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Post Info TOPIC: FRODSHAM MARSH/WEAVER BEND


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RE: FRODSHAM MARSH/WEAVER BEND


Still showing well late morning, plus Marsh Harrier and 2 Hobby

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Rob


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Arrived early morning for really good views of the Juvenile Red-Backed Shrike which was moving from post to post in a general circuit and catching insects and also at one point a Small Tortoiseshell.

Also, on arrival had good views of a Barn Owl quartering a nearby field and 9 Snipe and 7 Curlew overhead.

A few Swallows were still about together with singles of Chiffchaff and Whitethroat.







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I thought it was rude not to go and see it later on this afternoon as I had a work appointment over that way! Showing really well despite the windy conditions and there are a couple of shots on their way to Ian for out of county :) Really friendly crowd when I was there [about twelve people or so] the shrike had dropped out of sight for 30 minutes but then when it showed it preferred the wire sticking out of the concrete blocks or the barbed wire fences, if anyone else is going for a look.



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Red-backed Shrike

Must have just missed you Alan, I was there at about 14.00 with John Barber - smashing little bird. We watched it taking insects, one rather large butterfly, but always staying within 30 or so meters of the same perching spot. A liftime first for JB and myself biggrin.gif

-- Edited by sid ashton on Friday 10th of September 2010 05:48:49 PM

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Just been to see the Red Backed Shrike smile.gif at Frodsham on No 1 bed. There were about a dozen birdwatchers present when I arrived and the bird had been showing well. Phil Woolen had taken some great shots with his camera which he was was able to show me, but I only had to wait for about 15 minutes to see it fly on to a nearby bush.. It must have sat for 5 minutes on a branch before dropping out of view, but the bird kept re apearing and had been very close indeed.

The bird was down past the parking space where you walk to the Weaver bend, down towards the farm, and there were several places to park your car.



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Alan patterson


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17th july 5am-9am
tank no 6:
2 avocets 2 chicks looking gud
150 shelduck+1 ruddy cross
teal, tufted ducks
yellow wagtail (no 1 tank nr marsh farm)
skylarks, meadow pipits
6 buzzards, 1 kestrel
swallows, swifts, curlews
pheasant, grey heron
whitethroat, g/hopper , reed warblers
goldfinches, linnets, reed bunting, lapwing
hare on lordship lane

Ship canal :
5 common sandpiper
sand martins, cormorant, gc grebe
pied wagtail


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12.30- 15.30
2 Avocets, both quite far away from the 2 chicks who were feeding quite happily.
5 Ringed Plover, many Shelduck & Tuffties.
Reed Warbler singing so hard and long almost drowned out 2 reeling Groppers. Lots of Whitethroat, Goldfinch, Willow Warbler and Chiffchaff.
Buzzard overhead on 3 separate occasions. 1 Kestrel. 2 Song Thrush with mouthfulls of insects/grubs.
Plenty of Swifts and Swallows.
Sedge Warbler and House Sparrow on long walk back to car which I left on the far side of the bridge over the motorway.
Rick.

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07/07/2010 - 7-12pm with Mike Duckham:

2 Marsh Harriers
2 Avocets (both chicks still doing well)
1 Razorbill (flew downstream along the Mersey)
3 LRP's
11 Ringed Plovers
14 Common Sandpipers
23 Black-tailed Godwits
30 Dunlin
3000+ Canada Geese (on Frodsham Score - must be a post-breeding moult site)
1 Ruddy Shelduck hybrid (probably x Australian Shelduck)
1 Stock Dove
1 Wheatear
1 Gropper
300+ Swifts
6 House Martins

-- Edited by Henry Cook on Wednesday 7th of July 2010 02:00:33 PM

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Originally posted by David Wilson, 02.07.10:

Hi everybody. just joined manchester birding. my main patches are frodsham marshes, chester, moore nature reserve. spent a few early mornins on frodsham marsh. flock of sand martins nr canal.pair avocets with 2 young on no 6. ruddy duck.loadsa whitethroat, warblers, cuckoo(male) and a huge infestation of ermin moths webs and all.swallows swifts buzzards and a couple am not sure of. wher can i post pix.?



