I agree Henry, I felt very priviliged. Got a couple of decent photo's too.
Henry Cook said
Fri May 13 8:28 PM, 2011
Very rare to see Water Rail chicks Nick, a great achievement.
Nick Isherwood said
Fri May 13 2:50 PM, 2011
Another short morning visit here today produced the following highlights:
1 Green Woodpecker - flew from bed 3 across to the Ship canal near the viewing screen 1 Greater Spotted Woodpecker 1 Garden Warbler heard singing from near the Sybil Hogg hide. 2 Water Rail with 8 chicks viewed from the furthest hide (don't know its name).
Also, numerous Reed and Sedge warblers and Whitethroats and Blackcaps plus about c50 Swifts above the main pool.
-- Edited by Nick Isherwood on Friday 13th of May 2011 02:51:00 PM
Nick Isherwood said
Tue May 10 7:43 PM, 2011
A lovely morning visit here from 9.30am to 12.00pm.
Highlights were:
2 Cuckoo (1 seen next to Tower hide and 1 heard only) 3 Black Necked Grebe A Water Rail was also seen on a few occasions from the John Morgan hide just before I arrived. Also, I got a few photo's of Black Headed Gulls collecting nest material in front of the viewing screen. One of the birds has a ring on with what looks like 5836 on it.
John Barber said
Mon May 9 6:04 PM, 2011
Alan
Interesting to hear that last week's Bar- tail was only the second bird in 19 years.
With the new wader friendly scrape in front of the main hide, I think it's likely many more waders will start dropping in on a regular basis. Lets hope so, and top marks to the lads at WECG for their hard work in improving the site.
PS Any chance of an artificial Sand Martin cliff - that would be good !!
alan patterson said
Mon May 9 3:37 PM, 2011
John Barber wrote:
A little more information:
I checked the postings for Pennington Flash and a Bar-tailed Godwit was reported on Tuesday 3rd May. Chances are this may have been the same bird.
Just been speaking to one of the founders of the WECG and the last Bartail Godwit was 2008 but the one before that was 1992. So not a common bird.
alan patterson said
Mon May 9 2:37 PM, 2011
Just had a phone call to say there are 2 Black Terns on No 3 bed from the John Morgan Hide. I was going to set off on the 2 mile walk there but it is now heavy rain, rather windy and the final straw is I am not too keen on the thunder and lightning!
The Bartail Godwit stayed till the following day!
Rick Donkin said
Sun May 8 11:37 PM, 2011
Main highlights this afternoon :-
5 Black necked Grebes 1 Little Grebe 4 Sedge Warblers 1 Reed Warbler 3 Reed Buntings Great Crested Grebes 4/5 Buzzards 1 Kestrel 2 Jays 1 Water Rail - smashing views, well out in the open for a couple of minutes 1 Redshank 6 Pochards 3 Shelducks Whitethroats, Willow Warblers and Chiffchaffs plus many other of the more common species giving a total of 40.
Rick.
-- Edited by Rick Donkin on Sunday 8th of May 2011 11:40:44 PM
John Barber said
Sat May 7 5:46 PM, 2011
A little more information:
I checked the postings for Pennington Flash and a Bar-tailed Godwit was reported on Tuesday 3rd May. Chances are this may have been the same bird.
alan patterson said
Fri May 6 10:59 PM, 2011
John Barber wrote:
Hi Alan,
It was me who reported the Bar-tailed Godwit at Woolston. I'm afraid I didn't enter the sighting into the log book but I did put the details on the Nobo board.
I noticed that there were three Black-tailed Godwits reported on no.3 bed a couple of days ago, but I'm pretty sure this was a Bar-tailed It was only 25 yds away in front of the main hide and had a definate slight upcurved bill and managed to fan it's tail very nicely and show the pale bars. I hope someone else gets over to confirm the bird.
Along with the Godwit there was also a Redshank ( with which it kept fairly close company ) and a little later they were joined by an Oystercatcher - almost felt as though I was at IMF !
Hi John, Thanks for the reply, the Bar Tail Godwit as I said earlier is not a common sighting for Woolston, so its a good record and I will add it to my records.One of my tasks is to submit all the log book records onto the "RECORD" web site at the end of the year.
Permit holders have asked for the notice boards to be placed in the hides so they can see what birds of interest have been seen. However to ensure records do not get overlooked we still need the log book to be used for our main source of sightings.
