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I having been seeing more(or some) Sparrows recently, after not seeing any for a good while. Some in my garden, some on the street and lanes. Anyone else noticed this? Geoff

Not sure if this counts as "Out of County Birding", but I was sat this p.m. at my desk in Farnworth watching the RSPB live web cam from Loch Garton of an Osprey nest when a Cuckoo started Cuckooing in the background. If people have not visited this site then give it a try. Cheers Ian

Pleasant wander round this lunch: Kestrel 1 Jay 3 Magpie 7 Wood Pigeon 70+ Collared Dove 3 Whitethroat 9 Blackcap 5 Willow Warbler 3 Chiffchaff 1 Bullfinch 6 (inc 2 juvs) Goldfinch 2 Wren 6 Dunnock 2 Robin 6 Blackbird 6 Great Tit 1 Long-tailed Tit 1 Blue Tit 3 Plus flyovers: Oys...

09.00 - 10.30 ( Rain, hail,wind.) I do sometimes doubt my sanity

Treecreeper Little Grebe 3 Great crested Grebe 8 Redwing c60 Rook 6 Goldfinch 4 Wren 2 Mistle Thrush 61 Mallard ( including some nice funny coloured ones ) 12 Tufted Duck 52 Canada Goose Emb...

never scared of an adventurous hike, but with the recent monsoon conditions ive been trying to think of sites that offer decent birding from the comfort of a parked car. irlam moss and pennington flash spring to mind in the county, and cat and fiddle and burton marsh further afield. has anyone any more...

Hallo all, I have been checking out Irlam Moss for the first time. New area for me so I am not sure where I have been as there seems to be a maze of roads and paths. The most interesting species was on the 9.7 with a singing Grasshopper Warbler.

A great story this that someone sent me... not in the Greater Manchester area admittedly - but I thought I'd share. Nesting gull halts £260m tunnel The demolition has been delayed Work on a £260m road tunnel has been halted by a nesting seagull. The herring gull has set up home in the chimney...

Watched Kingfisher fishing on Rochdale Canal this morning seemed to be doing a lot better than the anglers parked on the bank. Dave Phillips

Does anyone know if there is anyone who does binocular repairs in Bolton? (Asking for the guy who helps us with the Peregrines at the Town Hall).

Took a morning trip to Pennington Flash today. Nice change from my usual patch in Norway. Best bird for me was a stunning Kingfisher. A very rare species in Western Norway. New trip planned for tomorrow as the wife has never seen a Kingfisher. Eddie Chapman

Need an appropriate card for someone on that special occasion? Arts Angels produce some cracking cards (birdy and arty) in their printmakers range - see their website: www.art-angels.co.uk/products.aspx?CategoryID=32 There are quite a few well-known Robert Gillmor pictures and a cou...

Intended to do a TTV today, but it started to rain as I drove out there, so ended up doing 20 mins of Roving Records before it got too wet. What was a scruffy pool last year has now developed into a proper pond with reeds etc. This has attracted 8 Teal 2 Oystercatcher Moorhen Coot several pairs of L...

My first visit here for a week and was nice to see a Greenshank sat on the spit below the house at 19:50. Still present when I left - have not got mobile at the moment so cant get info out too quickly. 9 Goosander 2 Oystercatchers Dave

I stopped off at Lake Bassenthwaite on Monday and got some views of the female on the nest with possibly two chicks. The male had been seen earlier in the morning at the far end of the lake. Plenty of Buzzards about too.

Back in 1998 while carrying out fieldwork in the Cross Fell area, I saw something that most people refuse to believe. I was hiking out of Dufton and coming up the back of Dufton Pike when I saw 12 Peregrines, mostly juveniles, in one group flying around each other. I watched them for about 5 minutes bef...

We walked along the Tame Valley Way yesterday from Stalybridge to Stockport and saw very few moorhens, mallards or coots. A man who walks his dog every day says the reason is that mink have been eating the young, and the numbers of birds has dropped dramatically. IS that right, and if so, is anyone tryin...

