At least 6 Hawfinch at lunchtime,showing well perched up in the bare trees and feeding in the adjacent Yew Trees.

The 1st Winter drake Scaup was still present this afternoon amongst the Tufted Duck flock. Also seen, a minimum of six Goosander, two of which were males.

A short afternoon visit provided Carys and I with a chance to see a few old pals before the rain brought a premature end to our birding day. Interesting species seen included a female Goldeneye and 8 Goosanders on Budworth Mere. A Raven over. Over 60 Curlew in Kid Brook Fields. 30 Redwings by Fishermans Path. A Treecreeper near the garden centre. A Reed Bunting at the Coward Reedbed Screen feeders and a Greenfinch near the Old Hall site.

13.30-15.30

2 Hawfinches showing well in NW corner of the park.

As in my previous visit the Hawfinches settled in a big Yew tree and gorged on berries.

5 Goldcrests were in the same Yew. 2 Siskins were on the mere side alders

Lots of activity at feeding station by the mere, but the only unusual sighting was a Field Vole.

Not much to report from the mere either as most of it was covered by a carpet of thick mist.

Thankfully Kid Brook was still visible and held 8 Lapwings and 16 Greylag Geese.

Amongst a mass of Canada Geese were 2 Barnacle Geese.

At dusk a large gathering of Redwings packed into the treetops of Big Wood, where 2 Treecreepers were also seen.

Two separate, single sightings of Hawfinch adjacent to the Old Hall site this morning. Both birds flew straight through.

12.15-15.00

Despite the drizzle the Hawfinch was showing well in the treetops near the garden centre/nursery.

Many thanks to the birder who advised me the Hawfinch had been seen around noon in this area.

I found the bird in the company of a couple of Redwings on top of a big beech tree alongside the path into the park from Marbury Road.

After moving around the tops of the nearby trees the Hawfinch settled on a large Yew tree, where it started feasting on the berries.

The Hawfinch appeared to have an affinity with the small groups of Redwing that also frequented to top of the big trees here.

Also seen nearby were 3 Goldcrests and a Sparrowhawk. A skein of 150+ Pink Footed Geese flew over heading West.

The weather cleared by 14.00, just in time to see 75 Curlew on the meadow at Kid Brook, where 50+ Greylags grazed amongst a mass of Canada Geese.

12 Wigeon, 2 female Goldeneyes and a single female Goosander were amongst the waterfowl on Budworth Mere.

There were noticeably lots of Great Crested Grebes on the mere, plus 2 Little Grebes, one of which appeared very anxious about the presence of a nearby Cormorant.

14 Common Gulls were with the flock of Black Headed Gulls by Kid Brook. 4 Treecreepers were with a roaming mixed tit flock in Big Wood.

What appeared to be the Curlew seen at Kid Brook were seen at 15.45 flying over Dairyhouse Meadow and appeared to settle by the canal at Marsden.

Three of us had a bit of a wander around Cheshire today starting well here at 8.30 this morning. As we came through from the car park Karen spotted a Hawfinch fly in with Redwings to the double line of trees running East to West from the toilet block. The bird appeared to perch briefly then continued West along the southern line of trees. While we were still scanning it or another bird came into the top of the northern line from the West before heading off over the toilet blocks.

We did an anti-clockwise circuit through the parkland down to the bride over the canal and back along the shore of the Mere to the hide, finding all the commoner Thrushes bar Fieldfare among a good selection of the commoner woodland birds, together with a female Goldeneye on the Mere along with the usual water birds. There seemed to be Nuthatches everywhere. While stopping for some aptly-named 'awesome breakfast baps' and a cuppa 3 Siskin flew into the Yews behind us. Seemed like a good start so we headed off to Newchurch Common.....

Two separate sightings of single Hawfinch around midday (T Davies, S Collins thanks), meanwhile 2m and 1f Goldeneye on the Mere amongst the Tufted Duck flock.

Two singles of the fairly elusive Hawfinch this morning in the open, grassy area adjacent to the arboretum. Earlier, four birds had been seen together. Nice to see Steve Judge who couldn't have timed his arrival any better! Rather poor record shots attached.

Two Hawfinch seen briefly this morning at Marbury Arboretum. Picked up on call initially, then in flight as the birds flew into the tops of a large yew tree. In the time it took to get my camera out of my jacket pocket, they had flown off and despite doing several circuits of the area over the next hour and a half, I was unable to relocate them.

The ranger had apparently seen a bird in the area on Thursday. Thanks to Chris Hancock, who I bumped into yesterday, for the heads up.

Early Afternoon

Budworth Mere/Kid Broook

1 Kingfisher and 8 adult Great Crested Grebes.

60+ Lapwings were with a large group of Black Headed Gulls. No other gull species were present.

Glad the Wood Sandpiper stayed a second day for those of us who had started tea and a glass of wine last night The bird is distant so you will need a scope, it can be picked up viewing from Fishermans Path or the Mereside Path and generally favour the shoreline to the right of Kid Brook as you look across the mere.

Hi Andy

Please see my pm to you - it's important. You'll realise why when you read it.

Cheers

Mark

Had three quarters of an hour on the Fisherman's Path this morning watching a single Arctic Tern move through. Three Black Tern had moved through earlier and at least one other Arctic Tern.

AM
1 ad summer plumage Black Tern
1 juv Little Gull
at least 2 Garden Warblers

and about 200 fun runners

Fisherman's Path this evening produced 28 Pied Wagtail, 1 White Wagtail and 5 Yellow Wagtail. There was a Green Sandpiper yesterday early morning at Kid Brook Spit.

Four Yellow Wagtail this evening by Fisherman's Path, second field in from Marston side. With around ten Pied but no White.

