The Dee and Thereabouts

Tag: photography

Above the Dee Valley

(Sunday 10^th May, 2026)

39 metres (127 feet in old money) above the Dee Valley to be more accurate. Yes, we went over to Pontcysyllte Aqueduct in Wrexham County Borough this morning. Although the sun popped out occasionally to remind us of its existence, the temperature struggled to get any higher than 12°C which seemed colder at height. Still, it was a reasonably bright day and we had some magnificent views from our vantage point in the sky!

Looking down at Cystylltau Bridge, which was constructed during the 17th century.

Looking west towards Berwyn Railway Viaduct

    The aqueduct carries the Llangollen Canal across the valley and, as you’d expect, this particular stretch of water is popular with narrowboats although, today, we saw two teams of canoeists crossing over as well. There is a towpath on one side of the aqueduct, providing great views over the River Dee as it courses through the valley below, and this was busy with people crossing from both sides.

    This dog is clearly used to being chauffered across the aqueduct.

It certainly makes a difference looking down on the green tree canopy below, rather than leaning back and looking up. As you can see from the photographs, the foliage is absolutely flourishing everywhere.

    The cast-iron trough that carries the water has to be cleaned and maintained of course. This happens every five years: each end is closed and a plug opened to drain the water into the River Dee below. It’s basically the same as emptying your bath at home, although this is a slightly bigger bath!

The words on this sculpture by Anthony Lysycia are from Sir Walter Scott who had described the aqueduct as ‘the stream in the sky’. Scott had also wondered how fishes could swim above flying birds, hence the central depiction.

    Thomas Telford and William Jessop get the credit for building the aqueduct, although they did get a little bit of assistance from the more than 500 men that were also involved in the work over a period of ten long years. There’s a little museum at one end of the aqueduct where you can learn all about its history. Quite fascinating.

    While there are railings on the towpath side, there aren’t over the far side: I’ve been over in a narrowboat only the once and remember looking out of the window and not seeing anything other than sky on that one side! It really was a thrilling experience (a bit hairy, to be honest). The aqueduct is well worth a visit, whatever form of transport you opt for.

Although holes were drilled to take railings, they were never actually added to the far side of the canal’s cast-iron trough.

While this looks like you’d get a close view of the valley below, it might not be to everyone’s taste!

14.05.2026
The Lush Woods

(Sunday 3^rd May, 2026)

Over to Loggerheads Country Park in Denbighshire this morning. despite the low temperature (9°C), it was dry and the air was full of birdsong. In fact, even as we left the car park we heard a Chiffchaff singing from a nearby tree: we caught a brief glimpse of the bird before it climbed out of view.

    As we approached the stone bridge that leads onto the Leete path, a stoat sprinted across our route. It was gone in the blink of an eye and, for a brief moment, I was the only one who seemed to have seen it. However, another walker confirmed he’d seen it too which was reassuring!

Wild garlic in full flower

    We were last here at the end of March when most of the trees were still leafless and there were very few flowers growing, but what a difference we saw today. Welsh poppies, primroses and dog violets offered splashes of colour on each side of the path. The white flowers of the wild garlic were carpeting the undergrowth from the edges of both banks of the river now, and the mild aroma was just lovely.

Welsh poppies and dog violets

    The ash, hazel, and sycamore trees that line the path are all in leaf now, as are other trees such as beeches and birches that lie deeper in the woods. Together with the ferns and mosses (and evergreens!), everywhere you look there are vibrant shades of green. It was such a visual contrast to our last visit.

White-throated Dipper

    We were very pleased to see that the White-throated dipper was back at Loggerheads – we hadn’t seen any Dippers here since early February, although they might simply have been exploring another part of the river. This particular Dipper watched the waters from a rock, bobbing up and down in characteristic fashion. Every so often it walked into the river, submerging itself to collect aquatic invertebrates or whatever else it might find edible. It then took its food across to what we’re certain is its nest: the Dipper kept going to the same place and coming back with its beak empty. We suspect that the female might have already laid her eggs inside the nest, so we’ll keep watch and may have more to report at a future date.

Top: Dipper, mid-bob and, bottom: Going for a dip. (If you look closely at each picture, you can see it has caught some food in its beak).

