Chelford

Tree sparrow, Lapwing Hall Pool

It was another delightful April morning in February, I had three planned days out to play with and three in reserve so I did dib-dib-dib, checked the trains and set off for Chelford to see if the smew were still on Lapwing Hall Pool.

Holmes Chapel Road 

Walking down to Lapwing Lane the ivy-covered trees were peppered with blackbirds and redwings after the berries and the fields noisy with jackdaws. The hedgerows of Lapwing Lane were busy with blue tits, great tits and robins. I had a quick look through the trees at the quarry pool on the corner; a dozen or so coots were easy to see, the raft of fifty or more black-headed gulls almost melted into the glare of the water in the bright sun.

Tree sparrow, Lapwing Hall Pool

I turned onto Lapwing Hall Pool and spent a while disentangling the crowds in the hawthorn hedges. At first I could only hear a lot of tree sparrows, it took them a while to emerge from the depths. The chaffinches and blue tits were more conspicuous, the great tits and bullfinches were busy in the alders with a couple of reed buntings.

Lapwing Hall Pool 

At first glance there wasn't a lot on the pool besides a few coot. The wigeon — just a couple of dozen of them today — were all on the Eastern side. A few goosanders over on the far side glowed white in the sunshine. I hoped a smew might do the same but I kept getting distracted by the glare of light bouncing off the shiny surfaces of the wigeon. It came as a relief to find some nice dark cormorants in the distant reeds. As I walked round to the Northern shore I kept hearing the grunts and barks of pairs of great crested grebes squabbling and the hinneying of dabchicks. I found a path through the trees and had a scan of the pool, finding the grebes and some tufted ducks and out there, out in the middle of a raft of wigeons, a redhead smew. No sign of a white nun today. A passing oystercatcher flew overhead calling all the way.

I walked round to the Eastern side, the sun working in my favour now. The unidentifiable blobs lurking by one of the bays turned out to be half a dozen goldeneyes. There were more tufties than I thought and a lot more goosanders — I thought there were two or three of them, in fact it was a couple of dozen. I tried and failed to find the smew again, the angle must have been wrong for it. A couple of buzzards soared overhead, disturbing a kestrel that had been sitting in one of the bankside trees. A sparrowhawk soared by, breaking off to spar with one of the buzzards before gliding off over the fields.

The Mosses

I had a stroll through The Mosses back to Lapwing Lane, pairs of bullfinches, long-tailed tits and coal tits rummaging in the bushes while blue tits and great tits bounced about the treetops.

Robin, The Mosses

I heard the lapwings before I got to Acre Nook Quarry. A couple of hundred of them were loafing and bathing on the near shore of the pool. They were very skittish, I suspect more in preparation for moving on to Summer quarters rather than in response to any nearby predator. Leastways the teal, shovelers and mallards dozing on the bank weren't much fussed.

Lapwings and mallards, Acre Nook Quarry

I walked the length of Lapwing Lane back to Holmes Chapel Road, the hedgerows heaving with blue tits and tree sparrows. The surprise of the day came at the corner of the road, a pair of Egyptian geese in the middle of the field with some jackdaws.

Egyptian geese, Lapwing Lane

I got back into Chelford in time for either the 88 bus to Altrincham or the train back to Manchester. I decided to wait for the bus, I wanted to see how it got from Wilmslow to Altrincham. After hanging round like Piffy for half an hour I gave up on it and headed for the station to get the next train. It will surprise none of my readers to find the bus passing me by a hundred yards down the road. No matter, I'd had a good day's birdwatching and I wasn't going to let that spoil it. And I was rewarded by the sight of a very splendid bright red fox walking through one of the fields on the approach to Wilmslow.

Chelford Station