John Spottiswood's A birder in Holmes Chapel

Blogger’s log.

23/5/12, Brereton Heath:
Yellow Wagtail at Bagmere Bank Farm.
Male Brimstone butterfly in the southwestern corner of the reserve near to the junction of three lanes.
8 Tree Sparrows at Bagmere Bank Farm.
Singing Skylark.
3 Lapwings.
Singing Goldcrest at Brereton Hall.

25/5/12, Bent Farm Sand Quarry:
2 singing Willow Warblers
2 singing Goldcrests.

Holmes Chapel:
3 Mayfies at the front of our house were a surprise. I always thought you only saw them at rivers. I wondered whether the easterly winds could have blown them from the River Dane (at least a mile if you go east).

26/5/12, Frodsham Marsh:
For a change I decided to skip Weaver Bend and pay special attention to No.6 tank involving my first ever walk all the way round.
12 Common Whitethroats (11 singing)
6 singing Sedge Warblers
3 Yellow Wagtails
Cuckoo heard only
7 singing Skylarks
10 singing Reed Warblers
94 Tufted Ducks
20 Shelducks
Male Wigeon
Black-tailed Godwit
3 Avocets
5 Gadwalls
3 Ringed Plovers
Shoveler
2 reeling Grasshopper Warblers by the lane below No.6.
Lesser Whitethroat audible over the fields there towards the M56.
For those who remember the glory days when Frodsham was definitely one of the UK’s premier birding sites check out this excellent new blog
at http://frodshammarshbirdblog.wordpress.com/
It is still one of the best sites in Cheshire so let’s get out there and see if we can bring in some new glories. Recent years have seen such delights as Buff-breasted Sandpiper and Red-backed Shrike so it can still deliver even though there is a lot less prime habitat and less coverage. The blog also has some recent sightings, a virtual equivalent of the legendary Frodsham bird log, a big notebook with a pen on a piece of string in a metal box nailed to a telegraph pole (it was cutting edge technology back in the day).

Holmes Chapel:
Mayfly again at the front of our house.

27/5/12, Railway Flash (Sandbach Flashes):
In the late afternoon I twitched a Short-eared Owl* here, a great local bird. Andy Goodwin had found it in the morning. Just as I was giving up and heading home it flew out of the grass where it had been having a siesta and showed well in an Ash tree for a few minutes before dropping back into the grass. It was in the area between the tip, the fishing lake and the flash.

Holmes Chapel:
Now 7 House Martins back on territory at St Andrews Drive.
3 Bats in our garden at dusk.

28/5/12, Goostrey:
12 Common Blues in the little scrubby ‘valley’ opposite the railway station.
Also 2 Willow Warblers and a hunting male Sparrowhawk.

Holmes Chapel:
Hedgehog in our garden.

29/5/12, Holmes Chapel:
Yellow Wagtail heard high over our garden at 07.20.
Greenfinch song-flighting over the garden.

Eaton Hall Quarry:
Singing Garden Warbler
5 Shelducks
Cormorant
Little Grebe
Red Fox.

Photo: tree stump from above at Brownlow Heath.
*Year list: 151

Posted by John Spottiswood