18/3/11

(11:45 - 15:00)

Somehow managed to miss you Paul, despite treading some of the same paths as you must have done.....

Whelley Loop Line to Sennicar Lane:

Managed to spot 2 Curlews at Rothwells Farm
5 Buzzard (Thorn Hill)
4 Sparrowhawk (Upper Plantations)
2 Kestrel
9 Siskin
1 Treecreeper
1 Lapwing
1 Common Gull
1 Reed Bunting
1 Pied Wagtail

Heard the Chiffchaff near Sennicar Bridge

7 Meadow Pipits north this morning over the Whelley Loopline nr Canon Sharples school

1pm-3pm Douglas Valley and Pendlebury Lane Area

Buzzard heard
7 Manderins 4m 3f
2 Dipper's
pair of G.S. Woodpeckers
good numbers of House and Tree Sparrows on the lane
Cormerant over

23/2/11 mid-afternoon:

1 Green Woodpecker (Whelley Loop Line)
3 Buzzard
2 Sparrowhawk
1 Kestrel
5 Mistle Thrush
1 Stock Dove
1 Bullfinch
15 Canada Geese, 13 Mallard, 3 Moorhen, 2 Mute Swan.

Aspull Sough.
Found this place ,this morning, on my way down to Penny.
Located thanks to this 'thread'
Good habitat mixture, but quiet this morning :
Buzzard circling lowish twice.
On the pools:
2 Moorhen
2 Mallard
In the trees 2 Jays, 1G Tit,
Leaving I ticked 40 Rooks in a field near Aspull.

-- Edited by keith mills on Saturday 12th of February 2011 03:35:24 PM

Enjoyable afternoon round haigh hall with Paul Risley:

Tawny Owl in usual roost. Wood pigeon kill by sparrowhawk nr feeding station.. Fresh and slightly plucked. Must have been disturbed. Coal tit, pair bullfinch,pair mistle thrushes, flock of chaffinches with yellowhammer before sparrowhawk sent them into cover.
Senicar Lane:
Mandarins and mallard on river.Redwing, song thrushes, Great Spotted woodpecker,grey heron,jay,grey wagtail,reed bunting and reed bunting. Also learned some valuable information on identifying nests from the knowledgeable Mr. Risley.! Well he has been birding for a while.

28 species

Hi Mike,
Aspull Sough is a seris of 3 ponds and 3 reedbeds for treating water. probably the easiest way to get to them is to park up in plantation gates, thats the name of the road and walk from there, if you go on google maps and look for haigh lower plantations on satalite view you'll see the ponds to the right and slightly lower down, you should see plantation gates too. the road that you'll see going past the ponds is gated after 40 yards and I'm not sure if you can park there. there are 2 feeding stations, one is just a tray nailed to a gate on hall lane but has been going for a long time, the other is relatively new and is situated off the main track in between the two miniture railways in the upper plantations. hope this helps
regards Paul

couple of hours this afternoon,

single Green Woodpecker showing well at Aspull sough
42+ Magpies in fields here too
pair of Tawny Owls at usuall roost
pair of Mute Swans on canal
3 Siskins and a Redpoll near feeding station
pair of Coal Tits
good numbers of Rooks and Jackdaws over

11.30am - 5.30pm

2 pairs of manderins in the dougy valley near pendlebury lane
single Goldcrest down here also
decent numbers of tree and house sparrows on the lane with G.S. Woodpecker over and 5 Fieldfares in the fields here also
2 mute Swans flying down the canal
single Yellowhammer were Ian had 8 the previous week, there could have been more but I was looking into the sun and it was in a very flighty flock of 70+ chaffinches and 30 + Redwings.
pair of Tawny Owls in their usuall roost
5 Siskins near feeding station, nice male Bullfinch at feeding station
Buzzard at sheep carcass in fields near Aspull sough, Raven over going to roost and as I was walking past the ponds at 5.20 a Woodcock dropped in to make it 40 species for the day, a good return for HCP

