All's quiet on the western front!
A drake Pintail basically flew through Pennington today, heading west around 12:35
Best I could muster I'm afraid, it's not the most productive period I've ever seen in the county at the moment, although with Smew, Scaup and 2 Great Northern Divers we shouldn't...
a bit late i know but a red letter day for my local patch
the regular,s coot, mallard, cormarant,swan,grey heron,tufted,moorhen,canada geese,
the visitor,s goosander, snipe,shoveler,kingfisher,goldeneye,and not least a smew,all viewed
from the towpath am
Happy New Year
Late afternoon at Pennington for the gull roost: 6300 Black-headed, a couple of hundred Commons, very small numbers of Lesser Black-backeds and Herrings and a single Greater Black-backed. 2 Pintail (male and female) also down at the Plank Lane (western) end. -- Edited by Ian McKerchar at 17:16, 20...
The redhead Smew is still at Horrocks Flash today (viewed from canal towpath, reported by Ian Woosey). A drake Pintail (ex-Wigan Flashes) is on flooded fields at the Landgate roundabout, where the southbound slip road to the M6 leaves the A49 at J25. There is a pull-in off the roundabout. (Rep...
Jimmy Meadows text'd me to say he had all 3 species of Woodpecker at Crooke Wood, Wigan, today (SD547075) but the Lesser flew off S over the canal and river to a line of trees adjoining the railway line, off Ackhurst Lane.
The Smew - that may have roamed off, up the Abram Flashes to the Wigan Flash...
A second winter Iceland Gull came very late (approx 4 o'clock-ish) into the gull roost at Heaton Park Reservoir tonight (access strictly by permit only) and was slightly overdue, given the reasonable numbers in other nearby counties! Given that the gull roost here is usually relatively poor durin...
Apparently there is a Smew (redhead) at Pennington Flash today, although having received the news atleast 3rd hand, I have no idea where abouts. More to come from others with better 'gen' hopefully
Have a great New Year everyone
-- Edited by Ian McKerchar at 13:23, 2006-12-3...
a pair of peregines came out of the salford quays area "sky dancing" and dissapeared behing
the largest building on the exchange quay complex,one came round the building and perched
on the service rail for twenty minutes then it departed headed north east (SJ813965...
It is fairly uncommon for Goosander to roost overnight at Watergrove. On 21st December 10 Goosander were present at 16:35 hrs, increasing to 18 on 23rd at 16:20 hrs. Today when the mist finally lifted there were 32 on the reservoir at 15:15 hrs, increasing to 35 by 16:20 hrs. This is the highest count he...
A quick visit to Three Sisters this afternoon - 8 Mute Swans inc 1 cygnet, several Pochard including one with a metal ring, 8+ Tufted Duck and 1 Kingfisher.
Westlake - 1 Pink-footed Goose.
Kane
Peter Baron found a dark-morph Arctic Skua sitting on the water at Elton Resr this morning. Just at Peter Turner arrived, it flew off, harried by and harrying Black-headed Gulls. It appeared to go north.
Colin Loughnan rang me today to say he had a dark-bellied Brent Goose on Elton Resr (about 2pm) but it didn't stay - by the time Rob Adderley got there it had gone.
Message from Barry Hulme who is out birding this morning ( what a guy ! ). He saw a Bittern in flight and land in Rammy`s reeds at 09.30.
Merry Christmas everyone !
Early this morning at Crompton Lodges I observed a Greylag goose on the main lake with an orange neck collar on. I think the letters where in black, unfortunately the bird was in the middle of the lake and I didn't have my scope. I Will go back tomorrow and see if I can see it.
As for where it has come from, I...
A dead Leach's Petrel was picked up at Healey Dell NR by a ranger on 11th (photograph on www.wildlifeofrochdale.co.uk. Unfortunately this corpse was discarded and is unretrievable. A study of storm-wrecked Leach's is being carried out nationally(DNA etc), and this bird could have added to this s...
Yesterday at c15.00 hours 46 Pink Feet, disorientated presumably by the misty conditions, landed on a field (grazed by sheep) in Aspull and fed until dusk when they left, unfortunately I was unable to confirm in which direction. They had arrived fron an easterly direction - not unusual here at this t...
GREAT CRESTED GREBE-67,GOOSANDER-1F, TUFTED-86(A BIT LOW EVERYTHING SEEMED VERY TWITCHY TODAY,THE DUCK WERE HARD TO COUNT),TEAL-100+,CORMORANT-48,SHOVELER-27, LITTLE GREBE-5,GREY HERON-8,MALLARD-150+,COOT-100+,GADWALL-4,GOLDEN EYE-17F+4M,LAPWING-150,POCHARD-7,CANADAS-1...
Covering WeBS last weekend.
South Res - Cananda Goose..12, Swan..4, Moorhen..6.
North Side - Coot..5, Little Grebe..2, Mallard..12, Cormarant..3 (on pilons), Moorhen..2, Gadwall..23, Goosander..2 (on Irwell), Snipe..200+, Bullfinch..2, Willow Tit..1.
The number of Snipe was a com...
Great to see the 2 Great Northern Divers. A few other birds of interest were:
Pintail...3, Wigeon...2, Golden Plover...250, Lapwing...200 (in flight to south of tank 3), Pochard...20+, Goldeneye...25+, Tufted Duck...40-50, Great Crested Grebe...30+. -- Edited by The Sweeney at 17:1...
Bit late I know, but I haven't been on the computer for a couple of days so here it is.........
Still atleast 1 Green Sandpiper at Hope Carr on the 18th of December with the Chiffchaff still knocking about, this time in bushes near the perimeter of the filter beds in the sewage farm-lovely! Lots of Pied...
A quick look along moss lane at dusk today produced 7 grey herons sat in a field together, several small flocks of redwing and fieldfare going over north, at least 30 skylarks in the large ploughed field on the south side and over 70 magpies in fields to the north.
The 2 Great Northern Divers were still on no. 2 resr 11:15 - 13:00 hrs
120 + Lapwings & 213 Golden Plover (counted individually!) were roosting on no. 1 resr. Count submitted to BTO website.
Total counts from all 3 resrs. 20 Goldeneye, 10 Pochard, 54 Tufted Duck, 16 Great Crested Grebe, 17 Coot...
12.30 - 16.00
2 G.N.Divers still present. ad.Yellow legged Gull (thanks Roy ),4 Goosander, 3 Wigeon, f Teal, 15+ Goldeneye, Redshank, Shoveler, 83 Golden Plover (more came in later - c200 ). Grey Wagtail.
Heaton Park res (dusk)
20 Lapwing , 31 Goosander, 30+ Goldeneye , 16 Teal, Little Grebe, loads of BHG's but hardly any big gulls and no sign of Iceland gull
Heaton Park Boating lake
Male Shoveler, 4 Pochard and a Goldeneye
Ringley
1st winter Stonechat along the path between the pool to...
Have a great New Year everyone
-- Edited by Ian McKerchar at 13:23, 2006-12-3...
Heaton Park Boating lake
Male Shoveler, 4 Pochard and a Goldeneye
Ringley
1st winter Stonechat along the path between the pool to...