A nice male brambling was calling in the Rowan tree opposite my old trafford house this afternoon, it was with the goldfinches & soon flew around with the goldfinches, they all circled around my house & looked as if they were going to my feeders but the brambling flew off with several goldfinches. I watched the garden for the rest of the afternoon but the brambling never returned. c70 goldfinches at one point on & around my feeders. 3 greenfinch 1 chaffinch 1 siskin, over 3 grey wagtail, over 2 coal tits 2 robins 1 mistle thrush 25+ house sparrows 1 sparrowhawk trying to catch the house sparrows whithout success.
A garden first for me this morning (Norden, Rochdale) in the shape of a very smart male Goldcrest...such enigmatic little birds bouncing around a small conifer in my garden.
Dave Steel said
Wed Oct 14 8:27 PM, 2020
a flock of 28 Goldfinch arrived in the Garden as I arrived home from the moss..
4 Blackbird
2 Woodpigeon.
Simon Warford said
Wed Oct 14 12:11 PM, 2020
Amazingly a Red Kite from my upstairs office window that looks out towards Elton at 9.15am. After a call from you know who I was very lucky to see the Red Kite circling and slowly drifting west being mobbed. A first ever from the house, thanks for the call from Elton
-- Edited by Simon Warford on Wednesday 14th of October 2020 12:12:13 PM
Dave Steel said
Tue Oct 13 7:56 PM, 2020
1 Grey Wagtail over the Garden first thing this morning...0720
1 Buzzard over chased by 3 Magpie @ 1600
Within the Garden
16+ Goldfinch
1 Robin
2 Woodpigeon
3 Greenfinch
4 Blackbird...sultanas being too much to resist!
-- Edited by Dave Steel on Tuesday 13th of October 2020 07:57:27 PM
Adrian Drummond-Hill said
Tue Oct 13 4:27 PM, 2020
A nice Jay visited my Harwood, Bolton garden today. He stayed long enough for me to get a couple of grab shots through the dining room window.
A summary of 28 Sep to 11 Oct, Ashton-in-Makerfield:
28 Sep: 2 Tree Sparrow south, new for the garden! 20 Redwing, also new for the garden! 4 House Martin, probably last of the year. 1 Great Spotted Woodpecker.
29 Sep: c250 Pink-footed Goose east together.
30 Sep: Rain!
01 Oct: 1 Marsh Harrier east. 1 Crossbill west. 1 Chiffchaff. 6 Swallow south, probably last of the year. 12 Skylark. 1 Reed Bunting. 201 Pink-footed Goose.
Well done on the Yellow-browed Warbler Ian, what an amazing bird to get from the garden!
Not quite the same quality but 2 Great Spotted Woodpeckers over our Bolton garden today were good for us, also 250+ Pink-footed Geese over east at 6.20pm.
Half hour noc mig from 7.45pm this evening produced 13 Redwing calls.
Ian McKerchar said
Sun Oct 11 7:37 PM, 2020
A watch over much of the day from c10:45 this morning was productive to say the least, though it did go quiet from early afternoon onwards. Highlights included:
2 Redwing west together
2 Grey Wagtail west together
1 Great Tit
3 Coal Tit
6 Jay
1 Yellow-browed Warbler (!!!)
c60 House Sparrow on and off
1 Kestrel hunting over the field immediately behind the house
1 Buzzard
1 Mistle Thrush NW, followed 20 minutes later by a flock of 22 NW
1 male Chaffinch calling our sycamore
2 Bullfinch in the hawthorns and 5 over west together
3 single Goldfinch over west
1 Sparrowhawk hunting over north
Several Black-headed Gulls east
Richard Thew said
Sun Oct 11 6:01 PM, 2020
Quieter in my Radcliffe garden lately, but.....
I've had a nice continental very black blackbird paying a visit. He had no hint of any other shade or coloring on him whatsoever.
Also, he was with a mistle thrush, which stayed hidden - but his rattling call gave his presence away!
Ta!
pete berry said
Sun Oct 11 8:55 AM, 2020
Two Tawny Owls calling at the front of the house just before dawn today,one in trees just opposite the house and one a bit more distantly.