John Barber said
Fri May 6 7:11 PM, 2011
Hi Alan,
It was me who reported the Bar-tailed Godwit at Woolston. I'm afraid I didn't enter the sighting into the log book but I did put the details on the Nobo board.
I noticed that there were three Black-tailed Godwits reported on no.3 bed a couple of days ago, but I'm pretty sure this was a Bar-tailed It was only 25 yds away in front of the main hide and had a definate slight upcurved bill and managed to fan it's tail very nicely and show the pale bars. I hope someone else gets over to confirm the bird.
Along with the Godwit there was also a Redshank ( with which it kept fairly close company ) and a little later they were joined by an Oystercatcher - almost felt as though I was at IMF !
Nick Isherwood said
Fri May 6 6:50 PM, 2011
alan patterson wrote:
I have just got back from buying a pair of binoculars and the salesperson knows I am a Warden at Woolston so he told me a Bar Tail Godwit was being reoprted on his pager on No 3 bed Woolston ( Permit only) at 3.15.
Its the first one reported in the 10 years I have been going to Woolston. I have no idea who reported it and I hope that they entered it in the log book! I heard last night that some one had seen c30 Waxwings on several occasions before xmas on No 4 bed and only reported them now when bumping into a warden.They would have been a nice record for our annual report that will be out later in the year.
-- Edited by alan patterson on Friday 6th of May 2011 06:00:15 PM
Alan, the barwit was reported by John Barber (a friend of mine). He told me earlier by text. I'll find out if he put it in the log book.
alan patterson said
Fri May 6 5:59 PM, 2011
I have just got back from buying a pair of binoculars and the salesperson knows I am a Warden at Woolston so he told me a Bar Tail Godwit was being reoprted on his pager on No 3 bed Woolston ( Permit only) at 3.15.
Its the first one reported in the 10 years I have been going to Woolston. I have no idea who reported it and I hope that they entered it in the log book! I heard last night that some one had seen c30 Waxwings on several occasions before xmas on No 4 bed and only reported them now when bumping into a warden.They would have been a nice record for our annual report that will be out later in the year.
-- Edited by alan patterson on Friday 6th of May 2011 06:00:15 PM
Adam Jones said
Sat Apr 23 4:33 PM, 2011
Saturday 23rd April 6.15-8.30am
I didn't manage to locate the R N Duck or the Graganey this morning, but did locate two different Grass Hopper Warblers. Both were showing very wellmoutside the Frank Linley hide area. Other birds of note were 4 B N Grebes, 2 Little Grebes, 2 G B B Gull, 1 Buzzard between number 3 bed and the canal. Lots of Whitethroat and Chiff chaff.
alan patterson said
Sat Apr 23 3:14 PM, 2011
Arrived at No 3bed around 7.30 this morning and I finally found the Ring Neck Duck at about 11 am. I saw it from the Tower hide which is just before our toilet. It was with a group of Pochard and did move out of sight behind the reeds that stretch out in the middle of the pool. I failed to locate the Garganey so got back about 1pm. I did get good views of 1 Gropper and heard at least 2 more. Re the R.N. Duck is to try and find a group of about 8 Pochard first!
Sorry for the late posting but I have just woken up after falling asleep in the chair, my only excuse is all the miles I have put in this last week while my wifes away.
-- Edited by alan patterson on Saturday 23rd of April 2011 03:15:32 PM
John Barber said
Fri Apr 22 6:12 PM, 2011
Quite an exciting afternoon at Woolston today.
Arrived at the main new hide to find two highly excited birders observing possible Honey Buzzard over the lagoon on No.3 bed. This bird came and went several times over the next 15 minutes giving reasonable views until chased off by a ' standard ' buzzard.
A little later a Black Winged Turn briefly turned up, again over no.3 lagoon, followed by sightings of the pair of Garganey resident at the moment.
Thanks to Sid Ashton for spotting my 'deliberate ' mistake - the Black Winged Turn should obviously read: Black Tern.
-- Edited by John Barber on Saturday 23rd of April 2011 10:25:01 AM
Brian Burnett said
Fri Apr 22 2:14 PM, 2011
Great Morning on the eyes Drake Ring-necked duck at weir till 8:30 then relocated to No 3 Bed. Also pair of Garganey in front of Frank Linley hide. White throats,Chiffchaff and Blackcaps everywhere and Grasshoppers warblers heard .
