Practical Caravan Magazine 'Best Small Site' 2012 & 2013
National First Prize Winner - Caravan Club 'CL of the Year' 2007
Birch Hill Farm, The Cross, Ellesmere, Shropshire, England, SY12 0LP
Telephone: 01691 622951

Bird Watching at Birch Hill, Ellesmere

Many of our visitors come to Ellesmere to see the abundance of waterfowl on the Meres, we also encourage birds around the Caravan Site with bird-feeders, nesting boxes and the way that we have developed The Dingle (our woodland walk) as a wildlife habitat.  Because of so many bird-watchers caravanning at Birch Hill, we built a bird-hide in The Dingle in 2010.  The local countryside is grassy farmland with hedges amongst gently rolling Shropshire hills.

During their birdwatching holiday over a Bank Holiday at the end of May 2008, Mr & Mrs Mackenzie of Hertfordshire recorded the following bird species on our caravan site.  This list excludes their trips to the Meres and the RSPB Nature Reserve at Lake Vyrnwy.  In alphabetical order:

• Barn Owl (seen three times)
• Blackbird (male and female)
• Blue Tit
• Buzzard (circling overhead on 5 occasions)
• Carion Crow
• Chaffinch (male and female)
• Goldfinch
• Great Black Backed Gull (in fields)
• Great Spotted Woodpecker (male and female)
• Great Tit
• Greenfinch (male and female)
• Heron (flying over)
• Jackdaw
• Kestrel
• Lesser Black Backed Gull
• Magpie
• Robin
• Rook
• Swift
• Tawny Owl (heard only)
• Woodpigeon

• Canada Goose (flying overhead)
• Collared Dove
• Embden Goose (flying overhead)
• Grouse
• Jay
• Little Owl (heard only)
• Long Tailed Tit
• Mallard
• Nuthatch
• Partridge
• Pheasant
• Pied Wagtail
• Red Kite (flying regularly a field north of Birch Hill)
• Quail
• Siskin
• Swallow
• Swan (flying overhead)
• Wren

In March 2010, Mrs & Mrs Walker of Bangor-on-Dee added the following that they saw whilst on a caravan holiday at Birch Hill:

• Coal tit (2 on bird feeder)
• Cormorant (pair flying overhead)
• Dunnock
• Pied Wagtail

In March 2012, Mrs & Mrs Taylor of Ashton-in-Makerfield saw 52 species of birds in and around Birch Hill, including the following actually on the site that we had not listed earlier:

• Fieldfare
• Redwing

www.BirchHill.co.uk