Gatewarth
yesterday pm
Warbler sps for year here reached eight with several Whitethroat singing from bushes on grassed over tip area.
Numbers of Reed Warblers and Blackcap into double figures. Six m Blackcaps all together in one of the taller willows seemingly vying for the tree as their territory, all singing and chasing others off.
First Swallow of year
Lesser |whitethroat still present, singing a lot more and moving up and down the main hawthorn hedge at top of riverbank. Hopefully settling up territory.
Fiddler's Ferry - Gatewarth
AM
Not been able to get down here for a while so, despite typical Spring conditions (Hail, Rain, Wind) not surprising that the number of warblers seen / heard were up on previous visit...
1 Reed Warbler
1 Lesser Whitethroat
4 or 5 Willow Warblers
At least 10 Chiffchaff
4 Cetti's Warblers
Fiddlers Ferry - Gatewarth
AM
20 plus Golden Plover on River
A few Curlew on far side fields
1 Kestrel hunting. The only raptor present despite high tide.
Fiddlers Ferry - Gatewarth
AM
Bit of a Red Letter Day as the last of the paths still closed for the now completed works was finally re-opened. Access to the site now unrestricted.
4 Little Grebes together on canal (2ad 2 juv)
1 Kestrel
1 Jay
Relatively large loose flock of finches along hedges, Greenfinch, Goldfinch, Chaffinch 100 plus birds.
I have added a post onto the Richmond Bank thread as you can get down to the river and get good views over the bank now the filter station works have finished.
Fiddlers Ferry- Gatewarth
PM
F Grey Wagtail at horse paddock midden piles. Looking beautiful in bright Winter sunshine. (The wagtail...not the middens.)
Fiddlers Ferry - Gatewarth
Early PM
Scattering of snow on ground. Standing water and most of canal iced over.
3 or 4 Siskins in canalside alders.
Great Spotted Woodpecker calling nearby
2 Little Grebe on canal
1 Kestrel hunting over the area where work recently finished.
Small numbers of Fieldfare over
2 Buzzards hunting in tandem on far bank putting up flocks of Curlew (30plus birds) and smaller numbers of Lapwing.
Anybody regularly birding the cheshire mersey estuary , have you considered submitting counts as a weBs counter ? The currents weBs team is seriously undermanned in our attempt to map the estuary , some more info on the mersey estuary weBs facebook page or contact the area co-ordinator of the team on dermot.smith@fsmail.net
I've picked up Norton Marsh / Fiddlers Ferry / Penketh Bank & Bar since last summer.
Also got the Gatewarth / Richmond Bank section for the 2024 Win GS Gull Survey.
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