Terry, that could well be a good shout re the Gulls. Need to see them a bit further along to see if they are going out to roost when they disappear from view or just their path down river makes them look like they are landing.

All pools frozen today. Two Carrion Crow, one Mallard on Lapwing Lane Pool and six Mallard on Birchwood Pool.

Got a bit nervous staying on the reserve too long to watch dusk flyovers today as at the Xroads as they were doing maintenance work on the Swing Bridge, after Stockton Heath's bridge froze and jammed open for 20 minutes. I don't mind staying overnight on Norton Marsh in the summer but II'll pass a night in Colin's Hide in this weather.

The Ship Canal held the Wigeon, Goldeneye, Tufted Duck, Mallard, Great and Little Grebe, Sinenesis Cormorant with some whitish head with gular angle over 90 degrees right under the bridge, couldn't tell any others on the canal. (Does the sine come from trigonometry in the Latin name anyone know?).

Anglers Pool also held a good number of ducks, as per the Canal and a flyover Sparrowhawk.

Trying to track down where Gulls overflying Moore at dusk are roosting I decided an afternoon at Halfway House watching the Mersey and Ship Canal.

As the tide dropped and revealed Penketh Bar two groups of small waders flew in 16 + 13 Knot. Very unusual here - last record I can find November 2016. Eventually as tide dropped further nine Redshank came in also (might be about my highest number for one group on patch) and two Curlew and a single Black-tailed Godwit and a single Green Sandpiper (from the direction of Fiddlers Ferry lagoons).

A few Black-headed Gulls were loafing as the tide fell, a single Common Gull and one Great Black-backed Gull also joined the waders. Gulls were generally as dusk fell flying from where I'd seen them in the East of the reserve and passing over towards Wigg Island and dropping out of sight behind Randles tip (roosting on the new Bar building up under the central column of the Mersey Gateway Bridge?).

A couple of Shelduck were all that was on the river otherwise. Five Grey Heron along the Ship Canal and a few Coot on the walk in and Fieldfare and Redwing in the Stobrats Horse Paddocks. Two Goldcrest were amongst Tit flocks near Owens Wood.

Took a visit today to where the "Sea-watching Hide" overlooking Richmond Bank is proposed to be built if Peel Ports get their way and the current Moore NR is concreted over, and the Capped Tip turned into a "Country and wildlife (aka Dog walker paradise) Park"). If anyone wants to see the plans which Warrington BC snuck out very quietly during Covid as part of the Local Plan update / consultations when we couldn't go and view plans...search for 'The Environment Partnership document ref 6929.01.037" on Google and you should be able to get a redacted PDF of the plans / biodiversity assessment.

Anyway, important stuff, the birds. One Great spotted Woodpecker calling in the wood on the way to the Capped Tip. Buzzard and Sparrowhawk on the Capped Tip. One Redshank, 486 Lapwing on Richmond Bank, with a supporting cast of two Great Black-backed Gulls, 47 Herring Gulls, 186 Black-headed Gulls, seven Common Gull, one Raven, 22 Cormorant. Two Snipe flushed walking along the bund to Norton Marsh. Woods and fields otherwise very quite.

Two female Goldeneye on Birchwood Pool and a Little Grebe were the best there. Pumphouse Pool devoid of birds since the wader heydays of autumn.

Usually a morning birder, evening Dad, but the last couple of nights I've been down the area from mid afternoon until after dark, primarily looking for and failing to detect any owls!

Yesterday went to the Eastern end of the Reserve to have a look, with the default "thermal image" App on an iPad Pro. Pretty crap quantitatively (definitely was not -17 degC on the water) but qualitatively pretty good at highlighting objects of different temperature / (I think it works on emissivity / reflectivity rather than being true FLIR as I'm sure you'd need a different lens to the default on on the iPad). A test a few days prior in the day it picked up four Snipe I was about to flush at a distance of 15 yards. On the Black-fields Pools you could tell the shape of Teal vs. Gadwall and spot roosting Corvids and Grey Heron. At the NW side of the back small pool, something was moving in the edge of the reeds towards the back, when it came into the open it had a profile revealing a female Pheasant, too fat and not snake enough neck liked to be anything else. Hundreds of Corvids came up off the Capped Tip and went towards Birch Wood to roost. Couldn't see to count due to the treeline in the way, but for ten minutes the cacophony of noise was spectacular. A few flocks of tens or low hundreds of Starlings flew in as I was walking off the Reserve, I couldn't triangulate if they were going to the Capped Tip Reedbed (CTRB) or the Eastern Reedbed (ERB).