Brian and Helen Burnett
alan patterson said
Thu Apr 21 7:00 PM, 2011
My intended quick visit to see the Ring Neck Duck did not quite work out as planned. I found it easy enough on the Weir Pool about 11.00am and it was still there when I left to walk home about 12.30.
As I had to pass the gate to No 3 bed I decided to have a quick look at the birds on the bed but finished up helping finish off fitting a new door to one of the hides! Then I met a friend as I was leaving so I took him to the Weir pool arriving about 3pm to find a group of dissapointed birders as the bird had not been seen for about an hour. I did however manage to re locate it on No 3 bed were it was staying very close to a group of Pochard. It was still there when we left at 5.15. It was at the back of the centre pool off to the left and it would disapear into the reeds with the Pochard for a while.
alan patterson said
Thu Apr 21 9:30 AM, 2011
Alan
The RND was on the weir pool early am doing what this species seems to do best - sleeping!
Mike
Thanks for that Mike, I am glad its just a 6 mile treck, did not fancy trecking up towards the viaduct looking for it after failing to find it last night.
Mike Baron said
Thu Apr 21 9:08 AM, 2011
alan patterson wrote:
The Ring neck Duck has been reported on a web site this morning as being on the River Mersey at Woolston Weir. I have no more information as to its exact poistion, it could be on the Weir Pool or a little higher up the Mersey towards the Thelwall Viaduct, I doubt if it was below the weir.
The bird must have been reported from the public footpath at the wier and so a permit would not be needed so long as the bird does not get disturbed and flew onto No 3 bed.
Alan
The RND was on the weir pool early am doing what this species seems to do best - sleeping!
Mike
alan patterson said
Thu Apr 21 8:22 AM, 2011
The Ring neck Duck has been reported on a web site this morning as being on the River Mersey at Woolston Weir. I have no more information as to its exact poistion, it could be on the Weir Pool or a little higher up the Mersey towards the Thelwall Viaduct, I doubt if it was below the weir.
The bird must have been reported from the public footpath at the wier and so a permit would not be needed so long as the bird does not get disturbed and flew onto No 3 bed.
alan patterson said
Wed Apr 20 10:34 PM, 2011
I arrived at the weir about 6.30pm and found 14 Tufted Duck on the weir pool. I spent 45 min scanning the pool but had no signs of the Ring Neck Duck. However as I arrived I got a brief view of a small group of Tufted Ducks dropping onto No 3 bed, so its possible it may have dropped onto No 3 bed ( No 3 bed is Permit only)
I decided not to stop and have a look on No 3 bed on my way home as I was a bit shattered having been tramping round Leasowe all day and I was not relishing my 3 mile walk to get home.
alan patterson said
Wed Apr 20 5:11 PM, 2011
Just got back from the Wirral and there was a message left on my answer machine at 2pm to say a Ring Neck Duck had been confirmed at Woolston.
The bird is with a group of Tufted Duck on the Weir Pool
alan patterson said
Tue Apr 12 9:04 PM, 2011
No 3 bed was surprisingly busy today the new hide was full up. There was 2 Dunlin on the scape in front of the Centre Hide which is not a common sight even close enough to get a photo of them with my new Cannon SX30 bridge camera. A Marsh Harrier spent quite a time on the bed getting mobbbed by 2 Buzzards as well as the hundreds of Black Headed Gulls. However I never managed to get a shot of the Harrier I will blame it on the camera!
Saw a couple of Snipe flying about and 8BNG was the besst count for the day. Lots of Warblers, all Willow W, Chiffchaff or Blackcap.
alan patterson said
Sun Apr 10 7:45 PM, 2011
Lots of Chiffchaff, Willow Warblers and Blackcap on the reserve, several Reed Warblers reeling in front of the Tower Hide but not seen. I did however find 2 adult Med Gulls that I pointed out to a photographer who even managed a flight shot of 1 bird as they flew off. I had no luck with Grasshopper Warblers but one was reported on No 3 bed yesterday.
All 3 species of Grebes were seen at the same time with good numbers of Great Crested Grebe.
