Summer (June to August)

The wet weather certainly helped the display of flowers on the Pastures, with a stunning display of cowslips in the spring meadows. Also a few snakes-head fritillaries flowered in another spot.  At least 200 spotted orchids and probably 20 bee orchids flowered in the rough area of scrub.                                     

  Later, on sunny days, the summer meadows were alive with insects visiting this nectar-rich spectacle.

The cornfield   CAC

The numbers of butterflies, including common blue and brimstone were generally down, but on sunny days in August over fifty peacocks (and other common butterflies) could be seen nectering on the flowering scabious.

A red admiral on the buddleia CAC               Meadow brown on scabious   CAC

   A bat walk and moth trapping night was held in early August and although it was windy over twenty-five people attended and were lucky to see pipistrelles and one noctule bat. A total of 54 species of moths were caught in the traps and were kept until Sunday so that interested visitors could see them close up. Probably the most exciting and colourful moth on show was a poplar hawk-moth. 

An exciting find by Jeff Clarke on the meadows was an Adonis ladybird.  It was the first time this species has been recorded in Halton and only the third record for Cheshire.

Adonis Ladybird by Jeff Clarke

   After the breeding season small parties of juvenile great, blue and long tailed tits, together with several young blackcaps and chiffchaffs, could be seen in the woodland.  A sparrowhawk was seen on several occasions in the same areas, no doubt on the lookout for easy prey.

    In early July up to 6 common sandpipers were recorded along the shoreline and a green sandpiper was seen on the wildfowl scrape.

   Around this time two ravens were seen from the bird hide feeding on the marsh. A kingfisher was seen on several occasions catching shrimps and it was again present in August.  Also on the scrape, besides the usual grey herons, one lucky observer saw three little egrets. 

   July was also the best time to see over 350 lapwings roosting on the marsh at high tide just over the fence from the scrape. By the end of the month the flock had increased to over 600. In the same area smaller numbers of redshank, dunlin and one adult curlew sandpiper were seen. The curlew sandpiper was a new species at Pickerings Pasture. 

   By early August large numbers of gulls were back on the river, together with up to 30 curlews and several hundred dunlins, with the usual redshank.  Cormorants also increased at this time with up to 15 being counted on the river.   

   A hobby, chasing house martins, was seen by the ranger on several occasions over the Pasture in August. Several species of dragonflies were recorded including migrant, southern and brown hawkers together with common darter.  

   The Canada goose flock started to increase in August and a count of over 1300 was made whilst they were roosting on the sand banks in the river.  They left in the early morning to feed on the spilt grain in the stubble fields around Halebank and Hale and made a very impressive sight when they flew over Pickerings Pasture on their way back to the river.

Canada Geese   CAC