Damsels and Dragons again, at Rixton Claypits

I've really go the Damsels and Dragons bug (geddit?) now. After a day in my back garden clearing rubble and preparing the ground for a new natural stone retaining wall, I needed a morning off to take some photos. I'd been thinking of going to Rixton Clay Pits for a few days now and so this was the opportunity to go. It wasn't the best of days weather-wise, too windy and not really warm enough, but I was going anyway.

When I got to the car park near Chapel Lane on the A57 at around 9:30am it was locked, so I parked outside the gates. Then, as I was getting my camera gear together the warden arrived and opened the gates, so I moved my car inside the car parking area.

I concentrated on Area 3 as shown on the map above, as I had an appointment to make at 12pm. I was only going to be photographing damselflies and dragonflies, I just took my 300mm lens on my full frame camera body.

The main dragonfly area is down some steps at the Moat Lane end of Area 3. It was quite disappointing at first as there were nothing but flies here, so I didn't stay long.  I decided to walk around as many of the paths as possible, and it wasn't long before I had some glimpses of a couple of red bodied dragonflies, which were probably Common Darters.

I'll write this report up in full later, but for now here's a few of the photos I took:

Blue-tailed Damselfly

Blue-tailed Damselfly

Blue-tailed Damselfly

Female Common Darter

Male Common Darter

Well Hello ...

Male Common Darter

Female Common Darter

Male Common Da

Female Common Darter

Female Black Darter

Female Black Darter

Female Common Darter ?

Find a Lamp Post ....

Find a lamp post and you will very often find a Kestrel just leaving it ....

This was the only decent photo I got after a failed attempt to to Burton Marsh Wetlands to see the Long-eared Owl which has been causing a bit of a stir there recently.  I was also going this part of the Wirral to check out my motorhome after it been looked at for loss of coolant and before embarking on a longer trip to Dumfries and Galloway.

But it wasn't to be, because after an enjoyable 19 miles down the M6 and M56 motorways in brilliant sunshine, the engine coolant came on and I had to pull over to check it out.

There was no way that I was going to continue on the motorway now and so I decided to head for home through Warrrington, stopping to let the engine cool down and refill with water a couple of times.
One of the places  I stopped was at Rixton Clay Pits where I had a quick look round, but nothing much was showing apart from four Shoveler on the water, a Common Buzzard which exploded out of the trees, a Cormorant landing and a few Blue Tits and Great tits in the woods.

On my way back to the car I noticed some Starlings and Mistle Thrushes in a field and when I looked closer there were also two Fieldfare and a single redwing in amongst them. I tried to get some photos but they were a bit to distant.  Whilst doing this a Kestrel spooked the winter Thrushes which all took off for the trees. I followed the Kestrel down the main road as it had landed on a lamp post, but as I got near it took flight as they nearly always do - and that's the story of this photo.

As  made my way back to the car I also spotted a couple of distant Buzzard, some Long-tailed tits, a Robin, some Goldfinches and two blackbirds.  It just goes to show that in some areas birds are all around you, even when you are not looking for them.