    A constant patroller of this stretch of the River Alyn is the Grey wagtail. We usually see just the one bird, but today we saw two of them keeping each other company. We’ve mentioned before on this blog that Dippers and Grey wagtails share very similar habitats and, while we quite often see both species at the same time, I don’t think we’ve ever seen them so close to each other before. At one point, one of the Grey wagtails was feeding only a metre or so away from the Dipper, which was also feeding. Each bird nonchalantly continued to concentrate on its own little section of water as if this was all perfectly normal.

Grey wagtail

    The freshwater invertebrates and flies that Dippers and Grey wagtails both feed on does depend on there being good water quality. Considering all the negative reports on the state of UK rivers, the fact that both of these bird species are present on this stretch of the Alyn – and are breeding here – is a good sign of the river’s condition. Let’s hope it stays that way.

    All along the Leete path we seemed to have been followed by the same Song thrush today, although I suppose there may actually be more than one thrush at Loggerheads – who knows? Anyway, just as we regained the path and began to wend our way towards the café, ‘the’ (or maybe ‘a’) Song thrush landed on a branch overhanging our path and gave us a terrific solo rendition of its repertoire. Brilliant!

Song thrush

The important stuff

To The Mill House café (Tŷ’r Felin) for some of life’s little essentials: the usual cappuccinos with a Lemon curd blondie for Col and a Biscoff brownie for Stu. Very enjoyable!

07.05.2026
RSPB Conwy

(Sunday 19^th April, 2026)

We were at RSPB Conwy in the borough county of Conwy this morning. Although only 11°C, it felt much warmer: the day was sunny with barely any wind. The nature reserve is family-friendly with a play area and sandpit near the entrance, and Conwy Castle and the surrounding hills and mountains provide an impressive background.

Looking across the river towards Conwy Castle

    There were several Canada geese nesting by the main lagoon while Oystercatchers and Lapwings roved the shallows. Shelducks and Coots bobbed along the water and Moorhens moved furtively around the undergrowth.

    Top: Canada goose; bottom left: Lapwing; bottom right: Oystercatchers.

There was also a pair of Gadwalls, a species of duck that we hadn’t encountered before. In fact, we almost missed them as they were amongst a group of Mallards and we initially assumed them both to be female Mallards, before noticing the white tail feathers and dark grey bill of the male Gadwall. While the females of both duck species are very similar at first sight, the differences do become more apparent once you take a closer look.

    As we walked between hides, we heard the distinctive sound of a Chiffchaff calling from a nearby tree. It’s difficult to separate the Chiffchaff from the Willow warbler as they are both very similar in size and appearance. Willow warblers have pale brown legs whereas Chiffchaffs have dark brown or even black legs but you don’t always get a clear view of them. You can, though, differentiate the birds through their songs: the Willow warbler has a descending trill kind of song, while the Chiffchaff’s song is a steady two-note repeated phrase – supposedly it sings its own ‘chiff-chaff’ name. Luckily for us, then, that this Chiffchaff sang for our benefit!

Chiffchaff

    Trichomonosis is a word we’ve all become more familiar with in recent years: this parasitic disease affects many birds by making them unable to swallow food or water, which inevitably leads to emaciation and often death for those birds. The disease is transmitted via saliva and regurgitated food, so it can be passed by parent birds feeding their young and through courtship feeding. It can also be passed via contaminated food or water at bird feeders: the RSPB has recently advised against the use of flat bird tables and tray feeders in particular as well as limiting feeding during summer months.

    Particularly affected by trichomonosis in recent years have been Greenfinches and Chaffinches and, while we still come across Chaffinches on our travels, we’ve struggled to see any Greenfinches at all in the last couple of years, so it was very pleasing to see no less than three of them appear together at one of the RSPB feeders. Let’s hope that circumstances are improving for them and other birds.

Above: Greenfinches; below: a great shot of a Greenfinch coming in to land.

    One of the unlooked for consequences of feeders – and I’m not referring to that awful bird disease here – is that rodents such as rats and squirrels are attracted to the overspill that lands on the ground. Those that we saw today were having a grand old time with this free food!

Squirrel and rats feeding on overspill from feeder.

    Blue tits and Great tits skittered from tree to tree and were clearly enjoying the balmy weather. We heard Dunnocks and Wrens amongst the avian choir, although we didn’t catch sight of any. We did see our old friend, the Robin, though!

