Showing well again late afternoon but not as close as this morning.

Still showing well late morning, plus Marsh Harrier and 2 Hobby

I thought it was rude not to go and see it later on this afternoon as I had a work appointment over that way! Showing really well despite the windy conditions and there are a couple of shots on their way to Ian for out of county :) Really friendly crowd when I was there [about twelve people or so] the shrike had dropped out of sight for 30 minutes but then when it showed it preferred the wire sticking out of the concrete blocks or the barbed wire fences, if anyone else is going for a look.

Just been to see the Red Backed Shrike at Frodsham on No 1 bed. There were about a dozen birdwatchers present when I arrived and the bird had been showing well. Phil Woolen had taken some great shots with his camera which he was was able to show me, but I only had to wait for about 15 minutes to see it fly on to a nearby bush.. It must have sat for 5 minutes on a branch before dropping out of view, but the bird kept re apearing and had been very close indeed.

The bird was down past the parking space where you walk to the Weaver bend, down towards the farm, and there were several places to park your car.

12.30- 15.30
2 Avocets, both quite far away from the 2 chicks who were feeding quite happily.
5 Ringed Plover, many Shelduck & Tuffties.
Reed Warbler singing so hard and long almost drowned out 2 reeling Groppers. Lots of Whitethroat, Goldfinch, Willow Warbler and Chiffchaff.
Buzzard overhead on 3 separate occasions. 1 Kestrel. 2 Song Thrush with mouthfulls of insects/grubs.
Plenty of Swifts and Swallows.
Sedge Warbler and House Sparrow on long walk back to car which I left on the far side of the bridge over the motorway.
Rick.

Originally posted by David Wilson, 02.07.10:

Hi everybody. just joined manchester birding. my main patches are frodsham marshes, chester, moore nature reserve. spent a few early mornins on frodsham marsh. flock of sand martins nr canal.pair avocets with 2 young on no 6. ruddy duck.loadsa whitethroat, warblers, cuckoo(male) and a huge infestation of ermin moths webs and all.swallows swifts buzzards and a couple am not sure of. wher can i post pix.?

Great description of area to see Yellow Wagtails, Sid, I've never seen them here, the grassy area on top of the bank over the logbook is where I 've seen then at Frodsham Marsh in previous years.

One Yellow Wagtail showing v well 4.00pm today exactly where you indicated, so thanks for that !!

Karen Foulkes wrote:

---

A trip to Frodsham after a couple of hours on the Wirral, this afternoon.

Couldn't find area where Yellow Wags were meant to have been, but did see one flying over

---

Karen to reach the "new" area with scrapes you need to drive along the top of No. 6 tank to the point where there is a squiggle in the road down a bit of a hill then go along for another couple of hundred yards and stand on the grass bank to view the new scrapes. It's where it looks like the bank has been reinforced. The Yellow and White wags were in that area when I was there last week - hope that helps for future reference.

Got the morning off to a good start at 06.45 with approximately 200 Golden Plover in summer plumage on No 5 tank. Then things went downhill, even the Weaver Bend produced nothing but vast quantities of those mozzy type biting jobies and too much water in the river

However things took a turn for the better when I met Steve & Gill Barber (nice to meet you folks) - we found on the new pools on No 6 - 3 White and 2 possibly 3 Yellow Wagtails, 10 - 12 Ringed Plover. a Dunlin, a Black tailed Godwit and a Snipe. But best of all Steve spotted a raptor that eventually turned out to be an immature Marsh Harrier that gave us a good display before heading off west

This afternoon

No 5 tank

180+ Dunlin
1500+ Lapwing
75+ Curlew
140+ Golden Plover
1 Ruff
1 Black-tailed Godwit
120+ Goldfinch (with a few Linnets tagging along)

No 6 tank

580+ Teal
140+ Wigeon
100+ Tufted Duck
90+ Pochard
9 Shoveler
4 Gadwall
3 Pintail
9 Shelduck
1 Raven

No 4 tank

1 Water Pipit
4 Meadow Pipits
5 Pied Wagtails

plus 4 Kestrels and 3 Buzzards

We spent a couple of hours at Frodsham this morning and were treated to good numbers of birds on no 5 and no 6.

