New Arrivals

Late April, early May is a really good time to look out for arrivals. With the sight and sound of a cuckoo deserting us for the past ten years, my first instinct now is to look out for house martins and swallows. This year the first swallow appeared in Croft Close in early April, but it was almost three weeks later that a companion arrived to join it. Swallows and house martins arrived in the third week of April at Cotton Farm, but they were soon being predated by a pair of sparrow hawks. About twenty house martins were seen at about the same time, going into previous nest sites under the eves at Walk Mill. The first spring warblers were common whitethroats and sedge warblers, and they joined over wintering cettis warblers and black caps. All were very vociferous, and created a cacophony of sound with both blackbirds and song thrushes. On one early morning I heard the call of a green woodpecker join in, in addition to the drumming of a greater spotted woodpecker. At the very end of April I heard the exciting sound of a rare grasshopper warbler coming from a spot familiar to me for many years. It was coming from vegetation near the bend of the river towards the otter holt, and as it sang its repetitive reeling call, a common whitethroat also joined in from a nearby hawthorn bush. Another familiar call was from a pair of oystercatchers, whilst early spring saw the emergence of several pairs of skylark, a species that was largely absent in 2021.

Our best sighting by far was a single osprey, a fish eagle, circling above our heads along the river at Conway, before heading out to sea. One had been seen the previous afternoon on Frodsham Marsh, so our sighting might just have been the same bird. Avocets are now very active at Burton Meres and we saw a squabble between two pairs amongst the thirty or so birds in view. These elegant black and white waders are a welcome addition to our birds on the Dee, as well as little, cattle and great white egrets, all seen on the same reserve. There are many bar tailed godwits as well, and a visit to the Border hide will bring you in very close to view many species, including the egrets and godwits. There are also lots of birds of prey about over the reserve, including marsh harrier, buzzard, kestrel and sparrow hawk, whilst in our parish, little owls and barn owl can also be seen, and tawny owl heard.

Although I saw a brown hare on the fields of Cotton Farm, they haven’t been as numerous as usual this spring. There is a great deal of mole activity about, witnessed by the hundreds of molehills on the Legion Meadow, as well as along the big meadow at Hockenhull. An excellent recent sighting, pictured below, was a beautiful grey wagtail, flitting purposefully along the river bank. It was moving along the meadow amongst the first spring flowers, lady smock, marsh marigolds, stitchwort, red campion and garlic. Butterflies have also had a brilliant start to the year, and I’ve now recorded 25 sightings of brimstone, the highest ever. Other butterfly species seen include good numbers of small tortoishell, holly blue, comma, peacock, red admiral and speckled wood. Large and small whites have also emerged together with really good numbers of orange tips, which can be seen virtually everywhere. I have an app on my phone which I can use to record butterflies and I have 69 recordings to date, of over 100 specimens. This information can be sent straight to the monitoring site, and I can even upload photographs from my camera phone if I am able to photograph the butterfly before it knows I’m there. I’m still waiting to record a brimstone on my camera phone, but I have a number taken with the longer lens in previous years. It is my contention that this species is becoming far more common in the Chester area. Is global warming the reason? It certainly is a possibility.