   Robin and Blue tit

There are lots of plants flowering now and it was great to see the ground awash with colour: the pale lilac of Cuckoo flowers (also known as ‘Lady’s smock’ I believe); the bold yellows of cowslips and marsh marigolds, the daintier pale yellow of primroses, and the purple of the many dog violets scattered at the sides of the paths. Hawthorn has also begun to produce its white blossom. It seemed as if everywhere was beginning to flourish.

     From left to right: Marsh marigolds, Cowslips, Cuckoo flowers (also known as Lady’s smock)

Talking of dog violets, the caterpillars of several butterflies, including the Pearl bordered fritillary, the Silver washed fritillary, and the Dark green fritillary like to munch on these particular flowers. So, something to look out for in the coming months.

Dog violets

The important stuff

Having burnt off so much energy, we went to the spacious café for replenishment: Stu had a Caramel Slice with his cappuccino and I had a slice of Bara Brith (and butter) with mine. Very nice!

    Suitably topped-up, we went outside and took one last look through the binoculars before we left. We saw several Little egrets nesting high in the trees on the far side of the estuary, although they were that far away we didn’t notice them until they were pointed out to us by a helpful member of staff. Well worth a visit.

26.04.2026
Four Seasons in One Day

(Sunday 12^th April, 2026)

Over to Wirral Country Park at Thurstaston this morning where we experienced sunshine, wind, rain and hailstones during our brief excursion!

    The morning began well enough with a moderate temperature of 12°C which felt much warmer when the sun came out. However, the south-westerly wind was very gusty, particularly as we traversed the exposed part of the path near the cliffs. But at least it was dry at this point.

Mallard drake

    Unfortunately, there weren’t a great deal of birds about, which we put down largely to the weather: the occasional crow or gull that was brave enough to take to the air was swiftly blown off course by the wind. Any other birds witnessing this spectacle would have had second thoughts, I’m sure.

Looking towards Welsh side of the Dee Estuary from Thurstaston, at low tide. (You can just make out Point of Ayr Lighthouse, Talacre, on the top right, next to the wind turbines).

    We also happened to arrive at low tide – this doesn’t mean that birds aren’t feeding, but because the estuary shoreline is farther out any birds that are feeding are themselves farther out and dispersed along the vast area at the edge of the water. So, further away from us and spread out wide too. If you look at the photograph (you may need to zoom!), you can see some wading birds, Oystercatchers mostly, and crows to the left of the two boats. We did hear the distinctive sound of a Curlew calling from somewhere on the beach, but we didn’t actually locate it visually. Still, it’s reassuring to know that there are still some about here, despite numbers declining (Curlews are on the Red List of Birds of Conservation Concern).

    In the park itself, we saw a Wren skipping along the low branches of a hawthorn bush, but it was reluctant to have its photograph taken this particular morning. Likewise, we saw a Long-tailed-tit a little further along which didn’t hang around long enough for a photograph either. It was unusual to see one of these birds by itself – usually, you see several together chattering excitedly to each other as they flit about, but this one was alone.

    Luckily, it was business as usual for the Canada goose and the three Mallard drakes who were all pretty much unconcerned by the weather, happily swimming around in the little ponds of the park.

The important stuff

We went to Flissy’s Coffee Shop on Station Road and sat outside while we waited for our refreshments. It was quite pleasant because we were out of the wind now but, seemingly out of nowhere, we were deluged by a combination of hailstones and rain. We adjourned inside to dry out and finish our customary cappuccinos and Bakewell slices. Squelch!

17.04.2026
Down in the Woods

(Sunday 29^th March, 2026)

There was a south-westerly blowing this morning, although we escaped the worst of the gusts by virtue of being in the woods at Loggerheads Country Park in Denbighshire. It was still a bit chilly (8°C) but I think we’re all becoming accustomed to this topsy-turvy ‘spring’ weather. At least it was dry.

    Just as we joined the Leete path from the little stone bridge near the mill, we saw a Song thrush fly in and settle on a high branch of one of the trees upstream from us. We’ve seen both Song thrushes and Mistle thrushes in these woods over the years but we’re seeing them less and less as time passes – nationally, both are in decline.

