Nice walk in the morning up the longdendale valley, willow warblers all over , bull finch,curlew over padfield fields, lapwings, a male displaying to his mate then mating.
2 oyster catchers over padfield fields. heard buzzard calling at higher deepclough, but could not see it. swallows at the farm .
on the mammal front we saw four hares just loving the sunshine (Swallow house lane way) good morning all in all

A walk on the longdendalele trail yesterday, i came across two curlew on the banks of valehouse resevoir, 2 oystercatcher further up and willow warbler are now well and truly back in the valley for summer, along with chiff chaff.

a walk around ethrow lodge park in the rain produced not a lot really, then a stroll around the rough land behind rossington park ind estate, we saw a male reed bunting calling, and two swallows flew over , first for me this year.

a stroll up the longdendale valley found the birds in fine voice, song thrush, being the singing star of the walk, we saw a few giving great views as they sang .
two oyster catchers were flying around bottoms reservoir, there were curlew(4) flying over , heading towards bleaklow. and a small number of lapwing in the fields around padfield, the most suprising bird this morning was a singing willow warbler in the deepclough area of the trail never seen one this early before. a couple of gentlemen reported wheatear on the fields of padfield earlier in the week , i looked for them but did not locate them . we heard a skylark in the same fields , and after a short while looking for it , we saw it high above us in the sky singing.

-- Edited by William Binns on Saturday 27th of March 2010 11:03:04 AM

chiff chaff singing in ethgrow lodge woods , first heard it on tuesday, woodpecker (g.s.)heard drumming most days, dipper seen on the river again thursday

-- Edited by William Binns on Friday 26th of March 2010 10:58:02 PM

two dippers on the river ethrow,singing in flight as they darted up and down the river at Hadfield, grey heron at its roost, at the weir , it is there every morning , till the area gets busy with dog walkers.

walk up on castle hill, produced a nice mix of fieldfare(36) redwing(2o ish) and a few starlings mixed in.
yesterday a walk up the longdendale valley , curlew (1) calling over padfield heading towards bleaklow moor, a great crested grebe on bottoms reservoir, and two coal tits mating(yes , i did avert my eyes, lol)

bankswood park, hadfield.
flock of siskin(40ish) seen in the park near the entrance, great views of a pair of nuthatch, spring is in the air , blue tits and great tits flirting with each other, no sign of woopecker though. was up in the quarry at 7 am this morning when a badger mouched by , i filmed it on my mobile, brilliant

-- Edited by William Binns on Sunday 14th of February 2010 06:23:28 PM

altough i had no binoculars on me ( no time to use them if i did) i saw the little fellow mouching around the skip at work , for maybe 20 seconds ,quite a time to view it before it took off, passing me, into scrub. on the banks of the ethrow. I see grey wags all the time and this was deffo not a grey the yellow /olive back was surely diagnostic.

William Binns wrote:

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yellow wagtail???????????? monday the 18th jan , opening the shutterdoors at work at the foot of the longdendale valley, i swear i saw a yellow wagtail, no, it was not a grey wag , definetley a yellow,i had good views ,of the little chap, could anyone tell me more about, yellow wags that winter over here.i have never heard of it before

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Whilst it's extremely unlikely William, pretty much anything is possible. May I suggest that if you are confident of your identification you contact the Derbyshire bird recorder as he would not only be very interested but is likely to be able to notify other 'local' birders to it's presence.

very rare in winter as far as I know William. When they do turn up they are often washed out juveniles thought to be of eastern race birds which have migrated in an unusual direction. Could you give a more detailed description of the bird you saw?

-- Edited by Henry Cook on Saturday 23rd of January 2010 10:01:59 PM

yellow wagtail???????????? monday the 18th jan , opening the shutterdoors at work at the foot of the longdendale valley, i swear i saw a yellow wagtail, no, it was not a grey wag , definetley a yellow,i had good views ,of the little chap, could anyone tell me more about, yellow wags that winter over here.i have never heard of it before

short walk down to the river Ethrow(Hadfield) turned out to be quite productive , considering we were only out for a short while. first bird to be seen was a grey heron , who roosts in the same place every night, then we saw 3 goosanders (m), showing extremely well.turning back for home (because of the bloody cold weather) we caught sight of a cormarant on the river who had just caught a trout(rainbow) which was at least a foot long, we saw him swallow the trout whole , then make his way to the other side of the river, swollen throat, and just sat there waiting for it to digest. on the way home we saw 1 lapwing heading up the longdendale valley, first of many i suspect.
about 11.00 we saw a swan (mute ) flying over tescos in stalybridge.

A stroll around Arnfield reservoir and swallows wood. what a lovely day, Two G.S. woodpeckers 1m+1f, showed so well in the sunlight that you could see all the details, Great crested Grebe on the reservoir ,baliff was trying to scare him away,some major threat to his trout fishery or something, bless him.In the nature reserve there were excellent views of a kingfisher who we saw fishing, made my wifes day, All the usual birds were around. in the reserve, on the way back we saw the grebe again, which had been joined by a cormarant expect the baliff wasnt so pleased .

Down to the river again this morning, my wife came with me , she is getting into this birding lark, which is nice.
We had barely had time to get our bins out when we saw a sparrowhawk diving , heard the alarm call of a blackbird ,all out of sight on the other side of the river ethrow, so we walked round over the bridge,where crows chastising the sparrowhawk guided us to her she was sat on the blackbird (m), then she took of with bird in her talons, Brilliant!
no sign of the goosanders today,and our walk around the wood, revealed the usual suspects, suprisingly not seen or heard any woodpeckers (gs) for a while,i am sure ai will be hearing them drumming in the next couple of months.

