A Good Sign that Spring is Here

Although there are few migrants about at present, I saw my first swallow in early April, and common wheatear were seen on fields at Cotton Farm. Buzzards are displaying everywhere, a good sign that spring is here, and the first ducklings and coots have appeared. Baby coots are difficult to tell apart from baby moorhens, but easy to spot when mum is feeding them with her distinctive white patch above the beak. Large greeny black cormorants are showing all around the parish, with up to twenty displaying at the lake at Hockenhull, and many others flying over our canal and farmland. I’ve also included a photograph taken at the weir in Chester with an enormous number feeding there, or stretching out their wings to dry after a fishing expedition in the river. Canada geese are also moving around, and no doubt searching for a quiet nesting area, possibly on a local marl pit. Goosanders, large sword billed ducks, are everywhere this year, the males are easily identified with their green glossed black head, and the females with their red heads with a hint of a crest. Both great crested and little grebes are displaying now and the little grebe in particular has a very noisy “shrill” call. Black headed gulls are now coming into their finest breeding plumage and can be seen at the Pit, and on the River Dee at the Groves. We seem to be getting regular visits in the garden from jackdaws and crows, and our robins, wrens and dunnock are in full voice. Song thrushes are displaying well this year, singing from their song posts on the top of trees, which is a very pleasing sound, but competing with them for noise, is the diminutive nuthatch. Stand near the Village Green at any time and you will hear their noisy call; a high pitched, chwit-chwit, and a very loud kee-kee-kee-kee…..

We also witnessed an extremely loud mating display by a pair of great spotted woodpeckers in Delamere Forest last week. Both birds could be seen testing out potential nest sites, drumming on or near their chosen site, then flying around the area, feeding for a few minutes up in the canopy, before returning to what appeared to be their favourite nest hole, and making an enormous din whilst displaying to each other. Their calls were really very very loud, calls which echoed around the trees in the clearing where we stood.

Goldfinches seem to be more numerous than for many years, and at this time of year can be seen feeding on dandelion in almost every nook and cranny. It’s also delightful to see the dominant yellow of spring flowers, with daffodils, celendines, cowslips and marsh marigolds all in full bloom. I’ve also seen more toads than usual, with a couple of them illustrated below. Sadly fewer frogs, and I’ve not yet seen any spawn at the Pit or Platts.

I’ll write much more about early butterflies next month, but the sunny warm weather in March was exceptional, and in the village and in our garden I recorded; many small tortoishell, peacock, comma, and several brimstones. The bright yellow brimstones seem to emerge earlier, and were more numerous than ever this year. I saw both males and females feeding near nettles in Birch Heath Lane, along the canal at Rowton, and in our garden. Six sightings in all, in just a few weeks, lets hope they have laid eggs and we might just record a breeding colony of the species for the first time in the Parish.