    Nuthatches, on the other hand, have greatly increased their numbers since the 1970s and we often see them hopping up and down tree trunks, or flitting about filching nuts and seeds.

This Nuthatch used ‘diversionary’ tactics to conceal its food source…

Today was no exception and it is amusing to watch them fly from tree to tree, executing a sort of diversionary route – presumably to foil either predators or, more probably, to avoid revealing their food source to other birds. Mind you, there was little they could do once the Carrion crow discovered their source!

    …but the Carrion crow discovered it anyway!

Apart from the odd bit of hawthorn blossom here and there, the trees are generally free of any foliage (well, not counting the evergreens). But I don’t think it will be too long before everything begins to flourish. We noticed, for example, the aroma of wild garlic which reached us when the occasional gust of wind pushed through the woods. There is an abundance of garlic leaves to be seen on either side of the River Alyn, but no sign of the plant’s distinctive white flowers just yet.

False turkey-tail (we think!)

    There are other signs that spring (or should that be summer?) is finally on the way. We watched, transfixed as two Robins circled around us, flying close to the ground, disappearing then re-emerging from the undergrowth. Male and female Robins look very similar and are difficult to sex but, as neither of these birds was acting in the typical territorial mode that Robins usually display, we’re fairly confident that we were watching a male and female. One of them posed for the camera, as you can see below!

    We saw another pairing shortly afterwards: on a few of our visits to Loggerheads over the last few months, we’ve spotted a single Grey wagtail at various stretches of the river. Today we saw two together, although they’d separated before Stu managed to get a photograph of both of them simultaneously. It was encouraging to see though, and hopefully they’ll manage to breed successfully.

After last week’s success at Burton Wetlands, Stu managed to capture another Grey squirrel on film – it seems like they’ve finally grown tired of hiding from him!

The important stuff

Over to The Mill House café (Tŷ’r Felin) for a cappuccino each and a Blondie Jammie-dodger (Col) and Millionaire’s shortcake (Stu). Scrumptious!

03.04.2026
At The Wetlands

(Sunday 22^nd March, 2026)

Over to the RSPB Burton Mere Wetlands on the Wirral side of the Dee Estuary this morning. Although a little overcast, it was dry with a very light westerly breeze, and the temperature was a decent enough 11°C. We arrived about 09:15 and already the car park was quite full.

    From the visitor centre we saw Avocets, Lapwings, Mallards, Coots and Moorhens feeding and generally gathering together, though some remained in their respective groups. There was a pair of Mediterranean gulls amongst the many Black-headed gulls that had settled on the islet. And a few Northern shovellers glided through the shallow waterways too.

Top: Avocets, Northern shovellers and Canada goose. Middle: Black-headed gull. Bottom: Lapwing.

   We watched as first one Marsh harrier came in from the marsh, then saw two of them flying together. We watched them both sky dancing, which is the term used to describe their aerial courtship ritual and often involves the male passing food to the female in mid-flight, although I’m not sure that this happened between the two birds we were watching today. Unsurprisingly, the birds in and around the scrape were being vigilant every time the harriers appeared.

Above: Marsh harrier (male). Below: A flock of Shelducks and the harrier share the sky.

We wandered down to the picnic area beyond the Bunker Hide. Last year we saw Yellow wagtails on the fields inland from the estuary. None this time, although we saw a few Greylag geese and Canada geese here and there. They had presumably sought a more peaceful sanctuary away from the noise and traffic of the main scrapes!

    Greylag geese happy to get away from it all

Mind you, some of the geese clearly preferred the water. We watched these Greylags and Canada geese as they flew across the marsh and came into land.

We’d heard the loud shrieking of a Pheasant earlier when we were near the picnic area. I’m not sure if this was the same bird on the other side of the visitor centre, but I’m glad we saw it close up: you tend to forget how colourful these birds are – well, the males at least. Actually, I think this is something we tend to do with a lot of the more common birds and wildlife in general. In our determination to see and record animals seldom if ever before seen, I think we sometimes overlook those that we see regularly. (I live near a couple of Pheasant farms and see the birds often, so I can be almost oblivious to the sight of them, although I don’t think you could ever be oblivious to their call!)