Down on the river ethrow again this morning , hoping to photograph the goosanders i saw yesterday,found them again diving and feeding. unfortunatly my batteries ran out on my camera
after a walk round Ethrow Lodge, getting good views of a pair of nuthatch i went back on the river to find the 3 m goosanders had been joined by another pair making five, 4 male , 1 female, pottering about in the immediate vicinity of a grey heron.
walking away from the river my head was turned back when i heard a dipper, which when i saw it was soon joined by another, great start to christmas day.

Think we are all sorted for christmas , thanks to my good wife , she is an angel.x. we went birding locally this morning , Ethrow Lodge (Hollingworth).
the canada geese are very active,struggling to feed on our snow covered frozen fields, very noisy flying from field to field. In Ethrow lodge, got good view of redwing ,
" a lot of em about", 1 Bullfinch (m), robin singing, tit flock , including a willow tit(bingo!)
Nuthatch, woodpigeons, wren, moorhen, then when we were coming out of the lodge on to the river Ethrow , we came across 3 goosander (m), never seen them on the river before , so , excellant sighting

not much chance of birding at the moment ,decorating and diy,,but a 15 minute walk to work which takes me on the river ethrow is helping me get my fix this morning saw 2 g.s. woodpeckers in a sycamore tree at the rossington park roundabout, a dipper on the ethrow flying upstream, a cormarant , and a grey heron on the river.

walk in the quarry at castle hill, produceded meadow pipits(4) a small tit flock and most amazingly 2 foxes walking straight towards me, 1 was 50 yards behind the other , first one got to within 15 yards of me , stood looking at me wondering what the hell i was, for maybe 10 seconds , then, i presume , caught my sent, and moved away at speed to my left . 2nd fox did not see this , but carried on towards me , realised its mate had gone, and became suspicious, something was not right , so it turned back and walked away with a sence of urgency,, brilliant!!!

A walk around ethrow lodge and a nosy on the banks of the river ethrow, lot of dog walkers , including myself , i got 2.
some excellant views of goldfinch , small flock of 9 showing really well on the banks of the ethrow, the woods were quiet, heard nuthatch and wren but they did not show themselves, species today include-
B H Gull
Redwing
Fieldfare
Robin
BL. Tit
Gr.Tit
L T Tit
Woodpigeon
Blackbird
Cormarant(on the river)
Carrion crow
Magpie
Goldfinch
mallard
Rook.

An early morning walk up the longdendale trail then dropping down gypsy lane, to stroll along the bank of valehouse reservoir, then walk around bottoms resrevoir.
Lovely weather , 7.05am still dark ,what a start, a tawny owl, showing so well against a gradually lighting sky, no more than 50 ft , hooting , so a male.rest of the walk was very pleasant, including 56 fieldfare landing in conifer just above me, in good light, so i got great views
other birds seen include,
Tawny owl
Robin
Blackbird
Carrion crow
Redwing
fieldfare
Blue tit
Great tit
long tail tit
Mistle thrush
Song thrush
Mallard
Wood pigeon
Magpie
Jackdaw
Blackheaded gull
Redpoll

20 whooper swans on bottoms resrvoir

Walk around torside reservoir again this morning, very pleasant weather , highlights included
Small flock of siskin(5)
Small flock of goldfinch (9 showing extremely well)
2 bullfinch (M+F)
Chaffinch
Mistle thrush
Redwing
Blackbird
Blue tit
Coal tit
Goldcrest
Robin
Jackdaw
Rook
Starling
Dunnock
Kestral
Amazingly , there were no ducks on the water

-- Edited by William Binns on Thursday 12th of November 2009 03:23:48 PM

had a walk around torside reservoir this afternoon,very pleasant. saw 7 siskins, 1raven, 2 coal tits, 1 redwing , lots of blackbirds, 100+ canada geese feeding on the farmland, grey heron. no sign of the 3 teal (2m+1f) i saw the other day i was here.gret tit blue tit , goldcrest and lots of them among a tit flock in the conifer plantation.

stroll around bottoms and rhodeswood reservoirs produced little today, highlight was a male and female bullfinch, male showing very well.
G.S,Woodpecker tekking in the silver birches at the begining of the longdendale trail, 10 BH Gulls on the water,normally a lot more.
walk around rhodeswood is always great for tit flocks, today there was a nuthatch amongst them.

not much time for birding today, but had some great views of tawny owl(male ) calling in bankswood park , while out walking my dogs at about 6.15am

out walking this morning through bankswood, then up and circum navigating mouslow(castle hill) i came across the usual suspects in the wood, blackbird, tit flocks, woodpigeon,redwing , fieldfare, really enjoyed my walk . coming down park road, which over looks the fields of top o th hill farm, i was alerted to the sound of a blackbird alarm call, i turned to see it being chased by a sparrowhawk before they both crashed into a holly tree, the blackbird escaped . after a few minutes of them both disapearing inside the holly tree the sparrowhawk emerged giving me great view of it making of over the field no more than 4 ft of the ground, just lifting up to get over walls and fences , brilliant.

My local patch, today , on my walk , i saw a lot of blackbirds in the hedges , their numbers have significantly increased in the last 2 weeks, six redpoll, buzzard, a tawny owl mobbed by three jays,the usual tit flocks, and a little owl.

-- Edited by paganhound on Monday 2nd of November 2009 07:17:43 PM