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Of note this morning were a male marsh harrier quartering fields above Weaver Bend around 6.30am. Avocet on the new pool on Tank No. 6. Three wheatear on sheep fields near Marsh Farm, two grasshopper warblers (one chasing the other) along the path down to Weaver Bend and two yellow wags in the arable fields by Lordship Lane.

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Great description of area to see Yellow Wagtails, Sid, I've never seen them here, the grassy area on top of the bank over the logbook is where I 've seen then at Frodsham Marsh in previous years.

One Yellow Wagtail showing v well 4.00pm today exactly where you indicated, so thanks for that !!



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Marsh Harrier (ad female I think) mobbed by two Buzzards. 5 Wheatear. 10.30am ish

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Karen Foulkes wrote:

A trip to Frodsham after a couple of hours on the Wirral, this afternoon.

Couldn't find area where Yellow Wags were meant to have been, but did see one flying over




Karen to reach the "new" area with scrapes you need to drive along the top of No. 6 tank to the point where there is a squiggle in the road down a bit of a hill then go along for another couple of hundred yards and stand on the grass bank to view the new scrapes. It's where it looks like the bank has been reinforced. The Yellow and White wags were in that area when I was there last week - hope that helps for future reference.

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A trip to Frodsham after a couple of hours on the Wirral, this afternoon

1 cracking male Whinchat on the field opposite No 6
2 Groppers reeling on bank below No 6, couldn't see them though
Couldn't find area where Yellow Wags were meant to have been, but did see one flying over
Lots of Sedge Warblers and Whitethroats around

A couple of scroats on quad bikes and motorbikes on no 6 itself at the dry end, putting the few birds (mainly Lapwings) that were there upfurious.gif How I wished the ground had opened upwink.gif

-- Edited by Karen Foulkes on Sunday 25th of April 2010 06:59:20 PM

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Got the morning off to a good start at 06.45 with approximately 200 Golden Plover in summer plumage on No 5 tank. Then things went downhill, even the Weaver Bend produced nothing but vast quantities of those mozzy type biting jobies and too much water in the river disbelief.gif

However things took a turn for the better when I met Steve & Gill Barber (nice to meet you folks) - we found on the new pools on No 6 - 3 White and 2 possibly 3 Yellow Wagtails, 10 - 12 Ringed Plover. a Dunlin, a Black tailed Godwit and a Snipe. But best of all Steve spotted a raptor that eventually turned out to be an immature Marsh Harrier that gave us a good display before heading off west biggrin.gif

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This morning 08.30 - 12.30 - Dip, dip, dip doh.gif

No sign of the Red-crested Pochard or Water Pipit and couldn't get onto the Little Stint before it flew. Saw all of the other species on Mike's list plus a biggish flock of Pink feet over going west and a Water Rail heard - a good soaking of my bins and scope didn't help - lovely weather, lovely place on a day like today.

-- Edited by sid ashton on Sunday 24th of January 2010 06:59:04 PM

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This afternoon

No 5 tank

180+ Dunlin
1500+ Lapwing
75+ Curlew
140+ Golden Plover
1 Ruff
1 Black-tailed Godwit
120+ Goldfinch (with a few Linnets tagging along)

No 6 tank

580+ Teal
140+ Wigeon
100+ Tufted Duck
90+ Pochard
9 Shoveler
4 Gadwall
3 Pintail
9 Shelduck
1 Raven

No 4 tank

1 Water Pipit
4 Meadow Pipits
5 Pied Wagtails

plus 4 Kestrels and 3 Buzzards

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Stroll round this afternoon

No 5 bed had 700+ Golden Plover, 280+ Dunlin, 48 Curlews plus Redshanks and Lapwings

No 6 bed largely frozen - 70+ Teal, 1 Wigeon and loads of Mallard in small stretch of open water

No 4 bed had 1 Water Pipit, 45+ Meadow Pipits and 20+ Pied Wags

Also around the beds were 4 Buzzards and 4 Kestrels

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We spent a couple of hours at Frodsham this morning and were treated to good numbers of birds on no 5 and no 6.

