Chelford

A distant white nun
Cormorant, wigeon and drake smew, Lapwing Hall Pool

For the first train trip of the year I thought I'd have a go at seeing the drake smew at Lapwing Hall Pool that was causing excitement last week and into the weekend. My last sighting of a "white nun" was sometime before the millennium. I decided that a goldcrest almost landing on my hand while I was refilling the fat feeders first thing in the morning was a good omen and so it proved.

Jackdaws, Lower Withington

I got the train from Piccadilly to Chelford and walked down to Lapwing Lane. There were hundreds of jackdaws and woodpigeons in the fields along Holmes Chapel Road but not a single Winter thrush. It was the same down Lapwing Lane, the fields that had scores of redwings last Winter had a couple of blackbirds.

Lapwing Hall Pool 

Going through the gate onto the path to Lapwing Hall Pool the first thing that struck me, after the twitterings of tree sparrows in the thick hawthorn hedge, was a flock of at least three dozen blue tits working its way through the alders along the path. A couple of pairs of great tits tagged along while chaffinches and bullfinches hung back to feed on the pips of the brambles.

Lapwing Hall Pool 

Taking my first look at the pool I could see a couple of Canada geese and a few wigeons but I could hear the whistling of plenty more. I scanned the far bank and I found hundreds of wigeons nestling in the reeds with a few dozen cormorants. As I walked down the path I saw more of the lake and more wigeons. Way over, by the path into The Mosses, half a dozen goosanders hugged the shore. Out in midwater a couple of pairs of pochard were difficult to identify as the grey of the drakes' backs blended into the water. Closer by, coots and tufted ducks bobbed around or dived for shellfish.

Tufted duck, Lapwing Hall Pool

I was taking photos of tufted ducks when a voice made me jump. "There's a redhead smew in that bit of rough behind the coots," said a chap whose approach I hadn't heard. I spent ten minutes trying and failing to spot it, in the end giving up and hoping I might have better luck with a change of angle on the North shore. It took five goes and, just when I'd come to the conclusion I'd been wound up, a walk down to the end of a tiny path through the trees gave me just the right angle to see the smew swimming about between two distant patches of drowned reeds and willow. I mentally apologised to the chap and moved on.

Drake and redhead smew flying in, , Lapwing Hall Pool

As I walked round amidst the fast-gathering gloom of rainclouds I wondered about the peculiarity of this pool. It attracts hundreds of wigeon, a grazing duck, but offers no grazing. Acre Nook Quarry, just down the road, has acres of grazing but no wigeon. I've never seen a raft of gulls here either.

Perhaps it was the thought of gulls that made me spot a very distant white shape in the reeds. A quick look confirmed it wasn't a gull but some kind of duck but at that distance I was struggling to get any sense of scale as it swam around the edges of the reedbed and I could be mistaking a farmyard mallard for a smew. Then I had a stroke of luck as it and a redhead smew flew out into open water. The views were always distant. I took a lot of unsatisfactory record shots, most of which I deleted instantly. 

Drake and redhead smew, Lapwing Hall Pool

Cormorant, wigeon and drake smew, Lapwing Hall Pool

I carried on walking round the pool. The path along the Eastern shore brought me closer to the goosanders but though I knew I was a lot closer to the smew they were entirely hidden by the reedbeds. Still, I'd seen them well, if distantly, and I wouldn't have bet the farm on it when I set out.

Goosander, Lapwing Hall Pool

I followed the path into The Mosses. Here the mixed tit flock was a large group of long-tailed tits with coal tits and treecreepers. A couple of jays screeched in the tall trees and woodpigeons clattered about in the treetops. 

The Mosses 

I had a chat with one of the dog walkers who asked if I'd had any luck with the smew. He reckoned there were sixty cars parked along Lapwing Lane on Saturday, much to the annoyance of the locals. I can't say I blame them, there isn't space for more than a dozen cars, I'm glad I missed it.

The Mosses 

The sun came out as I reached Lapwing Lane. I had a wander down to the end for a look at Acre Nook Quarry. At first glance there was nothing on but the scale's deceiving from this viewpoint, the pool's much bigger and everything's further away than it first seems. A dozen cormorants loafed on drowned branches while ducks, mallards, shovelers and teal, lined the banks. I could hear a lot more teal from the distant banks opposite but the light was against my seeing them. A raft of a few dozen black-headed gulls noisily loafed and bathed in one of the bays. I wouldn't have spotted the herons opposite had a great white egret not flown in and been chased up the bank by one of them.

Acre Nook Quarry 

I bumped into the big flock of blue tits down the lane as they barrelled along the hedgerows and joined the tree sparrows and chaffinches on the bird feeders in one of the yards. A great spotted woodpecker struck a classic pose on a dead tree limb long for me to reach for my camera but not long enough for the photo to be taken.

As I walked back up Holmes Chapel Road I checked the train times. If I put a shift on I would get to the station just in time to wave goodbye to the next train back. Then I noticed that I'd only have five minutes' wait for the 88 to Altrincham from the bus stop at the garage. Rather than hanging round for an hour for the next train I could get the bus, have a tour around bits of Cheshire I don't know and have ten minutes to catch the train further up at Wilmslow. Which I did, and was very glad I did when the heavens opened as we arrived at Knutsford.

Sweet chestnuts, Holmes Chapel Road