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Warrington U3A
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Have you seen a kingfisher? Everybody who came on our visit to Pennington Flash in October has! For some a thrilling "first', for others a renewed acquaintance with one of Britain's most beautiful and exciting birds. Not just a quick flash of electric blue and rusty orange, which is sometimes all you see, but a leisurely look at the bird perching, fishing, and flying from perch to perch, for quite a few minutes. This was just one of the highlights of our programme since September, which has taken us to Rixton Claypits, Pennington Flash, Tatton Park and Moore. Even at Tatton, when the weather turned against us and forced us to cut the walk short, we saw enough to make the trip worthwhile. Most of the small birds were, like us, taking shelter, but we had close views of mallard, pochard, tufted duck, and gadwall, as well as seeing various other water birds, gulls, several members of the crow family and a few LBJs (little brown jobs to the uninitiated!). Our trip to Rixton, also in fairly dismal weather yielded 26 species in all, including more members of the tit family, a kestrel, pheasant, and our familiar friends the wren, robin, dunnock and blackbird. At Rixton we also saw the last swallow of summer, and possibly the last chiffchaff. 
Pennington Flash and Moore each gave us 38 species, though not exactly the same 38 at both. The feeding stations at each gave us a chance to watch the feeding antics of birds we otherwise only see from a distance, such as reed bunting, willow tit, jay, long tailed tit, nuthatch, and great spotted woodpecker, as well as other more familiar species like blue tit, coal tit and great tit, chaffinch, greenfinch and moorhen. On the water there was a good number of wildfowl, giving lots of opportunity for members to pick up identification points, compare species and watch the behaviour of the different birds. There were 7 different species of duck at Moore, as well as a dozen or so other types of birds to be seen from the various hides; so there's a lot to learn. Many of the birds we see are familiar from our gardens and local parks, and others have to be looked for. Scanning with the binoculars round the reed edge one may see a beautifully camouflaged snipe, or a late family of fluffy moorhens or ducklings, or a heron poised to catch his next meal. An apparently empty field may hide lapwing, larks, pipits, partridge, pheasants and so it goes on. The more you look the more you see, and the more you see the more you want to see. Come with us and find out! Our programme for the year will be available at all general meetings. Everybody is welcome, whether novice or experienced birdwatcher, just let us know you are interested. We try to work together to identify things, and make sure that as many as possible can see and learn to recognise whatever we find. Happy Birding! Report by Nina Group Organiser: Hugh The group programme for 2008 - 2009 will appear here when available. Members may like to note that there is a 'Bird Fair' at Martin Mere over 28-30 November 2008.
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| Content acknowledgement: Warrington U3A Magazine, Hugh and Nina | 05 November 2008 |
To get further information, about this or any of our groups, email here to get names and telephone numbers. Alternatively, you can attend a WU3A monthly general meeting and speak to group representatives. | |
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