Woolston Eyes 2010 (1 Viewer)

alanp · Jan 5, 2010

This morning I took a walk to Woolston Eyes, near Warrington, to take some photos of the reserve in the snow. Woolston Eyes is a series of 4 beds that are used to deposit the dredgings from the ship canal and it is sandwiched between the River Mersey and the Canal. One of the beds No3 is in fact an Island surronded by the R Mersey and is accessed via a bridge, and is noted for its breeding or Black necked grebes.

The walk there along the Manchester Ship Canal was rather spectacular. I have never seen the canal frozen over and with 6 inches of snow around the scene was just like a christmas card but without the Robin. There we a lot of Black Headed and Common Gulls on the frozen canal with a few mallard to keep them company.

When I got to the bridge to get on to No3 bed I could see the Mersey was completly frozen. A flock of 20 Redwing flew very low over my head as I crossed the suspension bridge. . There were few birds to be seen or heard the odd Blackbird and a couple of Jays and a few Moorhen rushing out of site as I wandered along the path. I arrived at our New elevated Gilliard Hide to see all the pools were frozen over but there were 15 Lapwing and a single Snipe closely grouped together on the Ice. It was not long before they were flushed by the rather hungry looking Sparrow Hawk. The 2 new bird feeders at either end of the hide each had a Willow Tit feeding along with several Chaffinch, a few Blue Tits and a single Gt Spotted Woodpecker.

The path to one of the hides was blocked by large branches bent over with the weight of the snow and completly blocked the stairs to the hide. The only duck to be seen were 4 Shoveler, despite being noted for over wintering duck but I picke up Skylark as is flew off southwards. The birds were few in numbers but the views were spectacular.

The attachments show our new hide a view of one of our pools, and not a bird in sight.

All the best Alan

David Smith · Jan 6, 2010

Alan
I was thinking of taking a walk there myself but I decided driving down the lane would be too dodgy for my car (Rover 75). How did you approach it ?
The hide is really good isn't it-should be good for waders in spring ?
Nice photos-thanks

Just had a 'nosey' at your profile-interesting to see we were born just 1 month apart (I'm 16th Feb 1947 which my mother always told me was "the worst winter on record" ).

halftwo · Jan 6, 2010

David Smith said:
I was thinking of taking a walk there myself but I decided driving down the lane would be too dodgy for my car (Rover 75).

Yes, I think you'd end up in the Ship Canal David!

alanp · Jan 6, 2010

David Smith said:
Alan
I was thinking of taking a walk there myself but I decided driving down the lane would be too dodgy for my car (Rover 75). How did you approach it ?

Hi David,
I do not think I mentioned that you need to be a member of the WECG to get onto No3 bed as you need a key to open the gate to cross the suspension bridge. I live in Grappenhall and walked down Bradshaw Lane and crossed the Latchford Locks and then turned right and followed the road to the Barrier that is the start of the reserve.

WECG have a very active Ringing team and I was told that they catch between 7% and 10% of the Willow tits in the country! I have been a warden at Woolston for a number of years now and we do get a lot of visiting groups , I know some of the Spring periods are already fully booked .

If you do not have a key to No3 bed its still a great walk from Latchford Locks to Woolston Weir about 1 and a half mile one way. At the Weir there could be as many as 400+ Tufted duck with a few Goldeneye, we recently had a count of 600+ Tufted on the reserve as a whole. For a longer walk you can cross the weir and follow the path that follows the river up to the Thelwall Viaduct again lots of Tufties on that stretch of the River.

I have a friend who was also born 10th Jan 1947 and it was certainly a bad winter in Co Durham from what my mum told me.

David Smith · Jan 6, 2010

Hi David,
I do not think I mentioned that you need to be a member of the WECG to get onto No3 bed as you need a key to open the gate to cross the suspension bridge. I live in Grappenhall and walked down Bradshaw Lane and crossed the Latchford Locks and then turned right and followed the road to the Barrier that is the start of the reserve.

At the Weir there could be as many as 400+ Tufted duck with a few Goldeneye, .
QUOTE]

Yes-my wife and I have joint membership so have full access.
I have noticed the large number of Tufted but had no idea it approached that number.
Last time I visited we had good views of a solitary Pintail-beautiful bird.
I suppose I could park near the new houses/apartments and walk from there-I enjoy walking from the weir but parking is so limited.

alanp · Jan 6, 2010

I suppose I could park near the new houses/apartments and walk from there-I enjoy walking from the weir but parking is so limited.[/QUOTE]

Hi David, You do not need to park by the new houses as your key will open both the barriers at the end of the road by the canal allowing you to drive up to No3 bed and park in the car park area near the footbridge. If the weather is still bad people are parking before the 1st barrier, but leaving the gate clear.

mike nesbitt · Jan 6, 2010

Nice report Alan.
Was it by any chance you that I met on the Great orme about two years ago, we went looking for a Ring ouzel and dipped but found a Chough???
Best regards, Mike.

alanp · Jan 6, 2010

mike nesbitt said:
Nice report Alan.
Was it by any chance you that I met on the Great orme about two years ago, we went looking for a Ring ouzel and dipped but found a Chough???
Best regards, Mike.

