A pleasant afternoon walk at 4.30pm round Sunbank Lane and Sunbank Wood with Rick Donkin:

41 species seen including:

1 Spotted Flycatcher (my first one for a while at this site)
1 Stock Dove
1 Treecreeper
1 Nuthatch
1 Reed Bunting
1 Jay
1 Kestrel
1 Buzzard
2 Linnets
2 Grey Wagtails (feeding young on the River Bollin)
2 Curlews
2 Bullfinches
2 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
4 House Martins
6 Rooks

Lots of Swifts and Swallows around too

2 Grey Wagtails at Sunbank Lane this evening, otherwise fairly quiet.

6.30pm-8.15pm round Sunbank Lane with Tony Coatsworth and Rick Donkin:

2 Curlew
2 Bullfinches
2 Linnets
8 Swifts
1 House Martin
10+ Swallows
1 Pheasant
1 Reed Bunting
2 Kestrels
2 Buzzards
1 Chiffchaff
2 Blackcaps
1 Common Whitethroat
4 Mallards
2 Mistle Thrushes
2 Collared Doves
6 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
1 Skylark

Quick walk round at 8pm this evening:

1 Oystercatcher (feeding on Oak farm field)
2 Buzzards being mobbed by Carrion Crows
3 Linnets
5 Lesser-Black-backed Gulls

A quick visit 11:15 to 12:15. Very blustery but thankfully dry.

1 Whitethroat carrying a beakful of flies.
Plenty of Chaffinch
2 Swallows

1 Lesser Whitethroat calling and singing along the track by the cottages.
Heard and seen on many occasions as it flew up and down the track and managed to
obtain a very good but brief view of it in the privet in front of the cottages until
it flew of again.

Nice to have met up with fellow forum contributor Paul Dewey again.

Rick.

6.45pm-8.00pm round Sunbank Lane:
1 Lesser Whitethroat (singing and showed briefly down the track by the cottages on arrival)
2 Common Whitethroats
2 Blackcaps
1 House Martin (first of the year here)
8 Swallows
1 Linnet
1 Skylark
2 Bullfinches
2 Pheasants
1 Buzzard
1 Kestrel
1 Stock Dove

-- Edited by Phil Owen on Tuesday 7th of May 2013 09:24:42 PM

11.45am-1.00pm with Henry Cook:

1 Lesser Whitethroat (first one of the year back at this site)
1 Skylark
1 Reed Bunting
1 Herring Gull (over)
1 Stock Dove
1 Linnet
1 Pheasant
2 Chiffchaffs
2 Common Whitethroats
2 Blackcaps
2 Mallards
4 Swallows
amongst others

-- Edited by Phil Owen on Sunday 5th of May 2013 02:02:33 PM

-- Edited by Phil Owen on Sunday 5th of May 2013 10:20:46 PM

7.35pm - 9.15pm this evening in Sunbank Lane fields:

1 Short-eared Owl still present and seen well for 10 minutes at 7.45pm, but no further sign after that when the temperature dropped and the breeze got up a bit.

1 Tawny Owl (female) calling from Sunbank Wood.

6.40pm until 9.45pm:

Another great evening at Sunbank Lane with Rick Donkin.

No sign of the Short-eared Owl that has been present the last couple of nights but:

1 Barn Owl (hunting the hedgerows of the 2nd and 3rd fields) giving us good views at 9.00pm for 5 minutes or so across the fields until lost to view.
2 Tawny Owls (calling away in Cotterill Clough)
1 Kestrel
1 Buzzard
2 Swallows
1 Common Whitethroat
1 Reed Bunting
Lots of Chiffchaffs

23/04/2013 - 12.30-1.30pm:

1 Kestrel
1 Skylark - singing
6 Swallows
1 Willow Warbler
1 Blackcap
1 Chiffchaff
2 Common Whitethroats

No sign of the Short-eared Owl or Redstart.

A great evening tonight from 6.45pm-8.30pm round Sunbank Lane fields:

I had finished checking the hedgerows with the male Redstart still present, when suddenly I got an all too brief and obscured distant view through the hedgerows of an Owl species which I initially thought may have been a Barn Owl.

