St Marys Rd
Young Tawny Owl calling from graveyard this week is the first I 've heard calling here all year.
Apparently one individual.

St Marys Rd
Willow Warbler singing from Cemetery this morning

St Marys Rd
Tawny Owl calling from graveyard

St Marys Rd Grt Sankey
Tawny Owl calling from over playing fields tonight

Bold Heath
Grassy verge near HireCo has, unfortunately, been heavily mown this year. Usual display of wild orchids much reduced. Marsh Orchids still present in decent nos but stunted growth. Only 2 Bee Orchids, one in a small strip of grass left uncut.

St Mary s Rd Cemetery
Grt Sankey
Tawny Owl calling early this morning

Belmont Crescent Great Sankey
2 Grey Wagtails in road

Forty Fieldfare with a few Redwing plus two Mistle Thrushes were feeding on the berries along the lane leading to Fiddler's Ferry Yacht Haven this afternoon.

Grt Sankey

8:00 am

Long Skein of Pink-footed Geese high over (60 plus birds)

-- Edited by Ian McKerchar on Thursday 6th of November 2014 12:04:29 AM

St Marys Rd

Escaped Harris Hawk still at large, soaring over our garden this morning, mobbed by a BlacK Headed Gull.
A m Sparrowhawk also soaring high, mobbed by a Crow, looking tiny in comparison with the H. Hawk.

St Marys Rd Penketh
F Great Spotted Woodpecker seen calling from trees bordering school playing fields.

Four Buzzards were circling together on the thermals at Sankey Bridges today. Meanwhile on the canal a pair of Mute Swans with eight juveniles were preening and around one hundred Starlings were perched on a pylon prior to heading to their roost site.

Several Migrant Hawker Dragonflies and a couple of Common Darters were enjoying the late afternoon sunshine.

Willow Tit in the bushes by the car park at the sewage works today.

M62 Exit (Rainhill but quite close to Penketh)
Big gathering of Swifts low and high over fields gathered for leaving no doubt

St Marys Rd Penketh

Harris Hawk still present, seen soaring over our garden this afternoon, rather buzzard-ish, mobbed by swifts.

Tawny Owls calling most nights this week

St Marys Rd Penketh
3 poss 4 Tawny Owls in cemetery last night.
Heard calling and also seen. Most (?all) young birds

St Marys Rd Penketh
Weird garden "tick" for me tonight after the thunderstorm...a Harris Hawk settled on the top of a tall conifer in our garden and stayed , calling repeatedly, for the best part of an hour.
Upset the local blackbirds no end.

Today

Bold Heath Roadside Bank going up to Hire Co

Great display of Bee Orchids coming in to full flower . On grassy slopes on both sides of track 50 plus spikes

Also Marsh Orchids past their best, looked like Northern Marsh

Male Yellow Wagtail present in the horse paddocks along Laburnum Lane this morning.

Stonechat pair still present this lunchtime opposite the car park end of station road.

Pair of stonechat today in field opposite the ferry tavern car park at the end of station road.

two owl day yesterday
Tawny calling repeatedly from cemetery on St Marys Rd
Barn glimpsed flying over road Farnworth Rd

Farnworth Rd nr White Moss Garden Centre
(not really Penketh but nearly)
7.30pm
2 Barn Owls flying together.

St Marys Rd

Great Spotted Woodpecker calling high in trees in cemetery.

More unusually-flock of Black Headed Gulls came down to bread in our garden.

St Marys Rd
Buzzard low over cemetery mobbed by several crows

Woodcock over chapel lane this morning at 6.45 coming from the direction of the fields off station road.

A Spotted Flycatcher in the trees on Burtonwood Road in Chapelford Village just after lunch today.

Tawny Owl heard calling in Thornton Road at 23.50

cheers

Dave

-- Edited by Dave Riley on Tuesday 27th of August 2013 10:39:25 AM

St Marys Rd Penketh

f Great Spotted Woodpecker high up in tall trees along the brook bordering school playing fields.

St Marys Rd
at least 2 young Tawny Owls crashing about in trees in cemetery; adult bird also present. 10.00pm-ish

st marys rd penketh
2.00am: Tawny Owl calling from cemetery

Melanie,

Have a look at Warrington Borough Council website under - Leisure - Parks - for a map of Sankey Valley Park for common species. Sankey Brook has occasional Kingfisher, Goosander and Green Sandpiper. Ladies Walk Wood at nearby Old Hall has a small heronry as well as Nuthatch and Gt. Spotted Woodpecker. Whittle Hall to the west of Chapelford has a linear park along Whittle Brook with some ponds for ducks etc. at Kingsdale Road. Also Mary Ann Plantation off Burtonwood Road, east of Dakota Park will have common species.

