Mist...

The Angler's Pool

And STILL the thaw is incomplete. And still there are no wildfowl anywhere except Millbrook Pool where today were; 50 Teal, 8 Gadwall and 8 Mallard. No sign of yesterday's Woodcock, but a Great Spotted Woodpecker bounded over calling. And that, was pretty much it for the pools... all iced over and hung with fog or maybe mist. I'm never too sure of the difference. Fog sounds like a grubby dirty thick nasty grey murky thing whereas mist sounds a little more atmospheric. SO, I'm going for mist coz it was all very atmospheric...

Eastern Reedbed

Millbrook Pool

Pumphouse Pool

The only other place with birds today was the Feeding Station. Hooching so it was with dozens of Blue Tits, Great Tits, Chaffinches and Reed Buntings hungry for the scraps on offer.

No Nuthatch or woodpeckers again though. Never saw a single Robin, Blackbird or Wren either. No Moorhen. No Long-tailed Tits. 4 Grey Squirrels. 1 Willow Tit. I have an inkling this cold snap has hit the Moore residents pretty hard. I guess time will tell...

The answer ISN'T seven...

Lapwing Lake this afternoon

Funny old thing patching. Take the past few months for example. Much of my time has been spent at the far ends of the patch looking for those illusive winter ticks that have been keeping me from a record breaking 140 for the year. I guess that's the nature of things as new species become harder and harder to find as the year progresses... which in a weird way... makes visiting the patch more and more fun (I use the word 'fun' here as a euphemism for 'challenging'). It can certainly make you work harder and explore new places, or in my case, test the ole tenacity to the full. I mean how many times CAN you visit the same bit of river, looking for the same bird, with the same result - ne pas de sausage - before you crack up? Well, I can tell you that the answer ISN'T seven. Coz that's how many times I've yomped to the east river looking for Goosander during the past few months without any luck... until today! The gorgeous redhead by the viaduct had me whooping and kicking my heels with joy (don't even go there!). Funny. I'd always assumed that when I found a Goosander here (and I always believed I would) it would be a male... and here she was, swimming upstream along the far bank a cute little female and species number 138 for the year. And what's more, my gut showed absolutely no inclination towards today being THE day that I'd find one... go figure.

We'd arrived (I had 'olds' with me) at the Angler's Pool an hour earlier to see how the thaw was progressing. Not bad as it turned out but still nowhere near enough meltage as yet. There was now about 20% open water but the pool still only had gulls; 102 Black-headed Gulls and 8 Common Gulls to be exact. Still, at least it suggested it was worth checking the rest of the pools for birds. WE were clearly not the only ones with that particular idea today. The car park was full as we drove past (meh!) and I could see two silhouttes already in the hide as we approached the reedbed. Ah well. Turned out to be a couple of the local lads I'd not seen for a while and they were already scoped on the Woodcock. Today it was on the big island of Millbrook Pool, seemingly asleep. The thaw here had progressed too and the Teal numbers had swelled from yesterdays' half a dozen to 63 today. There had been a few Gadwall on the wetter flush in the north east corner earlier too, according to our birding compadres, but these had now gone. The Eastern Reedbed was less productive - still iced over and devoid of birds. It was at this point we went and bagged us the Goosander :) Happy days...

Next up was a quick trip to Pumphouse Pool. We'd noticed a shed load of gulls on the ice there as we'd driven past earlier and with my dander now semi-erect from my recent Goosander thrill I figured the gulls were worth a trawl - target: the juvenile Iceland Gull that Mikey had had in the not too distant past. Long story short; c650 Black-headed Gull, 38 Herring Gull, 15 Common Gull, 7 Lesser Black-backed Gull, ZERO Iceland Gull. Birchwood Pool was today birdless - I mean COMPLETELY birdless! Not even a Crow. If I wanted to get even closer to the magical 140 I'd need to scour the treetops for small stuff. There'd been a flock of about 45 Lesser Redpoll at the Eastern Reedbed, but the light was rubbish and it would have been pointless to grill them all for a Mealy... but the light seemed a little better in Birch Wood as we trogged back through the mud to the car. Bins up and... Chaffinch... Chaffinch... Chaffinch... Iceland Gull. ICELAND GULL! Fuck me! I had NOT expected that. An adult Iceland Gull was cruising low over Birch Wood heading towards Arpley Tip... clear as day... not a speck of black on those pearly wing-tips. T'was like a ghost of gull, Sire. The olds thought I was completely mad as I hopped and skipped about cackling, "Iceland Gull, fucking adult iceland Gull - 'scuse my French..." and so on and so forth. So icy puts me on 139, and that I'm sure is where I'll stay - 1 short of the magical 140. I can't honestly see catching up with any patch Waxwing, overflying Whoopers or roosting Long-eared Owls over the next couple of days, especially with visitors up... but hey, patching teaches you contentment. And I am, at this moment, a most content patcher :)

PS: Mind you with 45 Lesser Redpolls at the reedbed and two talismanic old people staying I'd be mad not to bundle them into the car again tomorrow and go Mealy huntin... watcha reckon? ;)



Spooky Translucence and the Superficial Thaw...