Adam Jones said
Sat Apr 9 6:58 PM, 2011
Saturday 9th April 6.00-9.00am
Fantastic morning in the sun and met some lovely other birders to boot. Highlight for me was seeing my first Snipe, swiftly followed by a second flying through.(kindly pointed out by Dave Bowman and his companion) 3 BNG 3 Grey Heron 1 GSW 1 Reed Bunting 1 Greenfinch 4 Shellduck 5 Cormorant 2 Pheasant Lots of the usual stuff but lots of Chiffchaff and Blackcaps
alan patterson said
Fri Apr 8 10:29 AM, 2011
BNG numbers are quite variable at the moment as at this time of year they do tend to move around the area, only 8 reported yesterday. Warbler numbers are building up with a total of 91 Chiffcahaff, 14 Willow Warblers and 10 Blackcaps reported by one warden.
alan patterson said
Tue Apr 5 8:11 PM, 2011
Hi Jason,
I missed the Med Gulls having left the other wardens as I went to go and look for the Winter plummge BNG. I know they were picked up in flight and dont think they landed on the bed. Kieran picked up a Nuthatch on No 3 bed which caused great excitemnt as it is quite scarce at Woolston! I have had a Med Gull this year but that was on the beach at Hartlepool. Judes dad lives in Durham so go to Hartlepool when I get the chance.
Its starting to look like a good year for the Grebes with birds on several sites, I had one on Wigan Flashes this morning and at least 4 at Houghton green.
Dont think I will be down on No 3 bed at 5.45 in the morning and will most likely not get down at all so will miss you.
jason atkinson said
Tue Apr 5 7:32 PM, 2011
Hi Alan,
As i was otherwise engaged this weekend on other ringing duties i was in contact with Kieran to see what i was missing. Other than the birds you have posted he also had 2 Med Gulls (not caught i must add), not sure if they were on the bed or over. Have you seen any? Will catch up with you down there at some point, probably a 5.45 start on Saturday but will be around until at least 1pm.
cheers
jason
alan patterson said
Sat Apr 2 8:58 PM, 2011
Hi Nick,
The Ringers on No 3 bed had 2 Blackcap, 1 Willow Warbler and several Brambing this morning. I met a couple of newbie birders and they had realy enjoyed watching these birds being ringed. The ringers on No 3 bed are more than happy to let you watch you need to be a bit of an early bird though. The net runs on No 3 bed tend to be starting close to the circular path on the bed so they tend to pull in the same birds you get from any of the hides. They start at dawn and down every Saturday so they do stand the best chance of picking up the rarites and in my time the only one I can think of on No 3 bed were a Nightingale, Firecrest and a Serin, and they have to be released fairly quickly by law. However it was not a ringer who picked out the 4 Whiskered Terns a few years back
Sadly its not possible to watch the ringers on No 2 or 3 bed but that realy is out of our hands as its one of Peel Holdings conditions.
Re No 3 bed , we have had an influx of new BNG over night as I had 12 today and I missed the winter plummage bird. We have a few newly aquired nesting platforms that you may have noticed. They are not for Terns but for Black Headed Gulls, we were concerned about the low No of Gulls last year and BNG tend to like good Gull colonays. It will be interesting to see how they work out.
Nick Isherwood said
Sat Apr 2 6:58 PM, 2011
alan patterson wrote:
Hi Nick,
Saturday mornings can be interesting as the ringing team are out and they can pull in a few interesting birds, though photos of birds in the hand are not the most desireable photo.
I know what you mean there Alan. The ringers do seem to find some really good birds but then again, they do have access to areas that us watchers don't!!
alan patterson said
Fri Apr 1 11:24 PM, 2011
Hi Nick,
The BNG are still moving about from site to site , Brian could only find 4 today including one pale bird but not the Winter plummage bird. It will be interesting to see where it finishes up at.
I am down in the morning to meet up with some of the other wardens and will see how many I can find. Saturday mornings can be interesting as the ringing team are out and they can pull in a few interesting birds, though photos of birds in the hand are not the most desireable photo.
Nick Isherwood said
Fri Apr 1 2:45 PM, 2011
alan patterson wrote:
Nick Isherwood wrote:
A pleasant couple of hours down here today.
Highlights were:
5 BNG (3 Frank Linley hide, 1 Tower Hide, 1 John Morgan hide).
2 House Martin high over tower hide.
1 Water Rail (heard only) from tower hide.
4 Chiffchaff
Also really good views of a heron fishing and coming out with a small perch every go. Managed to get some good photo's of it.
