Chelford

Fieldfare

It was a cool, beautifully sunny day so I bobbed over to Chelford to see if I could find the Slavonian grebe that had been reported on Mere Farm Quarry. It would be an opportunity for me to have a look at what would be a new site for me.

I got the train to Chelford, walked down to the garage but instead of heading off down Holmes Chapel Road for Lapwing Hall Pool I took the first left onto Alderley Road. The ploughed fields were chock full of rooks and woodpigeons with jackdaws and stock doves as supporting cast. A buzzard passed overhead and was ignored by all.

Walking towards Mere Farm Quarry 

I didn't have far to go for the start of the footpath to Mere Farm Quarry, and it was hardly two minutes before the quarry was in sight. Blackbirds, blue tits and robins followed me along the hedgerow, perhaps the local dog walkers carry mealworms.

Mere Farm Quarry 

There was plenty of wildfowl on the pools either side of the path, nearly all of it fairly distant. A few coots came relatively close where the left-hand pool came close to the path, elsewhere there was a good distance between the fences by the path and the banks. Mallards and mute swans hugged the banks, tufted ducks, coots and wigeon cruised midwater. A pair of great crested grebes were displaying midwater, their bobbing heads and stretching necks mirroring each other's movements. There were a couple of snipe dozing with the teal under one bank, a dozen shovelers under another. Black-headed gulls flew about but only a couple settled.

Mere Farm Quarry 

I was having no luck finding the Slavonian grebe. I approached a couple with a telescope and found they were having no luck either. We got talking and it turned out the lady came from Devon and she passed on the sad news that the resident Slavonian grebe that haunted the Exe between Starcross and Dawlish Warren for over a decade had gone to meet its maker.

I spent a while trying, and failing to find the grebe and decided to move on, following the path round the pool. This gave me tantalising glimpses of the third pool behind barbed wire fences and multiple lines of trees. A white line of black-headed gulls midwater suggested it might be worth peering through the tree trunks as I walked along. There were more coots and tufties and another pair of grebes were head-waggling at each other. I got my hopes up when I caught sight of a smaller, pale faced grebe behind them then realised it was a dabchick with the low, bright sun shining brightly off the wet grey feathers on its head and neck. There were two more of them just behind that, bobbing up and down as they fed near the bank. Then I noticed a third grebe. It was a bit bigger than the dabchicks and appreciably whiter all round and with a dark cap. The Slavonian grebe was obviously doing the rounds of the pool. I'd gone too far to be able to see the couple of birdwatchers to let them know I'd found it. (It was reported back on the pool we'd been looking at a couple of hours later.)

By Mere Farm Quarry 

I carried on walking through a thin bit of woodland with robins and blackbirds rummaging in the undergrowth and jay's calling in the trees. One of the fields was thinly scattered with fieldfares, redwings and song thrushes.

Approaching Stubby Lane 

I walked through the gate onto Stubby Lane and headed for Chelford Road for the walk back to the station. As I got to the bus stop on the road I noticed the 88 to Altrincham was due in five minutes. It seemed rude not to so I got it.

It had been a splendid, if nippy, walk. I'll try to include a detour to Mere Farm Quarry next time I visit Lapwing Hall Pool, it doesn't take me far out of my way and might be productive.