Now 5 nests opposite Church Lane Flood at Blossoms Lane, Woodford.

Cheers John

7 nests outside Wellacre School in Flixton. 2 birds seen collecting sticks from the ground around the nesting trees.

Thursday 2nd April 2015, 3.30pm

Mottram Moor, Hollingworth

At least 20 nests in the main rookery, with 17 birds present

4 nests in Beech trees at the front of Edmund Arrowsmith High School, Ashton-in-Makerfield, the first time I've noticed any nests there, though birds regularly feed on the field. Less than half a mile from the Holiday Inn rookery just over the St Helens border. Interestingly, they are next to a cul-de-sac called Rookery Avenue, probably early to mid-20th century. Don't know when the Rookery referred to was last there?

-- Edited by dave broome on Monday 30th of March 2015 10:12:15 PM

Birch 29/3

95 nests may be more if some of the larger structures are more than 1

About 60 jackdaws in the same trees? Surely will be driven off soon by rooks

Checked out Tyldesley cemetery Rookery today.
~ 12-13 occupied nest, a 50% decline from my 2010 count.
Other birds of note included a very active pair of G.S.Woodpeckers & Nuthatches
and a pair of nesting Mistle Thrushes.
Cheers
Ian

Birch village - c 80-85 nests this afternoon

Wolstenholme, Norden - c 20 nests this morning

Birtle rookery now has fourteen nests,nineteen last year. There are a further twenty nests approx quarter mile away. Does anyone know if this could be an extension to existing or a new rookery?

Birtle rookery now has fourteen nests,nineteen last year. There are a further twenty nests approx quarter mile away where there have been none previously. Does anyone know if this is an extension to the existing or a new rookery?s

We now have a total of 11 nests in Flixton.

Just out of interest but we appear to have increased our Flixton rookery size this year.
There are 4 nests in a tree opposite the Railway Tavern on Irlam Road and 4 nests in a tree on the southern edge of Woodsend Park, which is a few hundred metres from the other tree, as the Rook flies.

New rookery containing 4 nests in woodland just above Lowercroft reservoir.

Birtle rookery started two years ago with 14 nests,last year 21 nests,this year 19 nests.I suppose rookeries wax and wane over the years.

Delph - White Lion rookery

10 occupied nests 28th April

24th April. 2013.

Hollingworth. Gun Inn traffic lights.

Accurate count.

22 nests + 5 still building. Another 8 nests about 100 yds away, farther round the trees. Therefore 35 nests in total.

Roger.

Counted 44 nests this morning on BBS walk covering St Johns Church, Shuttleworth..

Rob Archer

There was also a small rookery of around 20 - 30 nests at the bottom of the village in the grounds of Broadbottom Hall, but this has long gone.
The Jackdaws are still there although many have moved onto the viaduct to nest.

The Broadbottom/Mottram area has lost a lot of species since those days -- Yellowhammers, Grey Partridge, Yellow Wagtails, Cuckoos, Tree Sparrows, Common Snipe etc no longer breed. Besides the rookery, Broadbottom had huge numbers of breeding Swift which have more or less disappeared with the addition of dormer bedrooms on many of the stone terraces. The Lapwings and Skylarks have gone from the Mudd at Mottram has indeed have Redstarts from Bothams Hall Wood (Great Wood) although perhaps an odd pair may still breed there.
Sadly its not just birds the last wild flower meadow was built on a few years ago.

I remember the gamekeeper at The Keg, having once been the recipient of the salt pellets ( would have been at least a good £50,000 compensation these days!) and fell into the river about half an hour later - an interesting sort of day.

You've brought some memories back for me there Vic ....... my first visit was in 1960 with a couple of school-mates (big adventure) ..... the noise was incredible as soon as you got off the train. I used to enjoy listening to them settling down at dusk ..... as you say, thousands of birds.
There was also a big Jackdaw colony on the rock-face at the side of the railway bridge over the river ...... I don't know if they still breed there or not.
Used to be great birding from Broadbottom to The Keg and Compstall ....... Keg was still a shooting estate then and the keeper would shoot salt pellets at you just for trespassing which tended to keep you on your toes a bit.

