Army Birding

It is a very long time (too long) since I posted as sighting on this excellent website.

This morning I was out walking around the local Wybunbury Moss, a RAMSAR site a few hundred metres from my house and one of the few and outstanding examples of a 'swingmoor' in this country. We were I suppose 300 metres from the southern edge of the Moss when we heard a very piercing series of whistles coming from somewhere in the Moss. My immediate reaction was to look for a group of beaters. However on coming round the next corner there on one of the ponds were up to 20 wigeon, which I have never seen here before, skittering around and whistling to each other. What a powerful sight and so unexpected.

Rodney

OK I'll go public and confess that I do not actually know what a swingmoor is.

I, for one, would be most grateful for an explanation!

(Woodcock over the town in broad daylight is my only weather induced 'oddity' to date).

Roger

It is a floating peat bog - "Schwingmoor" auf Deutsch - formed by a layer of vegetation spreading across the surface of a body of water. Others have called it a "quaking bog".

Trees may grow on a Schwingmoor, and I understand they will sway when someone walks near them. However as far as I am concerned it is b...... dangerous to get anywhere near this bog!

Rodney

roger dickey wrote:OK I'll go public and confess that I do not actually know what a swingmoor is.

I, for one, would be most grateful for an explanation!

(Woodcock over the town in broad daylight is my only weather induced 'oddity' to date).

Roger

Roger,

Swingmoor. There is one on the Hogs Back between Guildford and Farnham and apparently one near Lakenheath!

Thanks Richard for helping us out with this one. Schwingmoors are often said to be very rare habitats for the UK and best left unvisited unless under expert guidance. That said we have number in this part of the country in Shropshire and Cheshire.

Noted that you are back in action. Good luck

Rodney