Frodsham

Stonechat

I looked at today's train cancellations and decided to have a day out at Frodsham while the sun shines.

I got off the train at Frodsham and walked straight up Marsh Lane and over the motorway onto the marsh. The signs of Autumn were everywhere, whether it be the skeins of pink-footed geese overhead, the sloes in the hedgerows — it seems to be a bumper year for them — or the riotous colours of the spindle trees and their berties along the paths.

Sloes

Spindle tree 

Spindle berries 

Spindle berries 

I walked down Moorditch Lane to No.6 Lagoon. The fields were surprisingly quiet, just a couple of carrion crows about. Robins, wrens, great tits and a chiffchaff muttered in the hedgerows.

Mallards

No.6 Lagoon was busy with ducks. Shovelers and mallards dabbled at the deep end with the tufted ducks and dabchicks, more shovelers loafed on the bank at the shallow end with upwards of a hundred each of wigeon and black-tailed godwits while pintails and teal dabbled at the margins. I scanned round for any oddments but the only other birds I could find were coots, moorhens and a great crested grebe. Large whites and red admirals fluttered by the bank by the path and a pair of brown hawkers were busy making baby brown hawkers.

Black-tailed godwits and wigeons

It wasn't busy out on the marsh. Carrion crows and magpies foraged and squabbled and ravens, black-headed gulls and linnets passed to and fro.  A sparrowhawk rose from the reedbeds on the lagoon and flew over towards the river. Not long after the godwits on the lagoon rose and headed over the same way. Other than that it was greylags, Canada geese, cows, sheep and a couple of fishermen. (I found out later than about half a mile beyond the fishermen, some lucky observer was watching a passing black-winged pratincole on some private land on Ince Marshes.)

The path by No.6 Lagoon
The lagoon is on the other side of the bank to the left 

The hedges along the path were considerably busier. Loose mixed tit flocks bounced around in the willows and poplars with robins and wrens while mixed finch flocks worked the bushes on the bank.  There was one flock of about forty finches working a patch of elder bushes on the bank. Even though they were very close I had trouble picking out what was what, had I not seen them go into the bushes I'd have thought there were just a couple of linnets and a chaffinch. As it was, the flock was roughly equal numbers of linnets and chaffinches with a handful of goldfinches, a couple of greenfinches and a blackbird. While I was trying to sort all this out a female stonechat flew into the bush next to me. There were a couple of juvenile stonechats in the reeds in the drain on the other side of the path.

Pink-footed geese

I was composing a note for this blog along the lines of how pleasing and appropriate it was to have six Cetti's warblers singing by No.6 Lagoon when the seventh piped up. There were eight in all once I'd finished.

Pheasant

A few shovelers and teal dabbled in the "phalarope pool" and pairs of gadwall and tufted ducks loafed on the deeper pool next to it. A brown hawker whizzed by; there was another dragonfly patrolling the bushes but I couldn't get a good enough sighting of it to know what it was except that it wasn't another brown hawker.

A few herring gulls and lesser black-backs passed overhead as I got to the far end of the lagoon. There'd been some fresh sludge dumping from the dredgings of the canal. I had a fruitless scan for any waders, there was just a couple of carrion crows. A couple of common gulls circled but didn't settle. I think they were curious to find out what was so important that the crows tried to chase them off. I think the crows were just being crows.

Frodsham Hill from Frodsham Marsh
Fresh sludge dumpings in the foreground 

I looked at the state of Lordship Lane and headed for Holpool Gutter. The going wasn't much better in that direction but at least it was a shorter walk to a more reputable lane. The potholes and puddles were navigable, it was the surface that made it tough going. I got the distinct impression that the sludge lorries had shed their loads pretty liberally on their way to the lagoon. There were more linnets, goldfinches and great tits; a couple of Cetti's warblers assayed a bit of song and a couple of fieldfares flew overhead. The stubble fields by the lane were noisy with ravens, carrion crows and magpies.

Ruffs and black-headed gulls

It was a relief to get onto the dryish rutted track that is Rake Lane. A buzzard lurched out of the hedgerow on the other side of the field as I passed the bridge over the drain. Near the end of the lane, in the field by the motorway, a couple of hundred black-headed gulls danced for worms in the company of a few dozen black-tailed godwits, a redshank and a handful of ruffs.

Alexandra Park, Whalley Range 

I got to Helsby with five minutes to spare for the train back to Manchester. I got in at tea time so decided to take a diversion on the way home, getting the bus into Moss Side and walking across Alexandra Park for the 150 bus to the Trafford Centre. The park was noisy with ring-necked parakeets, the pond was busy with mallards and tufted ducks. I'd either overestimated my stamina or underestimated the effort walking that half-mile stretch of Lordship Lane, I was very happy when the bus turned up.