1 juv Little Grebe on canal
Mute Swan pair with 3 young
1 Juv Male Kestrel
1 Buzzard
Lots of classic Autumnal sights (unsurprisingly) A Jay carrying a large Acorn in its beak; Flocks of Starlings on pylons ; 20 plus Pied Wagtails feeding on ploughed field inc many young birds.
Main site still inaccessible, no sign of work scheduled to finish months ago being completed. The work on the brook outflow near the Stables has finished though, and the horse fields returned to grass.
Small numbers of post breeding tits and warblers flocking in canalside trees, mainly Long Tailed Tits Two Reed Warblers still singing very half heartedly in reeds.
Fiddlers Ferry Marina
Poor year for swans on the canal, only one nest seems to have produced young. 2 juv Mute Swans with parents at the marina.
Kestrel hunting over was been mobbed by swallows.
Sankey Bridges- Gateewarth
Yday AM
Pair Bullfinch
Several Herons including young birds
Reed Warblers seem to have got their second wind, more singing today than recently.
Gatewarth
Two new warbler species on site since my last visit....Whitethroats and Sedge Warblers.
This brought the number seen here year to date to nine.
Seven seen today, including Lesser Whitethroat, still singing from same area I saw it three weeks ago.
Also seen, a Great Spotted Woodpecker calling repeatedly as flew into a small stand of trees near canal.
Fiddlers Ferry - Gatewarth
AM
At least 4 Reed Warblers in canal reeds
3 active Mute Swan nests between Flddlers Ferry and Sankey Bridges
Access to site proper remains difficult so I was pleased to manage to see a pair of Grey Partridge (mobbed by a Lapwing) and a Lesser Whitethroat this morning.
Less April Showers more Torrential Downpour in heavy rainfall late yesterday afternoon.
2 or 3 Willow Warblers and 1 Blackcap singing.
10 plus Chiffchaff and at least 2 Cettis Warblers.
Cetti's Warbler seem to be residents now in the canal reeds adjacent to Widnes Warth, they almost certainly must have spread from the cetti's that's been further up the canal in Penketh for a good few years now
Youngest daughter loves Spike Island and the chemical museum. So we went to visit there this morn on the promise we walk from Pickering Pasture "as it was such a nice day"........which of course meant stopping at the picnic bench halfway, just before the Runcorn rail/road viaducts at Parsonage Road for a look at the ducks/waders/gulls and a very obliging birder already there put me straight onto the Kumlien's Gull on the West Bank sandflats. (I must admit, I'd have had it as a white-winger but not got the diamonds diagnostics for Kumlien's...but right place right time fluke!). 30 years to the date of my first Iceland Gull at Mersey Road the other side of the bridge.
Gatewarth - Sankey Bridges
pm
Both pairs of Mute Swans have started to nest in canal reeds,.
At the opposite end of the size scale, a Wren was seen collecting and carrying moss to a hidden nest site in the canal wall.
Fiddlers Ferry - Gatewarth
PM
Walk up canal towpath.
1 f Grey Wagtail in waterlogged horse paddocks.
10 plus Chiffchaff , including several in reeds at canalside.
1 Cettis Warbler
Still plenty of Teal around Widnes Warth around 100 in and out of the brooks with Shelduck, Redshank, Curlew and Lapwing dotted around.Also picked out a few Meadow Pipit on marsh. There was 2 Raven was on Tanhouse Lane
Two Buzzard, Pied Wagtail, 106 Shelduck on the Mersey before the high tide came, 17 Curlew, one Redshank, seven cormorant and 17 Siskin in the Alders where the path from the Ship Canal comes in.
AM Walk along tow path from Sankey Bridges to Gatewarth
Still difficult to access the site due to ongoing , long, extensive work going on.
3 Great Spotted Woodpeckers in total spread out along walk.
Both pairs of Mute Swans on canal have divested themselves of last year's youngsters. Only the four mature birds seen. These adults looked to be establishing this year's territories.
Thinking of duck action, knowing everywhere else was frozen a four mile walk along the Mersey east from Woolston Weir.
