The Dark Side Of The Estuary?

I have been birding the Dee for a number of years now and being based at Chester I find myself equidistant from both the Flintshire and Wirral sides of the estuary.

Initially, I favoured sites such as Hoylake, Red Rocks and the shore at Heswall, but I found the more I explored the Welsh side, the more my affections turned to this side of the river.

What struck me early on is how under-watched and neglected the entire area is considering the relative abundance of good birdwatching sites.

Arguably the Wirral side is the more attractive having not suffered from the same level of industrialisation as its opposing bank, but as far as I am concerned the crown jewels of the Dee Estuary lie firmly in Wales’s hands.

The Point of Ayr probably offers the birdwatcher the greatest variety of birds on the estuary with the possible exception of Hilbre Island. A broad range of waders and wildfowl can be seen at this location with the added appeal of good seawatching, plus the chance of the unexpected – I once witnessed an aerial tussle between a Pomarine Skua and a Marsh Harrier! The nearby wild and desolate Gronant beech with its breeding Little Terns is also a cracking destination.

A much underrated spot is the scruffy Garth Wood, tucked unassumingly behind the village at Ffynnongroywy. A wonderful signposted trail leads one around a three mile circuit of the wood and surrounding farmland where last spring I found Dipper, Marsh Tit, Wood Warbler, Pied Flycatcher, Garden Warbler and Redstart in just two visits.

White Sands is an area of the marsh unfamiliar to many, but the section that lies directly behind the rivetment running out from Corus Steel Works holds some fascinating birds - particularly over-wintering families of Whooper and Bewick’s Swans. Sadly, access is restricted, but in winter there is a no better spot to scan for Short-eared Owls or find flocks of over-wintering Twite.

Also close-by and difficult to gain entry to is the colony of Common Terns that breed on the pools lying directly under the shadow of the steelwork’s buildings; the boating lake at Shotwick that can hold interesting birds from time-to-time and then, of course, there is the rifle-range area…!

Finally there is Connah’s Quay NR. I have been a member for two years now and find myself coming with increased frequency. I think the best time to visit is over a high tide, when I can watch the waders being pushed on to Oakenholt Marsh to roost. The autumn of 2009 was particularly memorable with a massive flock of up to 6,000 Black-tailed Godwits present and the only thing more astonishing is that I very rarely had any company in the West Hide! Where are the birders?

Infact, from my experience there seem to be very few birders along this entire stretch of coast, evidenced by the fact that there are relatively few sighting submitted to the various local websites vis-à-vis other areas. This is probably down to nothing more than a comparatively small local population.

It’s not all rosy as there are drawbacks, notably the lack of freshwater or brackish pools and – Connah’s Quay nothwithstanding – very few formal viewing facilities. However, all things considered – it’s Wales for me!

Until later.

Shotwick Rifle Range

With the skies clearing, I decided to head over to the embankment behind the Shotwick Rifle Range this evening and scan the marsh for Shorties.

It’s a bit of a grey area here in more ways than one. Firstly, this part of the marsh is actually in Wales – even though the Flint Bridge is the de facto border – with the boundary passing just south of Burton Point.

Secondly, being M.O.D land I am not strictly sure if I should actually walk along here - although many do – as you risk incurring the wrath of the local farmer with whom I had contretemps number two with this evening!

Not that I am unsympathetic to his argument – even though he could do with a little smoothing-out on the diplomacy front – as he must have to contend with all types of scallywags with dubious intentions.

In truth, I probably wouldn’t go here if it weren’t for the fact that it is so good for watching raptors, especially at dusk as the sun is directly behind you - unlike on the Wirral side of the estuary.

This evening was no exception – an adult female Hen Harrier completely ignored me as it scoured a ditch no more than twenty yards away, but the highlight was unusually close views of a pair of adult Peregrines.

The way they perched spoke volumes about the relationship between the birds with the female clearly wearing the trousers – she was sat on top of a large log whereas the male was on the ground a deferential twenty yards to her left.

I must confess that I suspect I was looking at the same birds I had seen hunting so expertly in unison at Connah’s Quay NR a couple of weeks back - they obviously have a close bond.

With no sign of any SE Owls, I wandered a little further down the track to look at the rifle range. The shooting area looked more like a falconer’s back garden with a female Merlin, two Buzzards, a Sparrowhawk and a ringtail Hen Harrier all sitting on various fence posts bathing in the soft evening light– incredible.

Before the sun dropped behind the Clwydians I had a final look for some SE Owls, but I could only find a couple, with one bird miles towards Neston. To be honest, I think they knew -tonight at least - that they had been horribly upstaged!

Shotwick Rifle Range 15.12.09

Hen Harrier 1 (Adult female)
Peregrine 2 (Pair)
Merlin 1 (Adult female)
Sparrowhawk 1 (Adult Female)
Short-eared Owl 2
Buzzard 4
Little Grebe 1
Shoveler 6
Curlew 20+

Until later

Duck And Cover

An air of quiet contentment hung over Llanddulas at lunchtime. Huge rafts of scoters bobbed and dozed on the still water whilst the majority of Conwy County Council’s refuse collection department looked like kings as they sat feet on dashboard - well sated after an excellent pie and chips - inspecting the scantily-clad blurt in the Daily Star.

I had nipped over to try and winkle-out a Velvet Scoter from the rank and file Commons. Unfortunately the majority of the birds were too far from shore on an ebbing tide for me to accurately nail down a Velvet, so I was reliant upon picking one up in flight from the telltale white secondaries.

This was problematic because most birds were quite happy to loaf on the surface and it was not until something spooked them that they all took to the air and despite having a good look at the majority of the four thousand or so birds, I couldn’t flipping find one!

