First post so hello,

Today at Pennington.

Nuthatch, even got a picture of it. It was in and out of the bunting hide most of the morning.


Peregrine falcon overhead.

3 Buzzards reported but I did not see them.

-- Edited by Ian McKerchar at 20:49, 2007-09-16

I dont know why people feel so negatively about this shelduck. its them ruddy magpies that annoy me!

It's a shame we couldn't have done better for you Dave in order to entice you out of Rochdale more often

ventured birding out of Rochdale for the first time in ages! went to Pennigton Flash;

Ruddy Shelduck near burger van with what i presume is an emperor hybrid (very similar to one we had at Holl Lake 06 - is it the same one?)
Nothing out of ordinary, Kingfisher, 5 chiffchaff (part of a mobile flock of tits), 6 Snipe, 2 Willow Tit, Little Grebe.

Also Migrant Hawker Dragonfly from new hide.

Dave

Presumably this is the bird that visited Marbury for a week or so.

It was quite tame this morning and allowed a close approach without any fuss.

Cracking bird to look at nevertheless.

Mike

Thanks to superb images from Mike Baron I have received this morning (which will still be appearing in the galleries shortly), it is obvious that the Ruddy Shelduck is NOT of wild origin and therefore is not acceptable to be counted on any lists that appear on the website, which follow BOU guidelines. Why not wild? Well, despite having no rings and being fully winged it's presence happily waddling around the area behind the burger van does it no favours at all, sure the Coots are wild and the Canadas acceptable but true Ruddy Shelducks are true rarities and are best only acceptable after large movements of the species throughout Europe, usually after dispersing from breeding grounds. Single birds like this one, happily co-existing with man (in car parks) don't really cut the mustard

BOU currently only list Ruddy Shelduck on the following catagories, B, D and E, only B forms part of the British List, the catagories mean the following:

B Species that were recorded in an apparently natural state at least once between 1 January 1800 and 31 December 1949, but have not been recorded subsequently.

D Species that would otherwise appear in Category A except that there is reasonable doubt that they have ever occurred in a natural state. Species placed in Category D only form no part of the British List, and are not included in the species totals.

E Species that have been recorded as introductions, human-assisted transportees or escapees from captivity, and whose breeding populations (if any) are thought not to be self-sustaining. Species in Category E that have bred in the wild in Britain are designated as E*. Category E species form no part of the British List (unless already included within Categories A, B or C).

It's a nice bird either way

Ruddy Shelduck behind burger van this morning.

No sign of Nuthatch

Mike

THE WHITE HEADED GOOSE AT PENNY HAS BEEN AT THE FLASH SINCE ABOUT APRIL-USED TO BE BY THE YAUGHT CLUBS WITH THE CANADAS THEN ROUND THE CHIPPY VAN DURING THE SUMMER-ITS VERY AGRESSIVE-NEARLY TOOK MI LEG OFF ONCE FOR A CHIPI THINK ITS A MONGREL CROSS BARNACLE/BAR HEADED/ANYTHING THAT JUMPED ON ITS MOTHER-PROBABLY A PART PIT BULL TERRIER THE WAY IT RAN AT ME NEAR THE ICE CREAM VANLAST WEEK THERE WAS A HIDE FULL. ALL COVERED IN LEICA TRYING TO MAKE IT INTO A SNOW GOOSEBY THE WAY THE SAME GROUP WERE CONVINCED THE GREEN SAND WAS A GREENSHANKDON'T ALWAYS BELIEVE WHAT PEOPLE SAY A BIRD IS BECAUSE THEY ARE CARRYING £2000 WORTH OF GEAR,JUST AS LIKELY THE FELLA WITH THE LITTLE PAIR OF BINSAND THE NIKON CAMERAKNOWS MORE

There was also an unusual Goose with the Ruddy Shelduck. Not sure what it was but after checking books the nearest i can come up with is a Juv Bar Headed Goose but i'm not confident with this id.

Nuthatch showing really well at feeding station. Didn't realise this was so unusual.

Dean.