Bear in mind though that all these areas are popular with dog walkers!!

Cheers Brian

-- Edited by Brian Baird on Saturday 6th of July 2013 07:54:44 PM

Melanie, I suppose the main places for birding are around the old Gatewarth tip area, overlooking Richmond Bank, particularly if you are into gulls, you can check this out on the dedicated thread. The Laburnum Lane/Sandy Lane has also produced some interesting birds over the last 18 months or so, with Ring Ouzel, Yellow Wagtail and Wheatear, while South Lane Entry has Corn Bunting and Yellowhammer along with a couple of pools that held waders this spring, with more Wheatears and Yellow Wagtails. Hope the above is of interest. Dave

Dave Riley wrote:

---

Hi, Melanie, are you looking at the general Warrington area or Great Sankey/Warrington?

---

Sorry for the late reply ....

Really Great Sankey - Penketh

Clockface Road just outside Bold Heath.

Roadside verge/slope outside HireCo

Bee Orchids out along with good nos of Marsh Orchids.

Sankey Bridges
Reed Warblers v numerous singing and showing well all up the canal reeds.

A (recently) deceased Mole found .

Helped family move to Saxon Park at the weekend - looks a great birding area.

Saw Whitethroat and Reed Warbler around the Mersey, also a Hobby being "escorted" by a flock of Feral Pigeons which wouldn't settle until the falcon had been driven away. About 500 Herring and Lesser Black Backed Gulls on fields across the Mersey towards the waste disposal plant (Forrest Way).

Hi, Melanie, are you looking at the general Warrington area or Great Sankey/Warrington?

Landed myself a job here recently, Chapelford village. I'd be grateful of any good sites that l can visit. I've found The Big and Little Wood near Callands but l'm keen to discover more.
Please would any locals be kind enough to direct me ?

Thanks in advance

A Spotted Flycatcher was "fly-catching" from the dead trees by the wooden bridge over the St. Helens canal, about 100 yards from the Sankey Bridges end this afternoon.

Very fortunate, whilst eating breakfast (!), to spot a male Redstart on our garden fence yesterday morning. What's more, it was still around almost 3 hours later. It flitted between our garden, neighbours and nearby grassy area, and seemed a lot more approchable than some of the returnng Whearears seen near Rixton today. It must have continued on its migration around about lunchtime, as wasn't seen after that. A male reed bunting made a visit to the bird seed at the same time - a very infrequent visitor, having no doubt flown over from nearby Omega.

2 whitethroat down dirt track off station road at dinner today.
Wheatear in horse paddock at the end of the dirt track yesterday.

Greenfinch performing display flight this afternoon despite blizzard conditions(chapel lane).also a goldcrest has been singing on and off for the last few weeks now from the same tree they attempted to breed in last year.no sign of a second bird yet though...

A male Blackcap was on the bird feeders in the garden this morning, a first for the year and presumably an over-wintering bird.

Also present this morning :-

1 Goldcrest
2 Siskins
3 Greenfinch
2 Coal Tits
2 Great Tits
2+ Blue Tits
2 Goldfinch
3 Blackbirds
2 Crows
1 Robin
1 Dunnock
3 House Sparrows
3 Woodpigeons

A pleasant reward for being stuck at home today.

Another curlew over this morning along with siskin and 3 sparrowhawks displaying against a clear blue sky(chapel lane).

Single curlew north over chapel lane this morning at 8.00am

8 siskin(1 singing) and 2 buzzard over chapel lane this morning.

A Kingfisher showing well on Whittle Brook by the bridge on the A562, Penketh Road, at 13.00, possibly the same bird as seen by Brian.

A Kingfisher was perched above a small stream which goes under Burtonwood Road today and a pair of Tufted Ducks were at a pond in Whittle Hall.

St Marys Rd Penketh
"Garden Birdwatch" hour with my daughter rewarded with a flock of 19 Waxwings. Flew in to land on TV aerials/roofs of houses overlooking back of our garden. Stayed for about 10 minutes flying down to pick big red berries of some kind (or poss rose hips) before a Magpie saw them off.
They flew off towards South Dale.

Very unexpected!

Another Saturday morning with snow on the ground and this week c24 Fieldfare flew from the trees at bottom of the garden.