Blue Tit. Blackbird eating pyracantha berries. Š Hugh Linn
By the end of September most summer migrants were moving south en route for their winter quarters. A glut of insects in Maes y Pant’s deciduous trees attracted a steady stream of migrating Willow Warblers, Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs. At Llay Pool families of Swallows hawked for flies over the water while others rested on barbed wire fences alongside Meadow Pipits. Nearby White Wagtails foraged in mud stirred up by cows. These were birds of passage but some local House Martins were still feeding young in the nest. Although, unlike urban Swifts, House Martins normally prefer more rural sites, one late breeding pair unusually had a nest in the centre of Chester high under eaves in Eastgate Street. Strong offshore winds mid-month gave good views of shearwaters and petrels off the North Wales coast and even drove the odd marine migrant well inland. There was a remarkable sighting of a Gannet flying west over the A483 between Pulford and Rossett on September 18th. Winter visitors from Scandinavia and northern Europe are now settling in. Fieldfares and
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Redwings can be seen rooting for worms in fields or guzzling hawthorn berries in the hedgerows. We can also expect them in gardens where fruit is available. This summer has produced a good harvest of bright red honeysuckle berries (favoured by Bullfinches) which, like eye-catching pyracantha, are much appreciated. The provision of seeds, nuts and fat is a magnet for garden birds. Our most numerous visitors to feeders are the members of the tit family. Great, Blue, Coal and Long-tailed are regular but there are two rarer species worth looking out for especially as they now appear to be in serious decline. These are Marsh and Willow Tits, tricky to separate but immediately identifiable by their solid black crowns and bibs. My last local sighting of a Willow Tit was in Poulton in the late 1990s but there have been reports of Marsh Tits within the last three years by Darland pool. Any information about either will be very welcome.