White Wagtail seen this morning on Kid Brook Spit, a Redshank yesterday. Also today many Chiffchaff and at least two singing Blackcap by the Mereside Path. Several Sand Martin put in an appearance late afternoon, otherwise just the 'normal' woodland birds in Big Wood and nothing of real note on the Mere.

Budworth Mere count - Walk from Coward Reedbed hide to end of Fisherman's Path, 9.40 to 11.50, weather fine but cool and blustery.

Mute Swan (2)
Canada Goose (2)
Greylag Goose (2)
Cormorant (8)
Heron (4)
Water Rail (1)
Moorhen (1)
Coot (54)
Great Crested Grebe (13)
Curlew (10)
Redshank (1)
Gadwall (1)
Goosander (5)
Goldeneye (4)
Teal (2)
Pochard (2)
Tufted Duck (32)
Mallard (53)
Kingfisher (1)

There was also a good assortment of species at the feeders including Reed Bunting, Long tailed Tit, Coal Tit, Nuthatch and Great Spotted Woodpecker.

I am a regular walker walker in the northern part of Marbury Park and the alongside Budworth Mere. This is the start of the second year we have lived here thus not familiar with the history of the site other than that freely given by the regulars.

At the beginning of the winter the Mere showed great promise with a great variety of overwintering ducks, though the numbers were never great. The birds seen have included teal, pochard, widgeon, gadwall, gargany, tufted (a lot of these), shelduck and goldeneye. Only mallard and tufteds seen today. In some cases these were just one or two pairs. There is a large number of great crested grebes, estimated at 40+. I am intrigued by their colour variations. Coots, 100+. Very few moorhens. Up to 6 gooseander have been seen in recent weeks, though not seen today. Finally, one pair of swans whose youngsters disappeared early January.

There have been upwards of 150 Canada geese, about 20 greylags and the odd pinkfoot. These have nearly always clung to the north side of the mere or be seen grazing in the adjacent fields. In the early winter the geese would mix, but in the last six weeks or so they have stayed separated.

I first saw a bittern in December and soon picked up its habits. That is that it would show up in the half light about 20 minutes or so before it became too ark to see them. A good marker would be the start of the starling murmuration. From about the first week of January two were present (they may still be though most people seem to have seen only one at a time in recent weeks). On the first night we saw two, one was seen to grab and swallow a starling. We saw one this evening who surprised by becoming very visible by climbing up of the the remaining upright reeds. It then started doing what we assume was some sort of display as it was puffing out its feather, opening it's wings and alternating between squatting down and stretching upwards in the classic pose. We did not notice any booming, perhaps because of the noise of the wind in the trees.

There were some amazing starling murmurations in December and January, though having beaten down most of the reeds they seem to have moved on.

Waterside birds have included up to 50 curlew, a similar number of lapwing, occasional visits from a large number of golden plover. There have been groups of up to 6 oystercatcher., 5 egrets and amazingly over 20 herons about a fortnight ago. There were about 10 seen today. There are a pair of kingfishers that can regularly be seen from the hide and along the path to where the small bay where people like to feed the ducks. On our last two visits we have seen rails quite close.

Alongside the lake there are some really mature alder trees which seem to be a magnet for birds like treecreepers, nuthatch and woodpeckers. Other small birds seen today comprised about 6 long tailed tits (3 pairs), pair of goldcrests, otherwise it was the usual mix of garden birds. Early in the winter there were quite a few linnets but these have not been seen for some weeks.

A few blackcaps have been seen back from the mere. They seem to favour the hawthorn and elder bushes. Quite a few of the elders have been cleared as part of the woodland management.

Blackbirds and song thrushes are present in numbers. Mistle thrushes have been seen on the adjacent grassland. Fieldfares seem to have moved on, though there were still redwing seen last week. 

There are a couple of pairs of jays, several magpies, jackjaws 50+, carrion crows. No ravens seen or heard today, but have seen up to 5 together in the recent past. While the murmurations were taking place it was quite common to see sparrowhawks waiting in the trees before diving into the reeds to take a late meal.

Seabirds comprise a lot of black headed and a few herring gulls. Cormorants were plentiful earlier in the winter but seem to have moved on.  

There has been a lot of felling of mature trees around the area of the hide overlooking the lake, which is worrying as the purpose and reasons are not obvious. I would like to lobby for more tree management such as pollarding. This should preserve the mature trunks for feeding and nesting while keeping the tops healthy and less of a risk to those underneath. It will also satisfy the desire to use the chainsaw.

Other problems for the bird life is the massive squirrel population.

 

Notes.

Goldcrests seem to favour the yew and other evergreen trees.

Tufted (f) seen to catch a fish about 2" long, chew on it, drop it, catch it again, align it in her beak and swallow it.

5 tawny owls heard at same time but from different parts of the wood.

Very few finches seen this winter.

There is a great group of birdwatchers here. Ready to chat and swap notes.

 

14.30-16.00

2f Goosanders, 40+ Great Crested Grebes, 3m Pochard, 8 Grey Herons and 5 Little Egrets.

Originally posted today by Clive Part:

A visit in the afternoon between 1.00pm and 4.00pm produced the following

Kingfisher, Pochard, Wigeon, Shoveler, Curlew, Great Crested grebe, Nuthatch, Treecreeper, Great Spotted woodpecker, Jay, Blue, Great, Coal and Long-tailed Tits, Grey Heron, Buzzard, Cormorant and Goldcrest.

Saw a Bittern around 4.20pm today was difficult to spot in the reeds bar when it moved about but it then flew across the mere to reeds near the spit ðalso good views of Kingfisher and Goosander.

Just in case anyone missed the news yesterday, a Bittern is back in Coward Reedbed at the mere and was showing well at dusk, 2 Goosanders were also still on the mere (info per Greag Baker, thanks)