11.45 - 13.15 warm sunny visit.

Along the River Glaze
Common Whitethroal 1
Swallow 4
Mallard 12
Grey Heron

Windy Bank
Common Whitethroat 3
Willow Warbler 4
Chiffchaffs 2
Great Spotted Woodpecker 1, another woodpecker heard drumming but unable to locate it
Tree Sparrow 3
Buzzard 2
Lapwing 4
Swallow 6
Carrion crow 6

Also good numbers of
Blue Tit
Great Tit
Long Tailed Tit
Chaffinch
Robin

7.15 - 10am Gorgeous clear, sunny, calm.

Kestrel 1

Mallard 8 on River Glaze
Gadwall 2 (1m1f)
Moorhen 1

Chiffchaff - 3 (1 seen 2 heard)
Willow Warbler - 13 (5 seen, 8 heard)
Songthrush - 5
Mistle Thrush - 4
Lapwing - 5

Great Spotted Woodpecker - 2
Reed Bunting - 4
Wren - 10 (1 seen, 9 heard!)

Cuckoo - 1 (on fencepost then flew down onto grass between tufts of rushes)

Goldfinch - 1
Common Whitethroat - 6
Treecreeper - 1 (year tick)
Common Buzzard - 3
Chaffinch - 4
Swallow - 1
Willow Tit - 2
Long tailed tit - 2
Lesser Black Backed Gull (over) 3
Black Headed Gull (on field) 20

Plus the usual
Woodpigeon
Blackbirds
Great Tits
Blue Tits
Carrion Crows


By my standards, a species count of 28 is pretty good going, and Windy Bank was lonely and beautiful. 3 dog walkers, no other birders, few railway maintenance lads, and an individual in a very noisy microlight!

6 -8.30am
windy,cold and dam right miserable when began raining.
very quiet
1 Wheatear, 5 Buzzard, 1 Great Spotted Woodpecker, plenty Willow Warbler, Blackcap, Chiffchaff.
plus usuals

10.15
45 mins cycle ride round before work for which I was late, first visit for me here will need to spend more time here.

plenty of Chaffinch, Robin and Blackbird singing in woods plus usual tit species

Yellowhammer 1
Reed Bunting 1
Buzzard 5
Kestrel 2
Canada Goose
Mallard
Lapwing
Skylark
plus the usual birds seen over fields like Woodpigeon

Late posting for Sun 4th

Very quiet - with the exception of good views of buzzards; 7 overhead at one point

This afternoon:

family parties of Buzzard, Willow Tit, Treecreeper, Blackcap, Coal Tit, Whitethroat, Willow Warbler, Chaffinch, Long-tailed/Blue/Great Tit plus male Yellowhammer and distant Peregrine probably over Astley Moss SSSI area before heading south.

9/7/11 (am)

A 3hr circular mooch from the bridge at Jennets Lane, through the Forestry Commission wood and Windy Bank Farm, and back round via Bridge Farm and Hawk Hurst Farm:

1 Peregrine (over)
3 Corn Buntings (others heard singing) in tilled field South of Bridge Farm
1 Yellow Wagtail (juv) in horse paddock at Bridge Farm
1 Little Owl
2 Ravens (over)
1 Buzzard
1 Oystercatcher (over)
1 Tufted Duck (f) w/5 young on the Glaze Brook
2 Willow Tits
2 Tree Sparrows - Hawk Hurst Farm
4 Kestrels
2 Skylarks

Blackcap, Meadow Pipits, Bullfinches, Reed Buntings, Whitethroats, Chiffchaff, Mistle Thrush etc

3 Embden Geese & 1 Muscovy Duck
1 Mink

Decided to have a nice afternoon stroll with the family around here as I hadn't been up around here for about 2 years. I have to say that the place looked absolutely lovely. The newly planted trees all look to be doing well and the meadow areas were full of wild flowers. Bird wise I saw the following: -

Cracking views of a pair of Garden Warbler literally metres away from where I was standing - just typical I didn't bring the camera!!
Loads of other warbler activity.
Willow warbler
Chiffchaff
Whitethroat
Blackcap
4 Buzzard
2 Kestrel
Wood pigeon
Blackbird
Blue tit
Goldfinch
Reed Bunting
Pheasant
Swallows
Swifts
Sand Martins near the river
Heron

Need to make time to walk round here more often.

