A day out

Wren, Lapwing Hall Pool

Despite the weather being less fierce than it has been — but still a tad warm —I've had a very lazy weekend and felt the need to get some traipsing about done. I got myself an old man's explorer ticket, played Piccadilly Station bingo and found myself going to Stoke. Like you do.

The building work on the University of Staffordshire campus has cut off most of the footpaths to and around the River Trent on Manorfields. I walked across the sports field, across the bridge, and along the few hundred yards of path up to the construction site then retraced my steps back to the station. It wasn't an entirely wasted hour, though 

Comma

Magpies and black-headed gulls found what shade they could at the corners of the rugby pitch as they fossicked about in the parched grass. One magpie had had enough and clung to the base of a goalpost to catch its breath in its relatively deep shade. Meadow browns, gatekeepers and a comma bustled about in the thistles by the side.

Female large blue
I think. I couldn't get a better look than this at the underwing so there's the possibility it might be a brown argus. It wasn't attacking any other butterflies and it was that which persuaded me it was a female common blue in the end.

The walk was dominated by butterflies, most of the birds were rustlings in the trees and hedgerows. A mistle thrush joined the blackbirds feasting on rowan berries. Titmice flitted past like shadows, a chiffchaff squeaked, a jay screeched, a great spotted woodpecker called as it flew low overhead and into the trees by the construction site. 

Ringlet

The most picturesque stretch of the river had a child in it. He and his mother were having a picnic and I couldn't blame them. The mallards and moorhens muttered loudly about having their favourite lounging spot thus occupied. The moorhens, as ever, were very vocal about their grievances.

Mallards

I decided to go over to Acre Nook Quarry to see if I could find the ruddy shelduck that's spent the past few days there. It was a long shot as it was reported as being over at the far end of the quarry away from Lapwing Lane but don't try, don't see. I got the train back from Stoke, got off at Macclesfield and got the 87 bus to Chelford, getting off at Ivy House, just by the roundabout.

Chicken of the woods

It was a warm walk down Holmes Chapel Road and I was grateful for the shade of the roadside trees. In the eerie quiet — there weren't many cars either — a calling nuthatch sounded vaguely uncanny, a green woodpecker would have put the wind up me and no mistake. A coal tit came out of the trees to have a look at me as I negotiated the very narrow pavement over the South bridge and I was very glad to see it.

Holmes Chapel Road 

The sheep weren't on the parkland further down the road, the usual crowds of jackdaws evidently went with them. I walked under the dappled shade of the sweet chestnuts on my side of the road, tiptoeing round common blue damselflies and razzed by the blue tits in the hedgerow. Over the far side of the field behind the hedgerow the little pond was hidden by vegetation but was made conspicuous by the lush greens against the straw browns of the rest of the field and the dozen Canada geese and pair of Egyptian geese craning their necks to check me out.

Egyptian geese and Canada goose 

The walk down Lapwing Lane was pretty quiet. Swallows and house martins hawked overhead and tree sparrows muttered in the hedgerows.

Painted lady 

The path to Acre Nook Quarry was busy with common blue damselflies and the verges busy with gatekeepers, red admirals and painted ladies. Southern hawkers and emperor dragonflies patrolled the banks of the quarry and the edge of the trees by the path, and very intimidating they were too.

Acre Nook Quarry 

Nearly all the birds were way over the other side of the quarry, there was only a mallard and a couple of black-headed gulls on this side. There was a noisy raft of black-headed gulls further out, separate from a smaller raft of lesser black-backs and a few herring gulls. Great crested grebes, tufted ducks and coots pottered about, a couple of cormorants dried their wings and the far banks were littered with Canada geese and mallards. Way, way over there were lots of white dots that were almost certainly black-headed gulls and dark dots that may have been coots or tufties. Yonder, probably,  was the ruddy shelduck. Ah well, no matter, it was a fine day for seeing what you can find on a big pool. A drake pochard was a surprise. The reed buntings fussing about in the willows on the bank weren't but they were reassuring to find. And a female emperor dragonfly actually stopped for a break long enough for me to take a photo.

Emperor dragonfly 

Acre Nook Quarry, Alderley Edge in the distance 

My eye kept getting drawn to a figure on the edge of the Canada geese over on the far bank. It was a silhouette and I couldn't make it out and I gave up. As I was walking back I had another look at it and was still puzzled. The change of angle meant I was seeing the bird on its own. It wasn't low-slung like a mallard but it wasn't a coot because it was mallard-sized. It was like a nagging tooth and I kept looking back at it as I walked along. The fourth time the angle had changed enough for the bird to be no longer in silhouette and sure enough, it was the ruddy shelduck I'd told myself I wasn't going to get to see today.

Walking back to Lapwing Lane 

Lapwing Lane 

I carried on down Lapwing Lane and turned into The Mosses. This end of Lapwing Lane had been busy with titmice, blackbirds and a couple of willow warblers, and commas and holly blues fluttered about the bushes. The Mosses were very much quieter, a few woodpigeons, blackbirds, chiffchaffs and wrens and the butterflies were gatekeepers and large whites. I didn't mind, the dappled shade was welcome and it was a very agreeable walk.

The Mosses 

By Lapwing Hall Pool 

It wasn't so quiet by Lapwing Hall Pool but it was a slow start. At first I was only seeing woodpigeons, red admirals and meadow browns. Then a few peacocks and gatekeepers fluttered onto the scene. I could hear but not see mallards. It was only when the path met the hedgerow by Congleton Road that I started seeing and hearing much birdlife. Titmice and nuthatches fidgeted through the mature oaks by the road, reed buntings and willow warblers in the willows by the pool, and goldfinches, blackbirds and dunnocks in the waysides by the path. As the path shifted away from the pool chiffchaffs were flycatching from hawthorn bushes and long-tailed tits bounced through the brambles. Common blue damselflies swarmed about the patches of open meadow, Southern hawkers patrolled the margins of bushes and hedgerows. At last the path returned to the lake where a pair of coots were feeding a couple of youngsters and a pair of mute swans fed just off the bank.

Common blue damselfly 

Lapwing Hall Pool 

It had been hard walking: the ground had been baked dry and it was rougher on the feet than road-walking. I decided not to complete the circuit of the pool and took the gap in the hedge onto Congleton Road and walked back to Chelford. As I was walking over the South bridge I had a nosy to see if anything was on the little stream and noticed a female banded demoiselle sunbathing in the bushes.

Banded demoiselle 

By the time I'd walked over to Chelford Station I was feeling hot and footsore so I knocked on the head any mad fantasies about having a late teatime stroll round Sandbach Flashes. Still, I hadn't done so bad.