I've pretty much given up adding any further goodies to the year list tbh but the inevitable pull of the patch struck again this morning and with everyone away in Chester shopping (wtf!) I figured why not head out and a spend a couple hours 'in the nature'. Things have been so iced up and bird-bare of late that I was curious to see what was back, now that the thaw had seemingly set in. SO, I skipped brekky and still uber-fueled by the turkey 'n' trimmings of last weekend, wiped down the windows on the wee silver midget (the jets are still frozen) and scootled off to the patch.

The first 'surprise' of the morning was the amount of ice still about on the road to the swing bridge. I actually skidded to a stop by the Angler's Pool. No Little Owl today on the barn, just a fluffed up Kestrel on the old barn owl box and one or two Redwing in the horse paddocks. The Angler's Pool itself was devoid of birds. The thaw had melted the snow but not the underlying ice and so the melt water just lay there on the surface in shallow blue-grey puddles.

This bode less well than I'd hoped. Chances were if this pool was still iced the others would be too. I flicked the car back on to the road, hit a right by the empty car park and headed for the east end of the reserve. The slippiness of the track past the warehouses and the polished grey of Birchwood Pool as I drove past confirmed the shallowness of the thaw. But there were birds. A small group of gulls on the ice by the small island. Something to check out later - just in case there's an Iceland Gull among them. Predictably the first birds that swooped across the track en route to the reedbed were Jays. They looked drabber today without the snowy backdrop. Between Millbrook Pool and the Eastern Reedbed there was still loose snow on the track which made the driving easier. Parked up, and after about 10 seconds of comedy legs as I got out of the car slipped immediately, grabbed the roof and flailed like mad to get upright again, I was off to the reedbed.

No birds. Same as the other ponds - only partly thawed. The surface was an eerie translucent grey.I almost expected to suddenly see a face pressed up against it - trapped beneath the ice. Spooky... but oddly beuatiful in its own frosty kinda way. Anyway, birds... as I said. None on the pool, BUT did get a couple of Skylark over calling. This was actually to become a bit of a theme-let of the morning's sesh... every so often a Skylark would go over - calling. They all seemed to be heading ENE ish. Must have noted 8 or 9 whilst I was out and about.

Millbrook Pool had 3 Teal, 1 Common Buzzard, 1 Magpie and 1 Carrion Crow. Time to move west. Flushed a Woodcock again on the way back to the car. This time it was feeding on the Millbrook Pool side of the track. Last time I'd flushed it from the reedbed side opposite. Cracking bird.

Pumphouse Pool - 1 Grey Heron. That was it. Clearly the pools were going to be a dead loss today. They need a few more days of mild weather. Maybe I'll get a chance to hit them again Friday to cap the year. Fingers crossed. Had difficulty pulling away outside the east hide.. the ice was thick there.  Finally managed it AND a three point turn, which was a miracle. It was like driving a Zamboni! Decided to hit Birchwood Pool from the west, rather than through Birch Wood itself. That way there'd be less chance of getting stuck and I'd get to check Lapwing Lake and the Tawny roost on my way. Actually parked in the car park today (which I very rarely do) and was pleased to get a sprinlikng of small stuff as I togged up with another couple of layers; a couple of Nuthatch, small flock of Goldfinch, Blue Tits, Song Thrush, Great Spotted Woodpecker - not GREATER spotted woodpecker as they keep saying on the telly... "I had a Greater Spotted Woodpecker in garden the other day". Fuck off! It's Great Spotted!! Aaarrg!!! Bah Humbug... Calm... Calm... Rant over. OR... we could digress to shopping queues? No! Focus! This is a BIRD blog!

SO, off I set on foot along Lapwing Lane. The going on was VERY slow. The only was to get from one end to the other was along the leafy margins. The road itself was waaaay too glassy for any kind of traction even with my clompy black Berghaus boots, so instead I shuffled along the verge to the hide overlooking Lapwing Lake. No birds there either, just another expanse of misty grey ice.

