Frodsham

Raven

Afternoon stroll across Frodsham Marsh (it had been intended to be a lunchtime stroll but the train was very late). I had hoped that a day out in the fresh air at muck spreading time might have allayed the cold symptoms I've been playing with for a couple of days but apparently not. The other hope was to see one or other of the short-eared owls that have been on the marsh lately but I ran out of steam and didn't linger till the late afternoon.

Kestrel

There were four or five kestrels patrolling the fields along Lordship Lane on Frodsham Marsh. None of them were much fussed about my presence.

Kestrel

kestrel

Something scary was obviously patrolling the salt marsh as waves of lapwings (and a handful of golden plovers) kept billowing up overhead. A couple of buzzards floated low overhead but they didn't coincide with the panics amongst the waders. A clue as to what might have been happening came when a peregrine came hurtling over the top of the ridge to Number Six Bed and sped off down Lordship Lane then back over towards the salt marsh.

Lapwings

Ravens were very much in evidence, this is easily the most reliable place I know for them. This raven was torn between carrying on rummaging about at the bottom of a hawthorn and coming over and finding out what my camera was about. In the end it came and had a nosy.

Raven

The marsh harrier kept its distance over Number Six Bed.

Marsh harrier

The ponds and puddles on the salt marsh were full of teal, mallard and shovelers and there were a couple of large flocks of wigeon out amongst the sheep and Canada geese. I could hear but not see pink-footed geese somewhere out there. 

Buzzard

I decided to call it a day after I'd walked down Lordship Lane as far as the Holpool Gutter and done a circuit of Number Six Bed. It had been a decent couple of hours' birdwatching.