This evening 18.30 - 20.45

3 Grey Partridge in f67
24 Lapwings flocking together and flying between f69 and f67 due to being disturbed by a small biplane out from Barton.
7 Tree Sparrows in the hedges before Rindle wood
1 Barn owl hunting over the small pools on Astley SSSI.
Tawny owl sat in a Birch tree on Bedford moss while another was calling from the railway side of the moss.

Plenty of insects, moths and bats flying around the moss tonight and 5 Hares seen in the potato fields.

Also as I walked back to my car a very large owl flew over me just before I came out on Rindle road, it was too dark to see it properly.Possible SE Owl but not sure.

26/8/07 early afternoon

8 Buzzards - 3 over Bedford Moss, and 5 soaring over the Peat Pools (seen distantly from Rindle Farm flood, I hasten to add ! !)
a male and a female Sparrowhawk - the f. chasing Starlings at Rindle flood (F68), the m. over Astley SSSI.
3 Kestrels - Bedford Moss.
single Sand Martin with Swallows and House Martins over the flood.
usual sightings of Tree Sparrows at Rindle Farm.

-- Edited by Ian Woosey at 19:21, 2007-08-26

Hope you find something decent at Spurn Ian

Glad you eventually caught up with the Hobby Dave : patience and perseverance always pays off

This evening 6pm - 8.45 pm

Finally had two sightings of the Hobby tonight , it only took 16 visits in the last 2 months to find it .

It flew over f67 which panicked the Swallows and Martins and chased them over Rindle road and into f69. I then saw it again later flying over the small pools in Astley SSSI towards the railway.

Field 67, 2 Kestrels hunting , 3 RL Partridge ,2 Grey Partridge ,1 Whitethroat , 4 Tree sparrows ,2 Mallard over
Field 69 ,4 Stock doves and 20 Woodies and this was even with the combine harvester working in the same field.

In the fields between Rindle woods and Astley SSSI there was 4 Kestrels and 2 Buzzards hunting together, the kestrels hovered or perched in the trees before dropping into the fields .As I walked around the edge of the field I must have seen 30+ small black voles in the grass which has been cut very short. Some of the voles were actually fighting or chasing each other around my boots as I stood there.At one point there was 6 Kestrels over the field at the same time.

Astley SSSI , 5 Jays , 1 GS Woodpecker over , 3 Yellowhammers.

Bedford moss , 3 more Buzzards sat in the trees and 21 Canada geese over flying west.

Tuesday 21/08/07

Irlam Moss 1330-1530

3 Yellow wag/16 Pied Wag/6 Linnet on 22
100's of Hirundines on wires over 22
Buzzard over 23
5 Stock Doves 10
6 Stock Doves/70+Woodpigeon 62

Astley and Bedford moss 6pm-9pm this evening.

Hundreds of Swallows in the fields and on the wires along side Moss lane, it looks like they are getting ready for the trip down South.Not one Swift seen all evening.

2 Kestrels hunting along Nook lane.
1 Little owl at the edge of Rindle woods
2 Buzzards stood in the field of grass beside the woods along with 2 Hares
Astley SSSI was very quiet and too overgrown to walk about much , just 1 Canada goose flying over.
The two Buzzards from the field spent 20 minutes hunting over Bedford moss then joined up in the same tree and started preening.
3 Jays
10+ Tree sparrows in the hedges on the way back to Rindle road.
1 Budgie sat on the telephone wires near the canal bridge , I suppose thats a girlie tick!!!!

Welcome Riggers
Its been a good year for breeding Wagtails on the mosses as there are plenty of juvenile Yellow.Pied and Grey in the fields.

I also had a report of deer in fields 20 + 21 beside Astley road in the last couple of days.

Irlam Moss 0730-0830 in very poor weather.

10 yellow wagtails with large no's of pied wagtails (25+) field 22
100+ starling on wires with 18 mistle thrush 20-22
pair blackcap in hedgerow. s end 20
common buzzard 52
2 stock dove over 52

first time birding in the sw of the county apart from the Wheatear, nice to see yellow wags-they are a 'mega' in the east of the county!

