Wood Warbler singing this afternoon. Park (safely) on Carrwood Road and walk 100m south on footpath. Cross brook at footbridge and the bird was singing c30m along the east bank. Info thanks to Geoff Lightfoot. Cheers John
I'm a keen birder and already own a Swarovski ATS 80 HD, with a 20-60 zoom. I've tried using my iPhone camera with mixed results as its almost impossible to keep the camera in the correct place. Could anyone advise me which is the best camera and set up. The Nikon 1 seem popular however I'm open to any sugge...
In view of the slight relaxation of the lock down rules how do you interpret the latest government statements and will they change your birding behaviour? I am particularly interested in this from an 'over-70s' point of view. It would appear that people can now drive any distance to open spaces provi...
Had a Peregrine chasing the Lapwings in the area between Matalan and Central Tyres in Bolton at 1pm today. Put the flock up off central tyres roof and chased them for about 5 mins without catching anything. Looked like a juv, certainly behaved like one. Cheers Dean. -- Edited by Ian McKerchar on Wednes...
The 'special moments' thread made me think of this. It is almost 5 years since my best ever discovery and back then I wrote an article recalling the event for the Greater Manchester Bird Report. Unfortunately there hasn't been a report since 2011 so, rather than leave it unread, I thought it was approp...
All- apologises for confusion yesterday when I posted lockdown lists to county garden lists. I rarely access the website on my PC and its so obvious but on my mobile there was no indication this topic had been set up. Thanks for being directed to the correct place. I live in Royton and have done so for 22 y...
Our house is in 'top Ducky' with a smashing view across Manchester from the front, and the back leads into Gorse Hall. It's quite steep with a small pond near the top. Tidy in places but messy in others. Feeders busy today with 3 Bullfinch, 3 Long Tailed Tit, Coal Tits and a Song Thrush underneath being t...
Had a brand new species for the garden in Moulton, Northwich, Cheshire, today. From 1-30pm-1.39pm in our back garden was a gorgeous Willow Warbler, absolutely radiant in the sunshine. We have had Chiffchaff & Blackcap in the past so nice to add a new warbler species -- Edited by Doc Brewster on Mo...
So, apparently there's a lockdown garden bird race happening on Saturday 16 May... check out #gardenbirdrace on Twitter for details.
Edit: or here for those non twitterers: https://curlewsfeathers.wordpress.com/ -- Edited by Rob Thorpe on Sunday 3rd of May 2020 05:15:41 PM
Thought this may be an appropriate place to put in ideas about this. Have a pretty good list for my lockdown in Dukinfield but after nearly 6 weeks of looking still no Pied Wagtail. Must know every rooftop from my bench scoping spot but not a sight nor sound. As for Great Spotted Woodpecker....
Hi all, I hope everyone is well and bearing up in these challenging times. It’s great to see the forum being used so vigorously through the lockdown though and is exactly as I’d hoped, in that it would keep people going strong and enthusiastic, as much as can be currently anyway! Looking ahead to a tim...
Our house was built in 1905 and is opposite Dukinfield Park which is a smallish manicured park with some hard playing surfaces, a swing park, cut lawns, flower beds with mature trees quite a few of which are berry bearing trees. We have houses to each side, the back looks across the gardens of the adjace...
i think we found a lime hawk moth caterpillar in our front garden in Denton today. Is that likely? No idea about moths at all! -- Edited by Ian McKerchar on Sunday 20th of August 2017 09:42:12 PM
A newish build estate (c. 2003) with not much vegetation in the immediate area. Tops of mature trees in Astley street park visible and can hear birds from here which has allowed me to add a few species to the garden list in the past. Otherwise most species are added as fly overs or heard at night records Cu...
A typical suburban garden in a 1930's built housing estate on the outskirts of Manchester. Lawn, shrubs, small apple tree, bird feeders (suet and sunflower hearts). Staple fair of House Sparrow (max count 24 recently), Starling (come for the suet), Robin (single), Dunnock (single), Wren (single...
Pretty predictable garden birds. Male and female Great Spotted Woodpecker, Goldfinch, Great Tit, Blue Tit, Coal Tit, Nuthatch, Collared Dove and Robin all on feeders (some more successful than others). Had Bullfinch in the Winter but they seem to have moved on. Blackbird, Woodpigeon and Dunnoc...
Hope this is OK to post here Ian. Many birders will have been to Spurn in East Yorkshire. For many, like me, I expect it has provided some brilliant days birding. Spurn Bird Observatory is a charity which, like many others, has been hit by the Coronavirus outbreak. Unlike many though, the Obs is only a ve...
rspb local group had a dawn chorus event this morn 4.15 start in
lady mabels wood and the haigh plantations birds seen or heard
tawny owl ,blackbird , grasshopper warbler ,robin ,song thrush ,
whitethroat ,reed buntings,pheasant,carrion crow,blackcap,garden warbler
willow warbler,l...
As part of our current drive to get folk out into the countryside birding to escape the stresses and confined spaces and all the inherent implications of that in the current climate, we have put together a special offer. It is on one of our most popular models, the Opticron Explorer. These are an ED bino...
Just had my evening ruined by the neighbours cats!!!
Blackbids going berserk outside, went out to see what was going on, only to find 2 cats in next doors bushes raiding the Blackbird nest. One cat ran off with a chick into my garden, it had it at the bottom of the garden, i ran to try and grab it but it dive...
In this period of restricted movement I'd hazard a guess a fair few of us are browsing our bookshelves and reminding ourselves of books we had forgotten we even had!! I'm currently working through 3; RED SIXTY SEVEN - A collection of words and art inspired by Britain's most vulnerable birds, curated b...
Unfortunately I fall in the over 70s at risk category, with underlying health problems so I am now in my 3rd day of self isolation, or more correctly self distancing. It's a situation my wife and I are still trying to come to terms with. Separation from children and grandchildren is the hardest. I alway...
Just had a nice pleasant hour around the lake and common.
Nothing startling but saw the following:
Garden Warblers
Greenfinches
Long tailed Tit family of 7
Mallards
Coots and their young on the water
Buzzard over head
Kestrel hunting
Chaffinces
Goldfinches
Green Woodpecker
A nice st...
11.30-15.00 6 Mistle Thrushes, 2 Song Thrushes, 1 Swallow (flying South), 1 Golcrest, 1 Treecreeper, 2 Coal Tits, 3 Buzzards, 1 Kestrel, 2 Ravens and a single group of 30 Starlings (perched on a single dead tree). 1 Common Toad, 3 Speckled Wood butterflies and lots of Common Darter dragonflies. Fore...
We only have a tiny garden but it backs onto scrubland which is thankfully left to its own devices. Its not far from Rumworth so we do get some interesting birds going back and forth between there. We have a very small pond which is also left to nature. Incredibly 42 frogs made it home last Spring which pro...
We only have a tiny garden but it backs onto scrubland which is thankfully left to its own devices. Its not far from Rumworth so we do get some interesting birds going back and forth between there. We have a very small pond which is also left to nature. Incredibly 42 frogs made it home last Spring which pro...
For more years than some of us care to remember a group of us have been going out together once a month, initially as Oldham RSPB Outdoor Members Group and then as Oldham Birders. Make-up and numbers have varied over the decades but there have always been a group of us sharing day trips and long weekends b...
