Chelford

Tree sparrow

I've been neglecting Cheshire South of the Mersey so I thought I'd take advantage of a warm, sunny day for a trip down to Chelford to walk round the quarry pools.

Walking down Knutsford Road from the station, dunnocks sang in the hedgerows, blue tits and robins from trees and goldfinches twittered about. Out in the fields there were a few carrion crows and jackdaws, and a pair of stock doves, but oddly enough no woodpigeons.

By Holmes Chapel Road 

There was a cacophony of birdsong from the trees lining Holmes Chapel Road. Robins, blackbirds, chiffchaffs, wrens and great tits were joined by chaffinches, blackcaps, a song thrush, a goldcrest and a coal tit. Blue tits, goldfinches, jackdaws and woodpigeons bounced through the trees, the flimsier the twigs the larger the birds. The sun brought out the butterflies: speckled woods and brimstones fluttered through the trees and one brimstone chased a small white in and out and around a clearing by one of the brooks. As the landscape opened out into the parkland of Lower Withington the jackdaws outnumbered the sheep. On my side of the road a dozen Canada geese loafed by a little pond on the far side of the field. As I walked a few paces ahead and started seeing the pond properly I released there were half a dozen teal in there having a bath.

Holmes Chapel Road 

Lapwing Lane 

Turning onto Lapwing Lane I looked through the trees onto the edge of Acre Nook Quarry. I could pick out a few distant tufted ducks and coots and there was a lot of gulls over the way but I couldn't get a sense of scale of them, I could only identify them as "not lesser black-backs." Which was odd as there was a steady stream of lesser black-backs flying overhead.

Goldfinch 

I walked the length of Lapwing Lane. The mixed songscape in the trees subsided into the songs of robins and goldfinches in the gardens and of tree sparrows in the hedgerows. Much to my delight, as I was taking photos of tree sparrows singing from hedge tops my first couple of swallows for the year twittered over the rooftops.

Tree sparrow

There's a path off Lapwing Lane I've been ignoring for years, assuming it was just a short cut to Holmes Chapel Road. How wrong I've been! There's been some tree clearing and I could see a clear stretch of Acre Nook Quarry showing through. So I walked down and lo and behold! there was the quarry in full open sight from a grassy bank. (Note to self: this isn't the first time I've had to tell you about making assumptions.)

Acre Nook Quarry 

There wasn't a huge lot about on the quarry pool, most of the wildfowl have moved on or are starting their breeding season furtiveness. I could see single figures of coots, tufted ducks, shovelers and Canada geese and a couple of great crested grebes. A dozen or so herring gulls loafed and bathed in the company of a couple of lesser black-backs. A couple of dozen black-headed gulls were very active, snatching emerging midges from just above the water. They were so active I almost missed the adult little gull in the background, looking half the size in comparison and jinking and bobbing in the air like a tern. Actually, no. More like a short-eared owl, that same sort of impression of a butterfly hanging from a length of elastic. One had been reported earlier in the week but I'd assumed it had moved on. It's nice to be wrong occasionally.

Hoof fungus 

The full-on songscape resumed when I walked through The Mosses to Lapwing Hall Pool, with backing vocals from nuthatches and pheasants, a drumming great spotted woodpecker and a calling buzzard. It barely went quiet as a male sparrowhawk shot through the woods.

The Mosses

Passing through the gate and onto the path around Lapwing Hall Pool, willow warblers and reed buntings joined the chorus and a Cetti's warbler sang from the reeds down by the lakeside. A pair of siskins bounced through a stand of pine trees by the path, I'm bumping into them in unexpected places this Spring. The pair of jays was more predictable, as was their silent retreat when they noticed me, almost as sure a sign of spring as singing warblers.

There wasn't much on the pool, a few coots and tufted ducks out in the open and at least one pair of dabchicks lurking by the bankside.

Lapwing Hall Pool 

Oak

I took the cut through the hedges and walked back via Congleton Road, conceding along the way that Cheshire does a fine line in really gnarly oak trees. I hadn't walked far but my knees were making themselves known so I decided against adding in a stroll round Mere Farm Quarry. Along the way back a bullfinch wheezed its way into the songscape and my first small tortoiseshell of the year fluttered about a patch of nettles.

