A single patch visit am, on the mosslands section. Warm with some sun but also some cloud.

Quiet for birds but those I did get were pretty good starting with a female Mandarin on Nunsmere Lake on the western extreme of my patch. Even better was to follow just 30secs later when 2 Common Sandpipers flew across the lake, a patch yeartick. Then as they landed a Kingfisher shot the other way, what a hectic minute!

In the afternoon as I was waiting to meet up with the NW Tanyptera Group to assist in an invertebrate survey I popped briefly onto the pools part of patch and heard one possibly two juv Sparrowhawks calling in the Big Pool Island Cut area.

WeBS day has come round again, so in the pools area 10-11.50am. Sunny, warm and calm.

An incredible count of 116 Coot, the adult count boosted by fully grown young from the beginning of the breeding season. In contrast last months 36 count was down to just 3 Canada Geese. The best ducks were 3(1drk) Gadwall, all on Big Pool. In addition 28 Mallards and 22(14drk) Tufted Ducks were seen. The 4(2ad) Mute Swans still all survive. A count of 9 Great Crested Grebes was down from last month but two birds were in full display again! Not seen since March, 2 Cormorants were a notable species. The rest of the waterbirds were 3 Moorhen and 7 Black-headed Gulls, which still included the advanced juvenile bird. A Kingfisher, the first on a WeBS day since January, completed the species seen and recorded.

A very quiet morning in the Big Pool area in mild dry weather.

A pair of Gadwall were on Big Pool. A juvenile Black-headed Gull on Big Pool was the first of that age this year.

As I walked in, off Novia Scotia Lane, near the barriers 3 House Martins flew high over, the first for a long while. Again a feeding flock of tits was noted, containing Coal Tit, Long-tailed Tits, Blue Tits and Great Tits.

An afternoon in the pools area of Newchurch, fine with a wee bit of sun but cooler than of late.

The pools were quiet and this weekend is an early WeBS count this month so I'm not expecting much!

A few warblers around feeding in the alder and bramble scrub areas with a family party of Chiffchaffs seen as well as 2 female Blackcaps.

Sightings for 2nd Aug 2025:

Sunny intervals and warm, am and pm on Shemmy Moss.

A Cormorant flew over Shemmy Moss.

The first Hobby for a while flew in at 1pm and hunted over Shemmy Moss, perching in trees along with a female Kestrel before flying off south, but it was then seen again around 2hrs later. Three Buzzards were also up, one in full display. There were 2 Yellowhammers in the trees near the nursery fields.

Near Big Pool pm, overcast and warm.

Biggest surprise was a flock of 5 Gadwall, the first back since early spring here. The 4(2ad,2y) Mute Swans were on Big Pool today. An Oystercatcher flew over very high, calling.

On the mosslands part of patch pm, dry, warm & mainly overcast.

A highlight was a female Tufted Duck with 8 newly hatched ducklings on one of the pools on Shemmy Moss. A female Teal was on the same pool but no youngsters, but they were prettyu much fledged the last time that I saw them.

A Red Kite and a hunting Hobby were both seen distantly around the same time and in the same sector of the sky looking over Nunsmere. Also up in the same area were 4 Swifts, my first for some time.

WeBS Sunday again, so down to Newchurch to do the count. Sunny & hot, but numbers surprisingly good, maybe due to a lack of anglers due to the heat!!

A big count of 74 Coot + 6y was the highest since January, a bit of a surprise. The 36 Canada Geese seen tallies with the last couple of months as does 24 Mallard, all the drakes being in eclipse and some of the early young now indistinguishable from the adults. The 32(14drk) Tufted Ducks were mainly on Big Pool, this being the highest count since April and is probably the non-breeders returning. There were 14 Great Crested Grebes + 2y, my best count of the year. A total of 3 Moorhens + 2y included a party of 2 adults and 2 very small young on a log at the edge of Small Pool. The 4 Mute Swans remain, 2 adults and 2 cygnets still, on Small Pool so safe for now until they decide to cross the main track again! A small influx of 9 adult Black-headed Gulls was seen, a few on each pool, up from just two birds in June. The best bird of all was a patch yeartick in the shape of a flyover Whimbrel that called as it headed over Small Pool.

An afternoon visit in hot sunshine. Very quiet for birds as usual currently.

The 4(2ad) Mute Swans are still on Small Pool, so they haven't lost any more cygnets. There were 2 Grey Herons in the field by Lymm Vale, not a common sight on patch.

On a very short am walk on Newchurch the only notable bird was a Water Rail that called for quite a long period on Gull Pool.

On the mosses am, sunny and warm.

The only birds of note were 6 Swallows, a pair of which were mating on the gates of Abbotsmoss Nurseries.

A morning walk on patch, hot, sunny but not yet unbearable.... that came pm!

