Birding Group Visit to Marbury Country Park 19th April 2011
The weather was fantastically warm and sunny so was a real pleasure. We parked at the main entrance rather than the one at the Anderton Boat Lift which we use for a visit to Neumann’s Flash. This is a pay and display. We then walked to the hide at the edge of Budworth Mere and walked along the mere edge through the woods where we saw several Blackcaps and some of the group saw a Great Spotted Woodpecker. There were Chiffchaffs aplenty and both Song and Mistle Thrushes. On the water were at least ten Great crested Grebes, a few Tufted Ducks and in the distance Canada Geese.
Overhead we saw a Buzzard and a Kestrel as well as some Martins and flying over the water was a Cormorant. We walked along edge of the mere as far as the second bird hide and then turned into the Big Wood. We saw some Long-tailed Tits, more Blackcaps and Chaffinches and lots of Blackbirds. The bluebells were well out on the ground. As we walked along we saw another two Buzzards in the sky wheeling around on the thermals of a very warm day. We walked the wood path as par as Marbury Lane then turned round and walked back coming through the play area to the car park again.
This was the last scheduled day out for the group so a casual meeting cum lunch was held at the nearby “Spinner and Bergamot” pub where we sat in the beer garden and whilst people discussed what the next spate of days out might be we continued to look out for more birds. Here we saw House Martins and Swallows as well as Coal Tit, possible Marsh Tit and there were two more Buzzards – perhaps the same ones actually – wheeling overhead. The warm day seemed to have brought the Buzzards out to take advantage of the strong thermals because on the motorway back we could see five Buzzards in the sky all at the same time.
Bird List
| Species | Count |
|---|---|
| Blackbird | 10 |
| Blackcap | 2 |
| Black-headed Gull | 8 |
| Blue Tit | 10 |
| Buzzard | 5 |
| Canada Goose | 20 |
| Carrion Crow | 8 |
| Chaffinch | 1 |
| Chiffchaff | 2 |
| Coal Tit | 2 |
| Coot | 6 |
| Cormorant | 1 |
| Dunnock | 1 |
| Goldfinch | 2 |
| Great Crested Grebe | 10 |
| Great Tit | 4 |
| Grey Heron | 1 |
| House Martin | 6 |
| Jackdaw | 4 |
| Kestrel | 1 |
| Long-tailed Tit | 2 |
| Magpie | 4 |
| Mallard | 20 |
| Mistle Thrush | 1 |
| Mute Swan | 1 |
| Robin | 2 |
| Song Thrush | 1 |
| Swallow | 4 |
| Tufted Duck | 4 |
| Woodpigeon | 6 |
How To Get There
- Head south on Chequers Rd toward Beech Rd 308 ft
- Turn left at Beech Rd 0.2 mi
- Turn right at Barlow Moor Rd/A5145 1.2 mi
- Turn right at Princess Rd/A5103 Continue to follow A5103 1.7 mi
- Continue onto M56 (signs for Chester/Warrington/Wythenshawe/Birmingham/M6) 14.7 mi
- At junction 10, exit toward Northwich/Warrington/A49 0.2 mi
- At A559, take the 1st exit onto Northwich Rd/A559 heading to Northwich 3.0 mi
- Turn right at Gibb Hill 0.3 mi
- Continue onto The Ave 0.3 mi
- Continue onto Warrington Rd 0.2 mi
- Continue onto Marbury Rd 0.5 mi
- Turn left at Entrance