15th 9.00pm. Little Owl on Rindle Farm.

15/8/07 early afternoon

8 Yellow Wagtails - 7 in F22, one over F59.
4 Buzzard (at least one juv.) - over F44/51
m Stonechat nr. Messuages Farm
Little Owl by the side of Olive Mt Fm.
c150 House Martins along Rindle Rd/farm
2 Kestrels

I & J McKerchar & I Woosey

Glad to see that you're getting involved in the Atlas Tony. Ian has put all the details on the noticeboard page (I know some folks only look at the Forum bit of the website - you don't know what you're missing).

I've had quite a few expressions of interest so far (thanks all) but if anyone else is interested in helping with this mammoth, but extremely valuable project, send me an e-mail or register on the BTO website - see above-mentioned article on the Noticeboard page.

Steve

I have volunteered to co-ordinate the 10km square SJ78 for the forthcoming BTO Bird Atlas project, so if anyone fancies doing a 'timed tetrad' walk or just submitting 'roving records' - see http://www.bto.org/birdatlas/taking_part/index.htm - please let me know.

Of course I expect someone else will be co-ordinating other squares such as SJ79 - Steve Suttill will have the details for the Manchester squares

This afternoon 4pm to 8pm

Astley moss
Stonechat beside Rindle road opposite Moss Bank farm,
At least 22 Tree Sparrows flocking together in the hedges just before the rail crossing beside f69,
3 Kestrels.

Rindle woods
2 Willow warblers,
1 Stoat.

Bedford moss
Watched 2 Buzzards for about 45 minutes perching and soaring around the clearing at the end of the woodchip path.Both were juveniles as they had streaked breasts which were lighter in colour than an adult bird.Very vocal, constantly mewing to each other as they were mobbed by a pair of Jays.Good views of one of my favourite birds of prey.
Also 2 Herons catching frogs from the sides of the ponds.
1 Grey Wagtail.

Chat moss
Kestrels hunting in both f58 and f59,
3 Yellow wagtails over f62.
4 Yellow wagtails in f52

Irlam moss
2 Corn buntings, 4 Grey partridge and 1 Buzzard in f17,
A flock of 5 Yellow and 3 Pied wagtails together in f21,
Whitethroat perched beside Woodstock farm.
2 Grey partridge over f27.

Hundreds of hirundines over all the mosses.

and still no Hobby sighting


-- Edited by Dave Thacker at 21:48, 2007-08-03

Birdguides reported for morning of 1st August at Irlam Moss

Hobby, 6 Yellow Wagtail, 4 Spotted Fly and a Little Owl

Sid and anyone else who'd like a paper copy of the mosses map,

if you send me a stamped, addressed envelope I can send you an A4 copy of the map if you'd like? My address can be found on the 'who's who' page on the website.

Warfy/Ian thanks for the info and the welcomes - much appreciated.

It seems to be quite a detailed and large map but I am sure that I shall find some way to print and take with me to find all those good sightings.

Regards

Sid A[

Hi Sid and welcome,

what Warfy says

Sid, on the home page, click on "County Birding sites and map" and chat/astley moss are at the bottom

And welcome to the forum

Simon

Ian

Have been looking at the forum for a few months now and finally plucked up the courage to submit an entry this morning re Black Redstarts. Reading you item on Chat Moss etc I notice you refer to the fields by number. Question where can I find a map with those numbers reffed?

Regards

Sid A

Tuesday 31st July, 1pm-3pm.

Spotted Flycatcher- 1 along 12 yards road, roughly around field 52

Yellow Wagtail- 1 female on 12 yards road (actually on the road!), 5 juveniles (with atleast 3 other unaged birds calling in the field to the south) in the horse paddocks in field 23 showing very well and actually allowing me to photograph them this time, check out the galleries when I've uploaded them)

Whinchat- 1 immature in the horse paddocks in field 23 (also got some nice shots of that too )

29/7/07 early morning

2 Little Owls (ad & juv) at the side of Olive Mt. Fm. and F63. The juv was on the ground just staring at me, then flew up into a tree where I spotted an adult,who must have been watching over it while it explored. (Site tick .............Ian, I can feel another Site List coming on ! ! ! )
Corn Bunting on wires F19
Besides the usual Tree Sparrows on Rindle Rd., there was a group of 13 here as well ; New Farm. F19
2 Willow Tit - Red Challis
23 Mistle Thrushes in the paddock next to Cherry Tree cottage F61
6 Grey Partridge F59
Red-legged Partridge - F63
4 Kestrels
usual Yellowhammers, Linnets etc

I have been to the moss 8 times since my last post and I have still not seen the Hobby.