Plenty of waders on no 5

Hundreds of Golden Plover and Lapwing
c100 Curlew
30 Redshank
2 Snipe (that we could see)
1 Dunlin
8 Kestrel
6 Buzzard
6 Grey Heron

No 6 had good numbers of wildfowl

Wigeon
Teal
Shoveler
Pochard
Tufted Duck
Mallard
Goldeneye

There were quite a few Mipits on no 4, but we couldn't find the Water Pipit that was reported in the log yesterday.

We then went to Parkgate.


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Ann Ribbands wrote:

He's often there! Yesterday No 6 had 1 BN grebe, several ruddys, and bizzarely, a pair of Cape shelduck. Also one solitary wader - wood sand or juv redshank, too far away to be sure.






We'll have to post marks out of ten for his practise sessions then Ann!

I saw the Ruddys but didn't know whether to mentioned them - mind you I know they've culled them there before so I suppose its on a list of places the contractors visit... they'd have to be a good shot with a high powered rifle to get them in the centre of that tank mind. Does explain why the entire flock of tufties, ruddies and mallard moved out to the centre when I appeared on the horizon. There was a Redshank on the shore near the eastern end on Sunday pm. Missed the cape Shelduck but have seen an un-ringed and free flying pair at Knowsley so maybe they're on the move? Peter

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Thanks for that Paul. Copies can be obtained for £1.50 from the address at the bottom of this page, presumably it applies to non-members:

http://www.ukbis.net/cawos/gazetteer.htm

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CAWOS Produced a wonderful booklet Cheshire and Wirral Gazetteer, its an excellent little book 8 detailed maps 3000 site names and grid ref.

I am sure they still have a few copies.

Keep birding.

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He's often there! Yesterday No 6 had 1 BN grebe, several ruddys, and bizzarely, a pair of Cape shelduck. Also one solitary wader - wood sand or juv redshank, too far away to be sure.

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Whoops sorry both, Sid it is indeed the tank with the water and the silt beds at the western end. Didn't try and drive round this time after the time when I hit the 2ft pothole... Rather randomly I thought there was a bloke parked up playing a saxophone at the eastern end!

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Hi Pete,

Have a look here, you can download a pdf of a Frodsham Marsh map showing the different bed No.s - though it's not very clear!

http://www.ukbis.net/cawos/frodshammarsh.htm

I was there a week ago last Saturday and had 6+ yellow wags, then 9+ last Wednesday evening. We also saw 50+ruddy duck on the Saturday but this number had plummeted to just half a dozen on Wednesday. A guy I bumped into said there'd been DEFRA guys there in the morning culling them?

Cheers
Jonathan

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Pete

Is the tank you refer as no 4 the big tank, up the hill, still in use with water in it that you can drive all the way round? If so I have always thought that was No 6 tank.
Cheers
Sid

-- Edited by sid ashton on Monday 14th of September 2009 08:29:49 AM

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Tank no 4 this afternoon - variety of ducks plus an immature Black Necked Grebe - presumably spreading out from the eyes? Kestrels hunting, redshank in the margins and still some yellow wags at the far end.

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Today at Frodsham on No 4 (far end)

12-15 Yellow Wagtails mostly young birds (present most of week apparently)
40+ Pied Wagtails
30+ Meadow Pipits
20+ Linnets
3+ Whitethroats

A Sparrowhawk flew along the edge and most of the Mipits went but the Wagtails seemed less bothered.



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Today
Weaver Bend
6 Ring Plover
5 Common Sandpipers
Pr Shelduck with 8 small ducklings
1 Greenshank
3 Dunlin
Lots of Bl T Godwits
No 6 Tank
6 Dunlin
Bl T Godwits
6 Common Gulls
Lapwings

but work was going on in this area so a lot of disturbance

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Thanks all - this site is excellent for hints, tips and encouragement - I found the Welsh chaps report last night which made me even more annoyed with myself - maybe if I'd hung back a bit and watched whatever it was would have emerged from cover! Anyway there's three days now to go for another look! I've had a pm which suggests someone else from here has seen something there too!