Steven Heywood said
Sat Oct 10 11:58 PM, 2020
All week I've had five blackbirds feeding in the back garden rowan tree, yesterday they were joined by a pair of mistle thrushes, today the first redwing of Autumn.
Dave Steel said
Sat Oct 10 7:38 PM, 2020
18 Goldfinch...vying for the two feeders of Sunflower Hearts
3 Blackbird...becoming daily emboldened as they settle to their winter quarters...Sultanas now being taken with a little less caution as they acquaint themselves with the jumble of my garden.
steven burke said
Sat Oct 10 1:06 PM, 2020
A spectacular sight this morning in my old Trafford garden, my feeders attracting well over 100 goldfinches. 1 ring necked parakeet carrying on feeding whilst all the goldfinch are fighting for some space on the feeders.
Ian McKerchar said
Sat Oct 10 12:22 PM, 2020
c120 Pink-footed Geese NW over my Astley garden at 12:20 today.
RachelLiBrabin said
Sat Oct 10 9:56 AM, 2020
From our Salford garden our resident Sparrowhawk perched on Pergola around 3 meters from house for 15 mins! I was rooted to the spot hence no photograph other than on phone which through a rainy window doesn't really do it justice.
Grey Wagtail on neighbours roof.
Still get daily visits to feeders
Goldfinch
Greenfinch
Blue Tit
Great Tit
Robin
Sparrow
Dunnock
All the usual suspects
Steve Judge said
Fri Oct 9 11:43 AM, 2020
From my Eccles garden I was delighted and amazed to see a Grey Wagtail on my neighbours roof.
That makes my total garden bird species = 29.
I am hoping to see the Redwings soon in my holly tree to make the total a nice round 30.
Ian McKerchar said
Wed Oct 7 9:28 PM, 2020
2 Raven north over the Astley garden this morning and two Coal Tits in later on.
Karen Foulkes said
Wed Oct 7 3:33 PM, 2020
A few sightings from the garden today have included
Nuthatch Juvenile Woodpigeon Blackbird with partial leucistic plumage on his head and wings on the fatball feeder
phillipskelly said
Wed Oct 7 9:51 AM, 2020
On and around my Stretford backyard feeders last week were only a few Goldfinch, except for two days when around 40 turned up. Also seen by my neighbour and myself was a Sparrowhawk perched on ridge tiles of a nearby house.
Monday and Tuesday of this week, Goldfinch in the 20's were present. Today 50-60 were seen at 8:45am but were disturbed by parents and children on the way to a nearby School.
Karen Foulkes said
Sat Oct 3 2:35 PM, 2020
Now two Nuthatch visiting the garden feeders despite the wet weather. At least four Great Tit and two Coal Tit among the other birds.
Also late on Thursday night, two Tawny Owls calling to one another.
Karen Foulkes said
Thu Oct 1 12:35 PM, 2020
Working from home today, so good to see a Nuthatch visiting the feeders throughout the day.
-- Edited by Karen Foulkes on Thursday 1st of October 2020 04:34:43 PM
Rob Thorpe said
Mon Sep 28 10:41 PM, 2020
Summary of the week 21-27 Sep in my Ashton-in-Makerfield garden:
Vismig numbers down on last week, but the weather didnt help, with one foggy morning, two rainy mornings, then a blustery wind towards the end of the week. 2 Greenshank south between rain showers on Thu was undoubtedly the highlight of the week. A Chiffchaff was singing on Mon. 372 Meadow Pipit flew south through the week, with 223 of these on Monday (other vismig totals are on the Ashton-in-Makerfield thread). 4 Lapwing flew north on Mon. 2 Raven flew east on Wed. At least one of the Kestrels from last weeks was still around up to Friday at least. 80 Pink-footed Goose flew over on Fri in two skeins, plus an unseen skein in the fog on Tue. A few House Martin were still hanging around this week, plus a flock of 6 moved south on Mon, as did 3 Swallow on Tue.
Richard Thew said
Mon Sep 28 1:24 PM, 2020
Breaking news in my Radcliffe garden. I've had a Chiffchaff actually in my mealworm feeder. It unfortunately needed refilling so I hope it will come back. Unfortunately, once this batch have run out, I'm not planning on getting any more for now. Ta!