Today a more traditional walk around the lanes and farmland using the Mk1 ears and eyes. 147 Herring Gulls in small groups went West down the Ship Canal. 126 Pink-footed Geese flew over heading NNW over Norton Marsh, so looked more like heading for Lancashire Mosses than Dee? I got to the S-bends on Lapwing Lane and in the dusk my eyes pick up a bright Blue Jack Snipe that was heading through the bends zig-zagging up the centre of the road at a metre height. Hold on, that can't be right.....Kingfisher of course, but strange to see one on a landlocked route equidistant from the Mersey and the Ship Canal. Better view of the Corvid roost, at least 900 Jackaw and Carrion Crow, including the "White Winged Carrion Crow" present last Winter (and 2015-2016) - does a good impression of a Hoodie in the twilight. Groups of Starlings could be seen from the field by the car park heading toward the ERB or CTRB and around 2,000 joined and did a couple minutes bunching and grouping as if to go into full scale Mumurations but they started to fragment and small groups dropped out of sight. 64 Cormorant were roosting on Lapwing Lane Lake trees.

Insomnia..so having shut my car door in the dark at Moore last night I find myself opening the door before first light. A much better day - 140 Tufted ducks were roosting on Pumphouse and as day broke flew off SE in pairs, threes and fours (to the Ship Canal?).

37 Siskin in one flock by the hide on Lapwing Lane. One Pochard. Four more Tufted Duck on the lake and two Wigeon.

Woodcock flushed on the wet field / building raft to east of Recovery Wharf - the idiot left it until I nearly stood on it and came straight up at me. I don't know who got the bigger shock I had a brief vision of its bill piercing my heart and me hanging up my binoculars on the way to the great observatory in the sky, felt the wing tips / air brush my cheek as it went past my head.

And to top the day off, all three Woodpecker species were seen, usual spots; Green over Capped Tip, Great Spotted over Pumphouse Pool and the other from Lapwing Lane fields in the adjacent trees.

-- Edited by Andy Slee on Wednesday 30th of November 2022 04:12:22 PM

Female Goldeneye back on Birchwood Pool, three Pochard, Little and Great Crested Grebe, four Tufted Duck 17 Black-headed Gulls, Jay, Carrion Crow and Buzzard.

Willow Tit on path to Pumphouse Pool, where there were six Gadwall, Coot, Moorhen, 54 Teal, being stalked by a dog Fox, resplendent colours shining in the early morning sun. Generally good numbers of Tit flocks flitting about but nothing other than Blue, Coal, Great and Long-tailed Tits, no crests.

Two Nuthatches dominating the feeding station.

17 Tufted Duck on Anglers Pool.

Late report from Weds 9th Nov.

Went early (5 am) looking for owls before dawn (no joy) but heard a number of Woodcock and Winter Thrushes overhead.

18 Snipe flushed on Norton Marsh. Odd Curlew and Lapwing flying along the Mersey and seven Little Egrets in view from Halfway House.

3,400+ Pink-footed Geese went East up the estuary at 7:50am.

Still very quite for woodland birds, but finally reconnected with Bullfinch, not seen any since late April.

A dismally wet start to the day and just after dawn as I was walking along the Northern path by the Eastern reedbed somewhere in the order 5 - 10,000 Starlings were climbing into the sky from the location of the Reedbed and heading North East towards Warrington town centre.

Great White Egret still on Pumphouse Pool, now seemingly friends with the Grey Heron stood side by side again.

However the day brightened up and produced four counts which for me were all my highest patch individual totals; Pochard - 35 Birchwood Pool, 12 Greenfinch in a flock at Recovery Wharf, 64 Jay (31 of which were in one field at Moss Lane), and between Birchwood Pool and the Ship Canal 182 Mallard.

353 was the single biggest skein of Pink-footed Geese I have seen on (ok, over, SE at 11:10) the patch but I've higher daily totals from multiple sightings.

27 Curlew on Moss Lane fields.

Early morn visit, 100th to the patch this year and Moore had a nice treat for me for my centennial visit!

Black Fields Pool held Snipe, Teal, Mallard, Moorhen and Cetti's warbler. A Raven flew over.

Pumphouse Pool from Colins Hide, at first in the sun there were Teal, Black-headed Gulls a single Green Sandpiper, five Little Egret and before I stated looking at the ducks a Grey Heron chasing a Grey White Egret (a patch first for me) come into view. They circled the Pool sometimes going behind the island / roosting on the island, regularly for 20 minutes or so. Then the Grey Heron again chased the Great White Egret into the NW corner and was lost to visit. I went round to the Western Screen to see if it could be reseen, again it flew past doing a circuit as I got there, to go and roost back over in the NE corner where I had just come from. Mist was dropping in by now and 35 Redwing were the last sighting of note.

Lapwing Lane Pool: Four Wigeon, 61 Coot, 21 Gadwall, Mallard, Little Grebe, Moorhen and Tufted Duck.