The section of Lapwing Lane between the hide and the path to the Tawny roost yielded nothing new except a few Siskin and the incessant cackles of Jackdaws - the most abundant bird on the patch today. A few Great Tits were piping up along the track to the small bridge with the ivy-covered tree, but alas, no Tawny Owl there today... just 13 Jackdaws. Actually, they were a bit on the sinister side this lot... all hunchy backed and staring. Looked ready to swoop down and have my eyes out if I'd given 'em half a chance - spooky!

Well, the Birchwood Pool gull flock did NOT contain the hoped for one hundred and thirty eighth species for the year; just 11 Black-headed Gulls, 3 Common Gulls and 1 Herring Gull. No wildfowl whatsoever there either. Only other birds were 3 Carrion Crows, 1 Grey Heron, 1 Pied Wagtail and the last of the morning's Skylark over. Wonder where everything has gone??? Ah well, the Woodcock was nice and the small movement of Skylark interesting. Otherwise, let's see what the real thaw brings...

A Patch Of Snow...

Finally got to the river today amid the snow. Hardly saw a thing but it was SO beautiful out. Not much to say really other than the light was just something else. The snow made the backdrop to everything a weird blue-tinged monotone - like everything was shot in black and white but through a cold blue or UV filter or something. Really enhanced the colours of  the few birds and animals that were out and about. The gulls and squirrels looked smokey blue grey today; the Bullfinches and Jays en route to the river blushed shades of pink; the solitary Woodcock and Snipe at the east end of the reseve looked like they'd been inlaid with gold and ebony and the small flocks of Redwings that were skitting between berry bushes were undescribabley gorgeous and just made me feel...well, christmasy to be honest! Even the two Buzzards I came across (one drinking from a stream, the other labouring under a full crop by the ship canal) seemed to have every rich shade of warm fire-side brown you can imagine. Bloody marvellous I tell thee... and to cap it all, I had the world to myself. Happy days :)

Parked up here and set off... getting male Green Woodpecker on the way to...

... the path along the Manchester Ship Canal...

...where I came across my first tracks - Pheasant...

...Rabbit...

... Wood Mouse? ...

... Fox ...

... stopped to check a crest ... couldn't relocate it...

... quickly rushed past the crack in the Universe...

... and was soon at Halfway House...

Had hoped to catch the rising tide but it was clear that it had already rizz and a highish one too. Only birds left were about 200 Lapwing, 50 Canada Geese and a handful of Wigeon tucked up on the bank.

... headed back to Shipton's via the big oak...

... to take the obligatory snow silhouette shot...

... before heading back to the car and hitting the east side...

Track to the Eastern Reedbed

The Eastern Reedbed

Millbrook Pool (aka The Lagoon)

4 Lapwing, 1 Common Snipe and 1 Buzzard shared this little trickle of running water

En Route to the east River

Nothing about though...

By the Angler's Pool

The Angler's Pool

SO... nothing much to say... for a change. It was one of those 'experiential' sessions today - guess you just had to be there... BUT... and don't take this the wrong way dear reader... I'm kinda glad that you weren't ;)

Me 37 - 70 Not Me...

Some patch days are quiet. Today was VERY quiet. So much so in fact that I had a real feeling that it could well be THE quietest day I’ve had on the patch - ever. Now I tend to keep records of just about everything I can, bird-wise, on the patch and so it didn’t take long to find a spreadsheet with previous December records in. Traditionally I tend to think of Decemeber as a quiet month anyway, but 107 species have turned up in the past at this time of year (see below) and I’ve had all but a handful of these. Today though I got just 37

Barnacle Goose, Bewick’s Swan, Bittern, Blackbird, Black-headed Gull, Blue Tit, Brambling, Bullfinch, Canada Goose, Carrion Crow, Caspian Gull, Chaffinch, Chiffchaff, Coal Tit, Collared Dove, Common Buzzard, Common Gull, Common Sandpiper, Common Snipe, Coot, Cormorant, Curlew, Dunlin, Dunnock, Feral Pigeon, Fieldfare, Gadwall, Glaucous Gull, Goldcrest, Golden Plover, Goldeneye, Goldfinch, Goosander, Great Black-backed Gull, Great Crested Grebe, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Great Tit, Green Sandpiper, Green Woodpecker, Greenfinch, Grey Heron, Grey Partridge, Grey Wagtail, Greylag Goose, Herring Gull, House Sparrow, Iceland Gull, Jack Snipe, Jackdaw, Jay, Kestrel, Kingfisher, Lapwing, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Lesser Redpoll, Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, Little Egret, Little Grebe, Little Owl, Long-tailed Tit, Long-eared Owl, Magpie, Mallard, Meadow Pipit, Mediterranean Gull, Merlin, Mistle Thrush, Moorhen, Mute Swan, Nuthatch, Peregrine, Pheasant, Pied Wagtail, Pink-footed Goose, Pintail, Pochard, Raven, Redshank, Redwing, Reed Bunting, Richard’s Pipit, Robin, Rook, Ruddy Duck, Shelduck, Short-eared owl, Shoveler, Siskin, Skylark, Song Thrush, Sparrowhawk, Starling, Stock Dove, Stonechat, Tawny Owl, Teal, Tree Sparrow, Treecreeper, Tufted Duck, Twite, Water Rail, Willow Tit, Whooper Swan, Wood Pigeon, Wren, Yellowhammer, Yellow-legged Gull.