It was me, I did try to contact you but never got a reply, might have got your details wrong.

David Smith · Jan 6, 2010

alanp said:
Hi David, You do not need to park by the new houses as your key will open both the barriers at the end of the road by the canal allowing you to drive up to No3 bed and park in the car park area near the footbridge. If the weather is still bad people are parking before the 1st barrier, but leaving the gate clear.

As halftwo said-I could well end up in the canal if I try to reach the bridge, Will try and leave it by the 1st barrier.
Thanks

alanp · Jan 7, 2010

Our new Feedrs

In mid December a fellow warden and myself put up 2 new feeder supports either side of our new hide. The first unexpected bird reported in our log book was on Dec 29th when an early visitor found a Barn Owl:t: siiting on the crossbar at 8am, sadly no photo of it. However Willow Tits have been seen regularly on both the feeders. I have just had an e mail from another of the wardens to say the Barn Owl has been seen several times now, early morning and at dusk, as well as several sighting of Woodcock in the North meadow area. He also enclosed a photo of another visitor to the feeders a Fox:t:, not after the birds but the seeds on the ground.

Chris Packham is giving an illustrated talk on the 25th Feb at the Parr Hall, Warrington to raise funds for the group, of which he recently became our Patron. He is not charging the group for giving the talk so we hope the sale of the tickets at £10 will generate some much needed funds to help us maintain the reserve. I have put details of the talk in the "Community Notice Board" in the "Bird Club & Groups" I have attached the Chris Packham Poster which is worht a look just for the Barn Owl on his shoulder

alanp · Jan 8, 2010

It was a very sunny day down at the Eyes today but very cold and even fewer birds on NO3 bed than on my last visit. The Fox paid a visit to the New feeders as well as 2 Willow Tits and a few Finches and tits. No signs of the Barn Owl but my visit was over lunch time and I also had no luck finding any Woodcock.

I Walked from No3 bed to Woolston Weir a nice half mile walk and here there is a large area of the River Mersey that we call the Weir Pool and this was not frozen over. I counted 375 Tufted Duck in two almost equal sized groups either side of the weir bridge. There was also a smaller No of Pochard, 5 Golden Eyes and 3 Little Grebes

I have attached 2 photos of the Weir Pool the first is the area of the river on the Left of the weir bridge and the second the area to the right of the bridge and also a photo of our new self composting toilet which came top of the wish list on a recent survey of all our members. For those who do not know the reserve we have no running water or electricity but do have a lot of bushes:t:

alanp · Jan 13, 2010

Log Book Record

I have been checking last years log book records for Woolston, for our annual report, and was surprised to find how few records there were for some of our more common species. There were only 4 records for Blue Tit and 5 for Great Tit with maximum count of 6 for each. There were very few records for Robin, Blackbird,Crow, Coot and Moorhen less than 5 records for each. Could any one visiting the reserve please keep an eye out for these more common species. As expected there were loads of records of Black necked Grebes.:t:

There are a few species that are scarce at Woolston, we only had 1 record of a Treecreeper and 3 records of Wigeon and the Cuckoo once a regular on the reserve had only a single sighting recorded and a second bird heard. This sadly seems to be the national trend for the Cuckoo. We had no records of Nuthatch on the reserve, for some reason it is a bird I have never seen there!

There are still large No of Tufted Duck at the Weir and a Scaup has been reported recently, I imagine that would be at the Weir

upstarts1979 · Jan 13, 2010

Hi alanp
I think it would be worth you putting your site under the Cheshire (local patch site) as your reserve is well known and I for one would be interested in seeing a regular up-date from woolston eyes. Inner marsh farm has a thread on the site
Sometimes these threads can be lost where as the local patch thread is easy to find.
we have a thread for my local patch at upton warren in worcestershire and many other people contribute.
just a thought

re log books I find that we get a lot of records on the thread from people who don't normally put stuff in the log books thus the thread is also a useful source for news and encouragement for the reserve.

cheers John

John Barber · Jan 13, 2010

Cuckoo

alanp said:
and the Cuckoo once a regular on the reserve had only a single sighting recorded and a second bird heard. This sadly seems to be the national trend for the Cuckoo.

