A walk along Whitegate Way this morning from the Station Café as far as Shemmy Moss. Male Cuckoo calling from trees on the northern side of the moss. As I reached the white gravel road that roughly separates Shemmy Moss from Abbott's Moss, the Cuckoo flew in to a lone tree, only 15 yards from me. Couldn't believe my luck but before I could get my bridge camera to my eyes, it had spotted me and flew off. I retraced my steps towards Whitegate Way and once I had got far enough away, it started calling again so it is still around.
1 Green Woodpecker, 6 Lesser Redpolls (inc a 30% larger, paler bird), 4 Bullfinches, plus a flock of 70+Lapwings flying South.
Newchurch Common Pools
South Pool
22 Tufted Duck, 2 Great Crested Grebes plus Coot, Canada Geese etc.
North Pool
This pool is difficult to view, although it's the larger of the two, it can only be glimpsed from Overdale Lane.
3 Wigeon, 30+ Tufted Duck, masses of Coot and quite a sizeable gull roost (Mainly Black Headed, but also including Lesser Black Backs, 4 Herring and 1 Common Gull).
Whitegate Way (inc. woodland around pools)
6 Lesser Redpolls, 2 Treecreepers, 1 Jay plus common garden birds, including a mixed tit flock with 9 Long Tails.
All the Redpolls were feeding on Birch seeds.
** There is no access onto the moss itself, not without a permit from the CWT, it is a floating spagnum bog and dangerous in places, the site can be viewed from a bridle path and several footpaths.
-- Edited by John Williams on Sunday 5th of January 2014 04:05:31 PM
I shall be leading a fungal foray at Nunsmere this Sunday - sounds good - we usually do OK but will have to see - we stick to the private grounds but will stray further if need be. Some species are booming, some not showing - be interesting to see the diversity. Cheers
Return visit to Abbots Moss, following my sortie a week or so ago when I covered the mosses and the Forestry Enterprise tree nursery area. I found then that the best place for passerines was the nurseries, with good numbers of Linnets, Skylarks, Meadow Pipits etc. The mature conifers around the mosses have been felled, and the area is largely covered in bracken, not good bird habitat, and the only I bird I found there was a single Wren. A lot of felled timber remains in situ to decay though, and the stumps left exposed, this looks to be an ideal spot to look for basking reptiles next spring. ** Note the mosses are floating sphagnum bog, and a very dodgy place to walk, there is no public access to them accept by permit, but the area can be viewed from footpaths and a bridleway.
Today I opted to have a look at the former quarry across the road from Nunsmere, it is now largely a plantation of young conifers and there are a few footpaths around it. It looks a great place to be on a May morning to seek out singing Tree Pipits etc. On a largely dull October afternoon though there were few birds singing, just a couple of Robins. I found a dozen Jays, and a flock of 40+ Redwings flew over heading North. The big surprise was that the tall pines that circle the site attracted flock after flock of Redwings, which then seem to commute back and to between the treetops and the thickets of young birches. There were too many to count, and I just could'nt see what attracted the thrushes to these dense clumps of Silver Birch, although there were a few young Rowans dotted around the area, the birds did'nt seem to bother with them. As I left though the mass of Redwings seemed to be leaving the site and heading North. The site is a great place for anyone with a passion for fungi, the Fly Agarics here are left alone, unlike in safety conscience parks, the place is toadstool paradise. Nunsmere held 24 Tufted Ducks and a single Great Crested Grebe. Abbots Moss itself held few birds, just a few crows and Woodpigeons, plus a flock of 14 Goldfinches. Strangely, there were no raptors to be seen anywhere, except for a couple of Kestrels perched on the streetlights by the A49.
6 Mistle Thrushes, 2 Song Thrushes, 1 Swallow (flying South), 1 Golcrest, 1 Treecreeper, 2 Coal Tits, 3 Buzzards, 1 Kestrel, 2 Ravens and a single group of 30 Starlings (perched on a single dead tree).
1 Common Toad, 3 Speckled Wood butterflies and lots of Common Darter dragonflies.