Its all part of the learning - last time I did any birding in the 1980s Avocets weren't seen outside Suffolk and an Egret would have been amazing plus I'm now seeing species such as Sedge Warblers, Black caps and Whitethroats that I just didn't see when I was younger and which are a joy to watch.

I'm finding some of the fringe stuff interesting as well - got some shots of Med Gulls in a BH Gull colony and on reviewing the rest of the shots I appear to have got some hybrids or maybe Leutistic BHs - all good stuff.



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March must be exceptionally early for Corncrake though?

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Rob


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Pete,

One of the guys on North Wales Birding had a similar experience on 16th May......

Steve

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Pete, dont be gutted put it down to excellent experience, we have all had such birds in the past, and proberly will have them in the future.

The ones that got away,most birders have that list.

It,s all part of birding and make you a better birder because you question what you have seen, Ian has always mentioned notebooks, and the failure of some birders to keep notes, the same with photos! never delete the( What the bloody hell is that) photo, until you are sure what it is,

Keep birding.

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How gutted am I - 20th March this year I flushed a bird at a Frodsham location and it flew very low and sort of glided into cover then repeated the same twice more until I lost it properly - at the time I got a poor shot, long since deleted and debated asking for help on here - my impression was skinny partridge - brown wings slightly lighter underneath... after much searching reference books and looking at photos there's an outside chance it was a Corncrake... anyway if anyone is going to be in the Frodsham area and wants to have a look I know exactly where it was in March - as its a sensitive bird I won't describe the location or where at that location it was in open forum but if any bona fide Manchester birders are interested I'll discuss via pm. It'd be nice if someone could confirm - and of course I'll be going back for another look this weekend now that I've done the research - course could just be a skinny partridge!

-- Edited by Pete Welch on Thursday 21st of May 2009 11:46:09 PM

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Wednesday, May 6.

Whinchat 1m
Wheatear 1m 1f
Plenty of Sedge Warblers plus Reed Ws, Whitethroats and Reed Buntings.
Gadwall/Tufted/Mallard/Shelducks.
Skylarks plus 1 Meadow Pipit.
Redshanks, Lapwings and Oystercatchers.
Swifts 10+
Swallow 1

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Frodsham


Decided that I couldn't let that Wood Sand pass me by so off to Frodsham 0600.

Found the bird tucked away in the corner of the Weaver Bend 07.30 a lifer for me biggrin.gifbiggrin.gif

Also 19 Wheatear on No.5 tank.

-- Edited by sid ashton on Friday 24th of April 2009 05:07:27 PM

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We seem to have two Frodham threads going again so as per Ian Mc's email I revert to this one.

However not too much to report from Frodsham that's very exciting probably because of a late start today. We watched a Peregrine "flying with Swallows" they didn't seem in the slightest concerned. On the Weaver still lots of Shelduck, Redshank (10) Gadwall (pair), Yellow Wags (5) on the river edges and adjoining meadows. Number 6 tank yielded Ringed Plover (2), Wheater (2) and Linnets (6) on the dry bits and Shoveler on the water - very little else. In the surrounding bushes singing Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler and Whitethroat.

We nipped up to Bradley but no sign of the Cattle Egret - then picked up a chippy and went back to the Marsh to eat them where we met four birders returning from the Weaver Bend where they reported having seen a Wood Sandpiper - by then too late to go back for a look-see furious.giffurious.gifcry.gifcry.gif

So Henry and Mrs O you both did well to avoid my company today wink.gifwink.gif

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I also called in this morning on the way to the Wirral, great views fom the farm then as it flew east towards the rough paddock area. Left about 10:00 with it showing well if distantly.

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Me and my dad went to see the Cattle Egret this morning, which was stood out on view, and had apparently flown from near the cattle on the other side near the farm.