I make that 35% of the potential tally. Of course some of the above have occurred only once or twice on the patch during December (e.g. Twite, Richard’s Pipit, Bewick’s Swan) or are not exactly what you’d call predictably ‘getable’ at this time of year (e.g. Goosander, Long-eared Owl, Common Sandpiper etc), but even so...

In fairness the recent freeze still has a grip on the patch, although the tracks at the eastern end of the reserve are beginning to show hints of future mud to come (it's going to be horrendous methinks) and I only did east of Lapwing Lane. The only pond with any open water today was again Birchwood Pool, but even this was too little support many wildfowl (just 2 Shoveler, 1 Teal, 31 Coots and 8 Moorhens). No gulls today on the pools (bar a couple of displaced Herring Gulls) and the rest I saw were either overflying or on the field between the big road bridge over the river by the dump and the eastern river by the Transpennine Way. The Tawny Owl (lovely greyish bird) was showing well in it's tree by the little bridge and was by far and away the best bird of the day. Small stuff was all found initially on call today, which is pretty weird given that stuff ought to have been easy enough to pick up visually now that the leaves have gone. Ah well...

Yes... it WAS indeed a VERY quiet day... but ya know what, still worth the hours and the trudged miles. What can I say... it's my patch :)

The Cold and The Grey...

Managed to snatch a couple of early patch breaths this morning in the hope of getting to the river before work. The previous xmas card covering of snow that had dusted the patch just days ago had now thawed leaving everywhere looking gloomy and damp. Worse still the thaw had not been deep enough to rid the ponds and tracks of ice so there were few birds about and the driving was even more hazardous than previously. Couple that with a stiff northerly edged breeze and conditions were nicely challenging. I would have to work hard  for my birds today. And so it was...

First stop, the Angler's Pool. Today I had brought my tripod - I needed a count. Specifically I needed to know how just many Coots were there AND reassure myself that none were American. Now I know this is daft but I somehow got it into my head yesterday that I really should check. It's that bloody Irish bird that did it I'm sure. Have you ever trawled through 153 Coots with a wobbly scope (the head on my Manfrotto has, it seems, lost a screw)? It's a marvellous activity. Gorgeous bird, the Coot *coughs*.

Moving on. Moorhen numbers were down, I could find only two. There was a single male Gadwall, 13 Tufties, a juvenile Mute Swan and 53 Mallards. So much for my gut... which driving through Moore village had told me to expect 'something good', a current euphemism for male Goosander. Nada! Gull wise there were about 700 Black-headed, 6 Herring and no Common today. One cool thing (no pum intended) was the noise the ice made every so often - it was just like a Spotted Crake call! Crake Ice - very funky.

Next up, Pumphouse Pool. Successfully negotiated the long polished ice rink that was now the track along the south side, hand-braked the 90 degree left turn (for a bit of fun) and decided as time was short to risk driving right up to the hide. No problem. Some open water here today...not much, but enough to have pulled in a lone Redshank. The only other birds were on the ice; 2 Carrion Crows, 5 Common Gulls, 2 Herring Gulls and 10 Black-headed Gulls. All very quiet. Not a passerine to be heard.

Millbrook Pool and the Eastern Reedbed were even quieter. Arrived to find Roy stocking up the local Robin's larder (see previous post); biscuits, mealworms, raisins (?), but didn't see the bird. The reedbed looked dishevelled and fed up. At least the other day with all the snow it looked practically festive... and of course there was the fox. Today though just soggyness. The wet flush in the NE corner of Millbrook Pool had thawed a little and 6 Teal were pottering about. Gave it a quick scan with the bins for Snipe, but there was nothing doing. A couple of Gadwall dropped in as I left for the railway bridge over the eastern river for another stab at Goosander. None. But there was a Kingfisher... which was both unexpected and nice.