Andy Isherwood said
Mon Sep 28 8:58 AM, 2020
63 Pink footed goose flew east over tyldesley at 8.48 this morning. Nuthatch also being heard daily calling from Astley street park, Jay's becoming more obvious making feeding sorties in and out of the park and at least 4 different Sparrowhawk hunting the airspace around my Garden.
dave broome said
Sun Sep 27 9:29 PM, 2020
A Coal Tit on our feeders in Tyldesley today was the first seen in the garden since late winter/early spring, although an occasional singing bird was not far away early in lockdown. A Redwing called overhead at 9:01pm tonight
Karen Foulkes said
Sun Sep 27 12:02 PM, 2020
A Pied Wagtail on the next door neighbour's roof was the closest I've seen here that's not been a flyover!
phillipskelly said
Sun Sep 27 10:43 AM, 2020
On and around my Stretford backyard feeders yesterday at 4.35pm there were 38 Goldfinch and between 5-6pm there was between 60 - 80 Goldfinch. I filled the feeders when they left yesterday, but theres hardly any seed been taken today (10.23am) but they might return later.
phillipskelly said
Fri Sep 25 11:37 AM, 2020
Looking out from my back bedroom window at my Stretford backyard feeders at 7.30 am this morning, I saw a huge flock of Goldfinch 200 possibly, flying from the direction of the Euro terminal Trafford park towards my feeders. About 80 took advantage for a short time landing on the adjacent telephone pole (with 18 cables) and on my feeders before re- joining the the main circling flock. This happened several times before they departed .
phillipskelly said
Thu Sep 24 1:24 PM, 2020
Varied amounts of Goldfinch on and around my Stretford backyard feeders lately, with hardly any showing when theres been sunny days but yesterday (wed) as it was dull and wet there were 58 at 5.30pm and the day before 50 at 5.15pm. I've not seen any today but the seed has gone down slightly - but it is another nice day and also bin day. And over a week ago my neighbour Sue saw another Sparrowhawk at rooftop height over my feeders getting mobbed by gulls. In the front garden of my terraced house the 2 Dunnocks have been regular visitors with the larger bird not tolerating the smaller one and driving it off from the crumbled fat balls and dried mealworms. It also chases off the Robin. The male Blackbird has also been seen once or twice . Note - the last time I saw a recently fledged Goldfinch begging food was on the 12 Sept.
Rob Thorpe said
Wed Sep 23 11:25 AM, 2020
A summary of a pretty good week in my Ashton-in-Makerfield garden, 14 Sep to 20 Sep. Part of the week was spent self isolating whilst one of our household awaited a covid19 test - which thankfully came back negative - but with some decent vismig on offer, especially on Thu & Fri, and some new garden-ticks too, I didn't mind having to stay-put.
Vismig southbound totals for the week (highest day in brackets): 1,119 Meadow Pipit (455 on Thu). 84 Swallow (26 on Fri). 82 Siskin (31 on Fri). 64 House Martin (36 on Fri). 28 Pied Wagtail (13 on Thu). 15 Grey Wagtail (8 on Thu). 14 Chaffinch (4 on Thu). 11 Redpoll (4 on Fri). 11 Skylark (3 on Tue, Wed & Thu). 4 Reed Bunting. 2 Sand Martin.
Other highlights included: 1 Goosander. 1 Green Sandpipier. 2 Snipe. 2 Chiffchaff 2 Kestrel. 2 Jay. 2 Great Spotted Woodpecker. 1 Raven. 3 Common Gull. 3 Stock Dove. 2 Goldcrest.
Isaac Heath said
Wed Sep 23 7:08 AM, 2020
Lots of goldfinch and many juveniles recently.
Chaffinch visiting daily
Coal tits and long tailed tits seem to be back too
blue tits and great tits too
Lesser spotted woodpecker has visited once - trying to lure it back to the garden
Nuthatch has been back too
Robin seems to have taken residence in the jasmine
Quite like September as the birds just reappear and even in these gloomy times it makes me smile
Richard Thew said
Tue Sep 22 9:48 PM, 2020
A few Rooks flew over my Radcliffe garden yesterday and a garden first.
Also another garden first this evening was a great crested grebe flew over too!
Ta!
