Nothing About, Much Ado

A quick ghost around my usual haunts this morning produced slim pickings if I am honest, with a toss-up between three Spotted Redshanks at Connah’s Quay and a flock of around three hundred Linnets at Inner Marsh Farm for birds of the weekend.

American baseball commentators have a wonderful term they use when a batter is struggling for hits. It’s called ‘being in a funk’, and that pretty much sums up the Dee Estuary at the moment – perhaps it has a drake Smew waiting for us in its Christmas Stocking!

Frodsham Marsh was a hive of activity yesterday, although it was more the masses of humanity than the birdlife that was providing the interest. I don’t know if the recent proposal to build a huge inland wind farm on the marsh has awoken the locals to its existence, but the model aircraft enthusiasts, horse riders, dog walkers, joggers, falconers and birders were out in force.

Most irritating was a pair of plebs charging around number six tank on quad bikes. Dangerous dog ownership excepted, is there anything else that says more clearly ‘I have no GCSEs?’

On a positive note, they provided me with an excuse for not being able to find a Water Pipit reported earlier in the day from a flooded area on the south-eastern section of number four tank. The noise must have flushed it by my reckoning – that’s why I couldn’t find it, nothing to do with a lack of patience and poor field craft!

On the track at the north end of number six I bumped into one of the falconers. A youngish chap, he was struggling to carry around half a dozen rabbits and a pheasant.

‘Quite a profitable day’, I said to him

‘Okay, yes’, he replied.

‘This is the first time I have hunted with Harris Hawks – I used to have a Saker/Gyr Falcon cross, but it was crap - it was knackered after five minutes and turned like an oil tanker.’

Touche.

Frodsham Marsh 12.12.09

Lapwing 2,000+
Golden Plover c75
Sparrowhawk 1
Kestrel 1
Buzzard 1

Inner Marsh Farm 13.12.09

Linnet c300
Siskin 2
Pink-footed Goose 1
Wigeon 75+
Ruff 1

Connah’s Quay 13.12.09

Spotted Redshank 3
Black-tailed Godwit 60
GC Grebe 2

Until later.

Carbunkle

Not much to report on the birding front today despite a decent day of good weather. I had a fruitless search around Neston Old Quay for Water Pipits and spent two quiet hours at Inner Marsh Farm attempting to develop frostbite in my toes.

Despite the pipit no-show there was plenty of other activity on the marsh with decent sized flocks of Woodpigeons, Starlings, Lapwing and Wigeon too, who were busy whistling like a group of deranged P.E teachers.

Inner Marsh Farm held good numbers of birds too with a couple of Ruff and a male Peregrine bombing through late on the highlights of what was otherwise standard fare.

More notable news in the recent proposal by Peel Holdings to build twenty one, one hundred and twenty five metre high wind turbines at Frodsham Marsh. Link: http://www.chesterchronicle.co.uk/chester-news/local-chester-news/2009/10/22/peel-energy-unveil-image-of-what-frodsham-marshes-wind-farm-could-look-like-59067-24989446/

What a truly dreadful prospect that such an eyesore could be built on what is potentially a beautiful, austere and wild area. Incredulously, a spokesman from Friends of the Earth has claimed that given the site is of no significant scientific importance for wildlife then this is an ideal site for such a development. This is probably true, but the marshes have been trashed by industry – can he not see the potential?

Wind Farms are grossly ineffcient to boot as they require massive subsidies and don't work during periods of weak or very strong wind.

In short, to use a quote I heard this afternoon: would you buy a fridge from Comet that worked for only three days a week and you didn't even know which three days that would be?

Until later.

Gold Is The New Grey

I don't know what it is about Frodsham No.6 tank, but the plovers clearly love it. There must have been over three thousand Lapwings and around fifteen hundred Golden Plover roosting on the drier sections early this morning.

Golden Plovers are one of my favourite birds; unlike many waders they refuse to turn a dour grey colour in the winter and look magnificent on a crisp, sunny morning.

They also have a lovely, distinctive call, that is best heard at sunrise on the welsh uplands in spring – should you be lucky enough to find one!

I was down here ostensibly to find the Water Pipit that had been reported a few days ago, but Frodsham Marshes is a big area and as there were no details in the logbook - I was more likely to have bumped into Lord Lucan and Osama bin Laden pitching a tent.

There seems to have been a mini-invasion of these elusive critters over the last few days, let’s hope one sets up camp locally so I get an opportunity to remember what they look like!

Plenty of other birds around, including large numbers of Linnets, Goldfinches, Pied Wagtails and about twenty drake Pochards on the flooded section of the tank.

Not much else to report except that there appears to have been a plague of fly-tipping – is this one of those pathway activities that leads to harder pastimes like cow-tipping?

Until later.

For Whom The Cuckoo Clock Tolls

Today I was treated to an increasingly rare sight: two Cuckoos – presumably a pair – flying across Frodsham Marsh.

It seems this area is a bit of a hotspot for Cuckoo, no wonder considering the legions of Reed Warblers nesting in the phragmites. It is sad to note the decline of this once relatively common migrant, but perhaps it will take a major event like the extinction of the Cuckoo as a British breeding bird to awaken the general public to the lamentable condition of our countryside.