Buxton Pavilion Gardens 

I got the train from Chelford Station and went home via Buxton, like you do. Chaffinches, blackbirds, robins and coal tits sang in the Pavilion Gardens where all the Canada geese were paired up and the only unpaired female mallard was having a very torrid time of it.

Chelford

Dunnock, The Mosses

I've rather neglected Cheshire lately so I thought I'd have a wander round the quarry pools of Chelford and had a very nice Spring day to do it in.

Holmes Chapel Road 

I got the train down to Chelford and walked down Knutsford Road to the roundabout, the fields by the road busy with jackdaws and carrion crows and the hedgerows noisy with great tits and robins. The hedgerows down Holmes Chapel Road were even noisier, with blackbirds, chiffchaffs, dunnocks, wrens and a nuthatch joining in the singing while blue tits and coal tits called as they bounced about the trees by the brooks. In the open parkland the jackdaws outnumbered the sheep five to one and there were quite a lot of sheep.

Lapwing Lane 

Blue tits, chiffchaffs and great tits came over to check what I was up to as a looked through the trees at the bottom of Lapwings Lane to see what, if anything, was on this end of the pool in Acre Nook Quarry. A few coots and tufted ducks and a mallard, probably two, were tiny silhouettes against the glare on the water.

The songscape was pretty constant as I walked down Lapwing Lane, the chaffinches and greenfinches in the roadside trees called and twittered but didn't sing.

Cormorant, Acre Nook Quarry 

It's harder these days to get a good view over Acre Nook Quarry from Lapwing Lane and when the hedgerow that's been planted has grown it'll be well-nigh impossible. I was very much fighting the light as I scanned round, anything fairly near on the water was a silhouette, anything further away was very distant indeed. Coots, mallards and tufted ducks there were, a couple of great crested grebes were easier to identify by their bulldog growls than their silhouettes, a couple of cormorants sat on rocks, a couple of tiny bobbing corks that suddenly disappeared underwater were dabchicks. For a moment I thought I'd found a little gull amongst a dozen black-headed gulls but the bird swivelled round and showed I'd been played by a trick of perspective. There'd been a couple of little gulls here over the weekend but they'd apparently moved on.

Over on the far bank I could fairly easily pick out the Canada geese grazing on the slope in the glare of the sun but almost missed the half a dozen pink-footed geese dozing in the shadows at the water's edge.

Comma, The Mosses

I walked back a bit and took the path through The Mosses, the light bouncing off the tree trunks all the way. The lunchtime chorus was intense and was joined by the sounds of loudly hinneying dabchicks carrying over from Lapwing Hall Lake. The songbirds were surprisingly difficult to spot despite the lack of leaf cover, with the exception of the chiffchaffs if you could see them they weren't singing. The mixed tit flocks had gone their separate ways, the blue tits keeping to the tall trees and hedgerows, the coal tits to the big trees and the great tits lurking in the undergrowth. Every so often I'd bump into a pair of long-tailed tits, nearly always deep amongst the blossoms of blackthorn bushes, I guess the insects attracted by the flowers are easy pickings.

The Mosses

Lapwing Hall Lake 

Lapwing Hall Lake when I got there was like a mill pond with the merest shimmer caused by a very light breeze. I was hearing wigeons and gadwalls and seeing tufted ducks and goldeneyes. The goldeneyes had gone past the frantic head-bobbing stages of courtship. Way over the other side of the lake the light caught the salmon pink of a drake goosander and the white cheeks of half a dozen Canada geese. 

I followed the path round the lake. The hedgerows between the path and Congleton Lane were busy with wrens, robins and titmice. Reed buntings flitted between hawthorn bushes, sensitive to that fraction of a second when the camera had them in focus then coming over to have a look when I put the camera back in the bag. A manic peacock butterfly chased after bumblebees. Overhead a constant passage of calling jackdaws paid not one bit of notice of the buzzard soaring just above them. The goosander flew low overhead and seemed to be heading for Mere Farm Quarry. I wondered if I had the legs to add that to the walk.

By Lapwing Hall Lake 

Lapwing Hall Lake 

Turning the corner the lake came into view again and I could see the distant couple of dozen wigeons on the water and the pair of gadwalls weaving their way through the coots, there was also the bonus of a pair of shovelers dabbling near the bank.