Steven Nelson said
Mon Sep 21 10:21 PM, 2020
A Skylark flew over my Irlam garden this afternoon calling all the while.
Lez Fairclough said
Sun Sep 20 11:37 PM, 2020
Back to the garden list as I'm in quarantine for 14 days following a holiday to the Algarve.
Of note on the feeders today 2 Willow Tits, a Coal Tit & the Nuthatch which has been absent for a few weeks.
A new garden tick was a single Meadow Pipit calling as it flew over southwards.
100s of Wood Pigeon were constantly circling over the garden from Bedford Moss where the farmer
was busy with his shot gun all afternoon.
Ian McKerchar said
Thu Sep 17 9:32 PM, 2020
Nice surprise this morning in the Astley garden was a Nuthatch, a very rare bird here and also a juvenile Chiffchaff and Coal Tit on the feeders amongst a flock of Long-tailed Tit.
fredford said
Wed Sep 16 8:31 PM, 2020
Bury . Chiffchaff singing occasionally from the sycamore , yesterday , unseen . Nothing from him today .
Andy Bissitt said
Tue Sep 15 8:50 PM, 2020
Looking at other people's vis-mig reports, I knew it was a good day when I saw perhaps a dozen each of swallow & meadow pipit passing over my garden Southwards this a.m. in a not very long look. Also siskin and redpoll, but siskins have been around the area since mid-Summer anyway.
Rob Thorpe said
Tue Sep 15 10:25 AM, 2020
Bits and bobs from the last couple of weeks - Ashton-in-Makerfield:
01 Sep: 2 Chiffchaff with one singing 2 Swallow south 1 Siskin west 1 Grey Wagtail
02 Sep: 6 Wigeon west 2 Yellow Wagtail 4 Grey Wagtail 14 Pied Wagtail 9 Swallow south 1 Great Spotted Woodpecker 1 Bullfinch 24 Canada Goose
03 Sep: 1 Swift south 3 Swallow south 3 Grey Wagtail 1 Pied Wagtail
04 Sep: 1 Great Spotted Woodpecker 1 Raven 2 Sand Martin south 1 Siskin south 2 Meadow Pipit north 2 Pied Wagtail 1 Linnet
05 Sep: 6 Meadow Pipit south
07 Sep: 1 Grey Wagtail
08 Sep: 2 Meadow Pipit south 2 Pied Wagtail south c30 House Martin
09 Sep: 1 Chiffchaff
12 Sep: 1 Nuthatch
-- Edited by Rob Thorpe on Tuesday 15th of September 2020 10:37:43 AM
fredford said
Mon Sep 14 7:31 PM, 2020
Bury . This morning six jackdaws drove off the resident sparrowhawk . He was not in the least concerned . He returned later to take a great tit from the apple tree . 6 pm a cormorant , over , going east . The resident pheasant brought his first female to feed. First of many , I suspect .
Richard Thew said
Mon Sep 14 10:27 AM, 2020
Latest Radcliffe garden update:
A buzzard was seen over the garden yesterday, and a Chiffchaff has been seen on the odd day and heard chiff-chaffin' this morning too.
Other news:
Goldfinches continues to come in good numbers, devouring my nijer seeds at a record rate. This is partly due to not putting my 2nd sunflower feeder out to reduce the amount used and bits that fall to the ground but instead, I've put the 2nd nijer feeder out. Its been working well....
Bullfinch has turned up here and there during this time as well as the now resident chaffinch.
The ex-magpie attacked starling with damaged feathers had now sufficiently changed its feathers, but unfortunately there was something not right with him on the day of his release, so i passed him on to a specialist for hopefully further investigation. This i must point out may be unfortunate, but is not unusual to come across further problems as bird biology is a highly complex and a delicate ballance.
Ta!
dave broome said
Mon Sep 14 8:03 AM, 2020
A migrating Water Rail was an unexpected record over our Tyldesley garden last night. I know quite a few get picked up on noc-mig recordings, but a surprise nonetheless.
pete berry said
Sun Sep 13 9:46 AM, 2020
A Chiffchaff singing at bottom of the garden today
Steven Nelson said
Fri Sep 11 11:06 AM, 2020
A very noisy Tawny Owl last night sat on next door neighbours house. First one Ive seen around my garden area. It must have flushed a Blackbird as one was heard flying off in panic
sid ashton said
Thu Sep 10 2:01 PM, 2020
A very noisey Ring-necked Parakeet in our Hale garden this morning.
