Sandbach Raid

Quick visit down the road for a flock of around 40 waxwings on Abbey Road. Lovely they were too, despite the grey light. Also had a quick look on Elton Hall Flash where the regular 1st w Glaucous gull showed well, along with a handful of black-tailed godwits, snipe, redshank and so on. Nearby Railway Flash held good numbers of gulls, mostly northward bound lesser black backs, plus flocks of wigeon, teal and lapwing. Very birdy - a refreshing change to see.

Lots of birds, but no bonuses

A day surveying in the Frodsham general area was broken up with an hour or so sifting through gulls by the Gowy Landfill and a quick look on Frodsham No6. I didn't manage to locate any scarcer gulls, but an enjoyable time trying. Over on No6 there were really large numbers of waders - great to see. Hard to make count estimates, but perhaps 1500 black-tailed godwits, 1000 golden plover and 2000 lapwing, as well as about 500 dunlin. There were also 10 or so ruff and 3 bar-tailed godwits and a few hundred redshanks. The No3 mitigation pool held 60 teal and 10 shoveler too. Nothing spectacular, but certainly a spectacle. I should visit more often.

No6 waders at Frodsham

Great to see big wader flocks.

Patch Bittern & Bobs

Pleasant stroll out with the kids at Marbury in very spring like weather. Nice to bump into old pal James Andrewes and his kids as they were bittern hunting. Happily the kids ran about in the woods whilst James and I chewed the fat. Eventually the bittern put in an appearance, at around 5.30, but quite obscured. A fine male goosander was also present and a redhead flew through. That aside, 1 little egret, 3 oystercatchers, curlew and 250 lapwing were the highlights.

Badly phone-scoped dapper goosander

Fylde Goose Watch

A freezing but enjoyable day on the Fylde watching geese, although spent as much time catching up with old friends as birding. The adult red-breasted goose was the main reason to visit and it didn't disappoint; it showed very well for about 10 minutes before a dog flushed the flock. Afterwards it took another hour to relocate, by which time it was distant and often obscured. There were at least 7 Russian white-fronts in the flocks too, probably more. Moving down the road there were perhaps 6000 birds in another flock, although I only managed a barnacle goose - whilst others saw the Todd's Canada goose and a single bean. Great to see so many birds, a real spectacle.

Red-breasted goose by Chris Batty