As the Days Get Longer

The fine weather of April has been an excellent time to spot some of the best of our migrant arrivals, with early very records of most species of warblers. Chiff chaff were the first, followed by willow warblers, blackcaps, both reed and sedge warblers, and whitethroats. These could be seen and heard at Hockenhull, The Meadows in Chester, Burton Meres, Chester Zoo Nature Reserve, and a number of them in the village. The now over wintering cettis warblers have been at all the above places except the village. Their harsh explosive calling card is unmistakable, but usually from within the canopy or clump bushes. I was extremely lucky to see one earlier this week sitting on the top of the otter holt copse at Hockenhull whilst watching two oystercatchers harrying and chasing away two buzzards who were taking a keen interest in their nest site. I’ve seen lapwings do the same thing, flying at the buzzards in anger, again to try to get them away from their nest sites. The Hockenhull Platts reserve and the village has seen lots of sightings of buzzards, kestrels and sparrowhawks, all three coming close to homes and gardens, whilst a single male peregrine falcon has been sighted three ties this last month on the reserve. Both sand and house martins appeared in mid March and the first swallows were recorded at the beginning of April. Several wheatear were seen on passage, and up to six common snipe were found on most visits feeding on the wet meadow, with a maximum count of fourteen.

One of the best sightings in the churchyard has been displaying goldcrests, giving me the distinct impression that they are nesting in the yew trees. There are also nuthatches calling each time I visit, which seem to be nesting somewhere around the area of the Village Green, churchyard and the Old Hall.

Mammal sightings this month have included water vole, several foxes, up to four brown hare, an otter and a mink.

Butterfly species emerging have included small tortoishell, peacock, red admiral, comma, common blue, brimstone and speckled wood. The peacock has been the most prolific, with their unmistakable dark underwing patterns. In recent days now that marsh marigold and the lady smock or cuckoo flower are emerging, so lots of orange tip butterflies have taken to the wing, and this was especially true at Burton Meres which I haven’t visited for over a year due to the pandemic. I was very impressed by the newly laid & restored board walks, and the new Inner Marsh Farm hide looks spectacular from a distance. It is due to open in the next few months. When we visited earlier this week we were delighted to see an estimated 30+ pair of Avocets, these amazing black and white waders with their distinctive upward curved bill are now common on that reserve. The Dee estuary is becoming a great place to see good numbers of both little and great white egrets, and even the occasional cattle egret. I was talking to one of the wardens on the reserve and telling him about the estimated 3,000 Icelandic pink footed geese that we have seen in the Christleton, Hockenhull and Peckforton areas over the winter months, and he told me that an estimated 35,000 were roosting on the Dee Marshes each evening. I guess this is the reason we saw and heard skein after skein flying in a westerly direction each evening.

As the days get longer many wild flowers are now beginning to emerge including, marsh marigolds, lady smock, cowslips and pink campion. Last weekend we added to their number by planting 150 yellow rattle plugs on the Legion meadow. These delightful yellow flowers whose seeds rattle when they are ripe, are recognised as being a plant that suppress grasses and enable a wider variety of flowering species to flourish. If you walk through the Legion Meadow at any time please keep dogs on the lead, but enjoy the increasing number of meadow flowers that will emerge during the summer months.


PS Since these notes were written common whitethroat, sedge, reed and grasshopper warblers have been recorded at Hockenhull Platts.