Initially bright and sunny then rain in from the west. c.3kms

Something of an unexpected trip out to-day brought on by a project of Marion’s’, namely to attempt to photograph a different species of plant (flowering or otherwise) for each day of the year. As it turned out we managed to record eight species – which was around eight more than I’d anticipated us seeing!

On the birding front we kicked things off at the ponds in SJ4575 – the first time I’d been on the site for so long that I was surprised to see just how far the reed-bed had encroached into the pond itself. Some good news was discovering the clear demise of the motor biking circuit so I may be back more regularly from now as hopefully the disturbance levels will regenerate birds’ interest in the place. Six Teal stole the wildfowl show but it was a nice party of ten Long-tailed Tits that were the most interesting of all. Having recorded 20 species we moved on to Stoak church and walked a short circuit to the canal and back through the tiny Stoak Nature Park as the rain was getting too heavy to continue.

Bracing! Moderately high north-westerly winds with showers and some sunny spells. c.10kms

I’d only one thing on my mind for today, to see just what the river was up to. Over recent days it has been up and down like the proverbial yo-yo and since it had been tempestuous overnight the chances of it being up again were real. 

A very nice, large female Sparrowhawk began the day off in fine style before one of the birds of the day turned up in the flock of Chaffinches wintering across the road from the entrance to Speckled Wood Lane. In fact there were four BRAMBLING in total and for the first time all winter the finch flock wasn’t feeding on the far side of the field. Most of the 200 birds present were perched up on a much closer hedgerow so picking out the odds and ends was much easier. Apart from the Brambling there were nine Greenfinches and the odd Goldfinch. With some sunshine poking through I managed to make a few poor record shots of the Brambling (on the right in the photo below) and couldn’t recall the last time I’d photographed the species – for certain it was many years ago!

Cool. Almost no wind but cloudy for the most part with some sunny spells. c.8kms

The first day of transect surveying of the year produces no too much out of the ordinary but the day was rescued by the enormous numbers of gulls present in the southern parts of the reserve. In the two days since my last visit the river had dropped about 60 centimetres and virtually all the flood water in the fields to the west had disappeared. However, in what little remained stood nine Little Egrets, another ‘plus one’ day and another when none were ever seen on the reserve.

The first transect was actually one I never did in its entirety during the whole of 2017, it being along the river between the A5117 and the motorway it’s primary reason for being is to monitor dragonflies. Nonetheless and since I had it in the back of my head to spend some time with the gulls today it seemed an opportune moment to walk to them whilst surveying. Two Mistle Thrushes and four Stonechats were equally notable, the latter possibly moreso given the recent cold snap. The day total turned out to be a very creditable 10, though only eight were on the reserve. A small skein of Pink-footed Geese flew east quite low; a very good ‘year bird’ this early on. Actually ON the river there were half a dozen Moorhens and a lone Little Grebe. In the five minutes I spent watching the grebe it surfaced three times with small fish; quite an achievement given the river remains the colour of milk chocolate.

Once I’d reached the halfway point in the transect it was clear to see that the most southerly field, right next to the motorway was practically white over with gulls. A quick scan also revealed hundreds if not thousands more just to the south of the motorway but clearly also going down to land in fields…there was also a cloud over the landfill site too. The photograph below shows part of one of four similar sized flocks in the area.

Frosty. Bright blue skies but overall very cold and icy, moreso once the northerly breeze started. c.8kms

One of the problems associated with birding in such cold conditions is that your feet get cold because you don’t walk fast enough to keep them warm. Thus it was that after not too long birding Cryer’s Lane my feet bade the rest of my body a fond farewell – and that was before there came confirmation that my right welly boot had indeed become the proud owner of a sizeable split. My right foot was not only cold on reaching the Gowy Meadows, it was also wet too!

Cryer’s Lane was actually quite good, with thousands of birds continuously flighting around; 250 Jackdaws, 50 Common Gulls, 45 Curlew and 29 Pied Wagtails stealing centre stage from other gulls. A good sign took the form of 35 Lapwing heading north… After these initial successes there was about 40 minutes of absolute nothingness apart from 75 Redwing and an obliging Buzzard – though I think it had no idea it was being given such a tag as for certain it had no idea I was taking its photograph from 150 metres away!

