a lot of the gulls were heading off towards pennington way when i left last night at about 21:30. The Dunlin was still there but not much else

judith,i,ll be able to nip down to horrocks and see what,s hanging around wednesday pm I haven,t heard or seen any gulls over the estate so maybe they are still gathering on horrocks.

cheers geoff (and thanks everyone for showing restraint when someone asks what was
a pretty daft question,i,m just glad i asked 'why' and not 'what' I,d had visions of what the replys would have been i.e standing,swimming,drinking,preening,the list goes on )

940+ Lesser BBs (about 1/3 juvs), 28 Herring Gulls, a Dunlin and 2 more broods of Tufties, both of 4 newly hatched ducklings, one on canal, this afternoon at Horrocks Flash. Only one of the LBBs had a colour ring which I've sent off to the local gull ringer (though it may not be one of his, which is interesting!) Suspect they might have eaten my youngest brood of tern chicks, though. I can't remember ever seeing such passage through Horrocks Flash in previous years.
It would be interesting to see if there is a marked increase in the roost at Pennington Flash this evening.

late july and august is peak passage period for lesser black backed gulls in both county and country geoff

horrocks front pool, 20.00 till dusk

500 assorted lbb juv/adult with herring gull inbetween
140 lapwing
150+ gh gull

quite a sight and i,d love know why they,ve all turned up

cheers geoff

horrocks flash 9.30am
all terns and bh gulls as usual,influx off 20 lbb 6 herring gull plus the 30 odd juvs lbb who seem resident,tufted with chicks and great crested grebe family showing well, 1 pied wagtail in the middle of the throng

cheers geofffrom gull central

horrocks flash evening,

gulls and terns all busy,counted 350 bhh gull ,and 38 immature lbb on the edge of the colony

cheers geoff

Horrocks' Flash this morning - 4th brood of Tufties (North pool), 3 Snipe 1 Teal.
Pearson's this evening - 180 Tufted, new brood Little Grebe.

This morning - Horrocks Flash:
1 Snipe
2 Teal (pair)
1 Stock Dove
2 Great Spotted Woodpecker
2 Kestrel (pair)


Ochre Flash:
juv Kingfisher


Park House Farm:
1 Yellowhammer
5 Bullfinch

24/7/08

Grasshopper Warbler reeling at the back of Pearson`s Flash this afternoon. Also 33 Great Crested Grebes on the flash, and a Common Gull over Scotman`s.

Yesterday evening (23rd) at Horrock`s Flash - 17 juvenile Lesser Black-backed Gulls and one adult, a single Stock Dove, and a Great Crested Grebe brood of 3.

LBBs - that's odd Rob, as I didn't see any there yesterday morning.

Sunday 20 July 2008 - Horrock's flash late afternoon... A large flock of LBB Gulls flew in from the south. 36 of them landed on the front pool and 30 or so more continued north.
Yesterday (Monday) there were still 25+ LBB Gulls (mainly juvs) on the front pool, every so often one or two of them would take-off and fly fast and low over the BH Gull/Common Tern colony, swooping at chicks. I didn't see any chicks get taken, but this many LBB Gulls hanging around can't be good news for the colony!

3 more broods of Tufties this morning, (1 Horrocks Flash and 2 Turners) also at least 3 more broods of Little Grebe Turner's Flash and one more Horrocks, where also a new brood of GC Grebes.

pearsons flash rear screen and scrapes 6.00am till 9.00 int rain

4 pochard 12 coot
2 moorhens
20 tufted
30 goldfinch
2 whitethroat
3 reed bunting
2 sedge warblers
1 flock of mixed tits 30+
30 house martin and 12 swallows (all perched on wires so may have roosted there)
2 common sandpiper(easily put up but they do come back)
2 great crested grebe
at least three water rail calling

cheers geoff

Horrock's flash 21:00 - 22:00

7 Redshank
1 Dunlin
1 Teal
1 Geoff

horrocks flash 19/07/08 evening

terns and bh gulls a plenty,redshank heard but not seen, the thorpes reported yet another DUNLIN which i missed ,and bye the bye a few wigginers will be 'out of county'
tommorow so it,s open season on points nicking.

cheers geoff

19/7/08 (05:15 - 08:15)

Redshank, Snipe, and Kingfisher on Horrock`s Flash,
juv Grey Wagtail at Westwood Lock.