A party of shooters arrived as we were leaving disbelief.gif

Nice bird thoughsmile.gif

Called in at No 6 and had Chiffchaff, very quiet though otherwise, although knowing our luck someone'll find something really good later.

-- Edited by Karen Foulkes on Sunday 29th of March 2009 12:42:03 PM

-- Edited by Karen Foulkes on Sunday 29th of March 2009 12:42:30 PM

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Visited the Weaver Bend for the first time in years.

Shelduck 40+
Chiffchaff 1 singing
Redshank 60+
Tufted Duck 23
Oystercatcher 3
Coot 14
Teal 40+
Lapwing 50+
Goldeneye 12+
Little Stint 2
Dunlin 1
etc. All on the Weaver itself or adjoining area.

The good numbers may have been caused by disturbance on number 6 ( the main lake ), due to Ruddy Duck shooting, so couldn't go any further.

Phil Greenwood.

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Egret in the middle of the far field [in the elbow of the public footpath] with four mute swans and about ten Shelduck this morning - about 10.30am. Slightly better views by walking 750m round footpath to North East of farm. Farmer still very helpful [gave permission to use his yard where I found three other friendly birders!]. Looks like people are remaining courteous and not causing any problems.

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RE: Frodsham Marshes


Jimmy

I understand that Avocets bred on the marshes/Weaver bend area a few years ago - so we must keep an eye on the present birds.

Sid

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RE: Frodsham


Called in at Frodsham on the way back from Worlds End

4 Avocets on No 6 Tank

Cheers Jimmy

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Tony Coatsworth wrote:

I was there about 12:00 and all I saw was a quad bike Grand Prix type event with bikers zooming around.




Sorry Tony I forgot to mention in my original post a centuries old Frodsham saying that goes something like -

"Tis the early birder as misses those noisy quad bikes " biggrin.gifwink.gif

Sid A

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Peter and myself were there about 10.45, no sign of any quad bikes then.
Sorry you were unlucky
Cheers Ian

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I was there about 12:00 and all I saw was a quad bike Grand Prix type event with bikers zooming around.

I carried on to Inner Marsh Farm - very quiet - couple of Avocets, a few Ruff and Curlew and Chiffchaff. Then to Parkgate and saw a ringtail Harrier in the mist so not a totally wasted journey.

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Thanks to all for the info, all really helpful, this forum is fantastic for stuff like this. Went this a.m. with Peter Johnson, small number of birders present but more importantly, so was the Cattle Egretbiggrin.gifbiggrin.gif. It was in the location expected and the farmer is still very friendly, apparently its been about for approx a month but the farmer didn't know what it was.
Cheers Ian

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Pete Welch wrote:

Sid, the good news was I didn't see anyone else so hopefully he's not been bothered by too many people stopping for a look... cheers, Peter






Pete

The farmer was fine its just that when these things are going on for any length of time you could imagine he could get feed up. I should also have said that if you walk down the road almost to the farm you can get really good views without going into the field.

Sid

-- Edited by sid ashton on Friday 20th of March 2009 09:27:37 PM

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Sid, the good news was I didn't see anyone else so hopefully he's not been bothered by too many people stopping for a look... cheers, Peter

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Pete Welch wrote:

Ian, I looked in on my way home tonight to see it disappearing over the trees towards the shooting ground [hope no-one got trigger happy...] as I drove down the hill. There aren't many roads to search from so I didn't bother to try find its roosting site. At least I can count it as a sighting but I like a record shot when I can. I reckon looking at where the cows where if you could be bothered it would be easy to spot from the footpath along the river. Its got to be 350m from the road unless you drive down the farm track and looking at some photos of it on the web sometimes its been behind the barns as you look from the road. Hope that helps, let us know if you find it as I may try from the river on Sunday. Cheers, Peter





Guys you don't need to drive down the farm lane it's a public footpath and the farmer seemed to be a decent bloke on Tuesday anyway - he let me walk through his barn and into the area where the bird was near the cows. But I suppose it depends if there have been any inconsiderates down there disbelief.gif

Sid A

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