-- Edited by Dean Mac at 17:45, 2007-09-14

SAME AS IAN EARLIER ALL STILL PRESENT AT 3.30PM

14/9/07 mid morning

female RUDDY SHELDUCK - at first sailing past Horrocks Hide with a flock of Canada`s, then hauled out on the spit @ 10.15
2 Garganey & 2 Pintail - scrapes
Green Sand & Wigeon - New Hide
Nuthatch - feeding Station

(nice to meet Paul Heaton & Dave Broome for the first time )

Been working away all week. Got back late yesterday afternoon, grabbed the dog, bins and camera and shot off to PF.

Usual Green Sand at New Hide, 2 Willow Tits at Bunting hide. Nuthatch appeared and was in and out for 30 mins or so - managed one half decent photo. Only when I got home I realised I had never seen Nuthatch here before and even more surpised this morning to find it had MEGA status.

Mike

Thursday, 13th Sept, late morning.

Black-necked Grebe- 1 juv still present in Rammies
Green Sand- 1 still showing very well from New Hide
Nuthatch- 1, the 'mega' is still showing, albeit, elusively, from the feeding station. If you have a Pennington list and haven't seen this bird, you really ought to, this is only my 2nd in 27 years birding there and my first record was a very lucky one only a couple of years ago

12/9/07

Nuthatch seen today at the feeding station.

(before you all start falling about laughing, Nuthatch is a Pennington MEGA ! ! !)

info from B Hulme, though the guy who saw it is called Carl.

Tues 11.9.07 late am/early pm

2 Garganey on New Scrape
1 Green Sand from New Hide
5 Wigeon
1 Reed Warbler

plus the BN Grebe in Rammies.

tues 11th sept 10.30-11.45
Blackneck grebe and little grebe still on Rammies good comparison togeher.
snipe and kingfisher showing from teal hide also another kingfisher from lapwing hide.
teal,gadwal,shoveller and wigeon showing well still eclipse plumage.
Plenty tits beginning to flock,willow at feeding station.

Monday, 10th Sept, 13:00hrs

Black-necked Grebe- 1 juv still in Rammies
Willow Warbler- 1 juv at western end
Chiffchaff- 6, one still singing
Garganey- 1 infront of Horrocks Hide, very early am only (per John Lyons)

Sunday 9th Sept.

Black-necked Grebe- 1 juv still in Rammies
Little Gull- 1 through at 10:05am

All info thanks to Birdnetinformation pager services.

take a look in the photo galleries under miscellanius and you will see some old pictures of mine of rammys how it used to be and the old railway that used to cross the flash

ah thanks. i saw a kingfisher on that bit a couple of days ago.

rammys is the small flash,ramsdales flash,that used to be separated from the main flash by the shingle spit which used to run from horrocks hide to where the slag heeps are opposite where you saw the wheatear.so rammys is the part of the flash that runs parallel to the canal

Hi, Im new to this forum so my sightings are a bit out of date.

I usually park up at the small car park near the canal crossover at lowton, and near the tip. Last week I saw a green woodpecker on the telegraph pole by the car park, also about three weeks back, a female wheatear on the fence around the flash (canal side, on the top of the hill). Sorry I dont know the local lingo for all the locations at the flash. what is rammys?

Friday 7th, mid-afternoon.

Little Gull- 1 juvenile
Common Scoter- 1 female

plus the Black-necked and Green Sand

Info thanks to Phil Rhodes

7-9-07-juv bn grebe still in rammys pm,and green sand showing brilliantly at front of new hidesorry i forgot about the juv little gull at the end of the point

-- Edited by JOHN TYMON at 19:30, 2007-09-07

06/09/07 3.45 - 5.30pm

Hobby at 5pm high over northern end of flash/ golf course, continued heading north. seemed to be chasing insects (lots of big dragonflies around today). was among loads of fly-catching BH gulls. Female sparrowhawk also in same area.

Black-necked grebe still in ramsdale flash at 5pm at least. i might be wrong, but it looked like a juvenile to me. 22 Pochard there too,plus tufties, gc grebes,etc.

Green Sandpiper still giving great views from New hide, where also 9 eclipse wigeon,12 teal, 3 shoveler, 2 jay, pair bullfinch and 5 heron (2 ads and 3 juvs).

Willow Tit, 30+ LT tits, 2 fem blackcaps, 2 singing chiffchaffs, 1 whitethroat and g s woodpecker also seen / heard near to the screen/ canal bridge.