Karen Foulkes said
Thu Sep 10 1:40 PM, 2020
A Nuthatch was in the garden this morning.
Good numbers of other birds including 10 House Sparrow and a mixed Tit flock of at least 20 birds.
pete berry said
Tue Sep 8 6:59 PM, 2020
Just had a Peregrine fly over the house fairly low .
Sean Molloy said
Tue Sep 8 12:53 PM, 2020
My droylsden garden has been pretty quiet since the summer and even then only generally got a few pairs of house sparrows. Had almost stopped paying attention until this morning I heard a great number of different birds calling and looked out to see a flock of at least 40 Blue, Great and Long tailed Tits and a couple of chaffinch dotted amongst them in the neighbours tree that backs on to my garden. A good number of them went to the feeders which was great. Easily the record for most birds AND most species in my garden at one time!
Andy Bissitt said
Sun Sep 6 8:57 PM, 2020
Chiffchaff in garden (Romiley) this a.m. making a circuit which included the shed roof and the washing line post, and all whilst I was stood 10 feet away. Goldcrest could be heard nearby, whilst much further away buzzard and sparrowhawk were in the same patch of sky to the East.
Ian McKerchar said
Sun Sep 6 6:35 PM, 2020
New garden tick earlier this morning as a vocal Treecreeper went through the garden with a group of Long-tailed Tits and a single Willow Warbler.
3 greenfinch
1 chaffinch
1 siskin, over
3 grey wagtail, over
2 coal tits
2 robins
1 mistle thrush
25+ house sparrows
1 sparrowhawk trying to catch the house sparrows whithout success.
a flock of 28 Goldfinch arrived in the Garden as I arrived home from the moss..
4 Blackbird
2 Woodpigeon.
-- Edited by Simon Warford on Wednesday 14th of October 2020 12:12:13 PM
1 Grey Wagtail over the Garden first thing this morning...0720
1 Buzzard over chased by 3 Magpie @ 1600
Within the Garden
16+ Goldfinch
1 Robin
2 Woodpigeon
3 Greenfinch
4 Blackbird...sultanas being too much to resist!
-- Edited by Dave Steel on Tuesday 13th of October 2020 07:57:27 PM
A nice Jay visited my Harwood, Bolton garden today. He stayed long enough for me to get a couple of grab shots through the dining room window.
28 Sep:
2 Tree Sparrow south, new for the garden!
20 Redwing, also new for the garden!
4 House Martin, probably last of the year.
1 Great Spotted Woodpecker.
29 Sep:
c250 Pink-footed Goose east together.
30 Sep:
Rain!
01 Oct:
1 Marsh Harrier east.
1 Crossbill west.
1 Chiffchaff.
6 Swallow south, probably last of the year.
12 Skylark.
1 Reed Bunting.
201 Pink-footed Goose.
02 Oct:
1 Chiffchaff.
1 Snipe south.
1 Raven.
1 Kestrel.
03 Oct - 06 Oct:
Away.
07 Oct:
Quiet.
08 Oct:
173 Pink-footed Goose.
09 Oct - 10 Oct:
Quiet / weather rubbish!
11 Oct (afternoon only):
2 Bullfinch.
2 Stock Dove.
1 Kestrel.
4 Buzzard.
14 Jackdaw.
0 YbW.
Not quite the same quality but 2 Great Spotted Woodpeckers over our Bolton garden today were good for us, also 250+ Pink-footed Geese over east at 6.20pm.
Half hour noc mig from 7.45pm this evening produced 13 Redwing calls.
A watch over much of the day from c10:45 this morning was productive to say the least, though it did go quiet from early afternoon onwards. Highlights included:
2 Redwing west together
2 Grey Wagtail west together
1 Great Tit
3 Coal Tit
6 Jay
1 Yellow-browed Warbler (!!!)
c60 House Sparrow on and off
1 Kestrel hunting over the field immediately behind the house
1 Buzzard
1 Mistle Thrush NW, followed 20 minutes later by a flock of 22 NW
1 male Chaffinch calling our sycamore
2 Bullfinch in the hawthorns and 5 over west together
3 single Goldfinch over west
1 Sparrowhawk hunting over north
Several Black-headed Gulls east
I've had a nice continental very black blackbird paying a visit. He had no hint of any other shade or coloring on him whatsoever.
