dave,nice busy day,i had a deer on the m61a580 link road last year,and have been told of deer on wigan flashes,i,ll
be after the dippers and if the plastic fox is still therei,m havin it (tis salford after all)

cheers geoff

1 Peregrine sat on top of the gasometer in Liverpool street Salford this morning at 6.40am. On the BBC site at 12.40pm only 1 Lapwing and 3 Wheatears which were staying well away from the falconers caged Harris hawk and life size plastic red fox which had been put near the area where the Canada geese settle. At 2pm I parked up at the Giant seat garden centre at Ringley and saw two Dippers on the opposite bank of the Irwell , both were feeding in the shallows and I could actually see them swimming underwater at times. Walking along the road beside the garden centre at the far end where the greehouses are I watched a Mink hunting on the far bank , not a good sign for nesting birds. Heading towards the M62 I saw 2 GS Woodpeckers, 2 Treecreepers,1 Willow warbler [ many heard singing] and 1 Willow tit, At the far end of the path just before you get to the motorway the fence is open leading into the old water works so I had a quick look around and heard a Grasshopper warbler .While looking for that I heard another answer and heard a cuckoo call in the distance .Best bit was when trying to get back to the fence a young buck Roe deer ran right in front of me . Its only the second deer that I have seen locally in 35 years while birdwatching and is quite a find.