Courtesy of Kevin McCabe, I have just received an extraordinary set of photos showing 2 Bitterns roosting in flowering cherry trees at a doctors' surgery in Church Rd Urmston, on 18th March. There were actually 3 in total, but one flew off when one of the ladies working there went in the garden to take t...
Has anyone got any recomemdations for field guides for the Maldives?
I presume through searching amazon etc that an Indian Subcontinent guide is my best bet!
But any of you with any info would be great!
Cheers in advance!
Walking around the lake and up the old railway line this am heard four chifchaf singing . a pair of reed bunting were very active ,and two great crested grebes were in the process of the mating display.
May I be the first to congratulate Paul Wilson on the superb picture of the Elton Res Bittern published on page 97 of Mays magazine.
Well done Paul, great snap shame i could not catch up with it in real life....
Steve
Late evening.
5 Wheatears on the newly ploughed field 9 behind Black Wood.
3 of which have stayed for over a week.
They seem so reluctant to move on.
Cheers Ian.
I,ll try to be brief and concise,I was watching the Ruff,s on Horrocks flash at 19.30 when I heard a shot which seemed a little close for comfort , I went onto the towpath and saw three men with shotguns fire three or four shots,from about 20 yards into a flock of feeding canada geese in the field between th...
Why, I hear you scream, would you even contemplate using the hate word to describe our delightful little songsters?
Because - I spent the best part of 40 Mins staring into a hawthorn bush hoping (beyond hope) that I'd just found a 'proper' county rarity (you'll get my meaning in a second).
Walking...
Plea for help........
I have never seen Nightjar in the North-West, and I would like to rectify the matter !
Does anyone know of any traditional or recent sites in Lancashire or Cheshire (I`ve got GM hopefully staked out) ?
Because of the sensitive nature of this subject, PLEASE DO NOT REPLY TO T...
I have been walking with someone for health reasons (theirs not mine) from Astley Bridge along the canal to Vicar's Hall Bridge and having only just been told of this website was intrigued to read of what to me are rarities such as grasshopper warbler being seen or at least heard in this area. I wonder if...
I have the day off on weds and its Brandons last day off school so he wants to go looking for the cuckoos in Rindle woods. Having never been before we would love some advice on where to park and where to see this elusive bird (elusive for us anyhow, almost as elusive as waxwings)
any help apperciated.
I cycled the stretch from Springfield Farm to Jackson's brickworks this evening on the way home from work.
This is a great stretch for warblers once spring is fully under way. There was not too much song tonight: just a couple of Chiffchaffs and Willow Warblers. However, I was pleased to find my firs...
Enjoying a non birding day out at Chester Zoo today saw [from a distance] a robin sized bird fly out from a tree take a flying insect of some sort from above water with a kind of hover motion then return to a tree... I immediately thought that could be some sort of flycatcher but the only rubbish photo I got s...
Singing male pied flycatcher back at usual spot for third year out of four (I might just have been unlucky last year). Anyone wanting further directions, please ask. Otherwise just the other 'usual' three warblers around, dipper flying down river, and a good number of sand martins (12+) from the sit...
The one with the kids on the beach. Anyone know where it was filmed. If there's Penguins there I wanna twitch em.
Seriously - why oh why oh why have they put two penguins in an advert based on a UK beach (awaits someone coming on and telling me about the well known chinstrap penguin colony on some remote p...
A Walk to White Holm this morning produced a nice little clutch of waders the best being 4 Whimbrel on Black stone edge reservoir, this is my only record on Black stone in over twenty years watching this location.
Black stone, 4 Whimbrel, 1 Common Sand, 2 Red Shank, 1 Green Plover.
White Holm, 2 Little...
A Lesser Spotted Woodpecker was reported in Bolton today on Birdguides.
Has anybody any information on this birds location.
Suspect it maybe Jumbles as we had heard that one has been seen in this area.
By the way its mainly in Lancs.
The cost of bins seems to have just gone astronomical, or is it me? I was thinking of getting some new bins, but at £1250 for the new Leicas I think not . Even the Zeiss and Nikons have rocketed.
Two months ago a price of Swarovski 8x30 SLC's were £539 now they're £649
I take it the credit crunch isnt affe...
Photo in MEN tonight of a canada with a crossbow bolt thro' its neck. It was seen and reported by a boater on the Bridgewater canal near Kellogg's in Trafford park. What I would like to do to these morons.
Mike
Today, I saw the Irwell in Manchester looking like a foam bath for as far as the eye can see. I saw the foam coming in from the River Irk but do not know the precise source. I reported the matter to the Environment Agency who had in fact been alerted to the problem and are at this moment investigating the inci...
Okay boys and girls, hold onto your hats because here it comes!
I think the reported Tree Pipit currently at Pennington Flash isn't one. I think it's a Meadow Pipit.
I was alarmed initially by comments at the time of the birds finding, that it sounded like one although only in partial song (par...
I've never understood why birders shorten wonderful names of birds, post instigated by Ian's request of where does "Bx" mean Black Redstart, which I also don't understand.
One eg is "Gropper" nothing like as aesthetic as Grasshopper Warbler. GIVE BIRDS THEIR PROPER NAMES...
12/4/09
Dragged Jimmy Meadows around on a 7-hour mooch, but unfortunately there wasn`t the warbler bonanza we had hoped for. However we did manage the following :
Singing Whitethroat,
Double figures of White Wagtails,
2 Wheatear,
3 Ringed Plover,
2 Ruff,
Black-tailed Godwit,
Common S...
Just to let you know that tomorrow, the 6th April 2009, the Manchester Birding website is being migrated to a new Windows 2008 hosting platform (no, I've no idea what that is either). It will, apparently, enable the forum to have exiting new features and allow for better performance and reliability....
arrived at 7.15 started birding at the reed bed screen kingfisher there walking towards the big wood hide Garden Warbler and blackcap. near no1 tank loads of chiffchaff and willow warblers, green woodpecker othe edge of the meadow at neumans walking up the the far side of the flash a buzzard flew over...
11/4/09 am
With Jimmy Meadows :
Star of the show was the returning Black Guillemot, which just sailed into view under our noses in the harbour mouth @ 10.10 At times we could plainly hear it calling out for a mate......
Just prior to that we were looking at a Shag on the wooden jetty, which we hadn`t...
11/4/09 pm
With Jimmy Meadows :
2 Spotted Redshank, 2 Greenshank & Common Sandpiper on the Pool,
4 Eider & male Red-breasted Merganser on the Lune,
Large flock of Black-tailed Godwits & Redshanks on the Marsh and creeks.
2 Swallows and Sand Martin over.