I searched the area thoroughly and to my suprise came across a Short-eared Owl with prey in the field directly between Cotterill Clough and Sunbank Wood. It was perched on a soil heap that surrounded one of the mitigation ponds, where I managed to get great views and watched it for over 15 minutes before eventually it took to the sky and circled the fields once again before being lost to view.

Also present:

2 Ravens (my first here)
3 Swallows
1 Common Whitethroat
2 Chiffchaffs
1 Reed Bunting
1 Bullfinch
1 Collared Dove
1 Lesser Black-backed Gull
amongst others

-- Edited by Phil Owen on Monday 22nd of April 2013 10:55:58 PM

11.45am - 12.45pm round Sunbank Lane fields:

1 Redstart - Male (favouring the bottom end of the hedgerow that runs alongside the path from Sunbank Lane towards Cotteril Clough) still present when I left.
2 Wheatears
1 Reed Bunting
1 Common Whitetroat
5 Meadow Pipits
3 Swallows
2 Buzzards
1 Sparrowhawk

An hour or so round Sunbank Lane at 9.30am

2 Common Whitethroats
3 Chiffchaffs
3 Swallows
2 Meadow Pipits
2 Linnets
2 Rooks
2 Reed Buntings
1 Nuthatch
1 Skylark
1 Buzzard
1 Kestrel
1 Oystercatcher
1 Goldcrest
amongst others

8.30am-9.30am round Sunbank Lane fields with Henry Cook:

1 Willow Warbler
2 Chiffchaffs
1 Reed Bunting (male)
1 Lapwing (over)
1 Oystercatcher (Oak Farm)
1 Kestrel
1 Buzzard
7 Meadow Pipits
4 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
amongst the usuals

No sign of the male Redstart unfortunatelty, despite an extensive search of the hedgerows

An hour with Phil Owen 13:30 - 14:30

Oystercatcher
Kestrel
4 Meadow Pipits
Chiffchaff singing
20+ Redwings


-- Edited by Tony Coatsworth on Saturday 13th of April 2013 03:17:21 PM

31/03/2013 - 6.00-7.150pm with Phil Owen along the decimated Sunbank Lane. The oak trees chopped down to make way for airport expansion were over 150 years old, held breeding pipistrelle bats and well outdated the airport, a great shame:

3 Stock Doves
200+ Meadow Pipits
1 Linnet - singing male back for the summer

-- Edited by Henry Cook on Sunday 31st of March 2013 07:50:42 PM

On a visit there with Tony Darby Sunday 3 March, after an unproductive trip to Dunham Massey, there were TWO Police vans patrolling Sun Bank Lane stopping people and questioning them (but not us). This happened to a woman we met on a bike who was studying the badgers. So if you hear complaints from GM Police that they lack resources bear in mind they have 4 staff in two vehicles available to patrol country lanes on a Sunday afternoon!

Is this the land next to Hasty Lane ? next to the shoebox hotels

Tony Coatsworth wrote:

---

Strange plastic 'barrier' about 1 metre high all around the field boundaries - presumably where the new car park is being built, but what's the idea of the plastic?
To deter wildlife ??

---

Looks like somebody is trying to capture GC newts for re-location or possibly prevent them from reaching a pond (or former pond). I'd be tempted to have a look in any buckets or similar containers installed at ground level along the fenceline. The GC newts are heavily protected with it being an offence to kill, injure, capture or even disturb them. It however appears to be ok to destroy their habitat or prevent them reaching former breeding sites.



-- Edited by Ian Keith on Sunday 10th of March 2013 03:41:57 PM

Beginning of the end for this area - most mature trees now cut down along the lane

Kestrel
Buzzard

and not much else - apart from Henry and his dog.

3 Teal

Sparrowhawk (unusual for here)

6 Mistle Thrush
8 Long-tailed Tit

Not much else :(

Common Buzzard perched on Railway boundary fence at the end of the runway at 1330hrs

18/01/2013 - 12 Lapwings in the snowy fields north of Sunbank Lane this morning and 1 Meadow Pipit over.

Yes - there is usually a Kestrel sat in the dead-looking tree by the farm, looking from the stile across the road from the track to the cottages.