A Ruddy Good Day

For a change of scenery it was over the border in In-ger-land for a day at the excellent Moore Nature Reserve in the company of a new acquaintance Tony, and Mark Murphy in his smoother than an Italian gigolo BMW.

The first of what was to be three separate failed attempts to find a Lesser ‘pecker was the first task of the day, but it was not too soon before things picked-up.

If there was a highlight of the day – and there were many contenders – then it had to be the excellent numbers of Yellowhammers at Upper Moss Side; a conservative estimate would be twenty separate birds – many affording superb close views.

After locating a couple of Tree Sparrows, along came the surprise of the day: a pair of Little Owls occupying one of the Barn Owl boxes. Initially one bird was picked-up sitting in the entrance, but when viewed later on from behind, two birds were seen alighting from an adjacent hedge and dropping down into the vegetation.

Norton Marsh was quiet save a local sailing club, although we did locate a very, very, distant Peregrine loitering atop of one of Fiddler’s Ferry’s cooling towers.

Next it was back to Moore proper via the ship canal where we were lucky to bear witness to a lovely courtship dance by a pair of Great Crested Grebes. Clearly the love bug had not struck another pair further down the stream – both were dozing in the warm sunshine; warm enough in fact to coax a Small Tortoiseshell out of hibernation.

Birchwood Pool was brimming with its usual compliment of gulls, although there was little variety with the ranks packed with largely LBB Gulls and immature Herring Gulls. After ten minutes or so, the scavengers inexplicably dreaded, just as I was about to confirm the identity of a hitherto unrecorded 2cy Slaty-backed Gull/Pallas’ Gull hybrid – surely a first for the UK.

The disappearance of the gulls nevertheless had the advantage of making the other birds easier to locate and it wasn’t too long before Tony found a lovely drake Ruddy Duck.

I must confess to being fairly supportive of their irradiation from British waters, but I admit their relative scarcity has made them much more appealing. Strange that two of the most interesting birds encountered during out trip were introduced species...

Moore NR/Upper Moss Side 19.3.11

20+ Yellowhammer
2+ Tree Sparrow
2 Little Owl
1 Peregrine
7 GC Grebe
1 Ruddy Duck (drake)
2 Goldeneye
1+ Willow Tit
5+ Chiffchaff
1 Green Woodpecker (heard calling)

Until later.