You missed a few Lapwings there Rob, I got 247 at 1pm on Horrocks! Also a Little Grebe feeding a well-grown young near the east reedbed on the front pool, and the Tufted with 5 young on the SW pool.

This evening (about 18:30 to 20:30)

Scotman's Flash: Loads of Coots and a few Canoes.

Horrock's Flash: 196+ Lapwing, all the usual gulls and terns, nothing of great interest but lots of midges!

Horrock's Flash this evening:

3 Dunlin (just like buses Ian!)
1 Common Sandpiper
3 Oystercatchers
103+ Lapwing
a Buzzard over
a juv LBB Gull causing havoc in the BH Gull/Tern colony
a couple of sleeping Tufted Ducks
a few Redpoll buzzing about
and A LOT of shooting going on somewhere near Bryn Hall...

EDIT- just noticed, this is my 100th post! is there some sort of Manchester 100post club or something which I can now consider myself a member of? If there isn't then there should be!

-- Edited by Rob Thorpe at 00:15, 2008-07-17

hobby chasing swifts nr moss bridge and turners approx 11;30
info from walter robinson

Hello Fred, we have met round the flashes a few times. Glad to hear from you.
A Bittern today flew out of Bryn Marsh and headed towards Ochre Flash/Scotman's Flash, seen by Jake Moot and Sylvia Rimmer about 1445hrs. Also a brood of new Tuftie ducklings on Pearson's (5) whilst 2 broods of Pochard (6+2) there are nearly as big as their parents.

fred welcome to the forum,another set of eyes on the flashes is a most welcome addition to the ranks,technically this should elsewere but three common terns over the garden tonight mobbing ' a big bird ' by the time i,d got to my bins it was all over but it,s
good half mile from the colony so it really was an unwelcome visitor,
cheers geoff

first post for me so hello.pair of bullfinches at feeding station by the school.pair of swans with 7 cygnets on back weedy(bryn flash) neither swan ringed and male extremely aggressive.blackcaps around ochre flash and little grebe feeding solitary chick on pearsons.

horrocks flash late pm
dragged kicking and screaming from the comfort of my bed by mr woosey went to view the 3 whimbrel found by rob thorpe ,they look settled for the night ,another flashes tick for me

cheers geoff

horrocks flash mid afternoon
terns,b h gull,lapwing aplenty all quite happy to be digiscoped(badly it,s a learning curve)

cheers geoff

13 07 2008 --- 19:45 - 21:15

Horrock's Flash

3 Whimbrel
3 Ringed Plover
1 Garganey
1 Teal

A strange occurrence this morning, a gentle stroll up the canal path to Horrocks

1 dunlin
1 common sandpiper
1 kingfisher.

heron creeping through Bryn Marsh had me going for a while.

Keep birding

11/7/08 Early a.m.

16 Common Sandpipers on Horrocks Flash,
2 Kingfishers on Pearsons,
Little Grebe w/3 chicks on Scotmans,
4 Cormorants overflying various flashes.

horrocks flash 07/07/08 before i read Ians post

2 redshank 1 ringed plover
100+ lapwing 2 redpoll
6 house martins 4 swift

all the usual gulls and terns,with some pretty horrible tern chick bullying going on by two adult terns who seem to want the already occupied site,but give them their due the fiesty young,uns had a really good go back before 'playing dead' tilll mum and dad came back to oust the invaders.and as ian said the spoonbill 'has left the flashes'

cheers geoffwigan flashes rock

HORROCK'S SPOONBILL REFOUND...not in this county though

The Horrock's Flash Spoonbill of late Saturday night and early Sunday morning was refound today, on the Ogmore Estuary, Glamorgan, South Wales! So much for the chance of it's return for those who didn't catch up with it



-- Edited by Ian McKerchar at 17:51, 2008-07-07

Details of Lesser Blacked Back Gull with Darvic ring seen at Horrocks Flash yesterday - speedy reply from the ringer Dave Sowter:
ring ROLT - ringed Ribble Estuary NNR 6.7.02, Visited Coruna in Spain 22.12.07 and Morocco 10.1.08. Also Gloucestershire on its way back here in April this year.

