Marbury Country Park and More 6th December 2023

Crossing the icy Marbury Country Park car park.

A Great crested grebe on Budworth Mere.

A juvenile Great crested grebe tryin to escape from a Common coot.

Goosanders on Budworth Mere.

Budworth Mere from the West.

Inside St Mary's and All Saints Church, Great Budworth.

Emerging from Inside St Mary's and All Saints Church, Great Budworth.

Another view of  St Mary's and All Saints Church, Great Budworth.

A Grey heron at Pick Mere.

Only one Grerat cormorant left on the landing stage at Pick Mere.

Fran couldntt resist taking a photo of hese three hardy men taking a dip in Pick Mere.

The view from our lunch spot - paddle boarders on Pick Mere.

Enjoying mince pies and frucit cake!

Autumnal cloured leaves in Marbury Country Park.

 A pair of Mute swans on Budworth Mere.

Tufted duck on Budworth Mere.

Walk Stats:
Distance: 8.2 miles. (10 miles for the rest of the group) Climb: 643’.
Time: 4 hours 15 minutes. (4 hours 45 minutes for the rest of the group) On the move walking average: 2.3 m.p.h.
Overall walk average: 1.9 m.p.h. (2.1 m.p.h. for the rest of the group)
Temperature: -1.5 Celsius at the start. 3.0 Celsius at Great Budworth. 9.8 Celsius sitting in the warm sunshine in short sleeves at lunch overlooking Pick Mere. 5.3 Celsius just after lunch. 2.7 Celsius at the end of the walk.
Beaufort Wind force: 0. Calm throughout the walk, again no measurable wind at all!
Group: Martyn, Nigel, Mike and Fran.
The weather forecast today was pretty good and it was pretty accurate, although it felt warmer than the predicted forecast of about 4 Celsius.
Conditions underfoot at times were quite slippy, particularly on pavements and roads, but crossing usually muddy fields the just thawing conditions were quite helpful.
Arriving at Great Budworth, we took the opportunity of going into St Mary’s and All Saints Church. The heating was on so it was literally a very warm welcome we were given (two women were there in the process of cleaning the church).
Hield Lane was flooded just at the point where we wanted to take the Pick Mere Path, but with care we managed to get round the edge without getting wet feet.
The surpise of the day was seeing three men taking a dip in Pick Mere which must have been close to zero Celsius as parts of the mere had ice on it.
Another bonus was finding a picnic area with several picnic benches and seats overlooking the mere. 

I decided to return to the car via Black Wood and Big Wood and do a little more birdwatching at the same time. The rest of the group continued along the tow path to the Anderton Boat Lift before returning throughthefields to thestart.
The muddiest section for me was along the towpath back to Marbury Country Park, although the rest of the group found more mud crossing the fields from Anderton, particularly north east from Cogshall Lane through Kennel Wood back to the Comberbach Road.
Birds seen or heard today included: European robin Winter wren, Wood nuthatch, Common starling, Jackdaw, Raven Carrion crow, Song thrush. House sparrow, Goldfinch, Common blackbird, Mallard, Tufted duck, Goosander, Great crested grebe, Grey heron, Goldeneye, Great tit, Blue tit, Moorhen, Dunnock, Common coot, Black headed gull and Great cormorant.
Overall an enjoyable walk, ending with boots that weren’t very muddy and only required a quick wipe.
After walk drinks were enjoyed at Rake Hall, where Hawkshead Brewery’s Windermere Ale went down particularly well. The tea wasn’t bad either!