Carr Mill Dam

Haven't visited Carr Mill for a while but a rare day off combined with some sunshine lured me there.  The cold weather always means the birds have to make the most of any bright, dry spells and I wasnt disappointed.

Scanning the trees, hedges and fields  around The Dig Pit and Otterswift Farm meant I was soon "ticking" tree sparrow, fieldfare (40), redwing(20), mistle thrush(6), skylark (35) and song thrush (4).  A large female sparrowhawk and kestrel were in attendance and waiting to pick their victim amongst the massed feeders.

Venturing down to the dam I was lucky to glimpse this fella through the shrubs.

 

 

Moving on toward the Goyt I bumped into a regular and we didnt have to wait long for the local blue, great, coal and willow tit to show.  It was at this point that I was informed of a little egret sighting from the previous day along with female goldeneye and a pair of goosander. 

These constitute rarities for St Helens especially the egret which are far as I'm aware is the first sighting since I had one there in winter a few years back.  These sightings though do match the weather conditions as birds relocate due to worse weather elsewhere.  Needless to say I had no sight of these today.

Moving up the Goyt valley I had a brief flyover of 2 siskin and could hear distant pink-footed geese.

Before I left I headed a bit further down the dam to check the gull roost and get a good count of the great crested grebes as they were mainly confined to one of the few unfrozen areas.  Alas despite good numbers of gulls there were no "white wingers" but the 4 most common inland species were present.

My Great Crested Grebe was again one of my highest ever with 56 present after a number of counts.  To put this in context Carr Mill Dam holds more grebes than bred in the UK back at the start of the 20th Century!  Oh what a little protection, education and restoration of gravel pits can achieve :)

Whilst doing this count I was rather distracted by this little fella

 

 

Paul B