C1000 Pink Footed Geese circled over Little Wooldon Moss and Irlam Moss then came west and landed west of LWM and slightly east of Holcroft Lane at 12pm
Hooded Crow still on Croxden at about 12:45 with lots of other crows - not always easy to see simply because the "bumpy" terrain gets in the way
Fieldfares and Redwings in various fields
Marsh Harrier briefly seen at the reserve - against the light so couldn't tell the sex
Pink-footed Geese - flock of somewhere between 500-1000 (rough estimate) between the Glaze and the Culcheth Road - sort of up the hill from the "normal" flock of Canada Geese
The Hooded Crow on Croxden again early afternoon today.
Yesterday: A good sized flock of large gulls on the flooded peat after the heavy overnight rain contained 46 Great Black-backed Gulls, 80+ Lesser Black-backed Gulls and 11 Herring Gulls late afternoon before all flying off to roost elsewhere.
Hooded Crow mid-morning foraging the former Croxdens peat works and occasionally flying in to adjacent copse, viewed from end of track running NNW from Twelve Yards Road, with c30 Carrion Crow, 8 Rook and Jackdaws. 1 Peregrine circling the area 52 Fieldfare & 3 Redwing feeding along Cutnook Lane in field 2, plus c115 Starling around fields 2&3
-- Edited by dave broome on Monday 30th of December 2024 01:00:44 PM
Lunchtime: Hooded crow showing distantly with carrion crows on Croxden's. Female white wagtail with pied wagtails and grey wagtail on dung heap North of Twelve Yards Road.
[I missed the original autocorrect-imposed location error when I posted as I was just being run into by a couple of roe deer.]
-- Edited by Steven Heywood on Monday 30th of December 2024 06:40:59 PM
The Hooded Crow still on Croxdens by the flooded area(thanks to Steve Nelson for pointing out the area) associating loosely with about a dozen Common Crows .
Elsewhere on the moss still 100s of Chaffinch and Linnet down Moss Lane on the flax that the farmer has planted. A few Greenfinch also and a single female Brambling with them. Plenty of Redwing in adjacent fields,500 + Woodpigeon and a few Black Headed Gulls and on the River Glaze a Little Grebe,pair of Goosander and a few Mallard.
191224 Including a Carbon Landscape Winter Bird Count Barton Moss
6 Reed Bunting
4 Meadow Pipit
3 Snipe
1 Song Thrush
6 Common Gull
1 Stonechat
2 Bullfinch
....and yet another stark reminder with this year really putting in focus that our Birds are in many places Absent....and I don't mean temporarily....especially emphasised that after at least an half hour checking over a large area of 'farmed' fields that my sum total of birds was 1 Reed Bunting and 2 Meadow Pipit....
Little Woolden Moss NR, Little Woolden Moss and Chat Moss. 14th December 2024.
Marsh Harrier (1) Field 63, Stonechat (2) Field 20, Chiffchaff (1) Field 52, Redwing (12) Field 52, Brambling (1) in large Chaffinch flock with Greenfnch above 'Sunflower field' near Whitegate Farm, Kestrel (1) Field 17, Buzzard (1) Field 20, Rook (2) Field 52.
A wander down Moss Lane over the Glaze to the set aside where the farmer has planted flax.
There were at least 400 finches feeding on the seed,mainly Linnet and Chaffinch,couldn't find any Brambling amongst them unfortunately. The birds spend time perching in nearby trees where good views can be obtained.
On the surrounding fields several hundred Woodpigeon,about 100 Starling with a few Redwing mixed in with them,and a Kestrel hunting .
Approx 80 Pink Footed Geese flew west at midday.
Highlight of a late morning to mid afternoon visit was a male Merlin loitering with intent to take a finch for lunch. Unsuccessful while I was watching. A female/immature Kestrel was also interested but moved off before the Merlin did.
A covey of 10 nondescript Partridges in F 57 looked suspiciously similar to birds in a wooden coop on fields to the west and behaved like headless chickens when spooked by walker in a white coat. Freshly released for the Christmas shoot?
Otherwise.
Linnet, Greenfinch and Chaffinch in good numbers, also Goldfinch and 2 sightings of Bullfinch Blue, Great and Long-Tailed Tits, Robin, Wren, Dunnock, House Sparrow, Reed Bunting Several Blackbirds, 1 Mistle Thrush on Irlam Moss, 1 Fieldfare feeding on fallen apples. Carrion Crow, Jackdaw, Feral Pigeon, Wood Pigeon Mallard, Black-headed Gull, Common Gull, Lapwing Magpie, Pied Wagtail, Pheasant.
Greenland White Fronted Geese - 3 Adults seen to cross the Glaze from Silver Lane and back into usual area at Lwm. It would be great if these could be posted daily if anyone sees them as I keep seeing them over Silver Lane and would like to know if I'm getting the same birds as it seems these birds must be present daily on lwm area but not posted, has people keep sending me that they are on birdguides etc . But this is the best place to post them surely? Pic attached of the birds this morning.
-- Edited by JOHN TYMON on Tuesday 19th of November 2024 06:26:10 PM
New Moss Wood...this woodland was deemed to be the place where there would be a 10% Biodiversity gain by the Greater Manchester Spatial Planners in compensation for building on nearby Greenbelt Farmland...from today's and previous occasional visits I feel in my opinion that it could do with a 90% biodiversity gain of its own....