Almost a carbon copy of the previous day, excepting the wind was from the south, bringing cloud. c.11kms

Knowing up front that today was likely to be as cold as the 7th, I chose to begin by looking for some target species generally only available in the extreme west of my patch, namely: Grey Partridge, Kingfisher, Redpoll, Siskin and Yellowhammer. None are particularly easy to see and both finches are decidedly rare. Nonetheless, it was crisp and clear so the challenge was on. With the canal frozen for 90% of its length any Kingfishers are all but obligated to frequent a place where there’s a bridge as the structures somehow manage to maintain enough heat to keep the water open, rather than iced over.

A Grey Wagtail was nice to see on the sewage farm, as were four Reed Buntings across the canal, a female Bullfinch in the hedgerow and 35 Pink-footed Geese heading south but these highlights apart, the notebook was hardly troubled for the next couple of hours other than to record 13 Lapwing and another Bullfinch. Translated, this meant that four of the challenge species had not been found and the fifth was no different as I approached Tree Sparrow Lane in SJ4272 – which approaches the landfill site from the northwest.

Initially a beautiful sunny day but heavy cloud rolled in from north in the early afternoon. c.7kms

The main mission of the day was to deliver some new books to the CWT at Holly Bank House in Thornton-le-Moors and having done that I realised I was wearing far too many winter clothes for once! I’d never actually walked through the wood adjacent to the property so took the opportunity to do so what with Chris Meredith on site for a meeting with the Environment Agency.

Overcast, dull and cold. c.1km

Somewhat of a hotchpotch couple of hours with three targets: checking on the RUFF flock, looking for flowering plants and fungi. The first target was readily met but only 15 birds remained, along with 14 Curlew. Nearby, the pond in SJ4573 seemed unchanged from yesterday other than the number of Herring Gulls present, at least 350.

Foggy initially and it never really cleared completely. c.9km

I was quite surprised to see foggy conditions on throwing back the curtains this morning as I hadn’t thought the previous day to have been sunny enough to warrant such punishment… Starting on the riverbank at the A5117 was nothing but gloomy and there was precious little on view anywhere as I comforted myself by thinking “if you see anything it will be pretty close”! After a few minutes of wandering slowly south the air was suddenly full of Pink-footed Goose calls – only I couldn’t see a thing! The noise got closer and closer, practically overhead and then finally, there they were, a lovely skein of about 300 birds aimlessly circling and clearly hopelessly lost. At one point it looked like they would drop in to land but it may have been me that I spooked them away and they soon disappeared back from whence they came.

Also to the west was a single Little Egret, the only one I was to see all day.

Crossing the middle of the reserve produced little apart from a Reed Bunting, but five Stonechats were interesting enough. Teal could be heard on the main pond in SJ4373 from quite a distance so I was anticipating bigger numbers than of late and so it turned out to be. In fact, apart from Wigeon, all duck species present showed some increase in number; in total there were: 70 Mallard, 300 Teal, five Shoveler and four Gadwall to go with the lone Wigeon.

Speckled Wood Lane again produced a Little Owl calling anxiously, the last bird to make the notebook until I was approaching the pond in SJ4573. The actual pond was completely devoid of anything but a handful of Black-headed Gulls but there were at least 150 Herring, 10 Great Black-backed and single Lesser Black-backed and Common Gulls standing or sitting in the field. Scanning around I eventually found all the wildfowl doing likewise just to the north of the pond…lots of them. Clearly there were significantly more Canadas than of late and there was a sizeable carpet of Wigeon too but very difficult to count due to them being in grass. Thanks to a passing flock of 100 Pink-footed Geese however all the duck exploded into the air and landed on the pond, making any surface water difficult to see! At or about the same time another flock of gulls came in, raising the number of Black-headed to 250. Judging by the size and density of the flock when flighting into the pond, I estimated at least 400 Wigeon, the highest count ever on the local patch. Immediately north of the motorway the flock of RUFF looked to have moved on but on reaching my favourite gate watch-point, there they were, 15 as yesterday along with 19 Curlew.