New garden tick this lunchtime when a juvenile Sparrowhawk tried unsuccessfully to catch one of the birds on our feeders. Fortunately for me it paused to regain its composure on the fence allowing a better view. In fact, if it hadn't landed I wouldn't have seen it as I was decorating the front bedroom w...

Spent a couple of hours trawling through the BH Gulls today looking for a Med Gull. No luck The old "needle" and "haystack". Did witness a Herring Gull take a BH chick which it took a while to kill. Also a Spotted Flycatcher in the trees by the sailing club entrance and a family o...

Two dippers on River Douglas this am, just south of bridge at bottom of Brock Mill Lane, off Wigan Lane. Later, in Lower Plantations, a kingfisher and a male grey wagtail on river 300 yards north of bridge on main track, where a narrow path goes off left. Never seen a kingfisher on the Douglas here for yea...

One singing only about 5 miles from the GM border: 19/06 12:52 LANCASHIRE : Icterine Warbler, Jackhouse Reservoir [A] Park in B6236 Haslingden Road layby and walk north along Cobbs Lane for 1/3 mile SD742260 (12:05) Can be elusive but preset 2 weeks - first thought to be a Marsh Warbler.

2 or 3 at Neumann's Flash, Northwich

The Goosander nest in a Tawny Owl chimney which we have been monitoring now for 4 weeks (and the owner of the house for some weeks longer) was empty today. There was one dead duckling that obviously couldn't get out of the tall box, but the remains of an estimated 10 eggs. It was some distance from any stre...

Just another plug for Bolton Central Library's excellent bird book collection. After Peregrine inspection at the Town Hall I called in and got: A natural history of ornithology (Peter Bircham, New Naturalist, 2007 - £25) First for Britain and Ireland 1600-1999 (Phil Palmer, Arlequin, 2000 - £2...

a six day trip round norfolk in total 107 species +7 heard for me anyway abbey farm 2 turtle doves 1 little owl egyptian geese hunstanton cliffs nesting fulmars ,, offshore common scoters ,gannets,3 male eider ,little tern sandwich tern ,common tern titchwell grey plover,pr of r c pochard...

A cautionary note: Yesterday afternoon my wife and I took ourselves over to Burton Marsh - parked the car at the bottom of Station Road/Denhall Lane just past the reserve entrance near to the new entrance to the Burton Point walk. When we got back some kind person had decided to have a look if there was an...

Just got back from 2 weeks touring Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Nevada. Very exciting as every bird we saw except house sparrow and starling were not native to the UK Saw loads of raptors but only identified Golden Eagle, Turkey Vulture, Red Tailed Hawk and American Kestrel for sure, there are so man...

Just logged on and by chance noticed the most users at one time bit. What exactly was going on to make 3 members and 38 guests all be active at 07.36 a.m. on May 28th???. Some MEGA event I missed or what??? I think we need to arrange, by PM, a time,(don't tell Ian Mck), when we all log on and beat this lowly to...

June 17th Dovestones: as well as the Crossbills (inc. at least 5 juvs); Siskin; Redpoll; an early(late?) Tawny Owl and a fly-over adult Peregrine. Walkerwood(Stalybridge) 28 adult Canada Geese & 3 goslings; 5 Mallard (all males) and 2 Common Buzzards Castleshaw: 1 newly fledged Black...

I saw a blackbird in our garden eating some seed, then it hopped past our pond. A minute or two later, it was eating what I think was a tiny froglet which had just left the pond. Could this be right? What's wrong with eating a nice juicy, slow-moving slug? Plenty of those. Why eat a tiny thing which tried to...

The last thing I expected to see this evening when I went for a walk across the fields to Rydings Lodge was a party of 7 Crossbills in a line of pine trees by Law Flat, just off Wardle Road. Grid ref SD911165. I walked past the trees without seeing or hearing anything and was forced to turn back because a fenc...