A pair of Pintail and 12 Goldeneye on Elton Resr today (courtesy of Peter Johnson)

Early a.m. today.
16 Goosander and 5/6 goldeneye, water level low with lots of exposed mud, fingers crossed it stays like this for the Spring. About 10.00am getting into car and looked up to see a Peregrine carrying prey item flying North.

Also early a.m. at Elton, also a blizzard, but didn't
see you(Warfy) 28 Goosander and a Stonechat then gave up!. Presume you were after me.

2/2/2008 Early am (nice blizzard)

1 Green Sand - below withins.
1 Dunlin
3 Jack Snipe
50+ Snipe
1 Water Rail
Fieldfare 150
16 Goosander
3 Goldeneye
2 Pochard
13 Cormorant
Sparrowhawk

Yes we have WADERS

The water level was very high with all the rain, in fact it was so full it was already flowing down the overflow, there were fears that the "leaky wall" might collapse! So the sluice has been opened and water is pouring out which is great news for us birders. Spoke to the farmer at Old Hall Fm and he said it could go down another 10 feet so it could be great for waders this spring fingers crossed, rumour is they will try and look at the leaky wall and maybe low for a while heres hoping!

This a.m.
On the Res. 4 Pochard, 3 Goldeneye, 4 Goosander, 7 GC Grebe(2 displaying).
On flooded fields between canal and metro line, 42 Pied Wagtail(at least!) and 1 male Stonechat, plus 2 pairs of Swan on canal and 1 pair in flooded field.
Cheers Ian

This a.m. 9.00-9.30
Met Simon(Warfy) and another Simon(sorry I missed your last name) to look for Jack Snipe in marsh between Old Hall Farm and the canal. Warfy certainly has the magic touch, after putting up 7/8 Snipe and hearing a Water Rail he found us a Jack Snipe which we saw twice, a LIFER for me, brilliant!!
Cheers Ian
....................
Wellies definately essential

-- Edited by Ian Campbell at 11:59, 2008-01-19

Elton 1200-1300

15-20 Snipe flushed from the marsh area between Old Hall Farm and the canal. All was not looking good until Mr Warfy spotted a bird I had flushed which he was pretty sure was a Jack Snipe.

After navigating a large,deep ditch-Mr Warfy flushed said bird and it was as we thought, a Jack Snipe.

P.S. If you ever go out in the field and Warfy says wellies essential, He is not joking. Knee deep!!
Still trying to clean the mud of my legs that penitrated through my jeans. All you women out there may wish to dump all that expensive tanning creams/lotions and try Elton mud. It is resistant to soap, baby wipes, washing up liquid................................................

This a.m.
On Elton, very little, just 8 Pochard and 4 GC Grebe.
Together with Paul Wilson(rezMole!) looked in marsh area between Old Hall Farm and the canal to find at least 60 Snipe. Thanks Simon(Warfy) for the info yesterday, no Jack Snipe though
Cheers Ian

12/1/2008 Late am

1 Jack Snipe, 20+ Snipe, Little Owl and 60 Redwings between canal and Old Hall Fm.

3 Goosanders res and no sign of Firecrest's today in 1.5 hours.

This a.m.
7 GC Grebe, 4 Goosander, 1 Kingfisher, 1 Sparrowhawk, 5 Cormorant, 3 Tufted and 2 pair of Swans on the canal.
Cheers Ian

11 Goosander (8m 3f) on lodge this morning, with 1 GC Grebe, 17 BH Gulls, 9 Coot, 2 Moorhens, 7 Mallard and 1 Tufted Duck.

Great news about the firecrest
At Elton this a.m. less impressive!
1Goosander, 2 GCGrebe, 1 Tufted, 2 Swan(adult and 1st Winter). At Crow Trees Farm, 56 Fieldfare and 4 Redwing.
Cheers Ian

One Firecrest seen in usual conifer at 11.10am this morning! Also still 3 male and 2 female goosanders on lodge.

-- Edited by rezMole at 13:16, 2008-01-06

This a.m.
4 goosander, 1 Goldeneye, 6 Cormorant, 2 Kingfisher, 1 Snipe, 1 Mute Swan, 2 Tufted, 1 GCGrebe.Withins, 1 Heron, 1 GCGrebe. Canal, 3 Teal, 2 pairs of Swan, 1 Kestrel

Spent an hour or so searching for firecrest, but still no sign. Looks like they may have gone - missing them already! There are 5 male and 2 female Goosanders on Daisyfield Lodge, and 1 GC Grebe (plus usual Coot, Moorhen, Mallard and BH Gulls).

