It's a beautiful spot John and looks good for the birds you mention, Flycatchers, Redstart etc. I did a walk there earlier in the year and hope to go back in a few weeks to see what butterflies are around. There will, no doubt, be a level of disturbance with it being on the Sandstone Trail. There were certainly plenty of walkers about when I visited.
Early part of visit marred by a thunderstorm, which meant searching for reptiles was pointless.
After the storm cleared Willow Warbler (3), Chiffchaff (1) plus numerous Blackbirds and Wrens burst into song.
A group of 10 Mistle Thrushes flew onto the heath. Two other flocks of Mistle Thrushes were also on the heath.
Also here, 2 Buzzards, 2 Collared Doves (Worth a second look here), 1 Raven and 3 Great Spotted Woodpeckers.
There are 2 small hides, each with a few feeders close by, both were attracting common garden birds.
The rain spoilt the visit as this is a fine site to check out for birds, with Pied and Spotted Flycatchers recorded as resident, together with Redstart.
On my last visit I found Green Woodpecker quite easy to find too. Nighjars have been recorded in the past, but the site seems to suffer too much disturbance now,
there are spots with serious erosion, and much of the heath is blanketed in bracken. The National Trust have started replanting 2 large areas with heather, but even with wall to wall
bracken over much of the heath, this is still a great site for birds. Incidentally, the last adder was seen here in 2012, so it's worth keeping an eye open for them here too.
1 Spotted Flycatcher by the Northern entrance to the site.
Heathland
1 Green Woodpecker, also 24 Mistle Thrushes on the reclaimed heath.
Woods
3 Jays, 1 Treecreeper plus the usual garden birds.
This is a huge site, mainly sandy heathland, but also some woodland, which is largely birch with an understorey of bracken.
Visit mainly to look for reptiles, alas I didn't find any.
On the heath though were, 1 Common Frog, 1 Fox (In superb condition), 1 Small Copper and 4 Meadow Brown butterflies, 1 Yellow Tail and 1 Four Dotted Footman moths.
If you enjoy looking for mini-beasts this place is ideal, although the cloudy/showery weather today was not.
A robber-fly posed carrying it's unfortunate "take away", close enough to take a photo.
This is Cheshire's equivalent of Arne, I'm tempted to return on a warm June evening next year and start waving a white hanky.
