Summary of October 2011
Summary of October 2011
We went to Martin Mere on the 2nd where I bought a new pair of binoculars and gave them their first run out. The birding group got going properly this month so we went to Marbury Country Park on 4th and Pennington Flash on the 11th and Leighton Moss on the 18th and Inner Marsh Farm on 31st. Inner Marsh Farm is now expanded with the addition of three new hides and the opening up of other ponds. The whole area is now called Burton Mere Wetland. See below for more details of this first visit to the new RSPB site. On the 24th no one else could attend the weekly birding group outing due to various commitments. We had planned to go to Wigan Flashes which had been postponed previously but since there was only myself and Anne and Mike available we decided to go instead to Martin Mere for our first real sight of the Whooper Swans and the Pink-footed Geese in large numbers.It was a fine day and we did a comprehensive tour of the site with around 31 species spotted and large numbers of some of them as the migrants start to collect for the winter.
The weather for the month wasn’t too bad in our area with a bit of rain but a few good sunny days – if a bit cold. Basically a typical October with the temperature varying a lot and some wet and windy days and other bright and sunny days – so very mixed.
We had a Sparrowhawk over the garden on 26th. As we were standing examining the stump of our tree that we had to have dug up we heard a lot of twittering and a small number of birds panicked out of the tree two gardens down. Sure enough, a Sparrowhawk swooped into sight but it didn’t manage to get anything and after briefly perching on next door’s roof it flew off looking for a meal elsewhere. In general the finches are increasing in number with three Greenfinch seen on 29th
Cat problems continue but having out tree cut down seems to have confused it a little. Of course we now have two cats since our neighbour got a one as well as our usual unwanted visitor.