In addition to the masses of scoters, there was an assortment of the usual inshore bric-a-bric including good numbers of Great Cresties and Red-breasted Mergansers, plus singles of Red-throated Diver and a close-in flying drake Goldeneye.

After the rain began to pour and the dustcart boys had finished their final Lambert and Butler I decided to call it a day and head back to Chester.

Listening to the radio on the A55 I heard that the BA cabin crew had made the suicidal decision to go on strike. One industry expert said that BA is currently known by the acronym ABBA – Anybody But British Airways, following on a long tradition of cruel airline nicknames such as:

TWA – Try Walking Across
BOAC – Better Off on A Camel
CAAC – Crashes Anywhere Across China

Still, if the trolley-dollys are reluctant to work for less than thirty large ones, there will always be the bins.

Until later.

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.

My Two Cents Worth

I have just watched the news and discovered that 7bn euros of our hard earned folding has been pledged to ‘developing’ nations to help them tackle climate change.

Whilst I do not deny that mans’ activities has contributed to the acceleration in the heating of the earth’s atmosphere, I am sceptical as to its status as the number one environmental issue.

It is also ironic that had human beings been as technically advanced as we are now a mere 14,000 years earlier at the ending of the last ice age, then the symposium at Copenhagen may have been over how to proliferate the production of carbon rather than reduce it.

Without exception, climate change is universally considered to be a negative phenomenon as far as wildlife and birds are concerned. In the United Kingdom, failing seabird colonies are cited as evidence that warming sea temperatures are to blame for forcing the main prey of sand eels further north into cooler waters resulting in reduced breeding success.

This may very well be the case, but surely the ocean temperatures have been in a constant state of flux for millions of years and in times past the very same species of seabird we have today must have faced similar challenges and survived.

If this is true then surely the birds will just eventually move to a more productive area? It is always worth remembering too in these hysterical times that one bird needs only to reproduce once on average during its life cycle to retain the same level in population – breeding is a capricious occupation.

My feeling is that the real threat to the natural world is man in general. Any one – let alone two or more - from habitat destruction, rampant over-population, the pillaging of the sea and the ecological holocaust that is modern agriculture are far more dangerous to biodiversity than the warming of the earth’s atmosphere will ever be.

Until later.

Elmley Marshes

"Rough Justice" was to have been the perfect headline for this post. The three gargantuan prisons on the Isle of Sheppey were clearly visible from Elmley Marshes, but sadly there was no evidence of any over-wintering Rough-legged Buzzards.

No matter. If there is the perfect estuarine and marshland nature reserve, then Elmley Marshes is probably it. Following my disappointing visit to the much vaunted, enclosed-viewing-facility-challenged Rainham Marshes, Elmley was refreshingly old-skool with no visitor centre razzamatazz and five good quality hides - all well located. So, credit where credit is due the RSPB, this sanctuary is a belter.

I suppose it does help when the area is drowning in sunshine and teeming with Marsh Harriers to boot. According to one Kentish old hand, up to one hundred pairs are now breeding on the Isle of Sheppey – astounding. From today’s evidence, the residual over-wintering population is around ten birds and when one takes into account the Peregrines, Merlins and Hen Harriers you have some serious Lapwing mithering going on!

The Swale Estuary is no slouch either. I cannot remember seeing so many waders and wildfowl crammed into such a small area. Wigeon were the most numerous duck and Dunlin the commonest wader, but it was hard to take your eyes of the flock of circa two hundred Avocet – the largest I have ever seen.

Reflecting on such a wonderful day, I pondered whether or not being imprisoned so close to a nature reserve would be heaven or hell for a birder. Whilst it would be comforting to hear the rich and mournful trill of the Curlew on a still winter’s morning, would it not be torture having the knowledge that they were within touching distance yet out of reach?

Elmley Marshes 10.12.09

Marsh Harrier c9
Peregrine 3
Kestrel 1
Avocet c200
Grey Plover 50+
Black-tailed Godwit 100+
Dunlin 2,000+
Wigeon 4,000+
Teal c750

Until later.

Bickerton Hill

Bickerton Hill is an area of heath and ancient deciduous woodland near Beeston Castle. It is ‘managed’ by the Natural Trust who deserve a doffing of the hat for all the hard yakka they have put in over recent years - notably to restore the original segments of heathland.

The result is that the open and sandy soil areas of the hill look absolutely plum for Nightjars and come next summer I shall be up there looking for them – especially as they appear to be all but extinct as a Cheshire breeder? (I would be quite happy to be corrected!).

I find birding woods in the winter similar to my old career as a goalkeeper – large periods of inactivity interspersed with brief periods of frenetic action!

With most woodland passerines choosing to join mixed feeding flocks in winter there are often long periods of nothing, but within seconds you can find yourself having to work quickly in order to identify many birds – often at distance and in poor light – before they move on.

It was not too long before I found the first group this morning, no more then fifty yards from the car park. Incredibly the second bird I looked at was a Marsh Tit – only the fourth time I have found one and my first in Cheshire!

The flock was actually remarkably diverse: in addition to the usual suspects it held a couple of Treecreepers, a Nuthatch, a few Goldcrest and a small group of Siskin and Lesser Redpoll.

I always enjoy hearing the call of the Lesser Redpoll as it sounds to me like they are constantly firing a miniature machine gun!

Also worth mentioning was the large numbers of Redwing I saw today – the first time this winter I have seen good numbers. A Green Woodpecker was a welcome sighting too, yaffling its heart out in the middle of a pasture.

Until later.