Corncrake at Carr Lane, Hale : 7th June 2015

Corncrake at Carr Lane, Hale : 7th June 2015

I had been watching reports on Rare Bird Alert of a Corncrake singing in a field off Carr Lane near Hale, Merseyside. I had heard of this site before because the pools on the lane often have reports of good birds. When the reports were still coming in a week later and with a lovely sunny evening due, we decided to make the forty minute drive over there to take a look. At least we hoped that we could hear the bird if not see it but we were to be rewarded in a spectacular way.

We did as the web site instructed and parked at a lay-by on Higher Road and walked down there to the top of Carr Lane which was only a few minutes away. We turned down the lane and just as we came to a bend in the road at the first farmhouse we could see a number of birders collected peering over the top of the hedgerows into a paddock. In fact it looked like some people had already taken to trimming the hedge down to get better views. It wasn’t really possible to get my scope over the top of the hedge but binocular views were good.

A report on the Manchester Birding Web Site put what followed well :

Arrived at 5.55pm – Corncrake showed at 6.02pm….after hearing it call quite a few times it emerged from the Buttercups in the paddock giving head and neck views.
2 Grey Partridge walked into the immediate area and the Corncrake suddenly stood up briefly and started calling again.
Then it disappeared but within minutes re-appeared in full view walking slowly behind the Partridge and a male Pheasant giving excellent extensive posture views.
It showed up to around 6.25pm, it is still calling on and off and is showing again now at 7.12pm

It was exactly the same for us; within minutes the bird was calling and after about fifteen minutes we got nice views of it from chest height up. Every now and then it would go down and then after a while it would lift us and start calling again near to where it had been before.

Just as we thought that we had had the best views, a Pheasant and two Grey Partridges came near it and it moved out into an open area of very short grass giving us full body views. At one point, as mentioned above, it bent its body flat and low and walked slowly towards one of the Grey Partidges; the poor bird is indeed desperate for a mate.

It disappeared again after that and then re-emerged walking a line around the field fence. There were probably only around ten or twelve people there so I suppose many peeople have seen the bird already. As for us, well, having gone to Iona specifically to see Corncrakes and only heard them this was a chance to say that we had the best possible ever views of a wonderfully handsome bird. In fact photographs do not seem to do justice to this most splendidly coloured bird.

As well as this bird there was the pleasure of seeing a pair of Grey Partridge; particularly since we had tried for these birds a couple of days previously at Moore but without success. It was a lovely evening with the sky full of Linnets and Goldfinches and the odd Skylark. Swallows and Swifts above the fields added to this balmy evening atmosphere. When the bird had appeared to have gone into the field of longer crops behind we decided to call it a day and return home but as we walked back up the path it appeared again so we stopped for one or two last looks. This time the bird was even nearer but in longer grass. We felt we could not get better views than we had already got so we headed home extremely happy.

One amusing aspect of the evening was a big black four by four pulling up on the road behind us and a group of youths shouting out from behind their smoked glass windowed car some abuse or another. It seemed like something from the past and added to the jollity of the occasion giving us a memory of days gone by. A report on the Manchester Birding web site for the previous day said that a car load of people had been trying to spoil the party by revving their car up behind the assembled group of birders, presumably with the intention of flushing the birds. Pathetic or what !

Bird Sightings : Carr Lane, Hale, Merseyside