A pleasant afternoon in and around the woods.
Raven and Buzzard feeding on sheep carcass
approx 250 Pink Footed Geese over going west
2 Bullfinches
small flock of approx 20 Siskins near Hall
Male Sparrowhawk over feeding station
pair of Tawny Owls roosting together
Heron over

25 species

26/12/10 Whelley Loop to Pennington Lane 1pm 4.30pm

Water treatment ponds
Singles of Snipe and Woodcock over
2 Herons
Coot
Female Bullfinch
Sparrowhawk kill of a Goldfinch, Fox and Magpie footprints in snow next to it checking for any remains

Douglas Valley Lower Plantations
Dipper feeding well on Dougy
2 Goldcrests
2 Tree Creepers
Raven over

Lady Mabels Wood to Pennington lane area
3 Bullfinches 2F, 1M
2 Siskins
Good numbers of Redwings Fieldfares and Blackbirds
14 Mandarins, looked like an even split 7F, 7M

on way home Tawny Owl just working its way towards Blackbirds roosting site in the Rhododendrons

35 species

Sat 18th Dec

Douglas Valley at Thornhill,
Buzzard
Kingfisher
Heron
2 Woodcock
Snipe
6 Manderin

Sennicar lane area
Sparrowhawk
Kestrel
good numbers of Fieldfare and Redwings
6 Robins at the feeding station constantly squabbling + single Reed Bunting and pair of Coal tits

Deer, Fox, Squirrel and Rabbit tracks in snow

3/12/10 (10:45 - 12:15)

Whelley Loop Line to Crawfords Wood:

2 Common Snipe
6 Lapwing
1 Willow Tit
3 Siskin
1 Kestrel
2 Bullfinch
1 Coal Tit
1 Great Spotted Woodpecker
4 Redwing
1 Coot
11 Mallard
5 Moorhen

(29 species)

A quick couple of hours this afternoon, parked opposite feeding station on Hall lane at first and watched for a while (lazy mans birdwatching ) good numbers of Great and Blue tits and Chaffinches, single Coal tit on floor beneath feeders showing well, just going to take a photo of it when a male Sparrowhawk just misses it, Spar then made a quick dash at the chaffinches nearby but they get to cover before it gets to them. flying off with nothing to show for its attempts. about an hour later I'm up near Haigh Hall, near a group of Yew trees that are full of berries, these have attracted a fair number of Redwings and Blackbirds, as I watch from the path Alarm calls start and 3 Redwings come flying out the trees straight towards me with another male Sparrowhawk about 15 feet behind them, about 20 yards on the spar gives up the chase, circles off and lands nearby, cracking adult male. other birds seen, singles of Raven and Goldcrest and a few Nuthatches

6/11/10 (07:30 - 11:00)

Whelley Loop Line to Sennicar Lane:

3 skeins of Pink-footed Geese over (no counts, times, or directions coz me pen ran out and I`ve forgotten )

1 Snipe (over Aspull Sough)
2 Sparrowhawk
3 Kestrel
1 Green Woodpecker (Aspull Sough)
1 Kingfisher
2 Treecreeper
1 Nuthatch
2 Grey Wagtail over
2 Coal Tit
3 Skylark
1 Reed Bunting
1 Great Spotted Woodpecker
Redwings & Fieldfares aplenty

(35 species, from what I can remember...)

{Local info - The Woodland Trust have now sunk their "test holes" in Lady Mabels Wood. I counted five, three of which are near areas frequented by dog-walkers, so any pool here would become instant "dog bathing pools". The other two are in a field that I didn`t know they actually owned... but these, thankfully, are well away from any footpaths. They can only be seen from the canal tow-path, so I hope they eventually use this field for their planned pond/pool. The 5 test holes (now already flooded) are sufficiently large enough to become "Dragonfly-ponds" in their own right if they leave them and don`t fill them in again - indeed they are better than specifically created ponds at a certain local `managed` LNR !}

1.45pm -6.00pm

lower plantations
Tawny Owl at roost
14 Manderin, 9 on pond near old quarry, 5 on River Douglas 8m 6f
Dipper, first for some time
Green Woodpecker and Buzzard in fields near water treatment ponds

