Weds 14th Dec Quick stop at Middlewich Canal en route to next delivery.
- Mute Swans c25 inc CPN6 & CSB2
Nice to meet SwanWatchUK (Ryan) and whilst chatting to him a Jack Snipe flew up from the grassy area on the opposite Bank and flew right over our heads. I thought it was a Common Snipe at first but the bill was rather short and it wasnt the classic zigzag Snipe flight, looked good for Jack.
Id just got off the M6 J18 in between Middlewich and Holmes Chapel and a massive flock of birds took to the air from one of the fields along the Lane. I stopped and got bins on them, they were what I suspected - Fieldfare with some Redwings mixed in. Rough estimate of between 2-300 birds, possibly more.
Other birds seen further along the lane to Holmes Chapel - 2 Raven - 1 Goldcrest
Stayed local again today I shop in Middlewich, 5mins from home so decided on a walk along the canal by the A533 just south of the town. There I managed to connect with an adult Whooper Swan that is with the Mute Swans this winter. It is almost certainly the same one that was first found with Mutes in the exact same location a couple of years ago. With the canal iced up the swans were in a small patch of open water making for easy photography. A digiscoped image attached.
Having looked back to 2008 there was no topic for Middlewich, so I have started one!
Today I got news of a Grasshopper Warbler in Middlewich, showing well. So seeing as I was going to Middlewich Lidl and it's only a couple of miles away I thought that I would go and check this out & add to my knowledge of local sites. The location was a footpath off Cledford Lane which is a lane off the A533 Middlewich to Sandbach road. Armed with excellent directions from a local birder I found the location & headed along the footpath.
I scanned the field on the right and eventually found the Grasshopper Warbler three quarters of the way across but as I set the scope up for a picture it dived into cover. Despite watching (joined by another birder) for a further hour we just had one more brief view as it clambered up and along a bramble for a very short distance and headed back into the clump! This reclaimed settling bed that the field actually was, was a great area of scrub and held lots of House Sparrows, a Reed Warbler and a few Linnets. A Green Sandpiper flew around the field and over us onto the settling beds above us to the left. The remains of small pools, but since the other birder had a dog it never settled and also flew up and over onto the settling beds. A Buzzard sailed over the factories at the back too. In addition the mornings report had mentioned a Lesser Whitethroat down near the railway bridge but I didn't have time to go and look for it.
What at first glance looked like a small, tatty area of scrubby grass surrounded by factories turned out to be a little oasis for wildlife. I will be going to check this site out again in the future
-- Edited by Ian McKerchar on Sunday 25th of June 2017 03:52:46 PM
I shop in Middlewich, 5mins from home so decided on a walk along the canal by the A533 just south of the town. There I managed to connect with an adult Whooper Swan that is with the Mute Swans this winter. It is almost certainly the same one that was first found with Mutes in the exact same location a couple of years ago. With the canal iced up the swans were in a small patch of open water making for easy photography. A digiscoped image attached.
