Marbury Country Park

Blue tit

It was another cool, grey day so I thought I'd have a wander round Marbury Country Park then walk into Northwich via the flashes. Just so I don't create any unnecessary suspense in my readers: no, I couldn't find any hawfinches and no, the bittern didn't make an appearance. Not entirely surprising given they can both be very elusive. It was a much-needed good walk nonetheless.

My local train to Warrington is scheduled to arrive just as the bus to Northwich leaves. Even though we arrived five minutes late I still had the best part of an hour to wait for the Cat9a bus which stops at the gates of Marbury Country Park. I wasn't for hanging round the bus station so I walked down into Latchford to catch the bus down there. 

I still had the best of half an hour to wait so I had a dawdle round Causeway Park, one of those little strips of suburban green park with a play area at each end. The combination of back gardens, trees and grass in parks like this can sometimes be quite productive and so it proved today. Goldfinches, greenfinches, robins and song thrushes sang in the trees, dunnocks sang in the bushes by the road and three dozen woodpigeons rummaged about the crocuses under the trees.

Marbury Country Park 

The bus wound its way through the Cheshire Countryside and I got off at Marbury. I wandered over to the play area where hawfinches have been reported regularly all Winter. I found lots of blue tits, blackbirds and song thrushes and the nuthatches were very vocal. No sign of any hawfinches. I think I've got the call memorised — it's one of those thin, quick calls one would naturally assume was a great tit — but I wasn't hearing anything like it and seeing nothing beefier than a greenfinch.

Blackbird
A partially leucistic bird. Another one had white outer tail feathers.

I headed over to the hide on Budworth Mere with no expectation of seeing the bittern that's been reported on and off all Winter. I had a sneaking hope the kingfisher might make an appearance but no joy. A heron rummaged about mostly hidden by reeds. A Cetti's warbler made a dash of song for all of ten seconds then clammed up before I could locate it in the reeds. Mallards, tufties and great crested grebes drifted about on the mere while a crowd of Canada geese outnumbered the raft of a few dozen black-headed gulls over on the far bank. The feeding stations by the hide were fizzing with blue tits, great tits and robins. Couples of coal tits and reed buntings joined the crowd, scattering every so often whenever a grey squirrel bounced in.

Budworth Mere 

Just to be on the safe side I wandered back for a second try at the hawfinches, and had just the same luck. I spent a while dawdling between the play area and the arboretum but it wasn't my day for them.

Stock dove

I meandered over to the woodland hide near the mere. That, too, was busy with birds. The titmice were joined by blackbirds and chaffinches. There were a few punch-ups between the blackbirds, the local resident birds flexing their muscles against the wintering interlopers. A flock of half a dozen stock doves flew in, looking beady eyed and winsome. While I was looking at the birds a couple of squirrels were in the hide, giving me that "You have food" look I get from the cat when I'm trying to eat toast. As it happened, I didn't so they were wasting their time. I suspect it works often, though.

Great tit

The titmice and nuthatches bounced round the treetops of Big Wood, great spotted woodpeckers drummed and woodpigeons gorged themselves on ivy berries. I demonstrated my boundless optimism by scanning the trees for lesser spotted woodpeckers, not that I found any. This is one of the few places I know where you can reasonably try to see one, even though I never have any luck with them. I suspect they're like woodcocks: you don't see them unless you're not looking for them. A buzzard flying through the wood was given a very hard time by a couple of carrion crows and a jackdaw.

Big Wood

I crossed the canal and walked through Dairy House Meadows which was fairly quiet save the handfuls of mallards and coots on the pond.

Neumann's Flash was quiet, too. Pairs of mallards, shovelers and gadwalls dozed on the water while a few Canada geese and coots noisily went about their business.

Neumann's Flash 

As I was looking out over Ashton's Flash a flock of twenty-eight curlews silently flew in and settled by the pool for the evening. That was my cue for checking the bus times, the Cat9 back to Warrington from this side of Northwich has an irregular timetable. I was in luck, I had plenty of time to get to the bus stop by the railway station (I didn't want to get the train back to Manchester because that leaves half an hour later and I'd get snagged up in the city centre rush hour). The bus meandered its way through the Cheshire countryside to Warrington and I got the train home and the promise of a pot of tea.