Cheshire Lesser

Out with Mark, Paz and Mike Williams today and we thought we'd head over to Cheshire where there has been one or two goodies on offer even though there has been a lack of reports about them in recent days, first port of call was Moore NR near Warrington where Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers had been giving themselves up just lately, a difficult bird to get to grips with these days so we were pleased to get this chance, after a 30-40 min stakeout Mark picked up a couple of birds and although they were very active at first chasing each other around both male and female eventually gave excellent views, there was also a pair of Great Spots, several Willow Tits and other usual Woodland species around. It was Burton Marsh next for our other target bird, Buff Bellied Pipit, bit of a long shot really as the bird hadn’t been reported for a couple of days and so it proved to be, even though there were plenty of Meadow Pipits and Linnets feeding on the tidal rack there was no sign of the Buff Bellied nor the recent Siberian Chiffchaffs, we spent the afternoon between there and nearby Parkgate Marsh highlights being several Short Eared Owls plus male and female Hen Harriers hunting the marsh, a skein of Pinkfeet over, Little Egret, a pair of Stonechats feeding on the tidal rack with the bonus of a Raven over Parkgate Marsh, a most enjoyable day even though we missed a few.

the male Lesser Pecker, it would have been nice if he had
been a little closer but I'm not complaining

part of the Pinkfeet skein

finding some big juicy caterpillars to say it was February

a Buzzard in the late afternoon sun