Ancient woodland provides a range of habitats that suit a variety of birds. Hob Hey Wood has all of the species expected of ancient semi-natural woodland in Cheshire and the surrounding fields contain most of the usual farmland birds. A walk at any time of the year will yield quite a few different birds going about their daily lives.

Some of the wood's birds are shown to the right. If you want to know what they are, hover your mouse over the picture and a description will pop up.

The area is good for owls. Barn, little and tawny owls all breed in the area and can be seen (or more likely heard) on an evening or night walk to and through the wood. Tawny owls, in particular, are very common and will normally be present in numbers in the wood. Little owls are often heard along the bridle path from Townfield Lane to Bradley Lane. Barn owls are harder to see but do breed in the area and are occasionally encountered gliding over the fields surrounding the wood; pale ghostly figures almost glowing in the dark.

Two species of raptor breed in the wood: buzzard and sparrowhawk. The buzzards are easy to spot, often calling whilst soaring, but the sparrowhawks are harder to find. Often, a dark shape will be seen hurtling through the trees as the sparrowhawk hunts the wood’s little birds. In 2020, I watched a nest from being built to fledging four healthy young. It was a real privilege to watch these birds grow and then leave the nest. Kestrels are another species that has become rarer in recent years but it can still be seen hovering over surrounding fields or perched on telegraph wires or poles.

There’s a good number of species present in the wood year-round: great spotted woodpecker; nuthatch; treecreeper; stock dove; bullfinch; wren; robin; dunnock; goldcrest; wood pigeon; chaffinch; goldfinch; and the usual tit species (great, long-tailed, coal, blue, and occasionally marsh tit). Mallards sometimes spend the night in the wood and make a surreal sight as they explode from the stream as you pass.

Also present all year round are several members of the crow family. The most obvious is the magpie which is boldly patterned and very, very loud! It’s not easy to miss. More colourful but a bit shyer is the jay. It has a loud and aggressive call! Two jays calling at each other almost sounds like they’re about to attack!

Jackdaws breed in the wood and, as they travel in flocks, can be very obvious. I’ve found jackdaw nests in previous years and been fascinated seeing the adults feeding the demanding chicks. Carrion crows and rooks visit Hob Hey and look superficially similar, but the rook has a white ‘face’, the crow’s face is black. The final crow that can be seen is the raven, the world’s largest crow which is the size of a buzzard. These have increased in recent years and I often see them flying over the wood. I wonder if they’ll breed here soon?

The 'new wood', a relatively new plantation to the north of the 'old wood' isn't as good (yet!) for birds as ancient woodland. It is, however, one of the best places to see bullfinches. These gorgeous finches can be found here all year round in small flocks. The visitor will often be alerted to their presence by their soft calls, almost like a hoot, before the birds are seen. The male, with its brilliant scarlet plumage, is one of the most beautiful British birds, I feel.

The walk to the wood can often produce yellowhammer; green woodpecker; linnet; meadow pipit; wheatear (in spring); and potentially a fly-by grey heron or peregrine. Pheasants are common but red-legged partridges also occur occasionally.

Summer brings the warblers: willow warbler; chiffchaff; blackcap; whitethroat and lesser whitethroat in the wood or surrounding hedgerows making an early morning visit a dawn-chorus delight with all the bird species singing their hearts out to defend a territory. In 2020 garden warblers were found in the new wood and may have bred (several were spotted together during the breeding season; a family party, probably). Spotted flycatchers have been seen on a few occasions but they always seem to move on.

 

Grasshopper warblers have become much rarer in Cheshire in recent years so the bird present at the north bridge in the wood in 2020 was a real surprise. It spends a couple of weeks singing (or ‘reeling’ as it’s known since it sounds like a fisherman’s reel) and may have found a mate and bred. At this time of year, it’s good that the birds can be heard as the thick canopy of leaves can make them really difficult to see!

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Easier to see are the swallows, swifts, and house martins. These don’t breed in the wood but feed in the air wherever insects are plentiful. They often feed over the wood and the orchard and meadow suggesting that Hob Hey has a healthy population of flying invertebrates. In late summer, large numbers of juvenile swallows and house martins congregate on the many fences that surround the wood, prior to embarking on their first migration to Africa. At this time, it's possible to get a really good look at the birds rather than just seeing them flash past. It is possible that a sand martin might appear, too. This small, brown martin breeds locally and associates with house martins before migrating.

One summer visitor that has become much harder to see and hear around the wood is the cuckoo. Only a couple of sightings of this fast declining bird are reported each year. Its iconic call is rapidly fading into memory and this bird could become extinct in Britain in just a few years. In contrast, sightings of hobby, the spectacular falcon that’s a migrant to Britain seem to be increasing. I wonder if they’ll eventually breed in Hob Hey?

It’s much easier to see the birds in winter when all the leaves have fallen. Fieldfare and redwing will be present then, with the all-year-round other thrushes, song thrush, mistle thrush and blackbird. Occasionally, brambling, siskins or redpolls will be encountered. 

A bird to watch out for in winter is the waxwing. Every few years these birds ‘irrupt’ from their Scandinavian homes and descend on Britain in their thousands. Most often encountered in supermarket car parks(!) they feed on berries, preferring red berries. The many hawthorn hedgerows around the wood could feed a flock for weeks if they’d only turn up here…

One recent winter visitor is the grey wagtail. Up to two have been regularly seen all along the stream in Hob Hey in the past two winters, raising hopes that they will stay and breed but no evidence of this has come to light yet. Another species that visits in winter is the pink-footed goose. These breed in Greenland and Iceland and spend the winter in Britain. Last winter saw huge flocks on Frodsham Marsh and they were seen almost every day, flying over the wood calling 'pink-pink' as they passed.

A more secretive visitor is the woodcock. This can sometimes be inadvertently ‘flushed’ from hiding as you walk through the wood. It can also be seen feeding in the fields next to the wood during the night.

Hob Hey Wood and its surroundings have much to offer the birdwatcher and there’s always the chance of a real rarity like the bearded tit seen in 2019 or the firecrest seen in 2013.

A birdwatcher who wants to extend the number of species seen simply has to walk down to the river and along (both sides have paths). I have seen 139 species of birds over the years, here.