horrocks flash 06/07/08 till sunset

1 ringed plover
50+ lapwing in to roost
1 tufted with 4 well grown chicks
no spoonbill

cheers me and mr woosey


-- Edited by Geoff Hargreaves at 22:15, 2008-07-06

Rain then sunshine but no spoonbill 5.15- 6.45pm. Lovely views of redpoll though in the sunshine.
Steve

6/7/08

Bittern on Bryn Marsh @ 16:35, flying between one of the channels.

horrocks flash 06/07/08 13.00ish

alas sunshine but no spoonbill ,mr woosey is checking the other flashes for it,but a huge gathering of lesser black backed gulls 90+ and 10 herring gulls were disturbed by some one shooting in the fields on the bamfurlong side,i,ll pop down tonight to see if anything returns to roost.

cheers geoffwigan flashes rock(5 redpoll over and nobody bats an eyelid)

The Spoonbill flew off towards Scotmans (ish) Flash at around 10 am this morning and has not returned, nor been seen at any other Wigan Flashes site up to midday.

Info thanks to Rob Adderley and Ingrid Berry

-- Edited by Ian McKerchar at 11:57, 2008-07-06

Excellent bit of birding Mr Hargreaves, bird flew in from behind flash this morning with 2 herons, feeding in shallow pool, and also preening with that big bugger off bill.

must stop this jogging at horrocks but got my breath back this morning.

keep birding.

horrocks flash 06/07/08

spoonbill on front pool showing well,preening between bouts of sleeping 9.25

cheers geoff

greenshank and drake common scoter on scotmans flash this morning

Info thanks to rob thorpe

SPOONBILL still present this am it flew into Horrocks with 2 Grey Herons at 6.30am.

Info from Paul Heaton.

just back from dipping the spoonbill, as geoff says the bird has probably gone to roost out of sight in the far right hand corner of horrocks flash as viewed from the canal. i will be back early in the morning for another go, great find geoff.

horrocks flash 05/07/08

spoonbill on front pool ,unfortunatly the bird had walked out of sight by the time other birders arrived:frustrated,much to a breathless mr heatons dissapointment,general concenus was that it,s gone to roost out of sight,the pictures have turned out much better than i thought and on the way to ian mck

cheers geoffbiggrin:

spoonbill on the front pool of horrocks flash at 8:15pm tonight

Info thanks to geoff hargreaves

Geoff Hargreaves wrote:

---

starling roost numbers,i,m obviously as bad at counting birds as identifying the mystrey ones ,I recon a pylon of starlings equals 1k with 1k in the rushes and trees and 1k for the ones in the air ,its realy only a guess but i,d go at 3k total ,with more birds to arrive
i,d say 4k is a realistic figure for the roost if they can all find a perch that is.

cheers geoff(next one to try is when there all 'swirling' a spot the ball approach'

---

Try this for some practice:

http://personal.inet.fi/cool/live/birds/

Have fun

7 Common Sandpipers on muddy fringes of the reedy pools at the back of Pearson's Flash tomight. Jake Moot had 8 this afternoon. If water levels remain favourable, this could be a good spot for waders this autumn. View from new path across reedbed, with care as birds are easily flushed.

1 very scruffy first-summer Common Gull this morning

Coot flock growing Scotman's Flash, 225 this morning
31 Tufted Duck, plus a brood of 4 or 5 small juvs

starling roost numbers,i,m obviously as bad at counting birds as identifying the mystrey ones ,I recon a pylon of starlings equals 1k with 1k in the rushes and trees and 1k for the ones in the air ,its realy only a guess but i,d go at 3k total ,with more birds to arrive
i,d say 4k is a realistic figure for the roost if they can all find a perch that is.

cheers geoff(next one to try is when there all 'swirling' a spot the ball approach'

Counting Swans and Geese from photos is easy!! But Starlings........Good luck Geoff ! I've taken many photos of Barncle Goose flocks on the Solway and counted them when I returned to the office!

Let us know how you get on!!

-- Edited by Kane Brides at 23:04, 2008-06-25