Just as a matter of interest regarding the cuckoo. If anyone want's to see or hear them next year - go to the Kyle of Lochalsh in Scotland. There were lots of them around a place called Ardelve where we stayed early last June.

PS I'm a regular visitor to Woolston Eyes. I must admit I rarely enter sightings into the log books but I do put them on the Nobo boards in the hides.

no idea · Jan 13, 2010

Old friend!

John Barber said:
Just as a matter of interest regarding the cuckoo. If anyone want's to see or hear them next year - go to the Kyle of Lochalsh in Scotland. There were lots of them around a place called Ardelve where we stayed early last June.

PS I'm a regular visitor to Woolston Eyes. I must admit I rarely enter sightings into the log books but I do put them on the Nobo boards in the hides.

Hi there John,hope yourself, Halftwo and Sid are all in fine fettle!I`m looking forward to visiting Woolston in the warmer months hopefully to see BNGrebes.We had a local one on a local reservoir end of Dec which was quite obliging for the camera!
See you all later No Idea!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rob Smallwood · Jan 13, 2010

Hi Alan - long time no see - hope you are both well,

alanp · Jan 13, 2010

Records

Hi John, I never knew there was a seperate forum for Local patch, I will start a thread there next time I am down at the Eyes

QUOTE=John Barber;1699970]
PS I'm a regular visitor to Woolston Eyes. I must admit I rarely enter sightings into the log books but I do put them on the Nobo boards in the hides.[/QUOTE]

Hi John , Its better if records are put in the log book rather than the boards in the hide, they are realy to let the next visitor know of any specila birds. Its a big job entering all the records from the log book into exce and I do not realy have the time to copy records from the boards into the log book what with all the other jobs I do on the reserve.

Hi Rob, Im full of cold at the minute Judes fine let me know if you want to visit, not sure if you have a key.

Cheshire Birder · Jan 14, 2010

alanp said:
There are still large No of Tufted Duck at the Weir and a Scaup has been reported recently, I imagine that would be at the Weir

I went to look for the scaup the day after it was reported by the weir but there was no sign of it. Not many ducks at all there considering everywhere esle on the reserve was frozen solid.

no idea said:
I`m looking forward to visiting Woolston in the warmer months hopefully to see BNGrebes

Should be arriving soon. Well in a few weeks anyway. Always a good sign of spring to see them!!

CB

alanp · Jan 18, 2010

Record Tufted Duck Numbers

Just heard that we had a record count of 1,178 Tufted Duck :t: on the reserve, most of them were on the river to the North of No 2 bed on the 14January.

alanp · Jan 23, 2010

Scaup on No 3bed

Had a walk to Woolston this morning and it was nice to see that the Latchford Locks and the Canal were no longer frozen over. There were the usual group of Common Gull perched on the pylons at the Locks, a bird that is not seen often on No 3 bed. I picked up a nice Grey Wagtail by the second barrier along the canal side another bird that is seldom reported, they are usualy seen at the Locks in the spring time.

The river was still frozen over by the bridge on to No 3bed and the pool by the first platform however the rest of the pools were free of ice and ther were a lot of duck on the water. I counted 151 Pochard and got over 250 Tufted but the star bird was a realy nice male SCAUP :t: no mistaking this bird unlike the female that to the less experienced eyes can me confused with a female Tufted. The new feeders at the Morgan hide were active with 2 regular Willow Tits at least 4 Bullfinch and at least 10 Reed Bunting. At 1 pm 200+ gulls dropped in including 14 herring Gull which may well be the highest count for them for the year. However they only stayed about 5 minutes on the water and all flew away.

From the new Biffa Scaffold hide, the one just before the new loo ( No smells, clever thing ) we have had some of the Phragmites cut back to create a wide chanel that runs away from the hide and also braches to the left. I could hear at least one pig like screach and within a few minutes a nice Water Rail:t: slowly walked across the wide gap, fairly close to the hide. This could be a good spot to look for BNGrebes in the Spring.

If any one has tried to get tickets for the Chris Packham talk at the Parr Hall on Thursday the 25 Feb and not been able to do so I must apologise as we have been let down by the Parr Hall who had not started to sell the tickets, but we are told they are doing so now. I hope people are not put off by the £10 price of the ticket but I am sure it will be a very good talk and all the members will benefit from the income generated as it will all go towards work on the reserve.I think any one who has not visited the reserve for some time are in for a pleasant surprise when they see the new hide.

If any one wants any tickets then they can also be got from any of the wardens including myself or from the Treasurer Douglas Buchanan at 10 Rosemoor Gardens, Appleton, Warrington WA4 5RG. or [email protected]

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