Frodsham

Black-tailed godwits

The weather was set dry, if cloudy, so I had my first trip out to Frodsham of the year. The walk down from the station to the motorway bridge was uneventful, once over it I bumped into the first of the many singing warblers of the day: a sedge warbler and a whitethroat competing for air time in the field on the corner of Moorditch Lane. I walked down Moorditch Lane towards No.6 Lagoon. At the fork in the road another sedge warbler flew into a hawthorn bush and I spent a few minutes unsuccessfully trying to see a Cetti's warbler that was singing in nettles scarcely higher than my shin.

Tufted duck

I took the path up to No.6 Lagoon. The wind was strong enough to make the swoosh of wind turbines the dominant noise along the first hundred yards. Out on the salt marsh Canada geese, shelducks and mallards were dotted about, mostly in pairs, amongst the sheep and lambs. A few carrion crows and rooks fed on the field margins and quite a lot of jackdaws bounced around following the sheep but there was only a handful of ravens, this not being the season for easy pickings.

The water on the lagoon looked fairly deep at this end. A couple of dozen tufted ducks bobbed about on the waves. A few shelduck fed over on the Moorditch Lane side. Over on the shallow end a couple of groups of black-tailed godwits fed and preened at the water's edge. A flock of about thirty sand martins wheeled about, joined by single figures of swallows and swifts.

Black-tailed godwits

Walking down the path I added more whitethroats, sedge warblers and a blackcap to the warbler tally, plus two more Cetti's warblers singing invisibly in nettles in the ditch.

As the bank got lower it became possible to get better views of the godwits. They were showing the full range of plumages from Winter grey and white through various shades of gold and rusty brown to full-blown bright brick red. A couple of pairs of gadwall dabbled beside them and a pair of avocets flew in briefly.

Marsh harrier

A murmur of disapproval rippled through the godwits as a marsh harrier rose from the reeds but it flew away from them so they stayed as they were. The harrier spent a couple of minutes hunting over the reeds before floating off to try its luck on the salt marsh.

Black-tailed godwits

There were fifty-odd godwits on the pool at the corner of the path further on, in the company of a couple of pairs of shelduck, a lapwing and a ringed plover. A sparrowhawk flew over and they all studiously ignored it.

Pathside verge: marsh thistles, oilseed rape, butterbur and teasel

Turning the corner I heard the first and only reed warbler of the day — there must be loads of them in all those acres of reeds down in the lagoon pretty much out of earshot. The fourth and last Cetti's warbler of the day was singing from a clump of thistles and sedges in a ditch near the wind turbines.

Looking over No.6 Lagoon

Dropping down onto Lordship Lane I walked down to Holpool Gutter. There were a couple of pairs of lapwings in the newly-ploughed fields and a flock of black-headed gulls loafed in the pools of one that had flooded. A few linnets and a lot of goldfinches flittered about the hedgerows and a couple of chiffchaffs sang in the bigger hawthorns.

Holpool Gutter

Looking down towards the river from Holpool Gutter I could see a couple of little egrets feeding on the field beyond the works car park.

I now faced a choice: carry on walking down to Ince and get a bus back to Frodsham, turn round and walk back to Frodsham or take the side road down to Helsby and get the train home from there. I decided to walk to Helsby, I haven't done it before. As I walked down the lane the sun came out and a flock of house martins wheeled about the station as I arrived with five minutes to spare for the train.