Paul Cliff wrote:

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1 brambling on my mates feeders - info mike k

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Brambling back today - on my site - http://web.bethere.co.uk/killy/html/brambling.html

Regards

Mike

20+ house sparrow
tits, blue, great
2 wren
2 little owl
17 wood pigeon
1 f kestrel
3 blackbird
finch, gold, green and chaf
4 siskin
5 swallow on white ash res
starlings
robin
dunnock
7 meadow pipits

1 brambling on my mates feeders - info mike k

Also not uncommon in the Wigan area. Quite noisy, too!

Paul,

The ones alongside the Rochdale Canal are quite tame and when people come down to feed the Mallards and Geese they are also around your feet squeaking and begging for food along with a few less than lovely Muscovy Ducks! I would hazard a guess that they are kept by local landowners - and dare I say it - I suspect they might even end up in the oven!! Hope I haven't put you off your tea!!

Cheers,

Bill.



-- Edited by Bill Myerscough at 18:56, 2008-04-04

hi bill

that's it! cheers for that!

lol. am i right in assuming they are escapees? they can't have flown from africa

there were four in total - 3 black ones and that silvery grey one.
apologies for the pic quality on my phone.


http://homepage.mac.com/skiddo/.Pictures/Photo%20Album%20Pictures/Image052.jpg


paul.

Hi Paul,

It does look to my eyes a bit like a Helmeted Guineafowl. There are some alongside the Rochdale Canal near Castleton. Might be wrong though!

Best wishes,

Bill.

top of birtle dean

2 skylarks
1 little owl
meadow pipits

and this - no idea what it is am assuming it's a escapee...

http://homepage.mac.com/skiddo/.Pictures/Photo%20Album%20Pictures/Image051.jpg

i'd appreciate it if anyone does know what it is to let me know- a google search of domestic game birds isn't turning anything like it up...

cheers

paul.

first swallow i've seen this spring in birtle, this morning over my back garden.

have a couple of ltt very busy in my back garden over this last week.

had a walk to the top of, a very windy, birtle dean this morning.

6 skylarks
2 curlew
5 wood pigeon
lots of crows.

elbut lane

1 song thrush
2 mistle thrush
robins
tree creeper calling.

31 meadow pipits white ash res (now birtle brook), possibly a couple more calling in the grass which didn't cross to the other side with the main flock.

green woodpecker
2 little owl (digiscope images of both sent to ian)
kestrel
6 redwings
blackbirds
4 mistle thrush
1 song thrush
lt, blue, great, coal tits
bull, chaf, green, gold finches
9 woodpigeon
flock of 18 magpie
2 cormorant over heading west
1 male peregrine over low heading north west
wrens
dunnocks
robins

edit to add. 4 herons over





-- Edited by Paul Cliff at 20:57, 2008-03-23

a dozen or so meadow pipits off the B6222 and a pair of little owl roosting on the usual dry stone wall.

judith, am aware of the nest site if it's of interest to you.

gone at 5.30 - info steve collins.

might be worth a look on ashworth res in anybody is up that way?

http://homepage.mac.com/skiddo/.Pictures/Photo%20Album%20Pictures/Image045.jpg

mobile phone through bins

20 whopper swans on birtle brook at 5pm - amazing sight wonderful noise! first as long as i've been here, afaik.

9 snipe flushed where i'd been seeing the stonechat earlier this year, just off the B6222, jericho.

lovely sight, never seen them here before.

-- Edited by Paul Cliff at 17:34, 2008-03-14

much drumming from the roch valley and a green woodpecker calling occasionally.

a pair of little owl sat snoozing atop of a dry stone wall in the early morning sun. lovely.

over the weekend

10 bullfinches 5m 5 f
4 cormorant over head
lots of big gulls heading ashworth way in the late afternoon
3 GSW
1 goldcrest
all the usuals but
no stonechat
no siskin
no redpoll
no g woodpecker
no treecreeper

up to christmas we had a nuthatch regularly coming to the feeders but not a single sight of it for over a month now. :(


highlight on saturday was a female sparrowhawk trying to take feeding birds through the tree causing an almighty panic

male sparrowhawk low through on sunday

river roch ready to burst it's banks!

new years day

starlings
collared doves
house sparrow
blackbirds
5 great spotted woodpeckers
F green woodpecker (nice has have only seen males before)
bullfinches
blue tits
great tits
coal tits
longtail tits
dunnocks
robins
magpies
carrion crows
pied wagtail
wrens
chaffinches
7 goosander
redwings
blackheaded gulls
lapwings
redpoll (not sure if lesser or common - will email a snap to ian)
woodpigeon
feral pigeon
heron
goldfinch
mallard
6 cormorant
stonechat
tufted duck
moorhen
great canada geese
jay
3 mistle thrush
kestrel

have a tailless dunnock feeding on my birdtable...

first for me today. lovely views of a male stonechat on a barbed wire fence.

yesterday

3 GSW
tits, blue, great, coal
2 m 1 f bullfinch
robins
wren
dunnocks

xmas eve
green woodpecker on a telegraph pole
3 reed buntings
large flock of redwings working a cattle field on castlehill road.

m green woodpecker
treecreeper
f GSW
f sparrowhawk
tits, blue, great, coal
m&f chaffinch
charm of goldfinches
2 dunnock
nuthatch
3 goosanders in flight 2 m 1 f


and a young stag, nearly wet myself, just walked 20 yards in front of my hide.

snagged a couple of pics of that at the green woody, will send the woody to ian.

cheers

paul



-- Edited by skiddo at 22:57, 2007-10-28

-- Edited by Ian McKerchar at 15:37, 2009-01-07