Lady Mabels to pennington lane
Male Sparrowhawk
Fem Kestrel
2 Tree Sparrows
8 Greenfinches
Great Crested Grebe on canal near to Red Rock moorings

39 species

20/10/10 (08:15 - 11:45)

Whelley Loop Line to Sennicar Lane:

c140 Pink-footed Goose >SE @ 08:40

2 Raven (nr Hall Lane) - at a sheep carcass with 2 Foxes and 20-odd Magpies..
2 Buzzard (WRUFC)
1 Kestrel
1 Kingfisher
2 Tree Sparrow (over)
1 Treecreeper
1 Goldcrest
9 Fieldfare (over)
1 Mistle Thrush
1 Bullfinch
14 Mallard
6 Moorhen (Aspull Sough)

(32 species)

2-15pm - 4.30pm

for several years now there has been a Carrion Crow about with white feathers on its wings, nothing unusual about that except today there were 3 of them in fields between wingates road and WRUFC.
pair of Kestrels on Golf coarse
Tree Creeper
several small flocks of Redwings
2 Fieldfare
Heron
plus the usuall suspects

-- Edited by Paul Risley on Sunday 17th of October 2010 10:58:06 PM

4/10/10 (07:45 - 11:15)

Whelley Loop Line to Sennicar Lane:

2 Buzzard (Aspull Sough)
2 Kestrel
2 Treecreeper (Hall Lane)
1 Grey Wagtail (over)
6 Skylark (Rothwells Farm)
13 Meadow Pipit >S
7 Pied Wagtail >S
26 Swallow >S
1 Coal Tit
1 Song Thrush
1 Bullfinch
9 Mallard
4 Moorhen

(33 species)

30/9/10 (07:00 - 10:45)

Whelley Loop Line to Sennicar Lane and Lady Mabels Wood:

1 Great Crested Grebe - along the canal midway between Hall Lane Bridge and Shedfield Bridge....... A very surreal sight as it swam right by me in the lifting fog . An absolute site Mega !

1 Raven (Rothwells Farm). Another, or the same, over Balniel Walk later on..
1 Buzzard (Sennicar Lane)
2 Kestrel
2 Kingfisher (Shedfield Bridge)
2 Grey Wagtail (Basin Quay)
5 Skylark
1 Pied Wagtail
1 Meadow Pipit
1 Linnet
1 Mistle Thrush
2 Song Thrush
5 Bullfinch
23 Lesser Black-backed Gull (over)
1 Cormorant, ad. (over)
2 Grey Heron (over)
6 Swallow
13 Mallard
2 Mute Swan w/6 cygnets

(42 species)

25/9/10 (07:10 - 11:40)

Whelley Loop Line to Pendlebury Lane:

1 Raven (Rothwells Farm). Watched this bird for a good half hour as it sat in the sunshine jabbering away to itself - amazing vocalisations !

3 Buzzard (Aspull Sough)
2 Sparrowhawk
1 Kestrel
2 Willow Tit (Shedfield Bridge)
2 Reed Bunting
1 Skylark, singing...
2 Chiffchaff
2 Goldcrest
7 Meadow Pipit
1 Great Spotted Woodpecker
2 Bullfinch
1 House Martin
9 House Sparrow
2 Grey Heron (over)
16 Mallard (Basin Quay)
2 Canada Goose (over)

A dozen Swallows at Rothwells, and 20 or so Jays knocking about..

(39 species)

A pair of Ravens preening each other on a fence at Sennicar Lane yesterday afternoon
17 Goldfinch over

6.30pm - 7.30pm, walk along canal from crown hotel, new springs to sennicar lane bridge and back,

27 Mallards mainly on basin near haigh hall bridge.
fields north of water treatment ponds, 2 Sparrowhawks. 1 being mobbed by a pair of Magpies also 2 Ravens, 1 mobbing a buzzard
5 mistle Thrush on golf course.
no signs of Ian's Teal but will be back tomorrow to check all the ponds and streams

14 Mistle Thrush over Bridge 63 at Red Rock Lane early afternoon today