There were 2(ad+1cy) Lesser Black-backed Gulls on Big Pool. An Oystercatcher flew over Big Pool calling.

On Beach Peg on Big Pool a surprise was a juvenile Grey Wagtail, the first youngster that I've ever seen on patch.

Spent both the morning and afternoon on patch, am was with a mate so concentrated on photos for him, pm was shorter but for me, hot and sunny all day.

The swan family is still 5 (2ad+ 3 cygnets) Mute Swans on Small Pool. A young Water Rail was with the adult on Shemmy Moss. There were 2 adult Lesser Black-backed Gulls down on Big Pool, an unusual sighting in June.

A good morning on my Patch, warm but no sun today.

3 adult Lesser Black-backed Gulls flew over Big Pool calling.

A juvenile Green Woodpecker was calling in the paddock south of the entrance barriers and then seen as it flew low over the main track towards the Pine Belt. A Great Spotted Woodpecker called nearby too.

On am around the pools area and a brief trip on pm with Carys. Sunny and hot all day!

Only one bird worth mentioning but a good one, a Green Woodpecker heard in the pines at the northern edge of the Abbotsmoss Nursery fields by Shemmy Moss. This is now a patch scarcity and so every record is a bonus.

A morning on Newchurch and walked a large part of the patch, sunny at times but cloud too, warm.

A Great Spotted Woodpecker called near Big Pool, the first for a while. Also near Big Pool a group of 6 Goldfinch fed in the east meadows. Both Garden Warbler and Chiffchaff scolded a Crow in east meadow giving a chance to see just how much bulkier the former is compared to the latter! In the SW corner area of Big Pool, where I saw the female Greenfinch on Sunday, I had 2 juv Greenfinch today, so my suspicions about her breeding here were correct.

BTO WeBS count day today, 15th June as prescribed by the BTO!! Sunny and warm.

A count of 14 Tufted Ducks was up on last month's Webs of 10. Otherwise numbers were similar with of note 25(20ad) Mallards, 57(43ad) Canada Geese, 9(6ad) Great Crested Grebes, 2 Moorhens, and overflying Oystercatcher and Lesser Black-backed Gull.

One surprise was a female Greenfinch flying out of a holly hedge near the Big Pool SW Glade acting as though she had a nest in there. This species is still a patch scarcity and summer ones are a patch mega! Also of note a Coat Tit in pines near Small Pool.

This afternoon walk was a story of young birds. Sunny & warm too.

The current total of swans is 2 adult and 3 young Mute Swans, so they have lost 3 cygnets so far. A Moorhen eggshell was found, looking like it had been predated with a possible hole where a Fox tooth had pierced it.

A family of 4(1ad,3y) Chiffchaffs was in Big Pool east meadow. A party of around 6 young Blue Tits was nearby.

On the Shemmy Moss part of patch am after a bit of a break due to weather and other commitments!

Just a couple of noteworthy bird sightings. A Water Rail was seen and then heard on the usual corner of Shemmy. An Oystercatcher was heard and then seen mobbing a Buzzard, which it did for some length of time.

Newchurch am was changeable, sunny & cloudy! The sightings were not so much birds, but signs of birds!

A Starlings egg was found in the Pine Belt, looking like an eggshell that had been removed from the nest and discarded by a parent bird post-hatching. The other find was a Corvid pellet, full of insect fragments, that had been regurgitated in Big Pool east meadow.

A morning in the murky weather. No sign of yesterday's Reed Warbler.

An Oystercatcher flew over to the SW of Big Pool.

It was a day of young birds with recently fledged ones including 2y Great Tits, 1y Long-tailed Tit and 1y Robin, all on the track between the pools.

A Hoopoe has been reported on our Cheshire WhatsApp group. The location is given as Shays Lane which is equidistant from the south edge of Newchurch Common and the north edge of Little Budworth CP, being closest to the Cheshire Polo Club fields. A photo has apparently been seen to confirm this and if correct then it will be the Newchurch bird relocating as it hasn't been seen nor heard since last week. This is a totally different area to Newchurch Common despite the info services mis-reporting it as such and the way at the land lies means that access is from a different direction now! I have posted the news here as one of the closest threads to the new area that the bird is now located in. The best access will be down the A49 and then east on Longstone Lane with a lefthand turn onto Shays Lane. As far as I remember parking is difficult so a walk along there may be the most productive way to search. Good Luck

p.s. Having now found out that the bird was in the Parish of Little Budworth any future updates for this location will be in the thread for that location!

A very quiet pm at Newchurch a the sun struggled to come out.

The only birds of note were around 50 Swifts, an amazing number and possible the most ever counted together on patch, feeding on insects above Big Pool. A few Swallows and Sand Martins fed with them.

On Newchurch both am and pm, hot & sunny.

There were just 2 adult and 5 young Mute Swans today, all on Small Pool, so in traversing the track it looks like they lost a cygnet.