My local patch John, just down from where I live & walk it q.regularly & yes I have had several Grass Snakes along there. The old river loop is the best area, with at least 3 different snakes seen there in the last few years. They are by no means easy to see & it is just luck 7 the number of times you are down there. It is teeming with Large Red-eyed Damselflies at the moment which is q.notable and a pair of Kingfishers are feeding young just away from the main river. I watched them catching & killing sticklebacks just last week 7 they posed for full frame photos, brilliant. The Canada Goose population (main group on the old river) is up aver 50 and a bit of a problem with all the droppings & increase in nitrogen content due to this causing extra algal & weed growth in the old river.
In recent years both Mandarins & Wood Ducks have bred in the area but post hatching mortality has meant that no young have ever been proven to have survived to fledge. Green Woodpeckers are reasonably common, Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers have been seen and heron nest in the heronry here every year. Best bird so far was the White Stork which roosted one night on the old river sluice when it was around Barnton Cricket Club several years ago. A small group of us co-ordinate sightings and most go up on the sightings board at Vale Royal Locks thanks to the efforts of Peter, the lock keeper & wildlife expert
I was advised by a nature lover from Northwich that this area is a hotspot for Grass Snakes, alas I didn't find any.
It's a walk worth doing though, no uncommon birds about, but lots of wildlife, and at this time of year a botanical gem, especially the marshy areas adjoining the tow path.
6 Grey Herons, 6 Cormorants, 3 Buzzards, 3 singing Chiffchaffs, 2 family groups of Willow Warblers, 2 Common Whitethroats, 1 Great Spotted Woodpecker
and a group of 14 Canada Geese. 2 Mallard broods, but only 2+1, so predation appears to have taken its toll.
4 newly fledged Swallows sat on the fence by the salt works, their parents flying in to feed them every few minutes.
There were masses of low flying Swallows around the lock, and high above the river lots of Swifts too.
A charm of 20 Goldfinches were around the salt works, close by an area crammed with Teasel.
3 Red Admiral, 2 Small Tortoiseshell, 1 Comma, plus in the wooded areas lots of Speckled Wood and in grassland lots of Meadow Brown butterflies.
Common Blue Damselflies in profusion, but only whilst it was sunny. Clegs were a problem near the wooded areas.
The linear marsh that adjoins the towpath, and contains a couple of sizeable pools, holding broods of Moorhen and Coot, was alive with small frogs, and looks promising for Grass Snakes.