Update on Firecrest in Daisyfield gardens - still have not seen them since Dec 31, although I think I have heard them a couple of times. Spent a couple of hours searching the garden today, but didn't see any. I'm 90% sure I heard one calling, but I'm not that good with bird calls, so I can't be sure. I'll carry on looking tomorrow afternoon (going to visit Pennington in the morning), and again on Sunday.

-- Edited by rezMole at 14:35, 2008-01-04

This a.m., apart from the usual Coots(and there were less of these than usual) very little present. Just 2 Tufted, 4 Great Crested Grebe a few Mallard, 1 Goosander(which flew off as soon as I arrived) and 7 cormorant. I suppose after this the only consolation is that the year can only improve

Spent the whole afternoon watching the firecrests. They were quite active moving around in the scrub further down the gardens, then making their way back to the conifers, calling to each other. I stayed watching until 4pm with some chap (Stephen Costa), but they had stopped showing by then. 1-2 pm definately seems the best time to see the birds.

I did notice a couple of bats flying around and about 40 starlings coming in to roost in the same conifers (along with the 20 or so house sparrows that roost in there). It was all getting quite noisy!

I am in work today, but will be looking out for the Firecrest tomorrow afternoon (after 1 pm, when I take my son back to his mums). May pop up to Elton Res in the morning - it's been a while.

-- Edited by rezMole at 16:30, 2007-12-31

Missed them again! Was there till about 1110. But 5 Cormorants on the pylon and a Mistle Thrush singing.

Both Firecrest still here. Saw both briefly in seperate trees at the same time at 12.30 today. Fantastic that they haven't left yet. Will try to get better views later - just got to take my son home to his mums.

Had a very quick visit late morning in atrocious weather - no luck - but did notice 4 Cormorants roost on the big pylon behind the lodge, Paul - I guess it will be at Buckley Wells. If you get any more counts on that pylon, please post them on the forum. Forecast good for tomorrow - may try again then.

Res, early a.m.
Most of the birds seen on 27th seem to have gone today. Just 1 goosander and 3 Goldeneye and pochard with only a small number of tufted present. 3 Pairs of Swans appear to be setting up territory on the canal
Cheers Ian.

Had a good look for Firecrest this morning but haven't seen them. Not seen them since the 25th.

Early a.m. before the rain started.
22 Goosander(+ or - 3, they were moving!), 5 Goldeneye and 5 pochard, 60+ Tufted, 9 Cormorant, lots of Coot and Mallard, heard Kingfisher but did not see it.
Cheers Ian

Saw the LSW at Fairburn yesterday (my 200th bird of 2007). Back to garden birding today, and the Firecrests are still entertaining. Sue managed to see them as well this time. Only a week to go and they'll halp to get my 2008 list off the a good start

Elton this a.m.
Approx. 9.00 around 400 Canada Geese took off together,(quite a sight and sound). Also 5 Goldeneye, 2 Pochard, 1 Goosander and 40ish Tufted.
Cheers Ian

Yes, they showed well yesterday, but I'm going to Fairburn today (to try for the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker), so there will be no access to the garden. There were some people turne up yesterday and were watching from the other side of the hedge, and one of the birds showed well enough for them to see it from there. I saw one bird fly off round the side of the flats to the area near the garages, a couple of times.

Yay its back

2 Firecrests still present this afternoon Daisyfield (11 Days at least now)

Thanks to my website forum hosting company 'Sparklit' for their promt service once again, this thread's previous problems of the past 2 days have been solved. My apologies for the problem which for the time being we don't have a particular reason for.

-- Edited by Ian McKerchar at 22:12, 2007-12-23

Perhaps they have moved to the Res. its self, so does this mean I'll see them tomorrow a.m. perhaps with a Jack Snipe amongst the Goosanders(Mr Warfy)
Cheers Ian
P.S. Nice to have met you Mr Warford senior & Mark (Riggers) this a.m.

No sign of the Firecrests today

18/12/2007

2 Firecrests still at Daisyfield.
23 Goosander (can u beat that Mr C?)
27 Cormorant
6 Pochard
5 Shoveler
1 Goldeneye

-- Edited by warfy at 17:09, 2007-12-18

This a.m. very cold!
Fewer birds than yesterday, 2 Goosander, 1 Goldeneye, 1 Pochard, 1 Shovellor, 11 Cormorant.