Also, he was with a mistle thrush, which stayed hidden - but his rattling call gave his presence away!
Ta!
18 Goldfinch...vying for the two feeders of Sunflower Hearts
3 Blackbird...becoming daily emboldened as they settle to their winter quarters...Sultanas now being taken with a little less caution as they acquaint themselves with the jumble of my garden.
1 ring necked parakeet carrying on feeding whilst all the goldfinch are fighting for some space on the feeders.
c120 Pink-footed Geese NW over my Astley garden at 12:20 today.
From our Salford garden our resident Sparrowhawk perched on Pergola around 3 meters from house for 15 mins! I was rooted to the spot hence no photograph other than on phone which through a rainy window doesn't really do it justice.
Grey Wagtail on neighbours roof.
Still get daily visits to feeders
Goldfinch
Greenfinch
Blue Tit
Great Tit
Robin
Sparrow
Dunnock
All the usual suspects
That makes my total garden bird species = 29.
I am hoping to see the Redwings soon in my holly tree to make the total a nice round 30.
2 Raven north over the Astley garden this morning and two Coal Tits in later on.
Nuthatch
Juvenile Woodpigeon
Blackbird with partial leucistic plumage on his head and wings on the fatball feeder
Also seen by my neighbour and myself was a Sparrowhawk perched on ridge tiles of a nearby house.
Monday and Tuesday of this week, Goldfinch in the 20's were present.
Today 50-60 were seen at 8:45am but were disturbed by parents and children on the way to a nearby School.
Also late on Thursday night, two Tawny Owls calling to one another.
-- Edited by Karen Foulkes on Thursday 1st of October 2020 04:34:43 PM
Vismig numbers down on last week, but the weather didnt help, with one foggy morning, two rainy mornings, then a blustery wind towards the end of the week.
2 Greenshank south between rain showers on Thu was undoubtedly the highlight of the week.
A Chiffchaff was singing on Mon.
372 Meadow Pipit flew south through the week, with 223 of these on Monday (other vismig totals are on the Ashton-in-Makerfield thread).
4 Lapwing flew north on Mon.
2 Raven flew east on Wed.
At least one of the Kestrels from last weeks was still around up to Friday at least.
80 Pink-footed Goose flew over on Fri in two skeins, plus an unseen skein in the fog on Tue.
A few House Martin were still hanging around this week, plus a flock of 6 moved south on Mon, as did 3 Swallow on Tue.
63 Pink footed goose flew east over tyldesley at 8.48 this morning. Nuthatch also being heard daily calling from Astley street park, Jay's becoming more obvious making feeding sorties in and out of the park and at least 4 different Sparrowhawk hunting the airspace around my Garden.
A Redwing called overhead at 9:01pm tonight
I filled the feeders when they left yesterday, but theres hardly any seed been taken today (10.23am) but they might return later.
About 80 took advantage for a short time landing on the adjacent telephone pole (with 18 cables) and on my feeders before re- joining the the main circling flock. This happened several times before they departed .
I've not seen any today but the seed has gone down slightly - but it is another nice day and also bin day.
And over a week ago my neighbour Sue saw another Sparrowhawk at rooftop height over my feeders getting mobbed by gulls.
In the front garden of my terraced house the 2 Dunnocks have been regular visitors with the larger bird not tolerating the smaller one and driving it off from the crumbled fat balls and dried mealworms.
It also chases off the Robin.
The male Blackbird has also been seen once or twice .
Note - the last time I saw a recently fledged Goldfinch begging food was on the 12 Sept.
Vismig southbound totals for the week (highest day in brackets):
1,119 Meadow Pipit (455 on Thu).
