Back to explore Moore Nature Reserve, Warrington; we had a lovely day there with blue sky and sunny conditions although a light rain shower passed over mid afternoon. Masses of gulls were on the pools and there were a group of keen birders looking out Eastwards from Birchwood hide so maybe there reports of some of the winter visting gulls arriving. There are also reports of a Bittern (this came from one of the Moore NR staff who we chatted with). We saw around 5 Redwings although it proved difficult to get anything other than poor photos of them :( Lots of Long tailed Tits were chattering away, we saw a few Jays, Blackbirds, Chaffinch, BT's GT's and a Nuthatch in one of the feeding areas. We spent 4 and half hours wandering around with not much to show for it on camera but had a good day. We also walked to the Manchester Ship Canal area; it had been reported there were Curlews on the far bank but we didn't spot any, Just a Herring Gull adult, a Grebe (not sure if it was GC or Little) and a Cormorant flew by along with several more gulls.
Sorry the pics are not brilliant but it will give you an idea of the area we explored.
First the Manchester Ship Canal (which we explored at the end of our long walk)
Gulls soaring above the M.S.Canal and one perched in the middle of the canal !
By the tow path we saw this bird which may be a Rook ? looked young but I am not sure
Beautiful landing !
just posting these up as still having trouble uploading too many pics at once ............be right back with more
this Jay was a long way off so best pic I could get :(
and back on Moore N.R. at one of the feeding stations was Nutty
and some rather strange looking brain type fungus ?
and now the bad shots of the Redwings lol
Rowan trees
and a Chaffinch who was helping itself to some Rowan berries
Blue Tit was foraging on the Oak bark and I think he found a juicy spider !!
Is this a Dunnock ........not sure I can make it out from such a bad pic ......
a Survey plane circled overhead .........first time I've seen one - am I on Google maps now ? LOL
and volunteers and Moore staff working to clear the Eastern Reed bed area; we were hoping to see a Green Woodpecker but with all the work it wasn't going to happen today LOL They were really doing a great job cleaning up the area.
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Regards, Hazel
Glad you had a good day out Hazy - the pictures aren't awful at all - some lovely ones there, and yes that is a dunnock! Great to see the redwings - not seen one yet this autumn. Love the little chaffinch eating the berries, and as for that fungus - not seen one quite like that before!
See my Flickr photos here
https://www.flickr.com/photos/115745582@N04/
Evening Christine, thanks so much; it was pretty quiet generally apart from hundreds of gulls, some canada geese and even a Grebe on the M.S.Canal ! Really enjoyed the sunny conditions today after such an abysmal weekend lol
Hi Alan, thanks, I am just uploading them from the hard-drive but I find if I upload more than 5 the whole thing freezes and I have to start over ! It took me an hour to get these up after 2 failed attempts. I've now learned to upload in batches of 5 and no more, then post and then add more !
It was working ok for me a week or so ago but had problems today :( maybe I should empty out the cookies again although I did this 3 days ago so it shouldn't be a problem.
Thanks Bob, seems the winter thrushes are coming back in in good numbers and hoping to see them at Neumann's next time we visit. Blue sky too, yes, just the job :)
@ Alan, I got back after 4 pm so it was too late to call Stapeley Grange as they ask you to call between hours of 10am and 4pm; I will ring them tomorrow morning and see if I can find out how he is doing, fingers crossed.