurasian Teal, Gadwall and c60 Eurasian Coot, 4 Great Crested Grebe and c30 Canada Goose. c 40 Eurasian Curlew were feeding next to Marsh Farm and several Raven were feasting on a sheep carcass.
Observer: Paul Ralston.
A rare record of a Bearded Reedling from reed bed by the River Weaver at Hob Hay Wood, Frodsham per Mark O’ Sullivan.