Happy Days.

Roger.

I counted c27 active nests at the bottom of Hill End Lane on the Broadbottom/Mottram parish boundary yesterday. The nests are on both sides of the Mottram/Broadbottom road.

There used to be a huge rookery at Broadbottom that was counted in the late 1950s by a local as 1500+ nests. It stretched from the wood at the back of Broadbottom cricket field all the way to the start of the village proper at Market Street. It used to be quite a sight when all the birds flew up at once during a "dread". It used to be even bigger from what older people in the village told me as there used to be many pairs that nested on the opposite side of the railway but were persuaded to "move on" following complaints from railway passengers. I have never seen a rookery anywhere approaching the size of the Broadbottom one anywhere in Britain.
In 1944/1945 the Ministry of Agriculture did a rookery census over many parts of Britain including Cheshire (Broadbottom of course being in Cheshire at the time). They must have missed Broadbottom as the full results for Cheshire showed only 390 nests as the largest rookery in the county!(at Swettenham)
Numbers began to fall rapidly from the early 1960s until by the late 1970s there was probably only around 250 pairs. The final straw was when houses were built inside the wood after many trees were cut down.
However a few hung on at the top of the wood where I counted 35 nests only, a few years ago. The wood has recently been abandoned so I assume that the current rookery are birds from there, as it is only a few hundred yards away.

8 nests at Summerseat.

Also a new rookery on Brandlesholme Road, Bury containing 7 nests at the junction with Garside Hey Road.

All 8 nests occupied at 1910hrs in the Delph rookery

Rookery at Cross roads Delph - 6 active nests - in 2012 there were 12 nests by 21st April.

Near Stockport Schoo, Great Moorl on the A6.

c19 nests counted as I drove slowly by in traffic jam.

Cheers, John

Wolstenholme - Norden c18 nests.

I went to check the rookery on Bradshaw Road, Bolton, this morning to find nearly as many wagons as nests as they were doing road resurfacing at the the very spot. On my way back from Hawkshaw I tried to count the nests from the track to Toye Farm, and estimated between 12 & 15 nests.

Colin Ramsden wrote:

---

Hello Bill
As regards the Heap Bridge rookery I actually worked adjacent to it in the 60's and 70's when it had 20 -30 nests. Through my open office window I could hear the rooks snapping twigs off the trees to construct the nest. Other than working so close I wouldn't have known that they did that - obviously they knew how to detect dead but still attached twigs. Actually the area itself is much less attractive now so I hope you are correct and they have moved upmarket to Birtle. Where is the Birtle rookery?

The Wolstenholme (Nutters) rookery is just up the road from me so I shall count that one.

Cheers

Colin

---

Hi Colin,

The Birtle rookery is about 2/3rds mile uphill of the bottom of Castle Hill Road and along the road leading up to Harwood Fields Farm. Sorry but not sure of the name of that road but the approx. grid ref if you are mapwise is SD825128.

Regards,

Bill.

Around Woodsend Park, Flixton, we usually have 20-30 Rooks wintering and there is at present, a small rookery of 5 nests in 1 tree, on the south side of the park.

30+ Hollingworth Near the Gun Inn

............................................................

Bit of an increase here Mike ....... I counted 14 nests on the 11th April 2011 (Mottram/Hollingworth thread).

Will try to get an accurate count if I am passing that way ...... now that Mr Myerscough has shamed me out of my lethargy.

Roger.

-- Edited by Roger Baker 3 on Thursday 11th of April 2013 07:52:21 AM

Rookeries ? You're lucky, just 1 Rook would do us on Salford Quays, where it is an absolute mega (don't think there has ever been a record!)

Hello Bill
As regards the Heap Bridge rookery I actually worked adjacent to it in the 60's and 70's when it had 20 -30 nests. Through my open office window I could hear the rooks snapping twigs off the trees to construct the nest. Other than working so close I wouldn't have known that they did that - obviously they knew how to detect dead but still attached twigs. Actually the area itself is much less attractive now so I hope you are correct and they have moved upmarket to Birtle. Where is the Birtle rookery?

