Now 6 Black Terns at 09:45am.

Info thanks to John Lyon

5 Black Terns (viewable from the relative dryness of Horrock's Hide) at 09:30 atleast this morning.

Info thanks to John Lyon

Lesser Whitethroat still 'rattling' away loudly to the right of Horrock's Hide around the Kidney Pond area. So loud I could hear it from over on the point!

5th June, early am

23 Black-tailed Godwits
2 Dunlin
Drake Garganey
Osprey flew west at 06:35 towards Lightshaw (see the Abram Flashes thread)

Info thanks to Barry Hulme

This morning 4th June

Drake Garganey on Teal Scrape
Reeling Grasshopper Warbler by the Plank Lane swing bridge
30 Black-tailed Godwits flew through west at 08:30

Info thanks to Barry Hulme and John Lyon

The drake Garganey was again on Teal Scrape early this morning

Info thanks to John Lyon

Had a quick look for noctule bats on Sandy Lane at 10.15pm last night and wandered down Green Lane. Surprised to find a fairly dense flock of 50+ tufted duck, mostly drakes, off Sorrowcow farm. More tufties arrived as I watched and I heard several more fly in as I walked back up the lane. A distant skylark was still singing over the rucks in the semi-darkness too.

Perhaps of interest to some of you. For the past two mornings at 6.50a.m., a Kingfisher has been perched in a leafless bush directly infront of the new Ramsdale Hide. Excellent close views to be had through the fence openings adjacent to the hide.

Today 1st June

23 Black-tailed Godwits landed briefly on Horrocks scrape this morning before heading off south

Info thanks to John Lyon

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please read ians free binocular thread above,no vulnerable breeding birds should be mentioned in posts

-- Edited by JOHN TYMON on Sunday 31st of May 2009 11:54:21 AM

-- Edited by Ian McKerchar on Sunday 31st of May 2009 06:12:40 PM

nice gentle walk round tonight, but just as we were leaving home there were 2 garden warblers outside my house in a tree, they were very vocal which is what alerted me to them as it's a song i was not familiar with and a most excellent tick for my road.
At Penny all the usuals , canada, mutes, mallard, bh gull, the red faced hybrid thingy me bob, not much at horrocks, several lapwing, 2 gadwall (1m &1f) lesserblack backgull, no2 hide heron oystercatcher, shoveler, tufted, gc grebe, on the walk round several blackcap, chiff chaff, lt tits, gs woodpecker flewover us and heard the garden warbler near the canal but could not see it even though i waited for a while listening to it. There was a fox on teal atthe back right as was heron and some gc grebe not much else to be seen. 3 rats at bunting along with greenfinch chaffinch, bullfinch, reed bunting, and just outside the entrance a little wren was happy to show off to us for a while .

sorry ian never realised i put ls woody just a typo !!! oops!

-- Edited by brandon mulhern on Saturday 30th of May 2009 10:42:59 PM

thanks chaps, i was about 90% sure. it was pretty showy considering they are supposed to be quite shy

Marvin Lewis wrote:

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I am sure the bird near the canal is a Garden Warbler.I had nice views of it a week ago,and heard it again today singing at the same spot.

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yep there is a garden warbler by the canal,1 by the teal hide and one near to the new hide,strange realy as they seem more common than sedge warblers at the flash at the moment,when 20 years ago there would be 20+ pairs of sedge,and no garden warblers,must be all the trees we planted

I am sure the bird near the canal is a Garden Warbler.I had nice views of it a week ago,and heard it again today singing at the same spot.

no sign of garganey this dinnertime

possible garden warbler near canal
female blackcap
reed warbler
gs woodpecker
whitethroat
2 buzzard

brilliant weather for birding today

-- Edited by Adam Dyson on Friday 29th of May 2009 03:22:10 PM

-- Edited by Adam Dyson on Friday 29th of May 2009 03:32:33 PM

Adam Dyson wrote:

---

drake garganey present at teal hide this afternoon

Thanks - I'll get to see it eventually - hopefully!

drake garganey present at teal hide this afternoon

also 2 grey wagtail
redshank
gs woodpecker
whitethroat (near canal)
reed warbler (ramsdale's)
hoorocks hide closed due to it being painted.

-- Edited by Adam Dyson on Thursday 28th of May 2009 04:08:17 PM

by the way was anyone in teal hide today, as i left my bloody bird book there and was hoping someone picked it up. thanks

-- Edited by Adam Dyson on Thursday 28th of May 2009 05:09:03 PM

-- Edited by Ian McKerchar on Thursday 28th of May 2009 09:02:33 PM

I've received no reports of it from Pennington all day today Pete

The fella who normally opens up the hides early is in scotland for a couple of weeks

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Thanks John! that explains it - does someone want to cheer me up and tell me the garganey wasn't there anyway today...

