Late afternoon today:
7 Wigeon Dover Basin
34 Pheasant
4 Grey Partridge
35 Goldfinch feeding
12 Swallows feeding

early am platt bridge to lightshaw and back for brekki 27/09/08
1 kestrel
2 chiffchaff
3 snipe (in flight)
1 reed bunting
5 swallows (over south)
1 raven ,crackin views and a site tick
1 jay ferrying an acorn

1 g s woodpecker on the railway supports drumming on the steel (should this go on the music thread)

loads of water fowl but nothing of note, a glorious bit of weather for birding

cheers geoff

15/9/08

5 Wigeon, 3 Snipe, and 36 Teal on Lightshaw Hall Flash this morning. Also a Kingfisher near the aquaduct and a Reed Warbler at Dover Basin.

dover pub to glovers midday

2 swallow 4 house martin still feeding young
1 g s pecker on the dead trees 2 moorhen and two coot on glovers
1 kingfisher on the trees by the aquaduct
Hey brook has burst its banks and the whole area is very flooded so wellies required.
congrats to ian on a very nice site tick this a.m.and yes I could easily have gone to the left but choose right i,m not bitter or twisted and SSW means that the osprey couldn,t absoloutly didn,t fly over our house ,so there

cheers geoff

lightshaw 31/08/08 managed to get there even earlier than mr woosey but can only add
to his list 2 mute swan 2 cormorant 1 little owl (i saw it move).

dover to glovers pool
12 swallow,6 house martins,1 jay 1 small tit flock,1 g s pecker perched up for ages,and then red letter day for glovers 2 moorhen and 1 glorious green sandpiper,flushed almost immediatly by a dog walker

cheers geoff

25/8/08 Early a.m.

Little Owl on Lightshaw Barn, Kingfisher along canal, 2 Pochard and a juv Great Crested Grebe on Dover Basin.

3 Snipe & 2 Cormorants over NW.

dover basin am
1 king fisher 1 gropper (heard only but probably 2 or more)
4 tufted 2 coot
3 moorhen 1 goldcrest
1 little grebe 1 water rail (heard)
8 mallard 1 female teal
1 common tern 1 shoveler with two young chicks

cheers geoff

early am

lightshaw nothing and i do mean nothing apart from some cows
dover basin 6 mallard 1 tufted still with 4 well grown young uns lots of sedge warblers singing but not much else

dover pub ,4 swallows and 6+house martins in car park gathering mud,kestrel and heron over

cheers geoff

2 broods of Tufted Ducks here today - a brood of 10 at Lightshaw and a brood of 6 at Dover.

dover basin still same as last post minus the swifts(just one or two)dover car park pied wagtail and grey wagtail, swallows and house martins along the canal,couple of whitethroat singing and some tasty views of willow warblers in the morning sunshine,why holiday anywhere else

cheers geoff

Dover Basin 08/06

Shoveler- pair with 10 ducklings
Redshank- 6
Grasshopper Warbler- 1
Lesser Whitethroat- 1
Barn Owl- 1

Info thanks to Phil Rhodes

29/5/08 (05:15 - 08:30)

2 Shelduck,
3 Redshank,
Oystercatcher,
Buzzard `hunting` on the ground,
2 Grasshopper Warblers,
Garden Warbler,
Grey Partridge,
4 Greylags w/8 goslings along the canal,
2 Common Terns,
drk Pochard,
6 Gadwall,
4 Linnets.

Did my Mayhem thing here yesterday (24 May)

other than the usuals i also got:

1 Common Sandpiper
1 Little Ringed Plover
2 Cuckoo
2 Lesser Whitethroat
1Grasshopper Warbler
and a fly-over drake Pochard

also of interest was a Willow Warbler which, in-between it's bursts of willow warbler song, had a strange high-pitched quiet Chiffchaff song.

mon19/05/08 evening till dark, all much as reported, dover basin 2 shelduck commuting to lightshaw 2 redshank fighting over who sits on that particular post 2 grey heron and 1 juv(first for me) had to get the collins out for that one.star of the show a g s woodpecker
on the dead tree in front of the new viewing area for 15 mins or so 'magic '

i,ll find a tree pipet there soon

cheers geoff

cuckoo calling near the dover lock pub. approx 9.30pm

I dont know the local place names. Is that the dover basin? the small lake/flash a bit further up from the pub heading towards wigan flashes on the left.

it was calling from there anyway, whatever its called :o/

is there a map online with all the flashes/place names labelled?

