Butterflies were well represented, with regular sightings of red admiral suggesting some form of movement as most of them were doggedly heading west. The day total was a respectable 11, bested only by small tortoiseshell (14) and green veined white (21).

Along the river it was nice to still be seeing banded demoiselles this late into the autumn and for the first few hundred metres the single male seen was the only dragonfly of any species! Another reed warbler in almost the same place as previous records along the Gowy might just be telling of a pair having bred, which would be a significant record as all other breeding pairs habitually use the ditch along the northern boundary. A few leaf-mine blotches on dock were keyed out to belonging to the fly Pegomya solennis, a recent addition to the reserve’s list. Even better than that, the event of the day concerned finding the leaf mine of the micro-moth Mompha rashkiella yet another new species for the reserve this year!

North of the footbridge and weir, dragonflies finally began to show, with the recent usual suspects (more banded demoiselles, three hawkers and common darter) all appearing before I’d reached the permissive footpath. It was however hoverflies that stole the limelight with Epistrophe elegans, Eristalis nemorum and no less than three Merodon equistris all showing well. Despite the pond in SJ4374 holding no birds of interest (in fact no birds at all!) there was a lovely male emperor dragonfly, not the latest sighting on record by any means, but seeing them in September is a little unusual. Routing back to the Church in Thornton was quite busy, with comma and three small coppers being notable as well as the remainder of the days’ 12 common darters. Another lesser whitethroat and seven long-tailed tits were the result of just standing in one spot for 15 minutes waiting to see what came along…

During my computerisation of the days’ records, I noted down year totals for the main species groups found on the reserve thus far: 102 moths, 93 birds, 29 hoverflies, 19 butterflies, seven shieldbugs and 12 dragonflies.

A kingfisher was next to show, making one unsuccessful dip into the chocolate brown river before briefly perching up and thereafter heading off downstream. Two large charms of goldfinches were lovely to see too, moreso given their combined total of 62 birds, a nice showing indeed. Amongst the constant streams of mixed gulls passing between the Mersey and Gowy Landfill site there were regular buzzard intruders but also the occasional kestrel and once a nice peregrine, probably a male and equally probably from this year’s breeding pair within the refinery complex.

I reached the pond in SJ4373 - that had been patch of water no larger than a table tennis table three weeks ago; there were a dozen wigeon swimming on the rainfall re-instated pond! Not only that, heron, coot and mallard were also present as were plenty of common darters and both southern (six) and migrant (two) hawkers.

Nonetheless and following some brief introductions and discussion on the fact that there are several different types of migration possible, our group of nine set out to try and make the best of the conditions given us. In truth, there was precious little chance given the conditions though there was a single chiffchaff and a handful of teal at the first pond we checked out, both migrant species. The former was passing through on its way south whilst the duck represented the first immigrants that hopefully were the fore-runners of more to come to spend the winter on the reserve.

Amongst the 29 species of bird recorded there were other candidates for the tag of ‘migrant’. Two small charms of goldfinches and a swirling flock of almost 40 jackdaws in particular could have been migrants, the former possibly also about to spend the winter, the latter, because of their number, must have come from elsewhere as the species didn’t breed on the reserve this year. Absentee species also illustrated short distance migration as there wasn’t a single skylark or reed bunting to be seen (nor had there been for at least a month), the assumption being that they have already moved away to either the Dee or Mersey estuaries.