The Wales Coast Path and More 27th January 2021

The Wales Coast Path and More.

River reflections.

Ravens beak tapping.

Let's have a rest!

The Beluga XL coming into land.

A Moorhen going in circles.

There are >1000 gulls in this photo!

The third Raven seen stoday.

From large to little - a Blue tit poses.

Three Great cormorants, including one with some leucistic markings.

A male Goosander.

Chester weir - back as we like to see it.

Bogus Grey herons!

A posing European robin on The Riverside, Saltney.

A few more of the original steps down to the ferry can be seen.

Distance: 9.6 miles. Climb: 157'.
Time: 4 hours 3 minutes. On the move walking average: 3.0 m.p.h. Overall walk average: 2.4 m.p.h. (I blame LeRoi for the slow overall walking average).
Group: Martyn.

An overcast, mild (about 8 Celsius), dry and calm day - perfect for a walk, especially with heavy rain on the cards for tomorrow.

I arrived at the rverside to find the river still pretty high, with only the top few steps leading down to the old ferry pickup place, but a few more had appeared when I returned about three hours later.  The river was so calm that reflections of the trees adjacent to the Wales Coast Path could seen on the water.

Singing European robins seemed to be everywhere, no doubt starting to set up territories. However the bird spot of the day was a pair of Ravens engaging in beak tapping, a form of pair bonding ritual. This wasn't the only Raven, another one was perched on an isolated tree near the start of the Wales Coast Path. The surprise in terms of birds was in the sheer numbers of gulls in the flooded fields on the south side of Bumper's Lane. One field had a mixed flock of  >1000 birds (Black headed gulls, Herring gulls, Common gulls and Lesser black back gulls_ Other fields had several hundred gulls.

Birds seen or head today included: Collared dove, European robin, Blue tit, Great tit, Greenfinch, House sparrow, Common blackbird, Woodpigeon, Common starling, Dunnock, Moorhen, Mallard, Teal, Great cormorant, Black billed magpie, Pied wagtail, Jackdaw, Carrion crow, Rook, Raven, Common pheasant, Mistle thrush, Goosander and Black headed gull, Herring gull, Common gulls and Lesser black back gull.

Along Castle Drive, Chester, I stopped when I heard my name called - it was LeRoi on his way home after a cycle ride. We spent a very pleasant twenty minutes or so catching up with each other. Unexpected encouters like this give a delightful added extra to a solo walk.

Another surprise was to see a tent pitched by the riverside, presumeably with someone still inside, but I didn't check.

Throughout the walk, on at least twenty occasions,  I kept on seeing what looked like Grey herons with the naked eye, but careful looking all turned out to be plastic litter hanging from the overhanging tree branches.

As many of you know, I have often had a tendency to shed a little water on a walk, using several hankies to continually wipe the perspiration from my brow and clean my misted up glasses, so on this occasion I decided to weigh myself when I arrived home.  To my surprise, I had lost 0.8 kg on the walk. No doubt it will all go back on after a few cups of tean and coffee!.