Local patch

Mistle thrush, Lostock Park

I waited until teatime for a walk around the local patch in the hopes of missing most of the visitors to the park. By the time I arrived at the park most were on their way home  and by the time I was leaving there were just three of us: me, the bloke walking his dog a field away and the jogger who barged me off the path.

Eighteen blackbirds about, which got me thinking. I've been assuming that the couple of dozen or so blackbirds I'd be seeing on a Winter visit would be mostly migrants from the continent come over with the redwings and fieldfares but it could be that a good number of them are residents after all. Seven singing robins, seven singing wrens and three singing greenfinches bode well. Just the one singing chiffchaff again, the one over by the flyover, and that was spending most of its time making its contact call.

Besides the inevitable pigeons and woodpigeons the only overflying birds were lesser black-backs and a couple of herring gulls. It seems strange to not be seeing any black-headed gulls.

Magpie, Lostock Park

Closer to home, I noticed a second crow's nest on the corner of the school by what used to be the library. The magpies over there will be pleased.

Back home the inevitable happened: the first ring-necked parakeet made a fleeting visit to my garden.

Signs and portents

I was counting the jackdaws on the school playing field opposite when I heard an unfamiliar "cronk." Looking up I saw a raven flying in from Trafford Park. It then wheeled and headed off back where it had come from. I shouted for it to wait a minute while I got my camera but it obviously didn't hear me. They're once in a blue moon birds round here so it was a nice surprise. They're fairly regular visitors to the local mosses but I think Wigan's the closest nesting location (I'd be happy to find out I was wrong).

Long-tailed tit

Things seem to be settling down in the garden with regular visits from pairs of long-tailed tits and goldfinches and the pair of great tits that took residence over Winter have reappeared. The coal tits and blue tits are still around but their appearances are more irregular than they have been, which suggests they may be busy elsewhere. I'm averaging about a dozen house sparrows coming in to feed. There are a few males coming in on their own away from the family parties, I'm not sure if they're a teenage lads' group or if they're supporting hungry nests.

I might be wrong about starling numbers as there's consistently been a couple of dozen of them feeding on the school playing field and at least four of them have been going back to possible nest sites. If I am wrong it might be an idea now to get the orders in for suet blocks to feed the youngsters.

Lockdown

Species accumulation 1st March 2020 — 3rd April 2020

See if you can spot the point at which I went into self-isolation!

Last year on 4th April I was visiting Crossens and Marshside.

Avocet, Marshside

Pine Lake

Sketch map: Carnforth and Pine Lake

Pine Lake is a small holiday resort just outside Carnforth chiefly notable for its Winter ducks which may include smew or even ringed duck.

Pine Lake

Starting from Carnforth Station, it's a short walk to the bus stop on Hawes Hill, by the side of the Station Hotel. The 555 bus between Lancaster and Keswick runs hourly during the day and it's just one stop to Pine Lake. Alternatively you can walk down Market Street and turn left onto the A6 Scotland Road, past the little roundabout by the truck stop and on to the big roundabout where the dual carriageway to the M6 joins the A6. The road to Pine Lake is the second exit. Take care crossing here, the roads can be very busy.

The lake is surrounded by holiday chalets though there are a few places where you can sit by the water's edge. For all that you're in a little island stuck between the A6 and M6 it can feel quite secluded.

Pochards

Tufted ducks

Northwich Flashes: Ashton's Flash and Neumann's Flash

Sketch map: Ashton's Flash and Neumann's Flash

Ashton's Flash and Neumann's Flash are part of a complex of woods, lakes and flashes just North of Northwich which eventually lead on to Marbury Country Park and Budworth Mere. The flashes are the result of subsidence caused by salt mining and they were used by the salt and soda industries. It only recently occured to me that they are fairly easy to get to and even then it took the presence of the long-staying Siberian stonechat to bounce me into finally making the trip. Consequently I've a far bit of catching up with it as a birdwatching site and I dare say I'll be coming back and adding to this post.

The hourly local stopping train from Manchester to Chester stops at Northwich Station. Leaving the station through the car park, carry on down the main road, Middlewich Road, to the big roundabout, taking the pedestrian crossing along the way. You're essentially wanting to go straight ahead onto Leicester Street, remember how you got there because it looks more confusing on the way back and you can end up walking into the town centre rather than towards the station. Walk down Leicester Street until you see the sign for the recycling centre down Old Warrington Road. Walk down past the recycling centre and you reach the bridge over Wade Brook. The entrance to Ashton's Flash is on your right just after the bridge.

