Working in the garden this afternoon was certainly worthwhile if for no other reason than watching skeins of geese passing overhead between 2 - 3pm!

An impressive 1600 Pink footed Geese flew east in flocks varying between 50 & 250 in size. And the total is an undercount as I heard but could not see at least 2 other skeins heading in the same direction to the south of me during that time.

Just on the move are harbingers of bad weather to come??

Pink footed geese - a single skein of 180 flying high to the east this morning
Peregrine Falcon - female low overhead & dropping down towards Silver Lane pools

Pink footed Geese - 250 heading west at 9.15am, only just visible through the mist.

A pleasant walk over farmland to the north of Withington Avenue this morning. At various intervals along the hedgerow.

Tree Sparrow - 30 -35 in single flock, my best count here for a while
Yellowhammer - 6
Reed Bunting - 10
Goldfinch - 20
Greenfinch - 2

Mistle Thrush - 2

Long tailed tit - 12
Nuthatch - 2 with tit flock

Woodpigeon - 200+ in single flock
Great spotted woodpecker - 1 near railway

Golden Plover - single bird circling & calling & eventually left south

15:15 probable Red Kite drifting west

Viewed from moving vehicle in heavy traffic, but tail, wing shape & jizz seemed good. "Not the best view"

y'day (4th Jan) N of Withington Ave, before railway underpass

2 big flocks of buntings: ~60 Yellowhammers, ~30 Reed Buntings, Chaffinches but no Bramblings or rare buntings. Also sev Redwings flying around

Pink footed geese - 450 in 2 skeins (200 & 250) heading south to north earlier.

There's a regular movement of ca200 geese heading east in the morning and then back west in late afternoon at the moment.

Pink footed geese - 250 flew west this afternoon. Again although not seen, quite a few also seem to come off local fields & went out east

Pink footed geese - 3 skeins totaling 200 flew low to the west this morning with further birds heard but not seen heading out east at the same time

c100 Lapwing around Franks Farm, Holcroft Lane this afternoon.

Possible Marsh Harrier circling very high over N Culcheth (y'day): wings looked too long & wrong shape for Buzzard, too distant to be sure though

-- Edited by John Watson on Thursday 8th of September 2016 09:59:32 AM

Originally posted today by Rob Smith:

Bent Lane - 15th December at dusk

An impressive 90+ House Sparrows into roost along hedgerow but no Tree Sparrows among them. Usually less than half of these here during the day.

30+ Pied Wagtail took off from the horse paddocks & headed south - roosting in Birchwood somewhere perhaps?

Originally posted today by Rob Smith:

Pink footed geese - 135 in two skeins (60 & 75) flew east around 9.30am this morning

35 Pinkfooted geese flew S Culcheth then Risley at 09:20
12 Cormorants flew S Culcheth then Risley at 09:25

~110 Pinkfooted geese flew SE over Culcheth into GM at 09:40

-- Edited by Ian McKerchar on Tuesday 10th of November 2015 12:03:59 PM

1+ Redwing feeding in my garden y'day eve

Originally posted today by John Watson:

~140 Pink-footed Geese going West over Culcheth 11:05 Friday 9 Oct

Flock (family ?) of ~6 swift drifted south over village

Finally caught up with a Corn Bunting on the wires outside Frank's Farm entrance yesterday morning around 7:30am after two previous unsuccessful visits. I also saw some Skylarks and Linnets, and four Grey Partridges which flew low over Holcroft Lane.

20+ Corn Buntings in bushes on top of banking behind Hanging Birch Farm on Weds at dusk

Originally posted by Dave Tennant today: -

A good number of swallow feeding low around shaw street playing fields culcheth this am, also great spotted woodpecker over.

1 Corn Bunting on wires on Holcroft Lane c.12.50pm today.

Three Corn Buntings on the telephone wires down Holcroft Lane this evening. Also a family of Kestrels nearer to Glazebrook.

Fields around franks farm/silver lane pools

50 swifts 2 sedge warbler 1 garden warbler 3 willow warbler 5 whitethroat 30 swallows 10 house martin 2 meadow pipit skylark buzzard kestrel 5 yellowhammer 3 reed bunting 2 grey partridge(more heard) 1 corn bunting 3 stock dove 1 little owl and 1 barn owl hunting to within 10 feet.

This afternoon:

2 Oystercatchers over together
At least 4 Buzzards riding the thermals (2 pairs)
A pair of kestrels hunting
A pair of pied wagtails
Sparrowhawk
A raven - very high up and riding the thermals
Lapwing displaying

Had a look over Holcroft Moss (the one marked as such on an OS map rather than the fields around Franks Farm) this evening. I was hoping for an owl or two but was disappointed. Several buzzards, two grey partridge, lots of roosting woodpigeon then, as darkness gathered, seven woodcock.

Driving past Holcroft Moss today and had a Merlin going through a flock of 80 Linnets at the side of the road.