Overcast; chilly southerly wind. c.4km

The latest in the series of guided bird walks on the reserve was super-well attended to the extent that it was possibly slightly detrimental. Even with the best of attentions with such a group there will be some people who simply won’t see everything on view.
Bird of the day was unquestionably the single Jack Snipe flushed from dense cover at an uncharacteristic 20 metres or more before adopting the characteristic short flight back into cover. Two Little Egrets were feeding on the ditch clearings well away from the river for a change though another remained in the fields to the west of the Gowy. The dead Mute Swan had clearly been visited by some predator or other in the last 24 hours as there were hundreds of feathers on the riverbank, along with a lovely charm of 60 Goldfinch.

Wildfowl numbers were slightly down on the previous day; despite a new high count of seven Gadwall for this winter period, Teal numbers had halved to around the 125 mark. A nice male Bullfinch rounded things off nicely.

Incidental garden record.

A female Chaffinch was a very unusual visitor to the garden today; though possibly under-recorded it looks to have been just our 13^th ever record, with the last being in 2004!

Some sunny and rainy spells but generally overcast with moderate westerly breeze. c.9km

Overnight conditions had been pretty diabolical, with very high winds and torrential, continuous rain…all rather good weather to bring about some bird movement! I wanted to check on the Ruff flock so began walking the length of Cryer’s Lane, immediately noticing scores of Redwings and Fieldfares where over recent times there had been none at all. Some 325 birds in total were split roughly 50-50 between the two species. In the ex-Ruff field there were small numbers of gulls and a modest increase in Curlew to 44.

Initially sunny then generally overcast with stiff, icy westerly wind. c.10km

Duped into an essentially unplanned walk by the early nice conditions, this turned out to essentially be a re-run of the previous day. I’d some nagging doubts about there being two White-fronts on the pond in SJ4573 so, armed with my scope and pausing only to register 31 Curlew in the ‘Ruff field’, I headed straight there. My dubs were based on the photos I took the day before, when ‘the’ bird was in two places without me seeing how it got from one to the other!

As it turned out, there was only one bird and it was in a unified flock of all four species, the only one of which to show change being Greylag, having increased to 26. On the pond itself Teal numbers had also risen, to 16, the highest count since 30 in February 2013. As yesterday there was then a lull in proceedings until Speckled Wood Lane produced a Jay and eight Long-tailed Tits (but no Little Owl). The first thing that happened on reaching the meadows was my being overflown by 96 Pink-footed Geese, steadily heading northwest. My main mission was gulls however so without much ado I headed towards the motorway fields to discover that the overnight frost had put an icy coating onto the ponds and puddles there; number of gulls were hugely reduced as a consequence – though there were some to the west of the river. Half an hour produced nothing other than the three larger species so in increasing winds I headed back north. A single Skylark was the only bird of consequence until I noticed a Little Egret, sneakily trying to go unseen though flying with a party of Herring Gulls! It headed north and as it landed I thought I noticed the head of another on the riverbank. Five Stonechats were dotted around the place and sure enough, at the double gate close to the footbridge over the river there were not two but four Little Egrets. Not only that, once that had relocated to the fields west of the river I noticed there were already three there so the day total was a very nice seven. Equally nice, and centring their activities around Thornton Brook was a flock of at least 50 Fieldfares, some of which were looking very handsome indeed.

For reasons passing understanding given recent performances I chose to head home by walking the permissive footpath alongside the A5117. There were 32 Teal on the river north of the main road but that was basically that! My notebook didn’t actually see light of day again until I took it from my pocket in the living room once back indoors!

Dull and overcast with a light westerly breeze. c.1km

A somewhat impromptu trip brought about mainly to give me a break from processing moth records! Irrespective of the reason, it proved to be a very entertaining hour and a half. A short visit to the pond in SJ4573 revealed just 20 Canada Geese and 350 Wigeon – all the other geese having either departed completely or moved out of sight to the second, more distant pond in the square. There was however a single Gadwall, just the third record for the tetrad. On route to the ponds on the boundary of the refinery complex, a quicker stop found the Little Owl on station and it was even left undisturbed as a bonus.

