Tuesday 19th August 2014 - Dunham Park

15 of us met at the Swan With Two Nicks for our last evening walk on the season. It was a pleasant, sunny evening, but became quite chilly as the sun disappeared.

The first area of interest was the wet area to the left of the path en route to the park entrance. A Green Sandpiper was seen as expected and hoped for, along with a Heron. Walking around the woodland, we heard a Green Woodpecker, saw many Jackdaw sand John fleetingly glimpsed a Kingfisher. The slightly unusual flora of one of the pools included Skullcap and large areas of Sweet Flag, along with expanses of Great Reedmace, and Water Mint. Lemon-scented Fern was found near another pool. Quite a few clusters of Chicken of the Woods were seen, particularly on Oak trees:

Chicken of the Woods (Laetiporus sulphureus)

Other birds on the pools included Mallard, Tufted Duck, Little Grebe, Coot and Moorhen. A family of Mute Swans seemed at home in the water near the stables. Numerous Fallow Deer and Rabbits and molehills, and a couple of Grey Squirrels were seen around the park, with some deer moving towards the buildings as darkness fell and people disappeared.

One of the main objectives of the evening required waiting at least until dusk, as many of the bats around the stables and other buildings came out to feed. Jacky had brought her bat detector, as had our guest - Tony Parker, the mammal recorder for Cheshire. Two detectors were useful in allowing different frequencies to be searched at the same time. Three species were confidently identified - the Common Pipistrelle (at 45Khz) and the Soprano Pipistrelle (at about 55Khz) - they sounded very similar, but were detected at the different frequencies. The Brown Long-eared Bat was seen and heard in one of the buildings. The frequency overlaps that of the Pipistrelles, but it sounds quite different. We hoped for Daubenton's (frequently seen feeding over the water) and Noctule Bats (which typically use a much lower frequency around 25Khz), but could not be certain of their presence.

Overall a very successful evening for our last walk of the season.

Friday 8th August 2014 - Bowdon

Roy Hilton found a Migrant Hawker dragonfly on vegetation near the pond in his garden. This species is expanding its range and has moved into Northern England over the past 15years. It flies during August & September.

Migrant Hawker (Aeshna mixta)

Migrant Hawker (Aeshna mixta)

There are four blue/green hawker dragonflies that might be seen in our area: the Common Hawker (Aeshna juncea), the Migrant Hawker (Aeshna mixta), the Southern Hawker (Aeshna cyanea) and the Hairy Dragonfly (Aeshna caerulea). Two features which show up well in these photos distinguish this as a Migrant Hawker: on the second segment of the abdomen (which seems to be part of the thorax), there is a distinct 'T'  (or golf tee) shaped yellow/white mark; and the leading edge of the wings (the 'costa') is brown. The most similar of these four species is the Common Hawker, which lacks the 'T' and has a bright yellow costa. The Southern Hawker has very broad coloured stripes on the thorax, and bands of colour (blue/green) on the last two segments, rather than the two dots of Migrant and Common Hawkers. The Hairy Dragonfly has a yellow costa, small oval-shaped dots at top of each abdominal segment and the sides of the thorax are extensively green.

Roy Hilton

Tuesday 5th August 2014 - Lindow Common

Lindow Common is one of only a few small areas of lowland heath in Cheshire, and consequently an extremely rare and important habitat. It was designated an SSSI in 1963 and is also a Local Nature Reserve.

Common heather is widespread, but there also some much rarer species (for lowland Cheshire) hidden within this small site. These include bogbean, cross-leaved heath, bog asphodel, bog rosemary, cranberry and the carnivorous round-leaved sundew:

Bog Asphodel (Narthecium ossifragum)

Round-Leaved Sundew (Drosera rotundifolia)

This unusual habitat also supports unusual wildlife - it is a breeding area for common lizards, and green tiger beetles can be seen in the sandier areas. There are many species of dragonflies and large numbers of frogs and toads breed in Black Lake, as do water voles. Presumably there is at least one badger as well given this footprint:

Badger (Meles meles) footprint

Flora noted on the walk: Hogweed, Holly, Marsh Thistle, Pineappleweed, Common Ragwort, Silver Birch, Round-leaved Sundew, Heather, Cross-leaved Heath, Broom, Meadow Vetchling, Greater Bird's-foot-trefoil, Gorse, Tufted Vetch, Pedunculate Oak, Herb-Robert, Yellow Iris, Bog Asphodel, Rosebay Willowherb, Great Willowherb, Greater Plantain, Cock's-foot, Common Reed, Meadowsweet, Silverweed, Tormentil, Bramble, Cleavers.

The oak trees showed abundant galls, including Oak Apple, Knopper and Common Spangle Gall.

There were a number of earthballs.

While Black Lake was difficult to see clearly in places because of the high vegetation, some of the common water birds were seen: Mallard, Coot, Moorhen, along with Wood Pigeon and House Martin.

For further information about Lindow Common, see: http://www.cheshireeast.gov.uk/leisure,_culture_and_tourism/ranger_service/countryside_sites/lindow_common_-_wilmslow.aspx.