Chelford

Mute swan, Lapwing Hall Pool

The plan was to start the week by exploring a new site to me that I've had my eye on for a few weeks but I've shelved it for now because a major rarity turned up there over the weekend and I don't want the stress of getting involved in a big twitch. I'll wait until the fuss has died down.

First thing saw a male blackcap on the fat feeders, getting in before the usual crowds. I'll have to get more bird food in, I've only enough left for one of the feeding stations. The usual crowd of spadgers didn't turn up until I'd put my coat on to go out.

I thought I'd have another go at finding the redhead smew at Lapwing Hall Pool, reasoning I'd have a better chance of it now I've got my bearings, so I got the train to Stockport and got the Crewe train to Chelford from there.

A song thrush singing at Stockport Station was an addition to the year list. I've spent the past week concentrating on "Winter" birds — ducks, geese, birds of prey and gulls — just in case we get another lockdown so the list's a bit shy of common woodland birds at the moment.

By Chelford Station

From Chelford Station I walked down Knutsford Road to Lapwing Lane. Redwings were a bit thin on the ground this time but there were plenty of jackdaws about, including three that chased a buzzard out of a tree.

Turning into Lapwing Lane I bumped into the first of many mixed tit flocks I'd be meeting today. The blue tits, great tits and long-tailed tits were bobbing round in the treetops with a flock of chaffinches while a couple of coal tits stayed in the treetops.

Wigeon, Lapwing Hall Pool

There was more than a hundred wigeons scattered round the pool, mostly in pairs or small groups of a handful. There were similar numbers of coots, mostly hugging the banks. Over on the North side there were a couple of hundred black-headed gulls, roughly half loafing in a raft and the rest splitting its time between flying round the pool and thinking about settling in the ploughed fields beyond. It was a grey, damp day but the visibility was good so there'd be no excuse for not finding the smew.

Great crested grebe, Lapwing Hall Pool

I scanned the open water as I followed the path round. Lots of wigeon and coot. A few great crested grebes. More wigeon, more coot. A couple of tufted ducks. A few mute swans. A promising splash in mid-water turned out to be a bathing wigeon. More coot. More wigeon. I was starting to think the smew had gone when a female shoveler swam past my field of view out of nowhere to give me a bit of hope that the smew may just be waiting to be found. I found an excellent vantage point on the North side of the pool and checked out all the dark objects in the raft of gulls. Wigeons, coots and a pair of goldeneye. And more great crested grebes. A flock of tufted ducks flew in, which led to my finding a couple of dabchicks feeding by the only Canada goose on the pool. I shifted position and had another scan round. There was a dozen pochards fast asleep amongst the tufties. Where did they come from? No idea but it spurred me on to carry on looking. 

In the end it turned out the smew had been asleep with its head tucked in its back feathers in the middle of a bunch of black-headed gulls. It was woken up by the arrival of a few more gulls. I was double-checking to make sure it wasn't another female goldeneye (it wasn't) when it dived underwater and I lost it. After five minutes' fruitless scanning round I gave up. It had taken me an hour and three quarters to find it in the first place. I carried on round, doing that trick where you pretend to be looking for absolutely anything else but I didn't find it again. A few teal were an addition to the day's tally.

The bridleway through The Mosses to Lapwing Lane

I joined the bridleway where the first birds I saw was a mixed flock of siskins and long-tailed tits. A couple of invisible jays were making a racket further on in the woods.

I turned down Lapwing Lane and walked down to Acre Nook Sand Quarry, which turned out to be only five minutes' walk down at the end of the lane. It took me five minutes to find the black-necked grebe fossicking about in the vegetation in the nearest pool with a few coot and a shoveler.

Walking back down Lapwing Lane to Knutsford Road I bumped into a flock of tree sparrows in the hedgerows by the barn, a great spotted woodpecker flew into one of the trees and upward of a hundred redwings were feeding in the field at the bend of the lane.

I debated whether to take a detour and look for the great northern diver that had just been reported over on Mere Farm Quarry but I looked at the time, checked the train times and felt the damp in my knees after four and a bit hours' traipsing around and decided to quit while I was ahead. The sun finally came out just before the train arrived at the station and there was a splendid sunset as we got into Piccadilly.

Approaching Piccadilly on the train