A small group met on Frodshams, Marsh Lane Motorway Bridge before following the lane westwards towards No 6 tank. It was interesting to see how the shrubs alongside the track had recovered after being stripped of foliage by the larvae of ermine moths earlier in the year. Most had re-clothed themselves with leaves but only one small spindle bush had produced any fruit, presumably having escaped the ravages the rest of the spindle trees had suffered from the caterpillar invasion. No surprises were to be found on the pool of No 6 tank with shelduck, teal, tufted duck and lapwing being the only birds seen in numbers, however good views were had of buzzard,kestrel, sparrowhawk and a peregrine which performed a vanishing act from where it had been sitting on the ground. Good numbers of goldfinch were moving around the area along with the now ever increasing starling flocks. Retracing our steps we headed back towards the Weaver bends, several meadow pipits posed nicely on fence posts and 2 common snipe whizzed away from the fields alongside the path as we approached the River Weaver. Again we failed to find any special migrant waders on the bends with redshank, dunlin, heron, cormorant and a ruddy duck being the main editions to the list.
Dave Hardy