Lots of Tit flocks moving along the back path from the Feeding station to Birchwood Pool, including Coal, Great, Blue and Long-tailed, with a single Goldcrest and Dunnocks and two Chaffinch for company.

Birchwood Pool: Two Wigeon, 41 Black-headed Gull, Tufted Duck, two Great-Crested Grebe, one Little Grebe, Mallard, six Pochard, one Cormorant.

Ship Canal from swing bridge: Kingfisher, 21 more Coot, two Little Grebe and most out of the norm, a Water Rail on the concrete section of shore on the South side of the canal (where Oystercatchers sometimes hang out).

Must have been a "mini" fall overnight. Northern Eastern Reedbed path in 1/2 mile had 17 Goldcrest and six Chiffchaff. Loads of berries on the bushes looking good for Winter Thrushes.

One Little Grebe and 34 Teal on the Black Fields Pools. Earth moving machinery from the Landfill starting to work it's way around the BFPs, wonder how much longer they will exist? Anyway the over-wintering Green Sandpiper usually on these pools was today on Pumphouse Pool with a Greenshank, three Grey Heron, one Little Egret, 17 Cormorant, 28 Gadwall and 18 Teal.

One Buzzard and one Black-headed Gull were the only birds over the Eastern Reedbed.

Before the rains....path to Upper Moss Side two Swallows, then a minute later six Redwing, small Greenfinch flock.

Four Meadow Pipits over Norton Marsh and three more Swallows. Cetti's Warbler singing. Nine Little Egrets and six Grey Herons on the Mersey, with Comorant, Canada Geese, Shelduck, Crow, Black-headed Gull, Great and Lesser Black-backed Gull and a single Great Crested Grebe.

13 more Grey Heron along the Ship Canal back from Halfway House to Lapwing Lane, four more Swallows, 19 Tufted Duck, seven Great Crested Grebe and a Cetti's Warbler singing on the South side near Oxmoor. Sparrowhawk on wires at Lapwing Lane

Evening walk tonight and just as I was passing off a few hundred yards east of the East End at 6 - 7 pm, 550+ Starlings that had on the electricity pylons by Chester Road went and "quasi-Murmured" going off west and disappeared out of view into where the Eastern Reedbed would be.

Pumphouse Pool
pm
1 Green Sandpiper energetically picking insects from surface of water.
 

Retrieved a Trail Cam I'd left watching a small corner of Norton Marsh to see if the high tide last night did flood the Marsh. In-between the downpours, looks like there was some moving water on the marsh around 2am, with seven Little Egret and five Grey Heron on the Marsh picking away at prey.

Wondered if the largish tides over the next few days might push anything upriver of interest but was sadly disappointed. Norton Marsh was close to flooding on the lunchtime high tide today (9.45m predicted) with some of the gutters including those to the old overgrown wader scrape filling up slightly but still a good foot or so before even starting to flow onto the Marsh. Annoyingly the two big tides of this cycle are 1-2ft higher HT at Liverpool (River seems to peak at Norton Marsh around an hour after HT at Liverpool, but depends on anything that can affect a surge such as air pressure, wind direction, flow down the Mersey etc), are both around midnight tonight and Sunday they will probably cause the Marsh to flood; will have to check out the new detritus left on there in the next few days.

Nothing was lost though as a very pleasant few hours mooch watching the tide cycle on the river and birds on the Marsh from Halfway House the old hide site.

Three Green Sandpiper flew up the river ahead of the tides. Only wader present today. 27 Cormorant, 4 Great Black-backed Gull, 117 Lesser Black-backed Gulls, 9 Herring Gull and 300+ Black-headed Gull were on the various sandbanks (many more Black-headed gulls cycling up and down river). Grey Heron were present with seven and four Little Egret. Five buzzards over Fiddlers Ferry. Kestrel over Norton Marsh. Hundreds of Corvids flushing off Upper Moss Side farm fields every time the bird scarers went off.

Pair Stonechat on the posts at the edge of Norton Marsh, Great Spotted Woodpecker flyover towards Curdley, five Meadow Pipits south, 35 Goldfinch flitting around in a group, two linnet in fields by path back to Lapwing Lane.

Colins East Hide looking over Pumphouse pool. Four Lapwing, three Grey Herons giving each other agro trying to find whose spot was whose. Two Snipe looking on indifferent and resplendent in the afternoon sunlight sat in the middle of the pool mudflats. A Greenshank (much paler than last weeks bird, almost ghost like as light caught it sideways on was roaming the pool. Adult Green Sandpiper flew in from NE (Black-Fields Pools?) and returned in the same direction after 20 minutes. Five Lapwing were visible on the edges and a Kingfisher flew through, not stopping heading for the Eastern Reedbeds. Little Egret present, seems to be settled down the Eastern end of Moore this year.