127 Tufted Duck and two Goldeneye, plus a Little Grebe, Mallard, Gadwall and Black-headed Gull on Woolston Weir Basin.
Heading east up river four Teal, one Shelduck, six Shoveler, a further 121 Tufted Duck, Kingfisher, 12 Canada Geese, Kestrel, Greenfinch, House and Tree Sparrow by Horse Paddocks, Buzzard by M6, Mute Swans + 2 cygnets, plenty of Wrens, couple Reed Bunting, single Lapwing, turned left at Bluebell Wood to go over the field to Rixton and a Green Woodpecker flew out and headed east,nor,east toward the direction of Rixton Claypits.
After a first look around the East End of Moore and wondering where all the birds had gone a yomp following the Mersey via Arpley fields and Bridge to the Sankey Canal and then down to look over Richmond Bank and back was required.
Six+two Goosander flew upstream as I first passed over Arpley Bridge, just too far away from Moore NR to be a Moore 'patch tick'.
Great Spotted Woodpecker on the Canal. Mistle Thrush, plenty of Blackbirds, Coot, Moorhen, two Gadwall, Mute Swan family inc three juvs, Water Rail and seven Redwing.
A series of pools (leachate?) are being constructed on the Mersey Bank overlooking Richmond Bank which was just being covered by water as I arrived so gulls and waders had cleared off. A buzzard was being hassled by two Ravens over Moore capped tip to the south.
On the return a Grey Wagtail was flitting around Gatewarth sewage plant.
AM Fiddlers Ferry Marina
Skein of 40 or so Pink Footed Geese over was first sightings of the Autumn here for me.
Single Fieldfare feeding on berries with Blackbirds and Robins.
4,700 -5,000 Gulls (predominantley larger than smaller) and 800+ Canada Geese on the new sandbank forming under the middle tower of the Mersey Gateway Bridge at 15:00. (Tide was high still at this point).
Unfortunately I was driving over the bridge and whilst we were in a high sided vehicle the passenger took plenty of photos looking above the Plexiglass parapets onto the sandbank they were only good enough to identify gull / goose but did a bit of photochopping tonight to estimate numbers.
Is this bank going to become the new Richmond Bank with gulls feeding at the recycle yard in Widnes?
I don't think you can get close to view the bank on the Wigg Island side so the Sankey Canal on the North side probably provides the best views.
Sankey Bridges
Walk up canal towpath towards Ferry Pub
Young Little Grebe diving for food on canal
4 Curlew over
1 or 2 Redwing in with Blackbirds feeding in bushes
Industrial work ever increasing in area. large digger energetically working away on scrubby rough area of reeds and brambles by Windpump.
Fiddlers Ferry Marina
Small numbers of Redwing over yesterday.
Possible to see over to the old tip area at Gatewarth from the River bank here, sad sight.
A large area of this great habitat for warblers and other birds has been razed, all vegetation above grass height grubbed out. Trees, bushes, nothing is left. The work is still ongoing, with vehicles moving around . Not sure how much will remain, when finished? Maybe just the two cast iron posts erected by the local council listing all the birds that their continued care of and future policies for this land will benefit from. (Yellowhammer, Grasshopper Warbler, Grey Partridge etc) At least these signs will serve as a memorial for years to come !
Gatewarth
PM
Still difficult to access most of site.
Prolonged aerial dogfight between a pair of Sparrowhawks and a m Kestrel over the old tip area was dramatic and energetic. The raptors circled each other and swept high and low trying to gain the upper hand. Must have gone on for at least fifteen mimutes.
Gatewarth AM Still impossible to access site along River so I strolled along canal and railway for a bit, which is all that can really be done atm here, sadly warblers heard and/or seen : 3 plus Reed Warblers 5 plus Willow Warblers 2 Chiffchaff 2 Cettis Warblers 2 Whitethroat
Also present, a pair of Linnets and several singing Reed Bunting
Gatewarth
Soon it will be easier to list areas of the site with no building work going on....more path closures today, Horse Paddocks now inaccessible.
Yellowhammer and yellow legged gull highlights at the Widnes warth end yesterday. I waited for the tide to come right in this time and still no Dunlin and unable to pick out any golden plover with the lapwing over the river on the wigg banks. Lots of curlew, shelduck, oystercatcher and common teal in front of the warth with predominantly black headed gulls and nice to see what I believe is a rise in lesser black backed gull numbers