But I'm arbiter of this site and what goes on it () and I think you have a very valid point Juidth, I don't see such a big deal about all the stuff and nonsense about what's being posted on my forum. That said I don't want the county bird sighting pages filled with out of county stuff (specifically from well out of the county), so a new forum for out of county birding will be appearing very shortly!

This topic is now closed!

-- Edited by Ian McKerchar at 12:48, 2007-04-12

-- Edited by Ian McKerchar at 13:20, 2007-04-12

I'm probably the guilty party having talked about Wheatears at Castleton and Slav Grebes at Llanfairfechan ! I won't do it again Guv. BTW - outside the county there are a lot of reports of Grasshopper & Willow Warblers, Ring Ouzels and the like, so with the slight shift in the wind the migrants are now arriving thick and fast.

I am the arbiter of what's in the county and what's not, being Recorder!
Where county boundaries cross reservoirs eg Jumbles, Spring Mill, then (IMHO) any water birds can be counted by either county as the birds presumably chug back and forth across the water.
The Light Hazzles/Warland/White Holme complex above Rochdale: Light Hazzles is wholly in GM. White Holme is wholly in Yorkshire. Warland is partly in GM (the interesting part!)  However, ecologically they are really one complex, so records for all the reservoirs appear in the report. I swop reports and records with Halifax BC as they record all 3 as well.
Rivers and streams eg the R. Glaze, which is the boundary between GM and Cheshire for part of its length - here again, both counties can count birds on the water, such as the breeding Tufted Ducks and winter Teal flocks on the Glaze.

Great Holiday thanks Dean (seems like south cyprus had all the megas though ), my trip report will be added to the website soon.

Woosey watching cricket? Next thing you know he'll be admitting to really going for a county year list

Enough of this load of ********, I`m off to watch England knock some real `boundaries` - Fours & Sixes !  

 Maybe a "not sure if i'm over the border" page
 Jumbles is a good example. Looking at the map of gm birding sites on the website, Jumbles is in gm but if you carry on to Entwistle and Wayoh you are out of the county. Where is the actual boundary?
As i've said earlier, surely we can find a way of posting sightings just outside the county and let Ian sort out the boundariesHope you had a good holiday

being 'newish'to birding i think the forum is a great place to exchange sightings and viewpoints,from within g.m. and other sightings could be put in the general section of the forum for those interested in such matters.I strayed over the county line on monday to get some new bins from in focus at martin mere and would have had look around but got dragged back to pennington for the sanderling(with the whooper on horrocks quite a week)and i,ve got 2 shelduck on dover so why look at hundreds
cheers geoff 

Having just (and I mean just) got back from Cyprus I'm still catching up on postings on the forum and haven't even seen the posting in question, but here's my current offcial line on 'out of county sightings'.

Mr.Woosey is quite right that the 'county birding sightings' is for just that, sightings in Greater Manchester. Out of county birding is generally well covered by other websites, but as I've always maintained, I'm always open to new ideas and if there's enough of you out there who would use a 'out-of-county birds and birding' section then let me know and I'll give it serious consideration, no problem  The county sightings forum though should remain just that, ta!

im a bit of a hater of bounderies myself,it can seem strange for me to see reports of say for instance,1 b n grebe at penny,scotsmans etc when i have just seen 3 b n grebe the same morning at haughton green pool,about 1 mile south of penny has the crow flies.but i don't report it on here has its not in greater manchester,by the way my record of b n grebe at houghton green pool is 12 adults in summer plumage,at the same time.a few summers ago.im sure some on here would prefer me to let them know if i see a gathering like that?anyway thats all id like to say.

Hi lads, My whole point was not where you go birding, but what is put on the sightings forum. There are many other web-sites that cater for N.W. birding - be it John Dempsey`s Birdblog, Fylde Bird Club, North Wales Birding Forum, Dee Estuary Birds etc. This one is for Greater Manchester. By it`s very nature it is bound to `exclude` say, Cheshire sightings, because WE ARE IN GTR. MANCHESTER !

 I agree with Tony. Maybe a sightings board for anything of interest in the north west. Although i live in Gtr Manchester i by no means do all my birding in the county but 90% is done in the north west. I'm just as likely to go to Martin Mere, Mere sands wood or even the Dee estuary(which has it's own excellent website). My point being, i check this site every day to see whats about, i also check several other sites in the region. I only post Gtr Mcr sightings on here. I did once post a walk to Anglezarke  but was told off! You only need to look at the number of "views" compared to "posts" to realise that a large number of people from outside the county must have a look. The idea of a forum is to share not exclude. The people who are making all the serious county records know what to include in their reports. As for Ian saying no one is interested unless there's a rarity, isn't that true of all county sites? What if a rarity appeared just over the border, would you go see?
Gtr Mcr is pretty big i've no doubt that some birders in the east of the county spend some time in Yorkshire and some in the west, like me, in lancs and merseyside. Some in the north and south in Cumbria and Chesire and Derbyshire.
Surely we can find a way to share all the birds

Don't be so parochial, Ian!
I must class as an outsider, though born and bred in Wigan, I've lived in Hampshire for the best part of 25 years. I still retain a keen interest in NW birds, especially the birds of Greater Manchester. I look in the forum regularly since discovering it and love to hear what's been seen in the county AND surrounding areas.
I'l be visiting my mother from Saturday until Monday, so any bird news would be welcome as I intend to get in the field for a few hours on Sunday morning.

Quote from the sticky "Due to an apparent demand I have added this 'General Birding Discussion' to the forum. It is open to discuss anything to do with birding in the county (and outside it if you'd like)," However I think we should maybe have a new 'outside the county' sightings board. Then Martin Mere, Marbury etc. can be put there, away from all things Manc. The 'general birding discussion' board may not be the best place for these. I happen to live near the southern boundary of Mancunia and it's quicker for me to get to somewhere like Marbury than to hack across to say Hollingworth Lake, so personally I do like to see what else is about (but Cheshire, North Wales etc. are covered on other forums so we shouldn't go too mad )

ian, i appologise about for posting martin mere i should have thought twice about putting it on here

With all due respect, and without wishing to offend anybody, I`m going to stick my neck out and say what a lot of people are probably thinking. - This forum is for Greater Manchester sightings ; it says so in the `welcome to this forum` - It does what it says on the tin ! Personally I`m not bothered what goes on beyond the boundry, because frankly, nobody outside is interested in us - except when there`s a rarity about of course ! ! !