84 Swallow (26 on Fri).
82 Siskin (31 on Fri).
64 House Martin (36 on Fri).
28 Pied Wagtail (13 on Thu).
15 Grey Wagtail (8 on Thu).
14 Chaffinch (4 on Thu).
11 Redpoll (4 on Fri).
11 Skylark (3 on Tue, Wed & Thu).
4 Reed Bunting.
2 Sand Martin.
Other highlights included:
1 Goosander.
1 Green Sandpipier.
2 Snipe.
2 Chiffchaff
2 Kestrel.
2 Jay.
2 Great Spotted Woodpecker.
1 Raven.
3 Common Gull.
3 Stock Dove.
2 Goldcrest.
Lots of goldfinch and many juveniles recently.
Chaffinch visiting daily
Coal tits and long tailed tits seem to be back too
blue tits and great tits too
Lesser spotted woodpecker has visited once - trying to lure it back to the garden
Nuthatch has been back too
Robin seems to have taken residence in the jasmine
Quite like September as the birds just reappear and even in these gloomy times it makes me smile
Also another garden first this evening was a great crested grebe flew over too!
Ta!
Back to the garden list as I'm in quarantine for 14 days following a holiday to the Algarve.
Of note on the feeders today 2 Willow Tits, a Coal Tit & the Nuthatch which has been absent for a few weeks.
A new garden tick was a single Meadow Pipit calling as it flew over southwards.
100s of Wood Pigeon were constantly circling over the garden from Bedford Moss where the farmer
was busy with his shot gun all afternoon.
Nice surprise this morning in the Astley garden was a Nuthatch, a very rare bird here and also a juvenile Chiffchaff and Coal Tit on the feeders amongst a flock of Long-tailed Tit.
Looking at other people's vis-mig reports, I knew it was a good day when I saw perhaps a dozen each of swallow & meadow pipit passing over my garden Southwards this a.m. in a not very long look. Also siskin and redpoll, but siskins have been around the area since mid-Summer anyway.
01 Sep:
2 Chiffchaff with one singing
2 Swallow south
1 Siskin west
1 Grey Wagtail
02 Sep:
6 Wigeon west
2 Yellow Wagtail
4 Grey Wagtail
14 Pied Wagtail
9 Swallow south
1 Great Spotted Woodpecker
1 Bullfinch
24 Canada Goose
03 Sep:
1 Swift south
3 Swallow south
3 Grey Wagtail
1 Pied Wagtail
04 Sep:
1 Great Spotted Woodpecker
1 Raven
2 Sand Martin south
1 Siskin south
2 Meadow Pipit north
2 Pied Wagtail
1 Linnet
05 Sep:
6 Meadow Pipit south
07 Sep:
1 Grey Wagtail
08 Sep:
2 Meadow Pipit south
2 Pied Wagtail south
c30 House Martin
09 Sep:
1 Chiffchaff
12 Sep:
1 Nuthatch
-- Edited by Rob Thorpe on Tuesday 15th of September 2020 10:37:43 AM
6 pm a cormorant , over , going east .
The resident pheasant brought his first female to feed. First of many , I suspect .
A buzzard was seen over the garden yesterday, and a Chiffchaff has been seen on the odd day and heard chiff-chaffin' this morning too.
Other news:
Goldfinches continues to come in good numbers, devouring my nijer seeds at a record rate. This is partly due to not putting my 2nd sunflower feeder out to reduce the amount used and bits that fall to the ground but instead, I've put the 2nd nijer feeder out. Its been working well....
Bullfinch has turned up here and there during this time as well as the now resident chaffinch.
The ex-magpie attacked starling with damaged feathers had now sufficiently changed its feathers, but unfortunately there was something not right with him on the day of his release, so i passed him on to a specialist for hopefully further investigation. This i must point out may be unfortunate, but is not unusual to come across further problems as bird biology is a highly complex and a delicate ballance.
Ta!
A very noisey Ring-necked Parakeet in our Hale garden this morning.
Good numbers of other birds including 10 House Sparrow and a mixed Tit flock of at least 20 birds.
Chiffchaff in garden (Romiley) this a.m. making a circuit which included the shed roof and the washing line post, and all whilst I was stood 10 feet away. Goldcrest could be heard nearby, whilst much further away buzzard and sparrowhawk were in the same patch of sky to the East.
New garden tick earlier this morning as a vocal Treecreeper went through the garden with a group of Long-tailed Tits and a single Willow Warbler.