This year, I decided to hit the patch again, but no matter my good intent, the 'can' of my plans, had until today been repeatedly kicked down the road. This was due in part, to work commitments, but largely due to the weather. Said can had been rained on, sleeted on, snowed on and buffeted by near gale force winds until yesterday, it settled on sheltered, sunny, patch verge... so I picked it up, popped it in my pocket and packed my bag ready for a first light start.
I always like to arrive on the patch a bit before official sunrise, to catch the colours emerging and so I set my alarm last night for 6:45am, ready for the off this morning. I didn't get to bed until 1am and so, when it went off five and three quarter hours later, I was somewhat groggy. Never mind! Today was the day I'd been gearing up to - my first patch visit of 2023 and the anticipation of starting this year's patch list.
First things first though. Breakfast! I usually skip it (bad Mark!) but today I was greeted by a spread that was so fine, it couldn't be ignored. Eggs, bacon, beans, mushrooms, black pudding, a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice and an equally fresh double Espresso. Delicious! Thank you Speedy's Cafe! No sign of Sherlock, but who'd have thunk some genius thought to open one in Runcorn! Amazing.
Fuelled to the brim I slung my bag and bins onto the passenger seat of the new orange Lambo (care of making a killing on Crypto) and 15 minutes later had arrived at Moore and parked up.
I always like to guess what I'll get first... and usually go with Robin, Blackbird and Jackdaw, in roughly that order. Today though I couldn't have been more wrong. First bird was Merlin! Quite the surprise. Although they're sometimes around in the winter, I rarely get them, and when I do, it's usually near Norton Marsh, not the road by the car park... and what's more, it was being chased by a Peregrine... correction... TWO Peregrines! What the actual fuck!! I took out my notebook and was just about to make my first entries of the year when back down the road the car alarm went off. Now call me stupid, but it hadn't occurred to me that parking a brand spanking new supercar on the reserve might draw a certain amount of attention! I pressed the key fob to shut it off... but it just got louder...AND, it sounded uncannily like the alarm on my phone. Had I left it on the front seat of the Lambo?? While I pondered I felt a shove. It was my wife. "Aren't you going to Moore?" she said, "Only you're alarm is going off and I need to go back to sleep". "Sorry babe", I apologized "I must have dozed back to sleep..."
Didn't take me long to tog up warm, skip breakfast and toss my stuff in the Citroen, so that by 07:30am I was indeed parked up. First birds, Robin, Carrion Crow, Blue Tit and Blackbird, quickly followed by c250 Jackdaw over south and a smaller group of c50 moments later.
07:40am - Picked up Coot and Teal calling somewhere on Birchwood Pool as I headed towards the east end of the reserve along the road by the warehouses. Magpie in the trees to my left, Wood Pigeon calling, Dunnock, Song Thrush in full songs and c20 Feral Pigeon over. Everywhere was crunchy underfoot and as I passed Pumphouse Pool on my left, I could see it was frozen solid. Not a bird in sight.
07:45am - Buzzard calling, 2 Goldcrest in conifers opposite the chain fence and a distant Oystercatcher 'peeping' from the direction of Black Field Pools. Cormorant flying east, Redshank calling from Manchester Ship Canal direction, Jay to my left.
Usually I head straight to the Eastern Reed Bed and do an anti-clockwise loop to take in the river, Firecrest Alley and the Black Field Pools before landing at Colin's Hide at the east end of Pumphouse Pool. Today though I did the reverse.
07:56 - Picked up Lesser Redpoll over east 'chi-chi-chi-ing' and that was it for the track to Colin's and Pumphouse Pool itself was no better - frozen solid and dead.
08:10am - Black Field Pools... the same. Frozen and dead as a doornail. Not even a call...
08:20am - Nothing on the river...quite literally!
08:30am - Eastern Reed Bed and Mill Brook Pool - same story save for a burst from a Cetti's Warbler from the reeds. Watched it briefly as I listened for Water Rail. Nada...
Headed back towards the Viaduct getting Great Tit, Coal Tit and Redwing on the way. On the Manchester Ship Canal from below the arches were just Tufted Duck, Mallard and Teal silhouetted against the rising sun. Slipped on the ice on the way back to the track and made a discovery. You can actually cut your hand on ICE!!! Go figure...
09:00am - Birchwood Pool (East Hide aka Fox Hide). At last, open water! 4 Tufted Duck, 1 teal, 14 Coot, 2 Little Grebe, 16 Mallard, 2m+2f Pochard, 20 Black-headed Gull. Had a few Herring Gull and Lesser Black-backed Gull over south earlier too. Chaffinch, Bullfinch en route.
09:10am - Birchwood Pool (South Hide) - Single Greylag Goose over the warehouses calling away. Think it was lost!
09:15am - Birchwood Pool (West Hide) - added a single Wigeon and Mistle Thrush singing. Treecreeper on way to...
09:30am - Feeding Station (via back path) - nothing. Why? Because some bastard has removed all the feeders! WTF is going on? Is this a nefarious plan by Peel Holdings to put people off going there???
09:45am - Lapwing Lake - 2 Little Grebe, 16 Wigeon, 5 Mallard, m Shoveler, 22 Teal, 3 Coot, Reed Bunting calling.
10:00am - back to the car for a coffee to warm up. It was luke warm. ASDA thermos cups are crap! Don't bother... swung to the Swing Bridge. Upstream c30 Tufted Duck, 3 Coot, 4 Teal, 15 Mallard, 2 Gadwall... but many distant and light poor - so probably many more...
10:10am - Angler's Pool - 2 Cormorant, 2 Coot, 2 Gadwall. Nuthatch calling.
10:20am - Big Hand Ranch fields - horse. Headed off to Upper Moss Side via The Quarry, picking up 3 Lapwing over, Curlew calling, Goldfinch, Great Black-backed Gull calling 'kow' and Stock Dove, before arriving at...
10:56am Norton Marsh - 3 Meadow Pipit
11:09am - Manchester Ship Canal en route to Halfway House - Grey Heron, Long-tailed Tit.
11:20am - Halfway House - Tide in... 50 Canada Goose on far bank, 2 Shelduck and a couple of catually nice birds... Barn Owl hunting in the sunshine over the far bank in front of Fiddler's Ferry cooling towers and Common Sandpiper tucked into the back at the waterline, before it silently flicked low over the water towards Round Cherval.
11:40am - back along the Manchester Ship Canal yielded Raven calling, 90 Pink-footed Goose over in a 'V' flying west, 2 Lapwing over south, 3 Great Crested Grebe on the water and 2 Great Black-backed Gull on one of the buoys. Man are they big buggers!
12:00 Rounded off going back past the cottages to come in at the Feeding Station end of Lapwing Lane, picking up Pied Wagtail in the wet field by the tip, Pheasant calling, Great Spotted Woodpecker drumming atop a dead tree and Siskin back at the car. No Mute Swan. No Yellowhammer. No Greenfinch. No Willow Tit. No Linnet. No Green Woodpecker. Nonetheless, all in all, a very n(ice) 5 hours and a good start to the year list - 61 spp
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