Trip reports

Coach trip to Leighton Moss

Saturday, 1 March 2008

Any casual observer in the Little Roodee car park between 8.00 and 8.30am on Saturday, March 1st, would be forgiven for thinking that an Arctic expedition was setting off. 32 hardy souls arrived all attired in several layers of clothing plus hats, scarves and gloves after one of the windiest nights of the year and with rain forecast by mid morning. We were, in fact, all prepared for a day at the Leighton Moss nature reserve, where we arrived, after an easy ride up the M6, at about 10.30.

Nigel and I were on our first visit to this reserve, so had no expectations of what we would see, or where. We'd been given a small map of the reserve showing the general layout and positions of the hides and were invited to join up with a more experienced colleague, who could point out various birds and the more unusual sightings, if we wished to. We did.

Before getting onto the path around the meres, we stopped at a feeding station to see which local residents were lunching and were pleased to see some familiar birds - male and female chaffinches, blue and great tits, nuthatch, dunnocks, and robins, with pheasants and woodpigeon picking up fallen bits. We also saw a tree creeper close by.

Our first port of call was Lillian's hide, looking out onto water surrounded by reed beds, in the edges of which were lots of snipe probing the reed roots. Greylag and Canada geese, both in and out of the water, and there were lots of 'ducks' - our more knowledgeable friends identified them as gadwall, teal, widgeon, tufted duck and mallards. Blackheaded gulls were also in evidence, plus a Mute swan or two.

Public hide, our next stop, was a tranquil view out over the water but there were few birds there, so we decided it was time for lunch and went to the tearoom for lovely hot soup and a jacket potato. Warmed and refreshed, we set off again, following the path in the opposite direction. Along the way there were signs explaining the management of the reed beds and willow trees and their importance to their habitat, which were of great interest. At the Tim Jackson hide, there were a lot of new birds to see and for our generous friends to point out to us - grey herons were watching and flying, little egrets, cormorants, moorhens, coots and more of those 'ducks' including pochard, goldeneye, pintail, shoveller and tufted tucks. Looking across the same water but further along, from Grisedale hide, a wide hill was the backdrop, where great blackbacked gulls, lapwings and redshanks were feeding among a flock of sheep with a few crows and rooks. The more intrepid members of the group went further, to the Allen and Eric Morecambe hides and there saw an avocet, as an extra. Someone, somewhere also saw a sparrowhawk, a buzzard and a kestrel and, I'm sure a few more different birds - I believe that 60+ varieties were spotted that day.

Our return to Chester was as easy as the ride up; we only had to sit and look at the countryside and recall all the lovely experiences of the day. Not a drop of rain fell until we were almost back - thank goodness the weather forecast was wrong - and nobody had got too cold, despite the clouds and breeze.

Thanks to Peter and Chris for organizing and conducting a very enjoyable day and for being our guides and mentors.

SB