Beautiful cloudless day though still a little chilly. No wind. c.11km

Another attempt at Partridge for the year begins along the footpath north of the sewage works in SJ4274 which produced not only Goldcrest but Coal Tit in the space of a few moments as well as the early flowering stages of the only Mahonia bushes on the patch. Perhaps a dozen Pied Wagtails graced the sewage settling beds but that was just about that. Moving south along the canal, Partridge defied all attempts to be unearthed so it was just distant views of two Little Egrets and the first of several sightings of Raven for the day.

Heading east along Lesser Whitethroat Lane there was a lovely small party of Long-tailed Tits, some of which were acrobatically flycatching as they moved past me, followed by well over 100 Redwings, which I was inadvertently pushing along the hedgerow in front of me. By the time they had become bored with this game and had move off a scan produced three Little Egrets, two of which were quite close and one posed either looking skywards or listening intently! In the end, there were four, none of which were on the reserve.

Overcast but dry; light westerly breeze. c.10km

A five hour wander saw me back home quite exhausted, thanks in the main to wearing too many clothes! I’d imagined that following overnight clear skies it would have been cold enough to warrant the full hit of warm clothing but actually it was relatively warm and I just overheated! All that and for precious little as it turned out. The fields either side of Cryer’s Lane were empty apart from a few hundred Black-headed Gulls and the pond in SJ4573 hosted just 200 Wigeon and a few more gulls so the first hour was essentially just a walk!

Reaching the vicinity of the old people’s home brought about a change of fortunes however with a flock of 100 Chaffinches plus three Mistle Thrush and the first of the days’ seven Ravens. Actually in the wood surrounding the home were all four species of common tit as well as two Nuthatches and the odd Redwing so things were definitely on the up. No Little Owl again however and though Speckled Wood Lane managed a lovely close flock of half a dozen Long-tailed Tits it wasn’t until beyond half way down the lane that something else of import showed. A stunning, brick red-chested male Sparrowhawk was flushed from one of the larger trees and clearly carrying its lunch it perched up again after 50 metres or so and allowed for prolonged views as it tore into the Blackbird it had plainly only recently caught. It continued to flush ahead of me whilst I continued down the lane, eventually disappearing across a field, catch still in hand.

Overlooking the main pond in SJ4373 saw my best laid plans for the days’ route laying in tatters around my ankles, thanks to a birder who had wandered well off the permissive footpaths and who was just disturbed everything in sight – and a Little Egret which up until he flushed it, hadn’t been. This was really annoying as he had the field craft of an absolute beginner but the gear of a serious birder. So, after counting all the wildfowl he disturbed form the pond including now 55 Shoveler) and noting a huge flock of at least 500 Redwing passing though I had a re-think and headed south. The new plan was to follow the main drain running north-south, cut across to the river and then head back north. Unsurprisingly this route brought very little of interest as it had almost certainly been disturbed by the aforementioned birder. Nonetheless on reaching the river a surprising duo in close proximity to the motorway bridge were a fine male Wigeon and a Little Grebe. There was to be another Little Grebe further north but other than a Skylark, actually nothing else! On reaching the footbridge there had been five Little Egrets in total, though only two were on the reserve side of the river.

Not having walked Thornton Brook for a while caused me to head back east along it, noting two more Stonechats and four presumably additional Shoveler on the pond in SJ4374 and that was that; nothing else over the last mile or more to trouble the notebook!

Overcast, dry and though initially icy cold it did warm up by mid-morning; no wind. c.10km

Beginning with a rare foray into the south-eastern part of the patch proved to be a great idea as one of the roadside fields along Hob Lane was hosting some of the wildfowl which had ‘gone missing’ from the more regularly watched pond in SJ4573. Though the recent White-fronted Goose was absent the four Pink-footed Geese were easily picked out from the 39 Greylags and 40 Curlew. The pond in the field was bigger than I’d ever seen it before and was clearly proving attractive as it also sported Mallard, Wigeon and even a Coot.

At the same time as all this was going on I noticed a lone Goldcrest in the hedgerow right in front of me and shortly thereafter found a very nice male Blackcap. In the photograph below, the centre goose walking away is still identifiable as Pink-footed though it’s smaller size, non-orange legs and much darker neck.