Cheers David

Wander round Holcroft Moss this morning

42 Grey Partridges (11, 9, 8, 7 & 7)
1 Corn Bunting
2 Jays
14 Long-tailed Tits
1 Buzzard
1 Sparrowhawk

At Holcroft Hall Farm

1 Corn Bunting
7 Golden Plovers
130+ Lapwings

Another quick visit to Holcroft Moss on Thursday, with Brian Martin, to keep an eye on the bunting flock using the set-aside crop. Numbers of Yellowhammers have continued to drop, with local birds probably returning to territories in this mild weather - though hard weather may well bring them back again. Reed Buntings were a different story, though, with at least 250 still present. 13 Grey Partridges flushed as we passed the farm buildings and 60 Linnets bounced away into the distance. No sign of the Corn Bunting flock on this brief visit, though.

Masses of corvids and Skylarks were still feeding on the adjacent fields and both Kingfisher and Grey Wagtail added flashes of colour to the little stream which feeds the ornamental pond in front of Frank's Farm.

Cheers David

Another visit to Holcroft Moss (Franks' Farm), with Dave Steel and Les Jones, to check on the impact of the Stewardship scheme on wintering birds. At the moment this area offers some of the best (if not the best!) arable birding in the area. There are plenty of weedy stubbles and a 20 - 30 acre area of set-aside crop, which is acting as a magnet for feeding buntings and finches. The weedy fields are full of Skylarks (with 320 counted), with Meadow Pipits (67 counted) also present. Fifty Lapwings, 375 Starlings, 36 Fieldfare, 3 Common Buzzards, 2 Sparrowhawks, 24 Grey Partridge, 16 Blackbirds, 2 Kestrels, 2 Song Thrushes, 16 Goldfinches, 850 Wood Pigeons, 300 Jackdaws and 58 Stock Doves were some of the commoner species present.

As we approached the set-aside area we saw the typical dumpy out-line of a group of Corn Buntings in a couple of bare bushes. We counted 17, which is excellent, as we've been struggling to find any on the rest of the local arable mosses. The next minute the sky was full of birds as a Peregrine passed over the set-aside crop - several hundred Linnets, scores of Skylarks and Buntings were whirling among the hundreds of corvids. The numbers of buntings feeding in the crop was difficult to estimate but we ended up with a conservative 250 Reed Buntings and 75 Yellowhammers. Absolutely spectacular! As a last note of interest a Roe Deer emerged from the crop, very unconcerned about us, and slowly wandered away.

Cheers David

Went across Holcroft Moss to monitor the progress of the move to Higher Level Stewardship on Frank's Farm. They've done a fantastic job of it, with numbers exceeding the winter counts I've made there in the past. Key counts were of: 131 Yellowhammers (45 in the weedy rapeseed crop near the entrance to the farm and the rest in a large area of "sacrificial" wheat.), 16 Corn Buntings, 19 Reed Buntings, 23 grey Partridges (7,11 and 5), 6 Fieldfare, 11 Stock Doves, 60 Chaffinches, 94 Skylarks, 32 Linnets, 200 Starlings, 2 Willow Tits and 1 Mistle Thrush plus the other regular stuff.

Cheers David

22 Corn Buntings Holcroft Lane this evening

188 Stock Doves in ploughed field behind Hanging Birch Farm (Holcroft Lane) this afternoon. The birds were in a part of the field not visible from the main road. Also here 140+ Linnets. I had stopped to check out what I though was a flock of Corn Buntings (had 30+ here last 2 winters) but a Buzzard spooked the birds before I got a chance to view them properly.

Four yellow wagtails around the driveway to Franks Farm on Holcroft Lane at 6.10am this morning, with at least one more unseen bird calling to the west (probably around the entrance to the field that's blocked off by a felled tree). Also in the area were two corn buntings and a pair of grey partridge.

Two yellow wagtails Holcroft Lane this morning by the entrance to Franks Farm - a female was on the road! Usual corn bunts. singing from telegraph wires.

50+ Golden Plover still nr Franks farm but most of plover flock hidden from view

200+ golden plover on winter wheat in front of Franks Farm, Holcroft Lane at 2.30pm.

At least 22 Golden Plovers with 350+ Lapwings in fields in front of Holcroft Hall farm this morning. Part of flock obscured so there could have been more.

35 Corn Buntings this morning nr Hanging Birch Farm

Flock of at least 31 Corn Buntings on Holcroft Lane this morning. They were in trees approx 100 yds south from Hanging Birch Farm - they then flew onto the moss. Also a drake Goosander flew over.

Holcroft Lane early afternoon

25 Pink-footed Geese - feeding in field in front of Franks farm
1 Buzzard (pale-phase)
180+ Lapwing
30+ Great Black-backed Gull
50+ Herring Gull
20+ Common Gull
200+ Black-headed Gull

Holcroft Lane this morning:

13 Golden Plover (some in partial breeding plumage)
137+ Fieldfare
1 Buzzard

This morning in fields off Holcroft Lane:

42 Great Black-backed Gulls
24 Herring Gulls
2 Common Gulls
250+ Black-headed Gulls

200+ Fieldfare

Yesterday - 3 Buzzards

Mike

Lunchtime - fields around Holcroft Hall Farm 7 Golden plover 250+ Lapwing 210+ Fieldfare 60+ Redwing 1 Buzzard 2 Kestrels Mike