Very Quiet this afternoon in the rain

Two Buzzards and two kestrels over Windy Bank itself

The Glaze must have plenty of small fish in at the moment - starting at Hope Carr and finishing at Jennets Lane, I saw a total of five cormorants fishing.

Early Afternoon

Plenty of larger birds

2 Buzzards
4 Kestrels
1 Sparrowhawk
60+ Woodpigeons
14 Mistle Thrushes
Magpies
Grey Heron
Black Headed Gulls
Lesser Black Backed Gulls overhead
Canada Geese and Moorhen on Glaze

but few smaller birds - only
Swallows
House Martins
Goldfinches

Unfortunately no Kingfishers this afternoon but family of four Kestrels - 2 adults and 2 Juveniles. Also young Treecreeper still being fed by parent.

Crackin' walk this afternoon:

Tufted Duck with 10 very small young on the Glaze by Jennets Lane.
Mute Swan pair with 3 cygnets as above.
Kingfisher on the Glaze as above.
5 Buzzard
Single Kingfisher by a rather small pond at Windy Bank
1 singing Chiffchaff
Couple of singing Blackcaps
Pair of Yellowhammer

Thurs 10th June

Buzzard - at least two
Kestrel
Great Spotted Woodpecker
Plenty of Fledglings - Great Tits, Blue Tits, Whitethroat and Coal Tits

Pair of Swans with three cygnets on the Glaze

Male Whinchat this afternoon along the very northern edge of the area was a very nice bird for this site especially

Sat 8th May - 10.30am - 12.30pm

Whitethroats everywhere
Also Blackcaps, Chiifchaffs and Willow Warblers
Plenty of Treecreeper activity - at least two differents pairs - one pair nest building
Swifts and Swallows
Kestrel
Coal Tit

-- Edited by Raymond Ashcroft on Saturday 8th of May 2010 01:35:14 PM

3:30-5:00pm this afternoon:

Garden Warbler- 1 by the entrance to Windy Bank Wood from the main track.
Blackcap- 6
Whitethroat- 2
Lesser Whitethroat- 2, one singng along the entrance track in Hawthorns in the sheep fields and one singing by the big pool in Windy Bank
Willow Warbler- 5
Chiffchaff- 2
Great Spotted Woodpecker- 1
Mallard with 5 ducklings on the Glaze.

Sat 10th April

Buzzard (2)
Kestrel (3)
Jay (3)
GS Woodpecker (a pair)
Chiffchaff

plus usual sightings

Fri 12th March - early pm

Buzzard (2)
Kestrel
GS Woodpecker (2)
Treecreeper
Redwing (15+)
Fieldfare (12)

Sun 7th Mar - am

Windy Bank definitely improving - I could't match Dave's number of species from yesterday but did see
Min 4 Buzzards
2 Kestrels
Coal Tit
Redwing (min 20)
and a treecreeper
plus usual stuff

Apologies if this place has been covered in the general Mosses thread - do move it if so. I had my first walk around this Forestry Commision site today, very pleasant. 32 species including Willow Tit, 2 singing Coal Tit, 20 Redwing, 150 vocal Starling between wood and sheep pasture, min 5 Buzzard in vicinity, 450 Woodpigeon and 5 Stock Dove on adjacent pasture, 2 Teal nearby on River Glaze, presumably blissfully unaware that they were swimming on the GM (Wigan/Warrington) boundary

-- Edited by dave broome on Saturday 6th of March 2010 10:14:33 PM

-- Edited by Ian McKerchar on Saturday 13th of March 2010 09:42:12 AM