The Wolstenholme (Nutters) rookery is just up the road from me so I shall count that one.

Cheers

Colin

30+ Hollingworth Near the Gun Inn

As of today:
Heap Bridge (Bury) - 2 nests.
Chamber House Farm (Heywood) - 4 nests.
Not good.

Colin Ramsden wrote:

---

As of today:
Heap Bridge (Bury) - 2 nests.
Chamber House Farm (Heywood) - 4 nests.
Not good.

---

Hi Colin,

I read your post today and also the one regarding the Birch rookery yesterday with interest. I'm of the opinion that most birders don't spend enough or indeed often any time at all around rookeries at this time of year - they are great places to be with all the sights and sounds and there is usually always something worth looking at and marvelling at. They don't know what they're missing! The figures for Heap Bridge as you say are not good, particularly as I counted 19 there on 17th March last year. One wonders if this rookery will cease to exist shortly as it appears to have suffered a very steep decline, with total nest counts in the 60's and upper 50's only as recently as the second half of the 1990's. Very sad. Some just slightly better news however. Whilst I was up at Birtle over the winter months and as usual spent more of my time talking than bird watching I ended up chatting with one of the local residents who told me of a rookery near his house. I certainly wasn't aware of it and when I checked on 2nd April this year there were 13 nests there, although this in itself is quite a decrease from the 21 counted by the local resident last year. Just wondering if some of the Heap Bridge birds have moved to this site at Birtle, which is only a mile or so to the north? I'm not sure how new this Birtle rookery is, although it doesn't appear to have been present during our recent local breeding birds' atlas project (2008 -2011) when the relevant 2km by 2km square just shows Rook as a possible breeder. Just wondering too if some of the Heap Bridge birds might have moved to an as yet undiscovered new rookery? I'm trying to be optimistic, when the counts you reveal today look, as you quite rightly say, to be really gloomy.

If you are intending on counting the two other local ones at Healey Dell (only part in GM I think?) and at Nutters, Norden then I might see you, as I'm intending visiting all the local rookeries in the next week or so.

Cheers,

Bill,


-- Edited by Bill Myerscough on Tuesday 9th of April 2013 04:35:22 PM

Hi all and thanks for updates. I had a rook for about 3 years after fixing its wing when I was in my teens hence my interest in these fascinating and very intelligent birds and think a survey would be useful. There appears to have been a significant overall decline in numbers over the past few years. By the way the Rastrick rookery has lost two and gained one since my last post so now 18 nests.

keith mills wrote:

---

Small active Rookery seen this morning along Chorley Old Road, Bolton. ( Bottom o' th' Moor, Near Blundell Arms)
30 nests counted with plenty of Rooks present

---

30 nests isn't a small rookery these days in this county, Keith.

The Greenfield colony seems to be increasing from the usual 3 nests

Birch village - c 70 nests this morning.

Steve Suttill wrote:

---

keith mills wrote:

---

Small active Rookery seen this morning along Chorley Old Road, Bolton. ( Bottom o' th' Moor, Near Blundell Arms)
30 nests counted with plenty of Rooks present

---

30 nests isn't a small rookery these days in this county, Keith.

The Greenfield colony seems to be increasing from the usual 3 nests

---

Thanks for your insight on this Post, Steve.
I will have another look soon. There were quite a few small nests as well, which I did not count. Possibly these
are in the process of construction? Some of the Rooks/nests are very near the Road, so I did not hang
around too long.


-- Edited by keith mills on Monday 8th of April 2013 05:51:48 PM

59 nests counted this morning at the Worthington rookery along with plenty of activity.

The Hartsead Rooks are back this year but have moved slightly. Bet with the weather in West Yorskhire that they had moved to South of France!!

