Birding Group Visit to Brockholes Nature Reserve 25th June 2013

Birding Group Visit to Brockholes Nature Reserve 25th June 2013

Anne and I went to Brockholes on the 17th of May but just a month later the place was transformed with vegetation now abundant. and the meadows in full bloom and full of insect life. The islands in No 1 Pit were full of quite high vegetation and gravel was hardly to be seen ! Quite a change. By the way we ended up wondering why we always go on the M6 when really we should go all the way on the M61 !

We were a little early so before meeting up at the cafe, we walked around the back of the clump of bushes at the back of the bird feeder near the entrance and had a look at the reeds there. As we approached you could hear the Sedge Warblers singing loudly and our patience was rewarded when a single bird popped out of the reeds and, perched at the very top of a reed, started to sing loudly. The three of us got really good views. A small number of Reed Buntings also appeared and all this before we had started !

We got our cups of tea (some had excellent bacon or sausage sandwiched mmm!) and whilst we were awaiting the arrival of the others we scanned the islands on Meadow Lake. As last time, we saw a roosting Black Swan, Grey Heron, Cormorant, Great Crested Grebe and a pair of Oystercatchers as well as the usual Coot, Mallard and Black-headed Gull. Above the water patrolled Swift, House and Sand Martins as well as Swallows. A Kestrel also hovered above.

We collected ourselves and walked up and across from the visitor centre in the direction of the river and as we passed on of the copses we saw a Jay on a bird table there. As we reached it we scanned the tree roots that overhung the river looking for possible Kingfishers which we had seen here before. As we were discussing how much a piece of blue plastic looked like a Kingfisher, one of our party drifted right of it and just a couple of feet further along sat – a Kingfisher. This was a male bird with an all-black bill. We walked along the river towards the weir but, apart from Mallards and plentiful Jackdaws, we didn’t see a great deal. The Sand Martin nests which were plentiful seem to have been finished with and there were no birds too-ing and fro-ing like there had been a month ago – they were all on the wing now. Hopefully they were feeding on the plentiful mosquitos. As we reached the weir one of our group thought they had seen a Merganser but no one else got a good enough view before it turned the bend in the river and was gone. We did however catch up with another (?) Kingfisher perched on a fallen tree stump just at the side of the river on the far side of the weir.

We came back up to the path and walked into Boilton Wood and for once I did not hear a single Song Thrush ! There were some birds – I thought I heard a Nuthatch – but they were hard to glimpse. I got the briefest of views of a Great Spotted Woodpecker but it was soon gone – too much chattering going on in the group ! Also a small group of Goldfinches and we also heard a number of Pheasants; earlier we had seen two fly over the marsh by the woods. We also heard a Chiffchaff.

As we emerged from the woods we scanned the reedbeds and it wasn’t long before we saw a few birds dashing about in the shrubbery on the other side of the path from the water. This turned out to be a small flock of newly-fledged Whitethroats with a smattering of Long-tailed Tits thrown in just to confuse us. As we walked down the side of Ribbleton Pool and No 1 Pit we also heard lots more Sedge Warblers on the water side and Robins and Chaffinches on the other.

On No Pit water there were many Canada Geese,a few Tufted Ducks and a couple of Great Crested Grebes. On the island there were plenty of Lapwing chicks and we watched as a pair of adults fended off a Grey Heron that obviously had plans for one of the chicks. We sat in the hide for a long time and the more we looked the more we found emerging from the luxuriant growth that covered the island. After much confusion and people looking at different birds we concluded that there were probably a couple of Little Ringed Plovers scampering about amid the Lapwing chicks. There was also a small number of Redshank and a Pied Wagtail.

We went down to the end of the water and turned left at the bottom and dropped in at the next hide where we were able to confirm that we had seen both Little RInged Plover and Ringed Plover on the island. As we sat there a small flock of Cormorants flew over us.

We walked back down to the marsh and at the feeders on the right we stopped to look at Great and Blue Tits and Tree Sparrows. We spent a bit of time trying in vain to see a Short-eared Owl like we had seen last time but we had to settle for close views of a Kestrel.

We walked back round to the visitor centre for another cup of tea, checked what could be seen from the verandah, and left. The group consensus seemed to be that we had actually seen quite a bit (thirty eightspecies at least|) and had much discussion about some identification so it had been a very entertaining visit.

Bird Sightings : Brockholes