Thursday 6^th June and we were in the car park at the Northwich end of Marbury Lane.  The weather forecast was poor and with only four members of our normal group present today we had decided on a shorter walk of about 5 miles with plenty of stops for bird watching and botanising.  On leaving the car park at 10.10am the weather was dull and dry with little wind.  The first part of our walk took us along the new footpath that had been created running along Witton Brook.  Here the extensive reed beds were full of Reed Warblers with a good sprinkling of Sedge Warblers and Reed Buntings.  The footpath curved away from Witton Brook and after meandering through a small wood rejoined Marbury Lane.  We only walked a few yards up the lane before leaving it again as we entered Anderton Nature Park and made our way to Haydn’s Pool.  After a good 15 minutes bird watching we walked round the pool to a second screen for a further 5 minutes viewing the birds from a different angle.  Nothing special but nice to see the newly hatched young following their parents and constantly begging for that extra little morsel of food.  From the bank around Hadyn Pool we descended the steps to rejoin Witton Brook where we turned to the right making our way along Witton Brook to where it flows into the River Weaver. Lots of good flowers surrounded the footpath and across Witton Brook a Great Crested Grebe floated by with at least two young being carried on its back.  On Witton Brook, just before it joins the River Weaver, a Bailey type of bridge will soon be erected giving accesss to the opposite side of the brook and a new reserve that has been created from land reclaimed from the old tip site.  After stripping off layers of clothes because of the unexpected heat we followed the footpath along the Weaver.  Soon we came to the large chemical works on the opposite side of the river and after a further few hundred yards we reached the Anderton Lift.  Into the visitor centre for the purchase of ice creams and a then a pleasant 15 minutes sitting in the sunshine and watching the world go by.  Leaving the visitor centre we met the presenter, Eric Robson, and crew of the Granada Sunday evening television documentary “Out of Town”.  He was filming a walk from the Anderton Lift to Great Budworth which will be shown on Sunday evening June 20^th.  In the other picture is the organiser and researcher for this TV series together with the real star of the series the dog RAQ.  Leaving the Anderton lift behind we walked along the Trent & Mersey canal towards Marbury Country Park.  The opening of the Anderton Lift has certainly brought life back to this stretch of the Trent & Mersey canal with colourful narrowboats moored every few yards.  Reaching Marbury Lane again we turned to the left and walked down the lane and into Marbury Country Park.  Here was a sign informed us that we were at Marbury Arboretum and, as the picture shows, the trees were certainly a little different. We walked through the Arboretum, past the site of the old Marbury Hall, and down to the hide by Budworth Mere.  After 15 minutes in the hide we were on our way again down the footpath running alongside the mere and then away from the water’s edge into Big Wood.  We passed the pond called the “Ice Pond”, which at this time of year is surrounded by empty birdfeeders and a recently erected hide, and walked through Big Wood until we came to the sculpted tree lying by the side of the path.  Two of our group had not seen this tree before and a good 20 minutes was needed to decipher all the carved figures, mainly scenes from the natural world but also including a witches face.  Another few minutes walking and we passed through Black Wood before crossing the stile into Marbury Lane where turning to our left we walked down the lane (closed to traffic) and back to the car park from where we started.  It had taken us 3 hours 20 minutes to cover 5 miles and the weather had been great.

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