Hi Nick,
Glad you had a good day, one of the Wardens had 8 BNG, did you see one bird that was still in winter plummage which was seen the other day? This bird was seen by one of the founders of the WECG and it was the first bird he had seen in over 25 years in winter plummage!
Hi Alan,
All the BNG I saw were in summer plumage.
alan patterson said
Fri Apr 1 9:58 AM, 2011
Nick Isherwood wrote:
A pleasant couple of hours down here today.
Highlights were:
5 BNG (3 Frank Linley hide, 1 Tower Hide, 1 John Morgan hide).
2 House Martin high over tower hide.
1 Water Rail (heard only) from tower hide.
4 Chiffchaff
Also really good views of a heron fishing and coming out with a small perch every go. Managed to get some good photo's of it.
Hi Nick,
Glad you had a good day, one of the Wardens had 8 BNG, did you see one bird that was still in winter plummage which was seen the other day? This bird was seen by one of the founders of the WECG and it was the first bird he had seen in over 25 years in winter plummage!
Nick Isherwood said
Thu Mar 31 8:08 PM, 2011
A pleasant couple of hours down here today.
Highlights were:
5 BNG (3 Frank Linley hide, 1 Tower Hide, 1 John Morgan hide).
2 House Martin high over tower hide.
1 Water Rail (heard only) from tower hide.
4 Chiffchaff
Also really good views of a heron fishing and coming out with a small perch every go. Managed to get some good photo's of it.
Nick Isherwood said
Thu Feb 10 6:25 PM, 2011
A nice couple of hours here this afternoon. Highlights were 4 pintail from john morgan hide along with 4 wigeon. Also 2 snipe from frank linley hide. Also a redwing seen near the canal that looked quite different at first due to the light. Had me flapping for a minute or two. No sign of the bittern.
alan patterson said
Tue Feb 8 11:01 AM, 2011
Hi Rob,
Yes!
I dont know if anyone saw it yesterday, on Sunday it was seen flying from the right of the centre hide and flew in front of the hide and eventualy droped into the reeds. Dont know more than that.
Rob Smallwood said
Tue Feb 8 10:12 AM, 2011
Was it the Bittern?
alan patterson said
Mon Feb 7 9:49 PM, 2011
I am down in Dorset and I have just looked at the WECG web site, and found a very interesting record for Sunday. If any members are planning a visit in the next few days its worth checking the WECG web site to see what it was
alan patterson said
Thu Feb 3 11:23 AM, 2011
Hi Pete,
You are correct about this time of year being good forsightings of Scaup and as you say that is the best spot for them. We did not have any when we did the jan WEBS count it will be interesting to see if we get them in the Feb WEBS count, not sure if its this Sunday or next Sunday. I usualy help with the count on No 3 bed and some one else does the Weir and follows the river bank path up beyond the Viaduct as you can get a lot of Tufted Duck up in that area. I have not done that walk for ages I think it ends opposite the old tip on No 1 bed, think that may be where Butchers Field is.
Alan
Pete Astles said
Thu Feb 3 9:25 AM, 2011
Just reading my log book last night. Have seen scaup for the last few years always about this time of the year and always above the weir either up or below the footbridge. Always worth a close scan there.
alan patterson said
Tue Feb 1 6:35 PM, 2011
Julie Unwin wrote:
Hi Alan I was there on Sunday with Ian and we saw 5 bramblings together at one point and 2 different willow tits (different rings).
Hi Julie, Thanks , I will add them to my list to update.
Julie Unwin said
Tue Feb 1 4:26 PM, 2011
Hi Alan I was there on Sunday with Ian and we saw 5 bramblings together at one point and 2 different willow tits (different rings).
alan patterson said
Tue Feb 1 10:20 AM, 2011
Pete Astles wrote:
Alan no sorry I did.nt. I did not count but there was a lot of siskins maybe 10 / 15. I only saw maybe 2 /3 Brambling and the 1 Willow Tit. I will use the book next time.