It was getting colder. Decisions, decisions. Where next? Had to be Halfway House. The Manchester Ship Canal is always worth a look when the ponds are under ice as it's pretty deep and the boat traffic tends to keep it clear. If I was to find anything today, that seemed like my best shot. The track to the black & yellow gate was thankfully ice free and so it wasn't long before I was heading west along the canal path. Good numbers of thrushes about; 35 Redwing, 5+ Song Thrush, 15+ Blackbirds and a solitary Fieldfare. Very short on the small stuff though; just 1 Bullfinch, 1 Chaffinch, 1 Wren, 1 Robin and 2 Dunnock between Bob's Bridge and the river. The ship canal wasn't exactly hooching with stuff either 8 Tufty, 5 Teal, 1 Mallard, juvenile Mute Swan and 2 Gadwall... oh, and the best bird if the day - male Goldeneye.

Halfway House was dead except for gulls (hundreds), 10 canada Geese, 9 Lapwing, 8 Wigeon and 20+ Mallards. There was no shelter from the wind and some miserable low-life had nicked my fezzie chair, so nowhere to sit either. Thanks for that - moron!!! Decided instead to head back via Upper Moss Side. Again quiet, but flocks of 25 Fieldfare and 30-40 Yellowhammers made the detour worth while. So, all in all, a predictably grey sesh, but hey, you gotta take days like this from time to time, they're what make the purple patches an especially bright and vibrant purple :)

White out...

Well, newly togged in my cold weather gear...

... I FINALLY managed to get to the patch for a couple of hours. Hadn't realised just how long it had been - almost a month! Not much to see bird wise at it turned out as everywhere was pretty much frozen solid. At the Eastern Reedbed nothing stirred except for the resident tame Robin that I snapped on my mobile phone(above) and a rather mangey looking female fox that briefly edged along the snow-covered ice of the pool before vanishing back into the reeds.

The Eastern Reedbed

Millbrook Pool was similarly frozen solid and there were tracks at least of where a fox had been there too. Nothing else stirred. No sound. A quick jaunt to the river by the railway bridge east of ERB didn't throw up the hoped for Goosander (still!), but did provide another nice winter patch snap... oh and 3 Cormorants and 3 Moorhens.

The eastern River

Nearly pranged the car doing the 90 degrees turn up the track to Pumphouse Pool...

Track to Pumphouse

... and so decided to play safe, park up and walk to the eastern hide. No sign of the recently reported Jack Snipe, Common Snipe or Redshank on the little inlet today, just a trickle of water, more ice and snow and 8 Common Gulls... which is actually not a bad count for here.

Quick visit to Birchwood Pool west hide yielded lots of Black-headed Gulls and a sprinkling of larger Larids. Alas no white-wings, but again, good numbers of Common Gull. Checked them all - no Ring-billed needless to say, but there were a couple of slightly darker streakier headed birds L.c.henei maybe? Dunno, I'm not so hot on gulls. Here though there was a little open water along the north shore into which some of the gulls were packed, washing and among which were a handful of Moorhen and about 30 Coots... and that was it. Decided to walk back via the feeding station and up Lapwing Lane. Glad I did as the Tawny Owl was back on its usual roost and all fluffed up against the cold. Could just see her head above the ivy. A few tits and finches later and I was at the feeding station. No woodpeckers or Nuthatch, but the most grey squirrels raiding the various feeders that I've seen here - NINE. Otherwise it was the usual birdy suspects... Blue Tits, Great Tits, Coal Tits, Chaffinch and Reed Bunting. Unfortunately for our rather impoverished Coal Tit population though, the numbers went down by another one as a male Sparrowhawk clattered in and grabbed one off the feeders. Doh!

Lapwing Lake was solid white and had no birds at all... beg pardon... had 1 Common Snipe that flew off as I arrived and so it was time to leave. Where has everything gone? Well, not on the ship canal as far as I could tell... except for about another 40 Coots close to the swing bridge and hundreds of gulls on the ice down near the warehouses. Hmmm. Worth checking the Angler's Pool for completeness I reasoned. Aha! Birdage!! There, crammed into a patch of open water on the south shore were lots of wildfowl. I counted 125+ Coots and good numbers of Tufties, Mallard and Moorhen together with the odd Gadwall. Didn't have my scope on a pod else would have done a proper count... but at least it accounted for a few of our AWOL locals. Next visit I must see what's going on on Upper Moss Side and Halfway House. Wonder when I'll manage THAT! Ho hum...