9 cormorants and hundreds of lapwing on the spit but no other waders about.

06.09.07- 1-B.N.GREBE-STILL IN RAMMYS 3.30 PM,AND A CRACKING GREEN SANDPIPER AT THE FRONT OF NEW HIDE 3.45PM

-- Edited by JOHN TYMON at 17:56, 2007-09-06

-- Edited by JOHN TYMON at 19:58, 2007-09-06

5th September, 12:45-14:30, Nature reserve section only:

Black-necked Grebe- 1, juvenile in Rammies
Chiffchaff- 12, including 1 bird still singing
Snipe- 7, Horrock's scrape

Nice to see the 'pygmy' grass on the spit has been cut back, just need some decent waders now...

29/8/07

Garganey & Green Sandpiper present @ midday.

(Barry Hulme)

21/8/07 early morning

Garganey
Green Sand
Spotted Flycatcher (nr. the picnic area)

(Barry Hulme)

john,nice to put a face to all those photos,i,ve put a bid in on e bay for one of those 1.7 adaptors you have ,maybe i.ll get lucky,
cheers geoff

Rob Smallwood wrote:

---

Hi John - I guess it was you I met last night - you'll be glad to know the Black Tern never came any closer up until 8:00 at least!

---

hi rob -yes it was mewent back today black tern seems to have gone-anyway never saw it all afternoon,kittiwake was there at 1pm but didn't see it after that-it was good meeting you,nice to put faces to names.also met geoff hargrieves today,great meeting you as well geoffdidn't manage to get any black tern photos for you

-- Edited by JOHN TYMON at 16:44, 2007-08-18

Juv Kittiwake still present, couldn't find the juv Black Tern though.

Hi John - I guess it was you I met last night - you'll be glad to know the Black Tern never came any closer up until 8:00 at least!

kittiwake juv & black tern still at 6pm

Friday 17th.

Immature Kittiwake present late afternoon atleast.

Info thanks to Rob Smallwood

17/8/07

juv Black Tern still present. (12.45)

(B.Hulme)

Juv Black Tern still present this pm (thurs) showing very well on the spit.

Dean.

16/8/07 early morning

juv Black Tern still present, spending most of its time on the posts next to the compass post.

B.Hulme had Green & Common Sands earlier.

Juvenile Black tern still present this pm around 4pm. Feeding busily over the flash and regularly sat on a post right in front of the Horrocks hide.

Wenesday 15th August.

Juvenile Black Tern present this am.

Info thanks to Barry Hulme

13/8/07

2 Ruff present on the spit @ 11ish

(Barry Hulme)

06-45-08-00hrs. 8thAugust 07
Ramies canal end. 2 Kingfisher. GC Grebe Adult with 3 Young. 4 Reed Buntings .
New Scrape. 2 Oystercatcher, 1 Little Grebe.
Horrocks Hide. 4 Common Tern. and 5 Goldfinch feeding on the thistle's by the main carpark...and a Black Swan!! on the main flash...:

-- Edited by kjs at 09:07, 2007-08-08

07/08/07.
07.00hrs At Pennington Flash. GS Woodpecker (f) and 4 Common Terns 2 Kingfishers at
Rammies ...

1/8/07

Greenshank on the spit @ 05.30

(info per B.Hulme, AKA `the early birder`)

Kingfisher - New Hide
Willow Tits & juv - Bunting Hide
also juv Blackcap and Whitethroat so some birds have managed to breed despite the grim weather.

Very high water levels so no room for any waders :(

Juvenile Willow Tits, Bullfinches and GS Woodpeckers at the Bunting hide earlier this morning.

Wednesday 25th July.

5 Greylag Geese was the best I could muster from an hour's visit this afternoon, although I didn't venture across to the hides and stayed firmly on the rucks!

Tuesday 24th July

Common Scoter still present early am at least
2 Black-tailed Godwits
1 Green Sand
1 Dunlin

All info thanks to Barry Hulme

1 Black swan, 2 pairs of greatcrested grebes with young and an adult and juvenile willow tit at the bunting hide.

Monday 23rd July, early am.

1 Little Gull
1 Black-tailed Godwit
1 Common Sandpiper
6 Oystercatcher
10 Stock Doves

all info thanks to Barry Hulme