Plenty of waders on no 5

Hundreds of Golden Plover and Lapwing
c100 Curlew
30 Redshank
2 Snipe (that we could see)
1 Dunlin
8 Kestrel
6 Buzzard
6 Grey Heron

No 6 had good numbers of wildfowl

Wigeon
Teal
Shoveler
Pochard
Tufted Duck
Mallard
Goldeneye

There were quite a few Mipits on no 4, but we couldn't find the Water Pipit that was reported in the log yesterday.

We then went to Parkgate.

Thanks for that Paul. Copies can be obtained for £1.50 from the address at the bottom of this page, presumably it applies to non-members:

http://www.ukbis.net/cawos/gazetteer.htm

He's often there! Yesterday No 6 had 1 BN grebe, several ruddys, and bizzarely, a pair of Cape shelduck. Also one solitary wader - wood sand or juv redshank, too far away to be sure.

Hi Pete,

Have a look here, you can download a pdf of a Frodsham Marsh map showing the different bed No.s - though it's not very clear!

http://www.ukbis.net/cawos/frodshammarsh.htm

I was there a week ago last Saturday and had 6+ yellow wags, then 9+ last Wednesday evening. We also saw 50+ruddy duck on the Saturday but this number had plummeted to just half a dozen on Wednesday. A guy I bumped into said there'd been DEFRA guys there in the morning culling them?

Cheers
Jonathan

Tank no 4 this afternoon - variety of ducks plus an immature Black Necked Grebe - presumably spreading out from the eyes? Kestrels hunting, redshank in the margins and still some yellow wags at the far end.

Today
Weaver Bend
6 Ring Plover
5 Common Sandpipers
Pr Shelduck with 8 small ducklings
1 Greenshank
3 Dunlin
Lots of Bl T Godwits
No 6 Tank
6 Dunlin
Bl T Godwits
6 Common Gulls
Lapwings

but work was going on in this area so a lot of disturbance

March must be exceptionally early for Corncrake though?

Pete, dont be gutted put it down to excellent experience, we have all had such birds in the past, and proberly will have them in the future.

The ones that got away,most birders have that list.

It,s all part of birding and make you a better birder because you question what you have seen, Ian has always mentioned notebooks, and the failure of some birders to keep notes, the same with photos! never delete the( What the bloody hell is that) photo, until you are sure what it is,

Keep birding.

Wednesday, May 6.

Whinchat 1m
Wheatear 1m 1f
Plenty of Sedge Warblers plus Reed Ws, Whitethroats and Reed Buntings.
Gadwall/Tufted/Mallard/Shelducks.
Skylarks plus 1 Meadow Pipit.
Redshanks, Lapwings and Oystercatchers.
Swifts 10+
Swallow 1

We seem to have two Frodham threads going again so as per Ian Mc's email I revert to this one.

However not too much to report from Frodsham that's very exciting probably because of a late start today. We watched a Peregrine "flying with Swallows" they didn't seem in the slightest concerned. On the Weaver still lots of Shelduck, Redshank (10) Gadwall (pair), Yellow Wags (5) on the river edges and adjoining meadows. Number 6 tank yielded Ringed Plover (2), Wheater (2) and Linnets (6) on the dry bits and Shoveler on the water - very little else. In the surrounding bushes singing Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler and Whitethroat.

We nipped up to Bradley but no sign of the Cattle Egret - then picked up a chippy and went back to the Marsh to eat them where we met four birders returning from the Weaver Bend where they reported having seen a Wood Sandpiper - by then too late to go back for a look-see

So Henry and Mrs O you both did well to avoid my company today

Me and my dad went to see the Cattle Egret this morning, which was stood out on view, and had apparently flown from near the cattle on the other side near the farm.

A party of shooters arrived as we were leaving

Nice bird though

Called in at No 6 and had Chiffchaff, very quiet though otherwise, although knowing our luck someone'll find something really good later.

-- Edited by Karen Foulkes on Sunday 29th of March 2009 12:42:03 PM

-- Edited by Karen Foulkes on Sunday 29th of March 2009 12:42:30 PM

Egret in the middle of the far field [in the elbow of the public footpath] with four mute swans and about ten Shelduck this morning - about 10.30am. Slightly better views by walking 750m round footpath to North East of farm. Farmer still very helpful [gave permission to use his yard where I found three other friendly birders!]. Looks like people are remaining courteous and not causing any problems.

Called in at Frodsham on the way back from Worlds End

4 Avocets on No 6 Tank

Cheers Jimmy

Peter and myself were there about 10.45, no sign of any quad bikes then.
Sorry you were unlucky
Cheers Ian