Pete Welch wrote:

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Went to have a look around this morning at 6.45am and due to gales decided Teal Hide was the best bet - sadly it was locked - early morning visits previously have seen the hides open - was this a one off or has vandalism become more of a problem? Not a complaint as I understand the need to protect the hides but wondered if anyone knew what the times/policy was? Anyway a confident Oystercatcher feeding near the play area cheered me up on the way back to my car!

---

The fella who normally opens up the hides early is in scotland for a couple of weeks

Went to have a look around this morning at 6.45am and due to gales decided Teal Hide was the best bet - sadly it was locked - early morning visits previously have seen the hides open - was this a one off or has vandalism become more of a problem? Not a complaint as I understand the need to protect the hides but wondered if anyone knew what the times/policy was? Anyway a confident Oystercatcher feeding near the play area cheered me up on the way back to my car!

2 Black necked grebes and drake garganey preset this morning

Info thanks to John Lyon

Drake Garganey still present from Teal hide at 1:30

Info thanks to John Tymon

look in the gallery on here,i photographed the female sparrowhawk the other week and its on there,it is a particularly big one

-- Edited by JOHN TYMON on Monday 25th of May 2009 08:05:49 AM

^^So John I am glad I'm not the only one that thinks shes big for a sparrowhawk.^^

Joey Eccles wrote:

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Thanks for the pics Brandon, at least the tick was in pencil

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We try to take pictures of everything we see as we are by no means experts, but we are getting better with a little help from our friends..... looks like the two bops we saw were m&f sparrowhawks which is nice to know.
Also took some shots at no:2 hide of a great crested grebe struggling to swallow a fish bigger than his big old beak could handle, lol took him an age to get it down!





-- Edited by brandon mulhern on Monday 25th of May 2009 09:37:39 AM

Thanks for the pics Brandon, at least the tick was in pencil

It was much bigger than the other bird, the picture shows the size diff quite well it does look like a sparrow hawk in the picture but to the eye at the time was far too big for one, none of the pictures show its head clearly so very difficult to tell. They were having a good old ding dong at each other for as long as they stayed in sight.

-- Edited by brandon mulhern on Sunday 24th of May 2009 09:39:01 PM

On the BoP - the bird disappearing to the right - male kestrel? and the other could be Sparrowhawk? - based on striped tail, shape wings are held in - I did wonder about Goshawk if the size difference was noticeable but I'm sure someone who knows what they are talking about will be along in a minute!

they may have been the little grebe that we saw between 6 and 7 along with an oyster catcher, several lapwing, shellduck, heron, lrp, shoveler and redshank we have some pictures if you wish to see them i will put a link on in the next few mins as we have only just got back. Blackcap, long tail, two mute swans with chicks on canal, and a very large black bird (i think biggest i have ever seen). gswoodpecker and chaffinch, bullfinch, robin, reed bunting in usual place. Pictures of them all in (of course).
i would love an opinion on something else we saw over hide no 2, 2 birds of prey fighting with each other, one much larger than the other. One did look like a kestrel/sparrowhawk the other i am not sure of. Take a look at the photo's and let me know your opinions.

https://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z302/agent-c/littlegrebe.jpg
https://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z302/agent-c/fightingbop.jpg
I have some more pictures of both sets of birds





-- Edited by brandon mulhern on Monday 25th of May 2009 05:46:09 PM

Joey,

Black-necked Grebes on Teal Scrape would be very unusual indeed and there have been no records from there, other than yours today. A pair were however at the western end of the flash today (and were present all day), could you PM me with some details, it would be a great record.

Decent 2 hrs this morning.

On main flash:

displaying grt crested grebes (3 pairs)
tufties
Strange mallard pair + aylesbury duck threesome that landed and flew off together
1 female mallard with 12(!) nearly fully grown ducklings.
2 mute swans
Lots of canada geese
1 Greylag goose

Horrocks hide

1 oystercatcher
2 common terns
2 gadwall
thanks to the nice chap who showed me the black headed gull nests.

Teal hide

2 little grebes (on closer inspection of pics) sorry for any confusion caused
Coot nests
blue tit
New hide

shoveler
canada geese with young

Bunting hide

Usual bullfinch
pair of reed bunting
female gsw

Also great views of chiff chaff
blackcap
whitethroat
around the park

plus usual tits finches e.t.c

-- Edited by Joey Eccles on Sunday 24th of May 2009 05:01:28 PM

-- Edited by Ian McKerchar on Sunday 24th of May 2009 08:21:05 PM

-- Edited by Joey Eccles on Sunday 24th of May 2009 10:14:52 PM

Hobby heading south-west over Teal hide at 12:40 today.