Pheasant

    A Grey heron flew over in that ungainly way they have while we were focussing on the birds that were busying themselves near the feeder, mostly Great tits and Blue tits. We also spotted a Wren on a nearby branch before it flitted away and we’re pretty sure we saw a Reed warbler as well. Unfortunately, we were unable to get a photograph.

Blue tit chomping away while another waits its turn.

Marsh marigolds

    However, I’m pleased to say that Stu managed to get a photograph of a Grey squirrel. What’s remarkable about that, I hear you ask! Well, regular readers of these pages will know that squirrels don’t usually hang around long enough for him to capture on film. But the Burton squirrels evidently hadn’t heard of the international embargo against this blog’s photographer and two of them were happy to display their acrobatic skills for us. Very entertaining they were too! And we’re both very grateful that at least one of them was happy to have its photo taken!

A Grey squirrel which, unusually, didn’t disappear as soon as Stu got his camera out!

    I mentioned earlier that the car park was very busy even shortly after nine in the morning. Obviously Burton Mere Wetlands is a popular place to visit but people may have also been enticed by the chance of seeing the otters which have been seen here recently. I’m not sure at which part of the reserve you’re likely to see them, although the staff at the visitor centre should be able to help. We didn’t see any otters but still enjoyed our visit immensely.

The important stuff

We had our usual cappuccinos with a slice of Carrot cake (Stu) and a Toasted teacake (Col). Very nice!

26.03.2026
Rain and Wind Stop Play

(Sunday 15^th March, 2026)

Over to Parkgate on the Wirral Peninsula this morning. It was dry and reasonably bright to begin with and it reached 10°C while we were there. We started off at the Old Baths but there was a fierce wind (SSW) blowing from across the Dee, directly at us, which meant that it was difficult for us to focus our binoculars and cameras without them shaking.

    We counted four Avocets in the channel and two Little egrets nearby, and there were several small flocks of geese circling the marsh, but for the most part the birdlife was staying low and out of the wind!

Pink-footed geese

    We transferred to the Donkey Stand at the opposite end of The Parade where, somehow, the wind seemed to have eased. There were several Black-headed gulls on the little island in the middle of the Flash, all of which were making plenty of noise. We just thought it was the gulls making their normal racket until we saw two Marsh harriers flying low over the marsh, which is when we realised that they’d actually been sounding the alarm. The harriers quickly swept past and arced back towards a clump of reeds in the distance.

Black-headed gulls

    Where earlier we’d seen two Little egrets, here there were two Great white egrets stalking separate sections of the marsh. The latter are much larger birds and have yellow beaks throughout most of the year but, during the breeding season, their beaks become black. You can see that the beak of the Great white egret in the photograph below is just beginning to change to black at the tip.

Great white egret. Note the yellow beak just beginning to turn black.

    Although the wind had lessened, we could clearly see that it was raining over on the Welsh side of the Dee. Inevitably, the rain reached us before too long and we brought forward an early end to our visit. Never mind – there’s always next time!

Great white egret flying into the wind

The important stuff

Today was Mothering Sunday and any chance of finding a café with a spare table was clearly going to be difficult, so we repaired to Chez Col where we both enjoyed a chocolate mini-roll and an orange Kit-Kat each, washed down with a – dare I say it, as I made it – lovely cup of tea!

19.03.2026
A Misty Morning at Loggerheads

(Sunday 8^th March)

Midweek I saw my first butterfly of the year in the garden – a yellow (male) Brimstone. At last! I thought, the spring’s here. But another false alarm it seems. While this morning wasn’t quite a pea-souper, it was very misty when we set off to Loggerheads Country Park in Denbighshire, and we had resigned ourselves to not seeing much. But, of course, nature rarely disappoints.

    The undergrowth was still quite bare except for the odd clump of primroses and daffodils, although this will change soon, I’m sure. The River Alyn was flowing strongly, but less rapidly than last week, a sign of the recent reduction in rainfall locally. Funny how you notice these things!

Nuthatch scanning its surroundings even as it feeds

    Once again, there were Nuthatches feeding at the tree stump, looking like little aerial masked bandits. It was interesting to note that they approached the tree stump in stages, first flying from the tops of the trees along the riverbank to one of the trees closer to the stump. From here they scanned the area below to make sure it was clear, then they nipped down and grabbed some food in their beaks before darting smartly back. It looked like they were shoving one or two morsels into the bark of the trees, but Nuthatches are notoriously difficult to watch closely as they are so quick in their movements.

