Moore Nature Reserve : 5th June 2015

Moore Nature Reserve : 5th June 2015

The weather forecast was good for a limited number of areas for the day and Moore Nature Reserve was one of them. My target birds were Yellowhammer and Grey Partridge. Unfortunately we saw neither but we had a nice long walk on a hot and humid morning where we still managed to get forty-one species of birds.

We started off from the car park and walked uphill to the hide overlooking Lapwing Pool. In the reedbeds were a fair number of singing Reed Warblers and one or two Reed Buntings also darted past with just enough time to make out their dark heads. On the water there were mainly Tufted Ducks, Mallards and Coots though there was one Galdwall.

We walked uphill from there to the raptor watch point where we did, indeed, see a Buzzard being mobbed by Crows. From the elevated platform, though, we got excellent views of woodland birds flitting from bush to bush and this gave us great views of Whitethroat, Willow Warbler and Chiffchaff; this was a bit of a feature of the day and we saw a few of each species as we walked around.

We went down the steps to the old canal. A quick look in the hide there revealed nothing; there is no water there anymore and there really wasn’t much to see. As we walked along the old canal bed we could hear Song Thrushes aplenty. We came up at the farm road and we walked along there listening closely for the song of the Yellowhammer but in vain. We must have been in the vicinity that usually see them for about ninety minutes but not a call was heard. Last year we had good views on the 17th of June so I don’t know why we were not so lucky this time. We had also seen Grey Partridge in August 2012 here but, again, no luck this time. Oh well !

We walked down to the hide that overlooks the River Mersey where we saw a hovering Kestrel but no Skylarks which I had expected to see. As I went to go through the door of the hide (which was open) a Swallow flew right over my head just inches above; closer examination inside the hide showed that the bird was building a nest and had already lined it with feathers but there were no young yet.

Out of the Mersey there were large numbers of Lesser black-backed Gulls and a few Lapwing but that was about it. We walked back up to the farm stopping to look at a bird roosting in a tree in the distance wondering if was a MArsh Harrier or a Buzzard but, in truth, we just could not see enough to tell – it was big though.

Back at themain road we saw more Whitethroat and Goldfinch and a Dunnock. We still could not hear Yellowhammers and we eventually ended up at the feeder station in the woods of the reserve where we got excellent views of a male Great Spotted Woodpecker who was collecting whole nuts from a feeder and taking them to the trunk of the tree the feeder hung from; there he put each peanut in a little knot in the tree and used that as a sort of anvil for demolishing the nuts without losing any of the bits – very cleaver.

On the feeders were Jays, Reed Buntings and Tits and Chaffinches but no Coal Tit or Willow Tit.

We walked over to where we have seen the Lesser-spotted Woodpecker but it was so overgrown that we did not spend too long there. We headed across the path again and took the other track that runs down to the bridge where we have seen the Tawny Owl; no luck here either.

We came out at the lawn near Birchwood Pool where there were a few Mistle thrushes. On the water it was mainly Herring Gulls and their young but we did add a single Little Grebe. We came back up through Dog Field and as we stood on the edge we could count ten Mistle thrushes all at the same time. There were Mapgpies galore as well.

So, it was not an exceptional day but it was warm, largely sunny and quite quiet apart from the constant bird song that made it a delight despite not getting our target birds. From there it was off for lunch !

Bird Sightings : Moore Nature Reserve