Small active Rookery seen this morning along Chorley Old Road, Bolton. ( Bottom o' th' Moor, Near Blundell Arms)
30 nests counted with plenty of Rooks present

Hi
The Hartshead Service Station rookery has now been destroyed by the M62 roadworks - almost all the trees with nests have been felled. Hopefully we will get a few more next year. Also, looking out over the weekend there appears to be a good number of young birds this year. I used to live in Alkrington and there was a succesful rookery there until a few years ago but sadly it s no more, also probably was one nearest to city centre. They all seemed to have transferred to Birch. On the other hand, their relatives, Jackdaws, ust seem to be increasing in numbers and range in N Manchester.

There's one on Dunham Forest GC, just by the tee for the 7th. Very noisy this year.

Rodney Harrison wrote:

---

We have a rookery at the back of our house in Rastrick, had 13 succesful nests last year but have 19 this year, are those in Manchester showing signs of increase after the two previous bad winters?

---

Hi Rodney,

Pleased to hear about the increase at your local rookery. Wonder if you might have a few more next year after reading on some other forum of possible disturbance near to the rookery at Hartshead Moor Services on the M62 during this breeding season?

I suspect that for many birders Rooks are one of our less interesting species and sadly don't attract a great deal of attention. I'm lucky that I personally enjoy the sights and sounds of a rookery in spring and have counted a few this year but like many things bird related I suspect that timing is of the essence and I probably counted a few a bit too early in the breeding season to be sure I had got the maximum numbers of nests that may have been built. Whilst updating my records I also had a look at some recent historical records that I could find at some of these sites, which I thought might be of interest.

Site 1 - 32 nests on 26th Feb had increased to 88 by 25th March. There were 50 in 1996, 60 in 1997, 75 in 1999, 70 in 2001, 80 in 2004 and 109 in 2009.

Site 2 - 19 nests on 17th March. There were 60 in 1996, 60 in 1997, 56 in 1998, 50 in 2000, 42 in 2001, 34 in 2002, 28 in 2004, 41 in 2005, 44 in 2006, 32 in 2007, 34 in 2008 and 25 in 2009.

Site 3 - 42 nests on 18th March. There were 61 in 1996, 50 in 2004, 34 in 2006, 35 in 2007 and 33 in 2009.

Site 4 - 23 nests on 8th April. There were 30 in 1996, 21 in 1998, 23 in 1999, 21 in 2000, 23 in 2004, 20 in 2005, 9 in 2008 and 20 in 2009.

Site 5 - 18 nests on 18th April. There were 25 in 1996, 22 in 1997, 20 in 2000, 27 in 2003, 16 in 2004, 15 in 2005, 9 in 2006, 13 in 2008, and 17 in 2009.

Site 6 - 4 nests on 9th April. There were 4 in 1996, 10 in 1999, 3 in 2002, 10 on 2004 and 8 in 2009.

Site 7 - 1 nest on 20th April. This held as many as 18 nests in 1996 and 10 nests in 1998, down to 6 by the mid 2000's.

From the above it would appear that some colonies appear to fluctuate, whilst a few have declined, some substantially in the timescales noted. Finally, a little further back in this thread Judith Smith detailed the figure work for the last two organised Rook surveys in GM when in 1975 there were 45 rookeries containing 1418 nests but by the time of the next one in 1996 these figures had declined to 43 rookeries containing 956 nests. I wonder if it might be a good idea for all of us GM birdwatchers to have a concerted effort next year to count all of our rookeries?

Cheers,

Bill.

Good news Rodney. My local rookery has declined this year with only about 10 active nests, from a high of 27 a few years ago.

We have a rookery at the back of our house in Rastrick, had 13 succesful nests last year but have 19 this year, are those in Manchester showing signs of increase after the two previous bad winters?

19/04/2011 - at least 6 occupied nests in the tall trees between Banky Meadow and the Sewage Works, Ashton-upon-Mersey this morning.

now 4 nests (1 very large) behind the Coop pharmacy in Greenfield.

-- Edited by Ian McKerchar on Saturday 26th of March 2011 08:25:30 PM

13 nests at Bleaklow Hall, Hawkshaw. 8 nests at Summerseat. 19 nests at Gorsey Clough nursing home.

Nest building at Delph. 12 birds present at 1230 on 19/03.