    A Chaffinch appeared as soon as the Nuthatches were out of the way. With its lovely, striking vermilion chest and distinctive white wing bars and pale grey cap, this male Chaffinch certainly caught the eye. There was a female too, though she was not quite as colourful as the male – more brown than red, and with a patch of olive-green on her back – and she arrived and fed separately.

Chaffinch

    The Chaffinch is sometimes known as the Bachelor finch: Fringilla Coelebs is its Latin name, Fringilla meaning finch or small bird, and coelebs deriving from caelebs meaning single, unmarried, or bachelor. This name was given by the Swedish biologist Carl Linnaeus who observed that it was only the females who migrated south from Sweden for the winter, while the males stayed behind near to their breeding grounds, often grouping together with other males. It’s possible that the females were actually distancing themselves from the males due to food competition – outside of the breeding season, the males are less likely to share food resources, apparently.

    The more familiar English name Chaffinch is probably derived from the bird’s habit of rummaging through threshed chaff looking for grains of seed.

Female Chaffinch

    In the United Kingdom, the birds tend to lay their eggs between late April and mid-June and, generally, Chaffinches will produce only the one brood each year. The lateness of these clutches being laid is thought to be a deliberate strategy as the much thicker foliage and vegetation that appear now helps to hide the nests and protect the chicks from predators.

Blue tit

    After the Chaffinches made their brief, separate appearances a small group of Blue tits descended from nearby branches and stole in to help themselves. We were then stalked by a Robin or two (we couldn’t quite work out the numbers) all the way back to the café.

This Robin stalked us along the Leete path!

This one just came to say hello!

The important stuff

A cappuccino each at The Mill House café (Tŷ’r Felin) and a slice of gooey Millionaire’s shortbread. Very nice!   At the very moment we were ready to leave, the Grey wagtail flew overhead and landed on the roof of the gift shop, only to disappear over the far side. Obviously it was not in the mood for a selfie today!

13.03.2026
St. David’s Day in the Park

(Sunday 1^st March, 2026)

Loggerheads Country Park in Denbighshire to be exact. The River Alyn was flowing strongly, there was a southerly breeze, which was barely perceptible in the woods, and the morning was sunny and dry with the temperature climbing to 12°C. After the long, wet winter, are we finally entering spring? Well, it’s the United Kingdom we’re talking about so I won’t make any rash claims just yet!

Grey wagtail

    Just a short distance down the Leete path we saw our old friend the Grey wagtail. We’re unable to determine if this bird is male or female as it’s generally difficult to separate the sexes. One tell-tale sign is that males develop a black bib during the breeding season, and are a deeper yellow than the females, so we’ll keep a look-out and report any developments in the next month or so. This Grey wagtail was mooching about on the far side of the river when we first spotted it: later it immersed its feet in the shallows of the water, feeding on any insects and small crustaceans that it could find.

    Further along the path a couple of Nuthatches were feeding. Not birds that like to hang around for too long, Nuthatches: they darted in from high in the trees nearby, grabbed some food and then quickly departed. Despite this skittishness, Stu managed to take some very good photographs of these lovely little birds.

    The Robin, on the other hand, wasn’t at all shy about being seen! This one tracked us as we walked through the woods and then, as we paused on the wooden bridge to look up and downstream, it landed on the branches of a nearby tree and began to sing. I thought it was auditioning for ‘Song of the Morning’ or something. It was a pleasant tune of course – but LOUD! Below is a great picture of the Robin belting out it’s song.

Robin auditioning for us – LOUDLY!

    Later, as we retraced our path and passed the spot where we’d earlier watched the Nuthatches, we saw a couple of other birds feeding. Drawing closer, we saw that one had a distinctive black stripe down its yellow breast, marking it out as a Great tit. The second bird was a Coal tit.

Great tit

    The Coal tit is widespread throughout the United Kingdom but is much smaller than the Great tit and a lot more timid, tending to only appear fleetingly. Certainly, we rarely catch sight of them on our excursions. It has pale straw-coloured underparts, white cheeks and a black cap and black bib, and has a predominantly grey back.

