Summary November 2013

Summary November 2013

Garden

November started off quietly in the garden and it seems like, although we do occasionally see Tits, Blackbirds and Goldfinches, the birds are not yet ready to return from their normal habitats to gardens for the autumn. Autumn is afoot, however, and the leaves are falling enough to leave some trees bare. By the 20th the weather had got much colder and wetter and by the end of the month we started to see several Blackbirds, largely living off berries from the Mountain Ash trees, a pair of Robins, lots of Blue Tits, House Sparrows occasionally and there must also be Dunnocks because you can hear them singing.

Birding Group

The first birding group day of the month took us to Burton Mere Wetlands and Parkgate and Hoylake At the latter we had a high tide that gave us spectacular views; much better than we have had on previous visits to Parkgate and memorable.

On the 12th we had nice weather for a very pleasant morning at Sandbach Flashes and on the 19th we had a full day at WWT Martin Mere where we had good views of Peregrine and Buzzards and the seasonal favourites, Whooper Swans and Pink-footed Geese. The last birding group morning of November was on the 26th to Frodsham Marsh where we were able to add our first Stonechat of the year !! but the main show was the large numbers of Fieldfares showing really well. Water birds were not in short supply either and although there were not large numbers of any species, there was planty of variety.