Four Black-headed Gulls (juv) were present with two adult Lesser-black Backed Gulls +1 juv.

Six Greenfinch (ads+juvs) flew along the canal path embankment north of the Eastern Reedbed.

One Chiffchaff sat for a while, quietly, at Birchwood Pool West Hide, wonder if it has decided to stay? Water level on Birchwood Pool about 3ft below the hide floor, last winter, it was level with the hide floor.

Birchwood Pool Great-crested Grebe, Little Grebe, Tufted Duck, Pochard, Mallard, Mallard / domestic goose Hybrid (white neck band), Gadwall (31 including count from Pumphouse who flew in), Canada Goose (14), Greylag Geese (11) + one Hybrid white necked and headed smaller individual with black eye and grey bill.

Two Buzzard over Black-fields Pools. Plenty of Wood Pigeon knocking about and starting to see Rook on fields down the Eastern Reedbed end which isn't something I've seen in recent years so early and starlings building up in groups on power lines.

Yesterday, driving just south of Moore (trying to avoid Creamfields to get to work) nine swift were overhead above ploughed fields at Walton for a while.

Yesterdays visit gave a "return wader" feel to the Mersey at Moore so a return trip today was undertaken, again for the low tide at Halfway House and environs.

6 Curlew, 3 Lapwing (strangely low number), 1 Common Sandpiper were all the waders....hmmm bit disappointing. 4 Little Egret, 2 Grey Heron and again the five Common Species of Gulls loafing about and washing in the river, constantly flying to and from the Wigg Island direction so hard to get a feel for overall gulls, but a good 600-650 were present in front of Halfway House / on Penketh Bar.

Then the first highlight of today first returning Shelduck fly in (64) with three Ruddy Shelduck. Settled on the mudflats downstream from Halfway House between the East end of Wigg Island and Fiddlers Ferry.

Walking back over the fields, a Sparrowhawk put up a Charm of 67+ Goldfinch.

Applying the Moore Inverse Law on Waders (they are always at the other end of the patch) I went to the Black-fields Pools. Green Sandpiper (juv), Lapwing (8), Grey Heron, Little Grebe, Mute Swan, Tufted Duck and Coot were also present. Onto Pumphouse Pool and adult Green Sandpiper, Snipe (2), Lapwing (7) and a Greenshank were present, at one point all in the same Bins view! My July 15th prediction on Pumphouse coming good for waders this year appears to be coming true. Interestingly, re Greenshank, for three consecutive years I have seen the Spring migrants on the Mersey at Halfway House and the returning autumn migrants on Pumphouse Pool, singles on all occasions.

One of the days what patch birding is all about!

Might be worth going back there now after a few hours. Could be the patches first record of a Brown Booby!....Or three pairs of Red-breasted....I'll get me coat.

Was hoping perhaps for a Gargeny with a few being around recently in Cheshire......read on for a suprise.......

Lapwing Lane Pool. 2 swallows, Gadwall, Coot, Moorhen, 6 Little Grebe, 4 Tufted Duck, 2 male Pochard under branches a few Canada Geese on Island.

Birchwood Pool from West. 10 Black-headed Gulls, 2 Ad, 1 juv Lesser Black-backed Gulls. 2 Adult and 4 juv Great-crested Grebe. 4 Tufted Duck. 

Pumphouse from West. 8 Black-headed gull, three Grey Heron. 7 Lapwing, Coots and Moorhen, 4 Little Grebe and a Green Sandpiper of unusual jizz (bob three times, straight walk, raise head and stretch neck, turn straight walk back, bob three times etc repeat) looking "long necked" and also had a slightly longer, thicker and more curved bill than I'd expect but finally after 30 minutes it flew across the pool and thoughts of it being any other species were put to bed by the distinctive tail banding. Not very good dhot attached of the bird starting to extend its neck.          

Cut back through the woods, and finally, for this year, found a Tawny Owl roosting!

Emerging from the Wood onto the North side of the dog field I encounter three nude sunbathers!!!! No record shot there I am afraid.

At the river at Half Way House, over the rising tide on the bend and Penketh Bar.

Three Oystercatcher, three Curlew, one Little Egret, two Common Gull amongst the Herring, Lesser, Greater and Black-headed Gulls. Two resplendant summer plumage Black-tailed Godwits were on the Northern Bank until the tide pushed them over to Fiddlers Lagoon direction. Cormorant, Crow, Jackdaw made up the supporting cast on the sandbanks. 

Very quite on the walk to Half Way House, just Mute Swan on the Canal, a few juv Titmouse families a Chiffchaff and a Buzzard with Great Crested Grebe (+juv) and a few Gadwall (<10) on the Manchester Ship Canal.