We're over half way through Winter now, and February can be a cruel month but Spring beckons and our woodland floors are clothed in white as the 'Fair maids of February' nod their heads and lift to any sunlight peeking through the canopy.
For the Friends of Pickerings Pasture it's been an unusual 6 months as our long time home the old Halton Rangers hut on the reserve has been demolished to make way for a new Cafe. The cafe is to be run by Esposito's a family own UK business specialising in handmade gelato, Italian coffee, sandwiches and cakes. This development should offer a new visitor experience for our regular visitors and those who find us along the Trans Pennine trail or hear of our lovely reserve by other avenues.
As the ranger hut was our home and shelter from bad weather for many years we were delighted to hear we would not be overlooked, as a friends meeting room was included in the planning. We have followed closely the new build and have fielded many questions from the public about it, scheduled to open by the end of the Month ...although of course with any new projects this could slip, we wonder with anticipation what the impact of this new venture on the nature reserve will be .
For those of you who are regular visitors to the nature reserve you will know the Friends group undertake a daily bird feed between October to March, filling the various feeders around the reserve for our birdlife, despite efforts to outsmart them, the grey squirrels continue to thrive and find new ways of getting their dinner, still, their antics can be quite annoyingly amusing to watch .
As you might expect in Winter there's a lot of bird and squirrel activity taking place at the bird feeders situated by the car park and the screen. Besides the usual Blackbirds, robins, dunnocks, three tit species and goldfinches, up to two gt spotted woodpeckers, a nuthatch, the odd siskin and a female brambling have been recorded.
In the cold snap of late December/January a woodcock was seen, also good numbers of redwing and fieldfare were seen, a green sandpiper has spent a lot of time on the scrape pool, whilst pink footed geese have been regularly seen passing over early am, to their feeding grounds and returning to their roost on Ince marshes during the late afternoon. At dusk a barn owl has been seen hunting the meadows, no doubt on the lookout for any bank voles, wood mice,shrews, small rats on the reserve.
More recently a wintering chiffchaff has been recorded on the United Utilities path , with a different bird by the white bridge. A grey seal was seen for several days during early January in the Mersey off the car park and a fox has been seen a couple of times early mornings.
This section of the Mersey Estuary with its sand and mudflats, salt marsh, and big tidal range - the second highest in the UK ranging from 4m-10m is a crucial habitat with massive ecological importance; providing feeding and roosting sites for large and internationally l important waterfowl populations in Winter, as well as migrating species in Spring and Summer.