The walk back was a slightly quieter edition of the walk in, a little less song and a lot more small birds looking for their dinners. I'd been disappointed not to see any tree sparrows about — this is getting to be a worrying constant — and the only house sparrows were in a hedge three quarters of the way down the lane. A consolation was my first yellowhammer of the year singing from the other side of the parkland on Holmes Chapel Road.

Lapwing Lane 

I didn't have the legs for the walk up to Mere Farm Quarry. I had a sit down on the bench opposite the garage and caught the 88 bus to Altrincham and thence got home, the 88 bus being the more reliable leg of the journey.

Chelford

Coal tit, Lapwing Lane 

It was a cold and frosty morning and I was curious to see what I was going to do with it. Yet again the promise of sunshine early in the morning was replaced by a mild eternal twilight. It felt like goose weather so I headed for Chelford to see if I could find any of the white-fronted geese on Acre Nook Quarry.

Chelford, Alderney Edge in the distance 

Chelford was damp although it wasn't actually raining. A buzzard sitting in a tree by Knutsford Road supervised the jackdaws, carrion crows and woodpigeons foraging in the muddy fields. The light was so God-awful I gave up on trying to get a picture of it.

Sweet chestnuts, even the squirrels couldn't be bothered with them.

Holmes Chapel Road was busy with jackdaws and black-headed gulls and a small flock of redwings muttered its way through the roadside sweet chestnuts.

The hedgerows of Lapwing Lane were fizzing with titmice, the tutting of long-tailed tits following me all the way down. A few chaffinches showed well in the trees and hawthorns, a flock of tree sparrows flitted along the hedgerows like shadows.

Lapwing Lane 

Acre Nook Quarry 

The gate at the end of Lapwing Lane overlooking Acre Nook Quarry has been replaced by a fence and hawthorn saplings. There's a new gate a little way down where it won't upset the householders at the end, the view's not so good but there's still a view.

The coots and black-headed gulls were easily seen and heard, the teal were heard but a beggar to find, I couldn't find where the greylags were calling from. Mallards and tufted ducks bobbed by the sides, a few great crested grebes cruised midwater with a raft of lesser black-backs and a few cormorants hung their wings out to dry. 

Way over on the far bank four Canada geese hugged the bank but I wasn't seeing any potential white-fronts. Then I looked a bit further along and I could see two grey geese grazing high on the bank. I identified them by a process of elimination. They didn't have the heavy rectangular look of greylags and seemed to have longer wings and they were way too big to be tundra bean geese let alone pink-feet. It was vanishingly unlikely they'd be taiga bean geese but it still came as a relief when one raised its head and looked backwards and I could see a white flash at the base of its beak. It wouldn't be a white-front and a taiga, that would be too unlikely for words, so white-fronts they were. But which ones? At that distance in this light the bill colour was impossible. Going by the generally grey-brown look of the birds, with no dark oily brown overtones, I concluded they were European ("Russian") white-fronted geese. Fifteen of them had been reported earlier this morning, I started to look for the others as the weather closed it and it started to rain. The visibility dropped markedly so I gave it up as a bad job. I'd seen two of them anyway.

The Mosses

I headed for The Mosses, as much for the shelter as the walk, and the rain stopped as quickly as it started. Every stand of silver birches had blue tits and long-tailed tits bouncing round at the end of twigs. A couple of goldcrests added a bit of variety to one flock. Robins, wrens and blackbirds rummaged about in the undergrowth with the squirrels while carrion crows and woodpigeons clattered about in the oak trees.

The Mosses

Lapwing Hall Pool 

The visibility had improved but still wasn't good. About a hundred wigeon were scattered across Lapwing Hall Pool in groups of half a dozen or so. A raft of about a hundred noisy black-headed gulls stuck together. By the banks near The Mosses dabchicks and coots rummaged about while wigeons and mallards bathed and half a dozen goosanders cruised about apparently aimlessly. The great crested grebes out in the middle looked like shadows in the poor light. By the time I had walked round it was becoming properly twilight and the blackbirds and redwings were settling to roost in the brambles.

Lapwing Hall Pool 

The twilit walk back to the station was unremarkable save for how busy Holmes Chapel Road gets at four o'clock. Although it was still mild the damp was stiffening the joints. The Met Office is promising a lousy day tomorrow, I'll make a lazy day of it.

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.

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