Hi Pete, Thanks for the numbers of Siskin and Brambling, I will add your records to our computer records. I have the task of entering all the log book records onto the "RECORD" web site so we dont want to miss records such as your Scaup sighting. Some of the common birds tend to get overlooked and we would like to see more records of the common birds if seen in significant nos of say 10+. We often see lists of birds seen that have no numbers attached. So it would help us greatly if any one visiting could add records to the log book even though it makes more work for me to enter them onto Record web site
Pete Astles said
Mon Jan 31 8:49 PM, 2011
Alan no sorry I did.nt. I did not count but there was a lot of siskins maybe 10 / 15. I only saw maybe 2 /3 Brambling and the 1 Willow Tit. I will use the book next time.
alan patterson said
Sun Jan 30 10:44 PM, 2011
Pete Astles wrote:
John Morgan Brambling, Siskin, Reed Bunting, Willow Tit. Weir Goldeneye, Dabchick and three scaup including a lovely drake on the river just above the bridge by the cottages. On bridge to reserve about 70 redwings on the trees. Lovely atmospheric day particularly late on.
Hi Pete, Did you put any of the sightings in the log book in the first hide? If not if you let me know the numbers of Brambling and Siskin ect I will enter them myself as they are good records for next years annual report. I think the Scaup are the first of the year.
Pete Astles said
Sun Jan 30 9:27 PM, 2011
John Morgan Brambling, Siskin, Reed Bunting, Willow Tit. Weir Goldeneye, Dabchick and three scaup including a lovely drake on the river just above the bridge by the cottages. On bridge to reserve about 70 redwings on the trees. Lovely atmospheric day particularly late on.
Ian McKerchar said
Fri Jan 28 5:58 PM, 2011
I spent a very cold morning at No 3 bed with one of the founders of the group, the pools were mainly frozen over. 200+ teal were tucked in along the far banks along with a few Pochard and Shoveler.
Originally posted by Alan Patterson today:
The feeders at the centre pool were very active and at one point 11 Barmbling were on view, 3 at LH Feeder and 8 at the RH feeder. There were quite a few Long Tail Tits and a Willow Tit was also feeding with up to 10 Bullfinch. One member arrived to say he had seen a nice flock of c12 Siskin and he had taken some nice photos of them near the Old Tower Hide.
The ringers have ringed a lot of new Brambling this year and a flock of 40+ has been seen. On the way out a nice flock of 24 Redwigs flew through near the Sybil Hogg Hide.
A lot of work has been done on No 3 bed recently, and areas have been cleared in front of the Old Tower Hide, the Centre Hide and the Linley Hide. The work done at the Old Tower Hide will hopefully give the same good views of Water Rail as it did last year and with luck a few BNGrebes may even swim in to give closer views. The work at the Linley hide we hope will provide a loafing area for duck as well as open up the view of the pool to give better views of the BNG. I hope that the work we have done recently will give photographers the chance to get the shots they want from the hides provided. I would like to say we have not had reports of Photographers disturbing the birds to get better shots which sadly happens more than it should at other sites!
Pete Astles said
Sun Jan 23 9:05 PM, 2011
Went down this afternoon great views of a Buzzard by the bridge entrance about thirty feet away looking at me. Seemed almost tame I thought it might be a falconers bird. Otherwise not much about.
alan patterson said
Wed Jan 12 5:03 PM, 2011
The highlight of this New Year has to be the record count of over 2,600 Tufted Duck recorded on the reserve on Jan 5th 1011. There were over 1200 of them packed into the Weir Basin which must have been an amazing sight.
I have just finished entering the log book records onto the computer to help with our Annual Report and an interesting record for 10th Dec was a female Mandarin at the Weir. There have been quite a few sightings of Brambling and also several records of Woodcock, a bird I failed to get for my own year list, you need a bit of luck with them.
I am down on Sunday morning for the WEBS count and hopefully we should have another good count of Tifties!
1 Green Woodpecker - flew from bed 3 across to the Ship canal near the viewing screen
1 Greater Spotted Woodpecker
1 Garden Warbler heard singing from near the Sybil Hogg hide.
2 Water Rail with 8 chicks viewed from the furthest hide (don't know its name).
Also, numerous Reed and Sedge warblers and Whitethroats and Blackcaps plus about c50 Swifts above the main pool.
-- Edited by Nick Isherwood on Friday 13th of May 2011 02:51:00 PM
Highlights were:
2 Cuckoo (1 seen next to Tower hide and 1 heard only)
3 Black Necked Grebe
A Water Rail was also seen on a few occasions from the John Morgan hide just before I arrived.