12 May - early morning (first ever visit)

Lightshaw Flash:

Dunlin 2
Redshank 3
Oystercatcher 1
Little Ringed Plover 1
Snipe 1 flew over
Lapwing 12+ incl 2 chicks
Shoveler 2
Gadwall 5
Teal 2
LBB Gull 2

reeling Grasshopper Warbler, plus singing Chiffchaff, Lesser Whiterthroats (2), Garden Warbler (2) and Sedge Warbler (2) and commoner species.


Dover Basin:

Water Rail -1 on edge of reeds, plus same or another squealing
Redshank 2
Oystercatcher 2
Lapwing 6 + 1 chick
Shelduck 2
Tufted Duck 2
Shoveler 2
Gadwall 4
Mallard female with 16 ducklings
Kestrel 1

singing Reed Warblers (3), Lesser Whitethroat, Sedge Warbler,

Mute Swan pair with 5 cygnets on canal
2 Canada broods of 8 and 5

Whitethroats, Willow Warblers, Blackcaps and Reed Buntings everywhere

-- Edited by declan savage at 19:31, 2008-05-12

6.30ish
dover basin 1 shellduck 1 shoveler 1 buzzard 1 cuckoo(crankwood),coot moorhen gadwall,
cow fields,house martin ,swallow,reed bunting,sedge warbler,heron,grey partridge,skylark,blue great long tailed,goldfinch,greenfinch,grey wagtail,both whitethroats,kestrel,blackbird,robin, wren,starling,just practiising for my eco day

cheers geoff

dinner time from dover
2 buzzard quartering the cow fields
10 house martins
2 swallows nice to see them back home

cheers geoff

As well as the Ring Ouzel (a first for me here in over 25 years), other notable sightings amongst the 61 species I had on my Waterways Breeding Bird Survey (Slag Lane swing bridge to the A58 at Bamfurlong, along the canal) were: 4 Black-tailed Godwits, a Cuckoo, 2 different Little Owls on territories, 3 Lesser Whitethroats, 2 of which were fighting, a calling Snipe, a pair of Willow Tits lining a nest, and 6 Buzzards in the air together at Dover Basin. Missing were Grasshopper Warbler (seen on the TTV last week) and Long-tailed Tits!

53 species on my other Abram Flashes TTV today. Two singing Lesser Whitethroats - excellent views of one - both outside the TTV but one is on my other TTV so it will get in as an RR! Highlights were chipping Snipe, Gropper, Sedge Warbler and a single Blackwit.

16/4/08 am

Curlew over N,
2 Buzzards,
Little Owl,
pr Shelduck,
3 Oycs,
4 Redshank,
drk Pochard,
Stock Dove,
3 Swallows.

Just to add 9.45 - 12.30 in search of the Water Rail that eludes me in Mcr - fat chance with the floods:

Goosander pair on the canal
Lapwings 11
Gadwall 10
Chiffchaff
Reed Bunting
Teal 4
Herons 3
Shoveler 11
Oystercatcher 3 seen
Woodies 199 in fields and trees S of Lightshaw
Lapwings 14
Kestrel 1 still

Most of the stuff Ian saw had moved on.

Then had to dash to the Velodrome for last day of the track championships

Here ends my Manchester and nearby birding holiday. Nice to meet people along the way. 2 lifers (one on a detour to Stoke) and 8 new County ticks - not bad!

overslept so missed the waders and rob but but had a chin wag with mr broome,29/03/08

add to dover basin 4 teal tucked away and 2 kingfisher on the small pool just after the main water,both lightshaw and dover have started to flood so waders will be hard to find till the level drops.
cheers geoff

Saw a flock of 23+ waders distantly on Thursday flying between Lightshaw and Dover which I thought were Golden Plovers, so glad to have them confirmed! The pair of Pintail were still at Dover Bain with one Blackwit then.