Avian Flu

I’m sure many of you reading this will be aware of the damage avian flu is doing to our wildlife. We saw evidence of this with sea birds at RSPB Minsmere in the summer, where corpses of dead birds were lying in and around the lagoons. Locally and nationally many wild swans have been affected, but the worse seems to have happened to colonies of gannets, skuas, terns and other sea birds around the east coast. Many wildlife reserves are now closed to visitors, but despite this, there are exciting things happening around us.

Nine whooper swans probably originating from Iceland have been seen on the lake at Hockenhull, together with migratory golden eye, possibly from northern Scandinavia, and several goosanders. Excellent sightings at any time. The Icelandic pink feet can be seen and heard over the parish every day, and at one point last week, there were six buzzards circling around the clear skies between Rowton and Christleton. A kingfisher has come back to its territory along the canal, and is reported most days. I’ve also spotted jays being very active along Birch Heath Lane and Birch Heath Common. Unfortunately for our small birds a sparrowhawk regularly appears in the garden, as can be seen in the picture files. Magpies’ and jackdaws are also very active, but the early influx of redwing and fieldfare has paused, and they seem to have moved on, probably further south. We still have lots of berries for them to feed on, when it becomes much colder.

A visit to the Wirral hot spots could be very fruitful at present as there are lots of migratory and resident birds about. Marsh Harriers are very active at Parkgate and a visit to West Kirby will probably give you good sightings of redshank and turnstones near the old baths complex, especially at high tide. I never thought that there would be more egrets in Cheshire than wild swans, but this is currently the case with Great White, cattle and little egrets being present almost everywhere. They are also fairly easy to identify with the Great white being the size of a grey heron, with long yellow legs and a black bill, orange in immature birds. Cattle egrets are quite squat white birds with orange bill and orange legs, and often seen around cattle or horses. Little egrets are noticeably smaller than the great whites, but have white tufts on the heads, a black bill, and black legs with large yellow feet. They can be seen roosting in large numbers at Burton Mere, and are now breeding there.

Fifty years ago, you saw this egret species if you travelled to France, but apart from the occasional sighting along the south coast they were not present in the UK. Now they have moved here in big numbers and with other noticeable species like spoonbills and avocets moved further and further north. This is almost certainly the result of global warming, and other wildlife species, such as butterflies and dragonflies showing the same south to north movement. The migration of animals and birds has always taken place, but these recent movements now seem very significant. The best example I’ve ever seen, is spotting a rufous humming bird, and a swallowtail butterfly on a nature reserve, below the 13,000ft Mount Robson in the Canadian Rockies near the Icefield Highway. These tiny creatures were on a migratory flight from the Gulf of Mexico to Alaska, an extraordinary journey of almost 5,000km. Amazing!