Also, I got a few photo's of Black Headed Gulls collecting nest material in front of the viewing screen. One of the birds has a ring on with what looks like 5836 on it.
Interesting to hear that last week's Bar- tail was only the second bird in 19 years.
With the new wader friendly scrape in front of the main hide, I think it's likely many more waders will start dropping in on a regular basis. Lets hope so, and top marks to the lads at WECG for their hard work in improving the site.
PS Any chance of an artificial Sand Martin cliff - that would be good !!
Just been speaking to one of the founders of the WECG and the last Bartail Godwit was 2008 but the one before that was 1992. So not a common bird.
The Bartail Godwit stayed till the following day!
5 Black necked Grebes
1 Little Grebe
4 Sedge Warblers
1 Reed Warbler
3 Reed Buntings
Great Crested Grebes
4/5 Buzzards
1 Kestrel
2 Jays
1 Water Rail - smashing views, well out in the open for a couple of minutes
1 Redshank
6 Pochards
3 Shelducks
Whitethroats, Willow Warblers and Chiffchaffs plus many other of the more common species giving a total of 40.
Rick.
-- Edited by Rick Donkin on Sunday 8th of May 2011 11:40:44 PM
I checked the postings for Pennington Flash and a Bar-tailed Godwit was reported on Tuesday 3rd May. Chances are this may have been the same bird.
Hi John, Thanks for the reply, the Bar Tail Godwit as I said earlier is not a common sighting for Woolston, so its a good record and I will add it to my records.One of my tasks is to submit all the log book records onto the "RECORD" web site at the end of the year.
Permit holders have asked for the notice boards to be placed in the hides so they can see what birds of interest have been seen. However to ensure records do not get overlooked we still need the log book to be used for our main source of sightings.
It was me who reported the Bar-tailed Godwit at Woolston. I'm afraid I didn't enter the sighting into the log book but I did put the details on the Nobo board.
I noticed that there were three Black-tailed Godwits reported on no.3 bed a couple of days ago, but I'm pretty sure this was a Bar-tailed It was only 25 yds away in front of the main hide and had a definate slight upcurved bill and managed to fan it's tail very nicely and show the pale bars. I hope someone else gets over to confirm the bird.
Along with the Godwit there was also a Redshank ( with which it kept fairly close company ) and a little later they were joined by an Oystercatcher - almost felt as though I was at IMF !
Alan, the barwit was reported by John Barber (a friend of mine). He told me earlier by text. I'll find out if he put it in the log book.
Its the first one reported in the 10 years I have been going to Woolston. I have no idea who reported it and I hope that they entered it in the log book! I heard last night that some one had seen c30 Waxwings on several occasions before xmas on No 4 bed and only reported them now when bumping into a warden.They would have been a nice record for our annual report that will be out later in the year.
-- Edited by alan patterson on Friday 6th of May 2011 06:00:15 PM
I didn't manage to locate the R N Duck or the Graganey this morning, but did locate two different Grass Hopper Warblers.
Other birds of note were 4 B N Grebes, 2 Little Grebes, 2 G B B Gull, 1 Buzzard between number 3 bed and the canal. Lots of Whitethroat and Chiff chaff.
Sorry for the late posting but I have just woken up after falling asleep in the chair, my only excuse is all the miles I have put in this last week while my wifes away.
-- Edited by alan patterson on Saturday 23rd of April 2011 03:15:32 PM
Arrived at the main new hide to find two highly excited birders observing possible Honey Buzzard over the lagoon on No.3 bed. This bird came and went several times over the next 15 minutes giving reasonable views until chased off by a ' standard ' buzzard.
A little later a Black Winged Turn briefly turned up, again over no.3 lagoon, followed by sightings of the pair of Garganey resident at the moment.
Thanks to Sid Ashton for spotting my 'deliberate ' mistake - the Black Winged Turn should obviously read: Black Tern.
-- Edited by John Barber on Saturday 23rd of April 2011 10:25:01 AM
Brian and Helen Burnett
I found it easy enough on the Weir Pool about 11.00am and it was still there when I left to walk home about 12.30.
As I had to pass the gate to No 3 bed I decided to have a quick look at the birds on the bed but finished up helping finish off fitting a new door to one of the hides! Then I met a friend as I was leaving so I took him to the Weir pool arriving about 3pm to find a group of dissapointed birders as the bird had not been seen for about an hour. I did however manage to re locate it on No 3 bed
Alan
The RND was on the weir pool early am doing what this species seems to do best - sleeping!