    The Coal tit is similar to both the less common Marsh tit and the even rarer Willow tit and is sometimes mistaken for one or other of these birds. Apart from the rarity factor, the Coal tit can be differentiated from either of these two in other ways: first, it has white wing bars which neither the Marsh tit nor the Willow tit possess; and second, it has a distinctive patch of white stretching from its crown down to the back of its neck. This is not always visible of course, particularly if you’re looking at the bird head-on but you can just make it out in the picture here.

Coal tit: the white patch from its crown to the back of its neck is just visible in the photograph

    The Coal tit prefers coniferous woodland and relies on seeds from conifer cones, particularly during the winter. However, the bird also enjoys the nuts of deciduous trees such as beech, so – like other tits – it is adaptable in its choice of habitat. Luckily, Loggerheads is a mixed woodland area of broadleaf and coniferous trees, so the Coal tit gets the best of both worlds!

The important stuff

We had our customary cappuccinos at The Mill House café (Tŷ’r Felin). Stu chose a Bara brith flapjack to accompany his coffee, while Col had a Jammie dodger blondie with his. A lovely way to celebrate Wales’s national day!

06.03.2026
A Different Perspective

(Sunday 22^nd February, 2026)

Over to Royden Park, Wirral this morning. The temperature was 13°C which felt almost tropical, considering that only a matter of days before it had been a very chilly 4°C. The wind (WSW) was light, only picking up later during the afternoon, so a very welcome change in the weather all round.

Gravity-defying Nuthatch

    As we set off from the car park, we saw a gravity-defying Nuthatch on a branch high above us. We watched, fascinated, as the bird demonstrated its acrobatic skill – It didn’t appear to be feeding so much as simply showing off! There was a certain exuberance in this behaviour, so perhaps it was just celebrating the sunshine and the climb in temperature too.

Hazel catkins

    We followed the path that skirts the edge of the walled garden where we saw several coppiced hazelnut trees with their distinctive yellow catkins.

Crocuses

There were other signs of early spring too: snowdrops and crocuses dotted the undergrowth here and there, while buds had started appearing on the branches of trees.

    We passed by the miniature railway and moved through the woods towards the Roodee Mere. As we slowly circled the mere, a troop of Long-tailed tits chattered loudly and excitedly as they leap-frogged from tree to tree. They disappeared as magically as they’d arrived, so no time for photographs I’m afraid!

    We heard a woodpecker but were unable to locate it visually. The largest of the three woodpeckers that breed in the United Kingdom, Green woodpeckers are regularly spotted in this area so we listened carefully for the ‘laughing’ sound that they’re known for (the old country name for the bird is ‘yaffle’), but we listened without success. Maybe another time.

From top: Canada goose; Mallards; Coot

    It’s at this time of year that birds begin to act a bit more territorially and we watched as a honking Canada goose ran across the water flapping its wings and chased away a pair of Black-headed gulls. We’re not sure why, really, as there were Mallards, Coots and Moorhens sharing the mere (though the Moorhens were hiding in the undergrowth, we could hear them)and the pair of Canada geese seemed unperturbed by any of those particular birds. The Black-headed gull is one of the smaller gull species, so shouldn’t really represent a threat. Perhaps it was simply because the gulls’ sudden aerial descent simply startled the geese. Shortly afterwards, the gulls returned unchallenged.

Canada goose drinking, having worked up a thirst chasing off the Black-headed gulls… (they returned later anyway!)

    What was noticeable is that the Black-headed gulls were just beginning to regain their summer breeding plumage: you can see the black colour (really a dark brown) starting to return to the face of the adult bird in the photograph.

Black-headed gull beginning to regain its summer plumage

    The Nuthatch that we witnessed looking at the world through a different perspective earlier had clearly made an impression on Stu: while he didn’t photograph Roodee Mere from an upside-down position, the image here might make you think he had! Certainly viewing things differently makes you think again about your surroundings and is particularly effective here, thanks in large part to the undisturbed clearness of the water.

Roodee Mere through a different perspective

The Important Stuff

After all these physical and artistic exertions, it was only fair that we rewarded ourselves with some suitable refreshments. So, a cappuccino each and a slice of Bakewell tart (Stu) and a slice of Carrot cake (Col) at The Courtyard café. Delicious!

25.02.2026