Chelford

Lapwing Hall Pool 

A dry, cool day was forecast so after a lie-in after a bad night's sleep I got the midday train to Chelford and pottered over to Lapwing Hall Pool to see what was about. To be honest, I was rather hoping some tree sparrows might be about because I'm getting a bit over-conscious of their absence from the year list. Usually I'd have picked them up early in the year at Martin Mere or the Burscough area or bumped into some on one or other of the mosses but no joy so far and it's been making me fret.

Holmes Chapel Road 

Walking down Knutsford Road it was nice to hear a yellowhammer singing in the trees behind the houses, they've been few and far between this year. Jackdaws and woodpigeons flew about, carrion crows fossicked in fields and robins and blackbirds sang. I turned onto Holmes Chapel Road where the blackcaps and robins were singing above the noise of the traffic and blue tits and long-tailed tits flitted about the hedgerows. Out on the parklands jackdaws and carrion crows fussed about the sheep and great tits got very proprietorial about their sweet chestnut trees.

Lapwing Lane 

I turned onto Lapwing Lane where the chiffchaffs were singing loudly in the trees and titmice flitted very quietly about. A raven — a beardless youth — cronked as it flew overhead, dwarfing a couple of carrion crows it passed by.

I could hear sparrows in the hedges by the entrance to Lapwing Hall Pool but I wasn't convinced they were tree sparrows and they weren't for showing themselves. Unlike the chiffchaffs, willow warblers and goldfinches. In the end I gave up trying to photograph any of the birds; they were too distant, too flighty or fan-dancing with the leaves. It's already getting quite difficult to see through the tree canopies and it soon struck me that if the birds kept quiet I'd be having a thin time of it.

Lapwing Hall Pool 

Out on the pool the crowd scenes of Winter were over. Mute swans, coots and tufted ducks were thinly peppered about. Rather to my surprise dead centre was a male goldeneye. There's always someone misses the last bus home.

By Congleton Lane 

After the rubbish I've been walking on lately the slightly muddy path alongside Congleton Lane held no terrors. A soaring buzzard overhead annoyed the carrion crows and jackdaws in the trees by the lane. Robins, wrens, great tits, blackcaps and chiffchaffs sang in the scrub by the path. I wasn't expecting the Cetti's warbler singing in the pine tree. Birds do as they please, they don't pay a lot of attention to what the books say they do.

The Mosses 

The Mosses were noisy with the songs of robins, wrens, blackbirds, blackcaps, chiffchaffs and a very persistent nuthatch. A pair of treecreepers flitted over to a birch tree by the path, disappeared round the other side of the trunk and never reappeared. I've no idea where they vanished off to.

The Mosses

Acre Nook Quarry was peppered with coots, tufted ducks and mallards. Handfuls of gadwall and Canada geese lurked by the far bank and a lone greylag cruised by. Pairs of great crested grebes were dotted about, most of them doing a lot of head-shaking and one pair had a brief assay at a penguin dance. I'd been hearing oystercatchers but it took a while to find the four birds on the far bank, catching a drake shoveler in the corner of my eye as I did so. Further beyond half a dozen immature herring gulls loafed on a floating branch and a couple of pairs of mute swans cruised about. There were a few more tufties and one caught my eye as being different, it wasn't until it had swum halfway across the quarry before I could see it was another goldeneye. Another birdwatcher joined me. "Have you got the mandarin?" he asked me. I hadn't, it was by the bank below the oystercatchers.

Acre Nook Quarry 

I wished him luck and toddled on up Lapwing Lane. There were yet more robins and chiffchaffs, a great spotted woodpecker drummed, a couple of willow warblers sang in the tall trees and mistle thrushes fossicked about a cottage garden. Goldfinches and greenfinches flitted about in the hedgerows and a couple of house sparrows were in and out of the bushes by a garden gate. It looked like I was going to draw another blank on tree sparrows. It was disappointing but I couldn't complain after a very nice couple of hours' birdwatching. And then a small brown head bobbed out of a severely-pruned hedgerow maple. To say I was relieved to see my first tree sparrow of the year would be an understatement.

Lapwing Lane 

Three buzzards sparred overhead as I walked on to Holmes Chapel Road and there were yet more chiffchaffs, great tits and jackdaws. I got back to the station with ten minutes to spare for the train back to Manchester. It will surprise the regular reader not one bit to find my train home from Manchester had been cancelled.

No idea which Moss this is but I was very taken by the dark spikes of densely-packed leaves.