Mike
Thanks for that Mike, I am glad its just a 6 mile treck, did not fancy trecking up towards the viaduct looking for it after failing to find it last night.
Alan
The RND was on the weir pool early am doing what this species seems to do best - sleeping!
Mike
The bird must have been reported from the public footpath at the wier and so a permit would not be needed so long as the bird does not get disturbed and flew onto No 3 bed.
I decided not to stop and have a look on No 3 bed on my way home as I was a bit shattered having been tramping round Leasowe all day and I was not relishing my 3 mile walk to get home.
The bird is with a group of Tufted Duck on the Weir Pool
Saw a couple of Snipe flying about and 8BNG was the besst count for the day. Lots of Warblers, all Willow W, Chiffchaff or Blackcap.
All 3 species of Grebes were seen at the same time with good numbers of Great Crested Grebe.
Fantastic morning in the sun and met some lovely other birders to boot.
Highlight for me was seeing my first Snipe, swiftly followed by a second flying through.(kindly pointed out by Dave Bowman and his companion)
3 BNG
3 Grey Heron
1 GSW
1 Reed Bunting
1 Greenfinch
4 Shellduck
5 Cormorant
2 Pheasant
Lots of the usual stuff but lots of Chiffchaff and Blackcaps
Yes!
I dont know if anyone saw it yesterday, on Sunday it was seen flying from the right of the centre hide and flew in front of the hide and eventualy droped into the reeds. Dont know more than that.
You are correct about this time of year being good forsightings of Scaup and as you say that is the best spot for them. We did not have any when we did the jan WEBS count it will be interesting to see if we get them in the Feb WEBS count, not sure if its this Sunday or next Sunday. I usualy help with the count on No 3 bed and some one else does the Weir and follows the river bank path up beyond the Viaduct as you can get a lot of Tufted Duck up in that area. I have not done that walk for ages I think it ends opposite the old tip on No 1 bed, think that may be where Butchers Field is.
Alan
Hi Julie, Thanks , I will add them to my list to update.
Hi Pete, Thanks for the numbers of Siskin and Brambling, I will add your records to our computer records. I have the task of entering all the log book records onto the "RECORD" web site so we dont want to miss records such as your Scaup sighting. Some of the common birds tend to get overlooked and we would like to see more records of the common birds if seen in significant nos of say 10+. We often see lists of birds seen that have no numbers attached. So it would help us greatly if any one visiting could add records to the log book even though it makes more work for me to enter them onto Record web site
Hi Pete, Did you put any of the sightings in the log book in the first hide? If not if you let me know the numbers of Brambling and Siskin ect I will enter them myself as they are good records for next years annual report. I think the Scaup are the first of the year.
Originally posted by Alan Patterson today:
The feeders at the centre pool were very active and at one point 11 Barmbling were on view, 3 at LH Feeder and 8 at the RH feeder. There were quite a few Long Tail Tits and a Willow Tit was also feeding with up to 10 Bullfinch. One member arrived to say he had seen a nice flock of c12 Siskin and he had taken some nice photos of them near the Old Tower Hide.
The ringers have ringed a lot of new Brambling this year and a flock of 40+ has been seen. On the way out a nice flock of 24 Redwigs flew through near the Sybil Hogg Hide.
A lot of work has been done on No 3 bed recently, and areas have been cleared in front of the Old Tower Hide, the Centre Hide and the Linley Hide. The work done at the Old Tower Hide will hopefully give the same good views of Water Rail as it did last year and with luck a few BNGrebes may even swim in to give closer views. The work at the Linley hide we hope will provide a loafing area for duck as well as open up the view of the pool to give better views of the BNG. I hope that the work we have done recently will give photographers the chance to get the shots they want from the hides provided. I would like to say we have not had reports of Photographers disturbing the birds to get better shots which sadly happens more than it should at other sites!
I have just finished entering the log book records onto the computer to help with our Annual Report and an interesting record for 10th Dec was a female Mandarin at the Weir. There have been quite a few sightings of Brambling and also several records of Woodcock, a bird I failed to get for my own year list, you need a bit of luck with them.
I am down on Sunday morning for the WEBS count and hopefully we should have another good count of Tifties!