29th January

A quick morning visit produced three Goldcrest two Treecreeper a small flock of Long-tailed Tits and several Great and Blue tits . The three darke and one female Pochard are still present and sheltering form the strong winds in the western bay, the light was not great but still managed to grab a couple of half decent images.

Pochard (female).

Pochard (drake).

28th January

Three drake and one female Pochard this lunch time but no sign of the two female Goldeneye from the other day , weather still cold and blustery. Also two Mistle Thrush over .

Looking Back

I have been looking on the internet at some of the old records from Astbury Mere way back some 20 years it was then called Astbury sand quarry. On 4th of December 1996 a immature female Long-tailed Duck was recorded , and on 30th January 1997 a winter plumaged Red-necked Grebe graced the quarry. But I have been birding all over the UK now for over some 42 years and I am looking forward to the challenge of a new patch , and meeting some of the local birdwatchers who have been doing this mere on a regular basis. Lots have changed in the area over the last ten years with more houses being built close by which brings a new challenge to birdwatching with the added pedestrian traffic. Joggers ,Dog walkers , Sailing and Fishermen have all increased in numbers but still the birds arrive . A Sandwich Tern 2011 , Scaup 2013 , Slavonian Grebe 2013 , Whooper Swan 2013 , Med Gull 2014 , Common Scoter 2014 and just recent a Black-necked Grebe last year 2015. I moved here to Cheshire just over five years ago and have visited and photographed birds at Astbury many times but now myself and my partner Tracey live just a stones throw away , so there is now no excuse for not doing it almost daily.

26th January

Wet windy not really ideal conditions , 133 Coots , 2 female Goldeneye , 75 Tufted Duck and 3 Pochard . (JS).

25th Jan

A single Cormorant and Buzzard over at dinner time. Old records from 7th January. Two female Goldeneye , single overwintering Chiffchaff , Lesser Redpoll , 114 Coots , 3 Pochard and 10 Great Crested Grebe (JS).

24th January

Having set up and run a few blogs before over the last 10 years and which are still going strong today myself and Tracey have decided to run one based on the Wildlife at Atsbury Mere. It is now our local patch having moved from Macclesfield to within a stones throw from the Mere. We hope you will enjoy our sightings and reports and hope you will make it a regular thing in checking out this site. Twenty one species were noted which included 10x overwintering Pochard 9x drakes and 1x female along with around 80+ Tufted Duck three pairs of Great Crested Grebe , a single Treecreeper and a overflying Buzzard being the best of todays sightings .