The paths round the flashes form a figure of eight with the path over the narrow bund between the two forming the cross piece. Ashton's Flash is a collection of small pools set in open, largely scrubby, land. On the Western side there are reeds and scattered bushes. The Eastern side, next to New Warrington Road, is lightly wooded. If you walk clockwise you get to a gate through to the bund between the two flashes.

Ashton's Flash

Shovelers, Ashton's Flash

The bund is thickly planted mostly with birch trees. There are a couple of paths leading off to hide screens overlooking Neumann's Flash. You'll have to follow the rough tracks through the trees to the fence to check out this side of Ashton's Flash. The Siberian stonechat spent most of its time in the scrub on the other side of the fence.

The path along the bund between Ashton's and Neumann's Flashes

Neumann's Flash

Neumann's Flash

Neumann's Flash is larger, more open and possibly deeper than the water on Ashton's Flash. In Winter there are good numbers of wigeon and teal as well as tufted ducks, gadwall and shelduck. Continuing the clockwise path round the flash the wooded areas get thicker, with paths leading off into the Nortwich Woodlands on the Western side. There are a couple more screen hides along the way, one on the Eastern side of the flash and one on the Northern side.

It's worth spending a bit of time checking out the trees around these flashes. Last time I visited a chap showed me a photo of a lesser spotted woodpecker he'd seen round there just half an hour earlier. Needless to say I had no luck finding it myself, but I was more than happy with the visit as I'd finally seen this lovely little thing.

Siberian Stonechat, Ashton's Flash

Home thoughts

After saying pink-footed geese leave the scene quietly in Spring a small skein honked its way overhead last night bound for cooler climes, or more probably the Ribble Estuary for a pit stop.

Starlings

The dawn chorus is starting about 4:30am now the clocks have gone forward. The blackbirds start singing well before dawn, the robins joining in as daylight beckons. The collared doves, woodpigeons and wrens seem to need convincing it really is daytime before they start singing. My garden's well within a robin's territory this year so I'm only seeing the resident pair and no fisticuffs along the fence. I'm not sure if I'm on the margins of blackbird territories or if there's just a stray male trying to muscle in the resident's action. They spend large parts of each morning skipping round each over on the roof of next door's garage before skittering off on the arrival of one of the squirrels or magpies.

Most of the starlings are only coming in for breakfast then spending the day working the school playing field across the road. Otherwise its just the odd one or two of the residents popping in to give the fat balls a bit of hammer. I bought a couple of huge pine cones that had been crammed full of seeds and lard and these have proven very popular with the titmice and long-tailed tits. Their other benefit is that they can't be pecked into disintegration by the starlings so the fat stays on the feeder and not blanketed on the ground beneath.

The carrion crows are still sitting on the nest in the alder tree down the road, which might explain why the magpies seem to have given up on using the usual nest this year. It's only a few trees away from the crow's nest so they might be thinking they'd have been tempting fate. I  have an uneasy feeling that a pair of jackdaws have decided to nest in my chimney. It's spooky enough when they shout down the chimney, I shudder to think how begging youngsters will echo down the house.

Local patch

Woodpigeon

An hour's walk around the park and the waste ground, mostly dodging dog-walkers. One consequence of the lockdown is that places that would normally be very quiet are heaving with people who would ordinarily be at work or out shopping or a hundred other things and are now, like me, only allowed out for their one piece of daily exercise.

• Blackbird 12, 1 singing
• Blue Tit 11
• Carrion Crow 3
• Chiffchaff 1 singing
• Collared Dove 1
• Cormorant 1 overhead
• Dunnock 2 singing
• Feral Pigeon 43
• Goldfinch 12, 2 singing
• Great Tit 6, 3 singing
• Greenfinch 1 singing
• House Sparrow 8
• Jay 1
• Lesser Black-backed Gull 2 overhead
• Long-tailed Tit 2
• Magpie 15
• Mistle Thrush 3, 1 singing
• Robin 10, 8 singing
• Song Thrush 1
• Starling 3, 1 singing
• Woodpigeon 28
• Wren 6 singing

The bit of waste ground behind Barton Clough School

Just this once I'm showing you how narrow this patch really is. On the left the bed of the old freight line and the engineering works. The dark band running centre right is the concrete fence separating this ground from a strip of land owned by United Utilities.