This morning on Astley moss was a Sparrowhawk over f67 and a Buzzard over Rindle woods.

Chat moss f59 again 2 Oystercatchers and 2 Grey partridge in the waterlogged corner near the signal box.
5 Grey wagtails in f19 , 2 adults and 3 juv.
4 Grey partridge and 2 RL Partridge walking on the edge of 12 Yards road in front of my car before flying into f52.

Chat moss today 14.30 -16.45
I had a couple of hours wandering around fields 58,59,60 and 61 on Chat moss looking for the Hobby.Alas I did not see it but I did flush a total of 22 Grey partridge from all 4 fields.Some of them were proper heart attack jobs as they waited until I had nearly stood on them before they flew up.

Field 58, 1 Buzzard over ,2 Whitethroats, 1 Sedge warbler and 1 GS Woodpecker,
Field 59 1 Kestrel ,4 Skylarks, 2 Oystercatchers and 1 Snipe in the water logged corner near the rail crossing.
Fields 60 & 61 both had large numbers of Mpipits,Chaffinches,Goldfinches and Yellowhammers flocking together.

Numbers of Swallows and Swifts seem to have dropped , I wouldn`t be surprised if they went back to Africa early after all this rain.

A word of warning if you go on foot like I did today, Most of the farms have their dogs chained up or fenced in, Moss side farm just passed the rail crossing has 2 Alsation mixed breeds one is chained up but one is loose and it will run out on to the road to meet you, not a pleasant dog.

Astley moss this evening 19.30 to 21.45

2 Whimbrels flying low over the moss calling to each other.
1 Buzzard
2 Kestrels
2 Grey Partridge in f67

Chat moss
1 Barn Owl hunting on the edge of f14 ,it then flew over f12 and made two kills ,the owl ate the first kill and then caught another vole and carried it towards f44.

26/6/07 early morning

Hobby - chasing Swallows over field 58, just past Moss Side Farm.
Corn Bunting on wires side of field 59. Also in this field - Oystercatcher & Grey Partridge.
juv Tree Sparrow nr.Birch Farm (60)
f/imm Yellow Wagtail on fence behind Olive Mount Fm.
2 Red-legged Partridge & 2 Grey Partridge along side of 63
2 Kestrel over 64
very distant Buzzard (could even have been in Cheshire ! )
small numbers of Yellowhammers, Skylarks, Linnets, Stock Doves, Whitethroats etc
many Swifts & Swallows

Thursday 31/05/07

garden warbler @ sj 700932

take new moss road off the road inbetween lower irlam and cadishead, park at the small car park on the left after 500 yards & walk ahead for 300 yards along the woodland trust trail, on os map it's called new moss wood, also 1 grey partridge, c15 common whitethroat, 3 blackcap, song thrush, yellowhammer, jay, 2 willow warbler, 2 chiffchaff

olive mount farm area - 4 corn & 1 reed bunting & 10 yellowhammer

astley peat pools - 4 lrp, 2 rp, 2+ oystercatcher, 3 redshank

-- Edited by EcoBirdRacer at 10:11, 2007-06-01

Geoff
After looking at Ian`s excellent photo`s of the Whimbrels at the peat pools which he took a couple of weeks ago and which flew off just before I got there, I was lucky enough to see one this morning.
The Spotted flycatchers were a bit of a surprise and a good sighting as on the whole the moss was very quiet today.I could not find the Stonechats off Rindle road or any Wheatears at all.

dave,just the one whimbrel and a couple of spotted flycatchers,both lifers for me if i get to see em ,i,ll call in again tuesday night and keep my eyes peeled

cheers geoff