Just to confirm the 2 Firecrests present at Daisyfield Courts are within the Elton recording area, confirmed by Peter Baron himself

Early a.m. today.
4 Shovellor, 4 Wigeon, 3 Pochard, 17 cormorant, 1 kingfisher, 2 Snipe, 25-30 Tufted, similar G.C. Grebe.
Cheers Ian.

a.m. today,
7 goosander, 2 goldeneye, 37 tufted, 3 pochard, 8 cormorant, 3 meadow pipet, 1 kingfisher, 3 snipe.

3/12/2007 Early Afternoon

5 Goosander (2 males)
5 Goldeneye
11 Cormorant
3 Pochard
2 Bullfinch

Sat 1st a.m.
15 goosander, 5 goldeneye, 14 pochard(the most I have seen here at one time), 2 teal, 200+ coot, 40 gt crested grebe, 8 cormorant and 2 snipe near the canal.
Sun 2nd a.m.
As yesterday except goosander have gone but also 3 teal, 3 snipe, 3 shovellor and 2 kingfisher.
Cheers Ian

This a.m. viewed from under the brolly!.
5 goosander, 4 pochard, 3 shovellor, 2 teal, 1 goldeneye also for the first this Autumn no redwing or fieldfare seen( Im not sure if I should be reporting none sightings but it just seemed unusual):

Cheers Ian

Noon,
Similar to yesterday, plus 6 pochard and a kingfisher.
Cheers Ian

This a.m.
23 mute swans, 39 great crested grebe, 2 wigeon, 2 shoveller, 9 cormorant, plus lots of tufted and coot and mallard and a single snipe.
Cheers Ian

This a.m.
On the Res. Usual swans, coots, tufted, cormorants plus 6 pochard and 1 shovelor.
On Withins 4 teal.
On the canal 2 female and 1 male stonechat.
Sorry! forgot 2 flyover gooseander

-- Edited by Ian Campbell at 19:43, 2007-11-11

4/11/2007

Kingfisher -2
Bullfinch - 1 female
GS Woodpecker - 1
Teal - 1
Little Grebe - 1
Shoveler - 2
Pochard - 2 male
Cormorants - 4
Tufted Duck - 20+
Fieldfare - 4
Redwing - 3
Grey Wagtails - 4
Herring Gull - 2
Lesser Black-backed - 2
One dead Canada Goose

Plus several Pipits, and loads of Long-tailed Tits, Blackbirds and Song Thrushes.


-- Edited by rezMole at 11:24, 2007-11-04

Friday 2/11/07 mid morning

4 Teal , 53 Tufted duck, Shoveler, Pochard, 14 GCG , 8 Cormorant, 80 Lapwing , Kingfisher, 3 Bullfinch, Redpoll over about 20 Chaffinch, 30 Blackbird and 7 Song Thrush.

Agree Ian absolutely huge numbers of Blackbirds this am, at least 200 and i never went all the way round. Also huge numbers of Chaffinch also had at least 80 Fieldfare and 20 Siskin over. No sign of Rock Pipit today.

Sun. early a.m. and very wet;
2 male pocharde still present, no sign of goldeneye(although rain on glasses and bins made it hard to see anything!), 6 teal, 30+ tufted, 3 snipe, 7cormorant,1 shovellor and 2 kingfisher. Lots of thrushes also about.

27/10/2007

Also this am....1 Fem Goosander and pair Teal Withins, 2 Shoveler, 2 male Pochard, 15 Cormorants main res plus the Goldeneye i think is a first winter male, 30 Tufted Duck, 45 Fieldfare, 10 Redwing, 4 Goldcrests, 4+ Grey Wagtails, 1 Herring Gull and 10 Snipe in the Dip. Plus loads of Blackbirds and Song Thrushes (alot more than usual).

Early a.m. today.
Rock pipet on wall of res. near pump house, I spent 10 minutes following it before I got good views with binoculars.Also 5 teal, 1 female/1st Winter goldeneye, 1 male pochard, 2 snipe and a kingfisher.
Cheers Ian.

Present this a.m.
3 pochard, 1 female goldeneye, 12 swans, 9 tufted, 7 cormorant, 1 kingfisher, small parties of redwing and
fieldfare, 3 snipe. Also lots of large dead bream floating on the surface, apparently due to blue/green algae.
Also(thanks to Judiths naming of the factory roof !) 25 lapwing on it, a much reduced number than recently.

-- Edited by Ian Campbell at 16:59, 2007-10-23

Ian - I think the factory roof across the Irwell from Elton Resr is the old McPherson's paint factory? If so the Lapwings have been there some years.