The last two visits couldn’t have been more more contrasting, with the hardest frost of the year on Thursday and an un-seasonally warm and sunny morning today. We focussed on No.4 bed on Thursday, where wildfowl numbers were somewhat reduced as a large part of the east cell was frozen over. Sightings included: 1 Yellowhammer, 35 Redpolls, 55 Fieldfares,110 Pink-footed Geese and 1 Snipe. Although we spent the first couple of hours today counting the birds on Beds 3 and 4, we mainly concentrated on the east end of the Reserve. No.3 bed held 120 Chaffinches feeding in the seed crop, while the 2 Stonechats which have been around for a while were still on No.4 bed. The highlights of the day were the flock of 30 Mandarins which were present at Rixton Bridge - a record count for us of a species which has become a regular breeder in recent years - plus the presence of Willow Tits around the Viaduct Pools. The latter area is now showing the benefits of all the work we’ve had done under our Willow Tit Recovery project and is now a lovely mosaic of coppiced Willows, dead wood, small pools, pocket-sized reed beds and bramble understory - perfect Willow Tit breeding habitat. Record shot of a drake Mandarin Cheers David Bowman (with Dan Owen, Brian Baird and Sue Haddock)

Photo of a rainbow over the No.4 bed wetland Cheers David

Photo of a Lapwing

Cheers David

Since the recent hard, cold spell wildfowl numbers have been slowly increasing again, with 135 Shoveler on the east cell of No.4 bed this morning and plenty of Teal calling from cover of the reeds. With no sightings for a week we thought that the Penduline Tit had headed off for warmer climes, so it was pleasing when Dan relocated it on Monday morning. Hopefully it will stay for at least part of the winter, as the last one did in 2022. The flurry of new additions to the Reserve list now seems to have stopped, at least for the moment, so we focussed our attentions on the more regular residents and visitors. At the moment Stonechats, Chiffchaffs and Marsh Harriers are daily sightings and it’s always worth checking the tit flocks in case there is something interesting with them. One flock, which was moving through the flooded woodland, contained a Willow Tit and seven Goldcrests along with the usual commoner tits, while small numbers of Redwings and three Siskins were also feeding there. Photo of a Marsh Harrier Cheers David Bowman (with Dan Owen)

The week started well, with Dan Owen bringing the year list to an exceptional 160, with an over-flying Woodlark on Monday, only the second ever for the Reserve. The first-winter Penduline Tit was then still present, along with Water Pipit, Yellow-browed Warbler and yet another over-flying Hawfinch. The Penduline Tit has since provided daily views, including this morning, when I found it close to the No.4 bed viewing platform, filtering through the reeds at close range, once the dense ground mist had lifted. Interestingly, it seems to be undergoing a fairly rapid post-juvenile moult, with a more definite suggestion of a mask than when first found on Saturday. Several of our visiting permit holders were then able to get decent views. Even more pleasingly, our wardens, Lizzie and Jasmine, plus our team of hard working volunteers were treated to close views as it landed on the nesting island they were busy clearing where it spent time hunting at ground level, presumably looking for spiders amongst the mass of cobwebs which cover the island. Record shot of the Penduline Tit Cheers David Bowman (with Dan Owen, John Rayner and John Ireland)

The exceptional period for species variety continued this week. Sightings of note during the week included the long-staying Scaup and Garganey, which are daily on No.4 bed at the moment, plus up to 4 Goldeneyes and 3 Stonechats. Yet another Yellow-browed Warbler then turned up on No.3 bed on Wednesday, bringing our total for these attractive Siberian-breeding warblers to somewhere in the mid-teens for the autumn. I think we were all thinking that we’d struggle to add any further species to the list before year end, but Saturday held a further surprise, when sharp-eared Dan heard the unmistakeable call of a Penduline Tit on the east cell of No.4 bed. We were able to get excellent views of a 1st-winter individual, only the third ever record for Cheshire and the Wirral, binging our year-list to an exceptional 159. The last county record of Penduline Tit was also at Woolston in 2022, a bird which stayed around into early 2023. Hope fully this one will do the same. We also made a couple of jaunts to Little Woolden Moss, to try and catch up with the 10 Greenland White-fronted Geese which have settled there after being first found at Woolston on 2nd November. We also received information on the radio collar which one of the geese was wearing. Although the collar had stopped functioning four years ago, the previous data showed that it had been ringed as an adult female at a staging site in West Iceland in September 2016, was then seen at Loch Lomond before reaching its wintering grounds in Wexford. It then repeated that Greenland-Iceland-Ireland journey every year until 2020, when the collar failed. # Record shot of the Penduline Tit Cheers David Bowman (with Dan Owen, Helen Wynn and Brian Baird)

Photo of Kingfisher Cheers David

t’s been a remarkable week or so as far as species’ variety is concerned. Highlights up until Saturday included: 10 Greenland White-fronted Geese, 1 Goshawk, 1 Merlin,1 Hen Harrier, 5 Egyptian Geese, 1 Mandarin, 5 Hawfinches, 2 Yellow-browed Warblers, 1 Garganey, 1 Golden Plover, 3 Stonechats, 4 Goldeneyes and 1 Great Egret. So, by Saturday our Reserve’s bird list for the year had risen to an exceptional 155 and we were wondering whether we’d be able to add to it before year end. We needn’t have fretted, though, as Monday then produced reports of a Long-eared Owl on No.1 bed and a Red-breasted Merganser in front of the Morgan Hide on No.3 bed, both new for the year. Then, today, a couple of hours of observation on No.4 bed saw another addition, with a fly-over Water Pipit bringing the total to 158, the best for many years. We also recorded a first-winter drake Scaup, the long-staying Garganey, 3 Stonechats and a couple of hundred Redwings and Fieldfares. In addition, David Spencer reported a Yellow-browed Warbler from Butchersfield Tip. We finished the day by driving round to Sow Brook, which is opposite Butchersfield Tip to try to see the first-winter Hen Harrier which has been around for a few days. This arable area has seen 130 acres of Fodder Radish planted, which has attracted more than 500 feeding Linnets. The Hen Harrier seems well-settled and we watched it catch a small bird, possibly a Linnet before dropping into the crop to consume its prey. Photo of a Stonechat Cheers David Bowman (with Dan Owen)

Red Breasted Merganser Taken from Morgan hide Number 3 bed

The plan was to conduct a visible migration session on No.1 bed, which started in solid enough fashion, with totals of: 840 Fieldfares, 865 Redwings, 96 Chaffinches and 1,390 Woodpigeons. While concentrating on observing and counting we were discussing the Reserve bird list for the year, which stood at 152 species, and wondering whether we’d be able to push it up to 155 by year-end. A large flock of Lapwing were then accompanied by a single Golden Plover, always a scarce bird at Woolston, pushing the total to 153. The outstanding highlight, though, was the group of 10 White-fronted Geese which Dan picked up coming straight over-head at speed. They looked like the Greenland sub-species, which winter in Wexford, Ireland, and Islay and are very rare in Cheshire. They constitute only the third record for the Reserve and the first for more than thirty years. As one was wearing a radio tag we may be able to get information on both its origin and movements. So, a total of 154. Getting home, we then heard that a male Hen Harrier had been reported, by David pencer, hunting the fields to the south of Butchersfield Tip, thus bringing up the hoped-for 155. Wonder what surprises the remainder of the year will bring? Record shot of the White-fronted Geese Cheers David Bowman (with Dan Owen and Helen Wynn)