This month we have enjoyed seeing lots of waders and waterfowl in great close up, as can be seen in the accompanying pictures. Icelandic pink footed geese can now be seen most mornings, flying high over the village, seemingly calling to each in great excitement as they exchange places in their V shaped formations. We’ve also seen Little grebes or dabchicks on several occasions, as a pair have nested on the islands habitat at Chester Zoo, and there is also at least one active pair at Burton Mere RSPB reserve. I’ve also been intrigued to see coots and moorhens seemingly trying to establish nest territories, even in autumn. They are quite distinctive when you see them on the Pit, coots with a white head on black body, and moorhens with yellow and red on their heads and almost purple body. Their young on the other hand are very difficult to identify, except when they are with their parents. I’ve added two examples with these illustrations. We were also delighted to come across a flock of 50 curlew on the Conway Estuary on a glorious morning last week. It’s been such a long time since we’ve seen and heard so many of these magnificent, long curved billed waders. Their evocative calls were once common over the village, but sadly they really have declined in numbers over the last 50 years. Noisy oystercatchers with their prominent red bills now breed at Hockenhull Platts, but it was also good to see them at Conway, with the curlew and redshank, just below the high tide line. There was a strong wind off the sea, so we were able to get to see them at very close quarters with their heads into the wind, together with an accompanying group of lapwing. Both species make superb calls as they feed, or display to each other in the air.

We’ve had several good sightings of ringed plover and they are quite remarkable with their sturdiness, and positivity, despite being one of the smallest wader in amongst big groups of wading birds. We also saw large numbers of black tailed godwits on both the Conway and Dee Estuaries, together with several snipe, ruff, and teal. Both estuaries hold good numbers of herons and egrets, tall wading birds with long necks and legs, and we were delighted to see a really tall great white egret amongst the waders at Conway, and both cattle and little egrets at Burton Meres. It’s worth reiterating that egrets were first seen regularly in the UK on the Salcombe Estuary in Devon in the 1960’s where the first breeding took place. Before that you might have spotted them whilst travelling through France, for us on the River Loire or marshes near La Baule in Brittany. Now Little egrets are common everywhere in the UK having spread throughout the country, with flocks of over 300 in some places. The shorter stockier creamy white cattle egrets have recently begun to spread throughout the country, and can now be commonly seen along the River Dee marshes. They have shorter yellow bills, which can help with their identification, and they also appear quite squat compared to the other egrets.

Mute swans, once very common, are now quite rare in this area, and up until five years ago I could record 200+ in the Chester area. During winter months, some mute swans would often be seen with up to 350 rarer yellow billed Icelandic whooper, and Russian based Bewick swans, on the outer and inner Dee Marshes. Unfortunately a new solar farm established alongside the main Queensferry - Flint road, on former productive farmland, has removed the well established territory of these winter visitors. I guess most of us are concerned about global warming, so the solar farm is clean green energy to be consumed in our area. It does mean however that this major habitat is now completely lost to our visiting swans, and they have flown elsewhere to winter. I haven’t checked with the arrivals of whooper swans at Martin Mere this autumn, but numbers of visiting swans to the UK, including Bewicks at WWT Slimbridge, have been well down in recent years.

Last week we were delighted to spot a party of 20 mute swans on one of the outer lakes at Burton Meres, and also a pair and three cygnets at Tatton Park. Just a couple of evenings ago, three swans, a pair and one cygnet glided past me along the canal at Rowton in the direction of Christleton, and a cygnet appeared briefly at the Pit. I’ve also heard from one of my friends that he saw two whooper swans on the lake at Hockenull over the weekend, the fourth record for that site.