| Status: | Active, open to new members |
| Leader: | |
| When: | On Mondays 1st Monday |
Birdwatchers 1 meet on the 1st Monday of every month starting in the morning
The group meets on the 1st Monday of the month, sharing cars to travel to reserves and other places of 'birdy interest'. We normally have a pub lunch, and continue birding in the afternoon. No previous experience of birdwatching is necessary - we were all beginners once.
If you are interested in joining us, please contact Alan birdwatching1 for further information.
Birdwatching 1, by Alan Millard: Report for the Chester Times April 2026
The weather looked very promising as we set off for Pennington Flash Nature reserve at Leigh. We arrived at 10.20 and waited on the car park for everyone to arrive. There were six of our bird group, including Margaret our leader for the day. Once the site of coal mining, Pennington Flash Country Park is now home to a ariety of wildlife, including birds such as nightingale, egret, kingfisher, Eurasian oyster catcher, Canada goose, water rail, and common snipe. The area of the Flash by the car park is normally very popular with families who feed the ducks, swans and other birds and this has caused them to amass in great numbers here. Amongst the flocks there were Canada Geese, Mallard, Mute Swans, Black-headed Gulls, Coot, Tufted Duck, Cormorant and Moorhens. For me the bird of the day at this point was Mandarin Duck chasing off anything that got near. On this visit there was no sign of the Muscovy Duck which is a common visitor here. The first hide is Horrocks Hide & Spit which used to be a railway line for the coal mine, here we spotted Cormorant, Oystercatcher, Lapwings, Teal and Great Crested Grebe giving a mating display.
We carried on to the Ramsdale Hide where a few Mallards were chasing around looking for mates. Outside the hide we spotted a Dunnock and the ubiquitous Robin. The Tom Edondson Hide, named in honour of conservationist Tom Edmondson, who significantly contributed to wildlife preservation in the area, is just past the path to the Ramsdale Hide. Here we saw Teal, Gadwall, several Heron including one gathering large sticks for a nest.
From here we continued around the circular path where there were plenty of woodland birds, including Longtail Tit, Blue and Great Tit, and Siskin. We passed the Teal and Lapwing Hide as they were overgrown, hopefully awaiting the spring
cutback and headed for the Hide Coffee House and Café for lunch.
After an enjoyable lunch and much talk about our meanderings we went back to the Bunting and Penghies Hides. As usual there was plenty of activity on the feeders at the Bunting Hide with Reed Bunting, Siskin, Stock Dove, Nuthatch, Wren
and Dunnock.
To finish a great day we had a display by a male Kingfisher who returned several times to the reed bed right in front of the hide. Our total number of birds ran to 31 which was an excellent bit of spotting and an enjoyable day had by all.