Info thanks to John Tymon

Wheatear on ruck at 10.30 today

2 Arctic Terns midday today

No Black Terns by 5:30pm but atleast one Dunlin present.

Tony Coatsworth wrote:

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Called in after work around 4pm - 2 Black Terns appeared ahead of a huge rain storm, so I dived back into the hide before I got soaked. Hello Mike BTW.

Then another 3 seemed to drop in for a brief spell before all disappearing as soon as the rain cleared.

Not much else about - a single Redshank on the spit and an Oystercatcher flew around - seen later on the Golf Course.

---

Nice to meet you Tony and a good find - thanks for letting me know! They did show again after you left (9 Common Terns also present) - I then went wandering off looking for the Garganey (futile).

Hope you avoided the subsequent showers.

Cheers

Mike

-- Edited by Mike Baron on Wednesday 20th of May 2009 06:02:56 PM

Called in after work around 4pm - 2 Black Terns appeared ahead of a huge rain storm, so I dived back into the hide before I got soaked. Hello Mike BTW.

Then another 3 seemed to drop in for a brief spell before all disappearing as soon as the rain cleared.

Not much else about - a single Redshank on the spit and an Oystercatcher flew around - seen later on the Golf Course.

Great afternoon here for my 2nd visit, had nephew in tow should have been revising...

Of note.....

Wigeon, Gadwall & Garganey at Horrocks Hide...
Reed Bunting pair at Leaning Post??
Whitethroat on bend nr Kingfisher Statue...

Dont know if he reads this forum, But cheers to Wayne for showing us around

Missed the Black terns by about 1 hour

Steve

5 Black Terns present at 4:20pm this afternoon.

Info thanks to Mike Baron

Male garganey present again this morning 08:45 showing from Horrocks Hide

Info thanks to John Lyon

Hi Mike,
-Many thanks for your update re Garganey and Little Egret.
In spite of possibility that the've gone, they could just be keeping low key and of course loads of things can turn up at this time of the year, so we'll probably call in anyway, (I don't need much of an excuse to do a few hours birding, and it would be really good to find something).
Cheers,
Mike

Mike Passant wrote:

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My wife and I shall be passing through the area tomorrow, and could easily call into Pennington en route.
I should be most grateful if updates on the Garganey and the Little Egret could possibly be posted tonight, ( even if it is negative news).
Kind Regards,
Mike P

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Had a quick mooch around after work - no sign of Garagney or Little Egret, Mike.

Obviously it doesn't mean they wont be back or, in the case of the Garganey, skulking in the reeds.

A Dunlin on the spit was the only bird of note this evening.

Mike

My wife and I shall be passing through the area tomorrow, and could easily call into Pennington en route.
I should be most grateful if updates on the Garganey and the Little Egret could possibly be posted tonight, ( even if it is negative news).
Kind Regards,
Mike P

Drake Garganey on Teal scrape at 2pm today

Into thanks to John Lyon

ANYONE KNOW IF THE EGRET IS SHOWING WELLI MAY MAKE A DASH AFTER WORK IF ITS STILL PRESENT.

The Little Egret then moved to in front of New Hide by 11am. Also still present 2 Black-necked Grebes and 8 Black-tailed Godwits flew through south at 10:08am.

Info thanks to John Lyon

Little Egret on Ramsdales Ruck at 09:50, view from Horrocks Hide

Info thanks to John Lyon

Geoff Hargreaves wrote:

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hirundines all over,cracking skylark,meadow pipit views,common terns observed and sent myself dizzy trying to i d an artic amongst them (almost a faint tick)plus a bonus of 3 million ladies running/jogging/strolling/walking/crawling and then some being carried around the course of a charity event.

cheers geoff

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....Come on Geoff, you're expecting us to believe you were there by pure chance?? With all those women jiggling past you wouldn't have noticed an Arctic Tern had it started nest-building on your scope. I bet all that was missing was some Benny Hill music

Mid morning from the boatclub and rucks area

hirundines all over,cracking skylark,meadow pipit views,common terns observed and sent myself dizzy trying to i d an artic amongst them (almost a faint tick)plus a bonus of 3 million ladies running/jogging/strolling/walking/crawling and then some being carried around the course of a charity event.

best of the visit 2 proud shelduck with 10/12 ducklings (distant views)

cheers geoff