I wouldn’t bet on it though; as long as there is a clutch of nasty and vindictive television programmes to watch and a retail park within driving distance of home, then why does it matter? Springwatch deserves lots of credit for highlighting this worrying fall in numbers, although I do feel they are preaching to the converted.

Plenty of parent passerines this afternoon busy carrying food for young, including Whitethroat, Reed Bunting and Meadow Pipit. Lots and lots of Swifts about too, brought down no doubt by the increasingly heavy rain.

Walking around number 6 tank, I noticed some ‘landscaping’ had taken place in the sandy, sparsely vegetated north-west section. Three entrances measuring about ten feet across had been bulldozed into the bank, and then tonnes of sand had been dumped along the edge, forming a strip about 5 metres wide and 150 metres in length.

All this had occurred at the exactly the location numbers of Lapwing, Skylark and Ringed Plovers would have been nesting – how crass! Congratulations Peel Holdings.

Until later.

Wag Flava

A report of a Corncrake at Frodsham Marsh on Saturday morning encouraged me to return for another walk around number 6 tank.

As I set off my mood was one of ludicrous optimism rather than hope or expectation. With similar positivity the boys, sorry grown men, of the local model airplane club were busy preparing a runway by cutting a strip through the meadow with a sit-on lawnmower, but judging by the straining windsock, the aircraft were in for a morning of severe turbulence.

A couple of hundred yards further on from the airport I encountered a pair of Yellow Wagtails foraging on the metalled track. Whether because they were busy concentrating on feeding or simply didn't care for my presence, the birds afforded very close views. Frodsham seems to be a stronghold in Cheshire for this species and I located three more individuals - all single males, or 'Young Bucks' as they would be called in India - along the south side of the tank.

The north side of the tank, near where the Corncrake was seen, was quiet although there were a couple of Little Ringed Plovers patrolling the edge of water. No sign of the Little Stints either, and of course, the Corncrake if it was there, kept hidden from view and refused to call - I'll see one eventually!

In other news, me and another two birders saw a very interesting Egret species at Inner Marsh Farm yesterday (16th) evening. As the bird flew in - directly in front of the hide - I nearly called Great White Egret, but it didn't seem to be large enough, although it was certainly bigger than a Little Egret. Fortuntely it landed in the corner of number 2 pool where it stayed for a couple of minutes - just long enough to get the salient features. The legs were yellowish around the tibias and darker around the tarsus'; the bill was greyish to dark and relatively long; the neck was fairly long too with a distinct kink and there appeared to be a red ring on the right leg. When the bird flew off, the wings were definitely wider and longer than a Little Egret and the wingbeats slower - an intriguing sighting?

Having seen thousands of Egrets in India, the bird it most resembled was a pale phase Western Reef Egret or an Intermediate Egret but I don't think it was either as barring an escapee this would obviously be next to impossible. Let's hope that it hangs around and that the next observer has a camera!

Until later.

Number 6

It is now difficult to imagine what a wonderful and wild area Frodsham Marshes would have been before it was drained and ‘developed’. At the confluence of the rivers Mersey and Weaver there must have once stood a huge expanse of sandbanks, mudflats and saltmarsh. One can only dream of the wildlife that must have abounded.

The area is now owned by the rather clandestine Peel Group, whom utilise the land to deposit dredgings from the nearby Manchester Ship Canal. The remainder of the site is a collage of meadows, paddocks and scrub. Surrounded by heavy industry the marsh is hard to love ascetically and the potholed metalled roads make driving around the area unpleasant.

Given a little sympathetic management, many significant improvements for the benefit of wildlife could be realised; professional stewardship by a conservation body could result in a world class nature reserve on my doorstep. I can dream!

A wide range of people use the marshes from model airplane enthusiasts and joggers to rather shady looking blokes in quasi-military uniforms and aviator sunglasses.

Despite its drawbacks, I have seen many good birds here: Marsh Harrier, Black-necked Grebe, Short-eared Owl and my first ever Avocets in March 2006. Little Stint are also regular and the reason why I am standing here on a grey, still morning, overlooking the prosaically named Number 6 Tank.

These birds are not called Calidris Minuta for nothing – they are absolutely tiny. Slowing moving along the water’s edge with my telescope reveals a stunning male Ruff coming into breeding plumage but no Little Stints – again. Spreading my search to the drier sections I notice a few Lapwings on nests but little else.

The calm is then shattered by the repeated, hysterical, loud squeaky-toy-like call of an Oystercatcher. I quickly picked it up darting about three feet above the ground being pursued by a Peregrine; a very brown bird that must have been a juvenile. The chase was only half-hearted though and the bird soon gave up leaving the Sea Pie to live another day. The falcon then cruised over to a fencepost where it remained perched in that rather tense fashion, similar to that of a 100 metre runner waiting for the gun.

Also on the tank was an Avocet, although it was far away on the opposite edge – a refugee perhaps from Inner Marsh Farm? A calling – but not seen – Cuckoo was also in good voice, competing with a plethora of warblers. Not a bad morning!

Until later.