A trip up there this afternoon for 3 hours or so in the vague hope that Ian's Whinchats may have decided not to continue their migration! Not to be.
Linnets 10+ along Burnt Edge Grey Partridge 3 about 500 yards S of the mast flying N and probably still in the county Ravens pair Burnt Edge Kestrel Stonechat pair Mast Rd. - giving brief pause in moult Buzzard heard Red Grouse 2 heard
Not a lot else. Not one single Meadow Pipit
Great views to Liverpool and the sea and across Manchester, Bolton and Oldham
Autumn migration is alive and well in Greater Manchester
At approx. 5:30pm tonight I headed through the almighty downpour towards Smithills Moor and found the roads looking like fully flowing rivers! As a neared Mast Road the skies to the west were beauifully clear and the rain was now subsiding, I pulled the car over on a small layby along Mast Road to view the the two small short grass fields along the road's northern edge, often a productive spot and I was not disappointed!
The fields were alive with birds and as the last of the rain cleared, I could clearly hear some very distinctive calls (from the car window initially!) coming from the wire fence 30 feet away, Twite and no less than 3 of them were along the fence, stone wall and flying into the field hopping along the grass noisily, giving great views. Pipits were seemigly all over the place, with at the very least 60 Meadow Pipits in the fields alone and then a Tree Pipit over and into the same field, although once down it was nigh on impossible to re-find but another, or perhaps the same was seen and heard in flight a little later on. Wheatears in the fields alone numbered atleast 8 and possibly as many as 11, 3 Whinchats were conspicuous along the edges of the taller grassy fields bordering the short grass ones, using the dry-stone walls to fly back and forth from. All this from 15 minutes of birding in just 2 small fields!
Obviously the rain had forced them all down (it really was one hell of a downpour), as the Twite moved off south-east after 10 minutes or so, all but 2 Wheatears were left in the fields after 15 minutes and nearly all the pipits had moved on, with many heading up along Mast Road, sat around on the road infront of the car as we headed further up to turn around. Only the Whinchats remained, roughly moving to the field opposite the car park at Wilderswood.
But what a 15 minutes, some of my most exiting county birding for ages with a real feeling of migration
a walk around the small reservoir at belmont(wards i think) produced a peregrine sitting on a fence post high above the waterfall.two grey wagtails around the stream and flitting in the heather on the road side of the reservoir two pairs of stonechats with juveniles.on a fence post near lyons den a merlin and at the centre feeding station a nuthatch made repeated trips to and fro.returning every couple of minutes its young must have been well fed.i took the hint and got myself and my wife well fed also at the black dog!
Female/immature Redstart this early afternoon, at the very northern edge of Wilderswood. Follow the footpath off the road to the left, just before the road breaks out into the fields, the bird was roughly around where the telegraph wires cross this path but was very elusive though vocal. Nothing else of note other than 2 Ravens and a family of noisy Sparrowhawks in Wilderswood itself.
I saw a possible family group of 4 Peregrines flying over the A6 near Portofinos restaurant between Adlington where I had been visiting and the motorway at the Reebok junction Horwich at 5.15pm Also a Buzzard was soaring very high up over Adlington for over 30 minutes until the rain came down.
At least 12 Crossbill walkerfold wood possibly more this afternoon.
Had 6 at the edge of the wood at the burnt edge end, walked back down to the main track to try get better views when a flock of 9 flew out of the wood and off over the main road towards conifers on which i think is a golf course, then when got back to the end again there were still 3 there.
A female Marsh Harrier flew lazily north over Smithills Moor at 12:45 today but never looked like stopping. Single Cuckoo gave my best views ever of this species and was approachable to within 30 feet for some time too!
a very late Fieldfare between Holden's farm and plantation (one for the Mayhem list ), flew towards Burnt Edge with 2 Mistle Thrushes also in the area: 2 pairs and a male Stonechat. 1 male Wheatear. 3 Curlews. 1 Raven. 2 Gropplers. GS Woodpecker. 2 Cuckoo. 2 Kestrel.
I met up with Woosey at Wilderswood around 1pm and it was definately appearing to lift then but it's always touch and go when it's low cloud. Strange atmosphere up there in those conditions though, I love it
Ian it got worse. I went up at 1400hrs and you could only see 50-60 yards. No ousel or wheatear but 15 Meadow Pipits, Blackbird and a Pheasant was all I could muster.
Thursday 3rd April, visibility down to 100 yards at times due to low cloud, with occasional, temporary clearings then began to lift from aprroximately 1pm.
Male ring Ouzel at the top of Holdens Plantation at 11:15 but was very elusive (typically) and may have 'cleared out' as the visibility improved.
Sand Martin- 5 over and through the gloom
Small flocks of Chaffinches flying north through Holdens Plantation and out across the moors (in extremely poor visibilty)
2 Ravens displaying high overhead. 4 Curlews back on territory. 4 Stonechats (2pr.) by the Dean Brook, below Holden`s. 2 Siskin & 25+ Goldfinch in Walker Fold Wood. 2 Mallard over Smithills Moor.
5 and a half hours sat on a wall the man deserves a medal, he was there when me and warfy walked passed then we went harrier hunting,after two hours bashing the moors we had seen 2 grouse and a crow,got back to the wall and found he was still there with Mr Woosey , we therefore renamed this spot as the new GM raptor watchpoint, all four of us concentrated hard and tried to re-locate the harrier then warfy declared it was offically dinner so we buggered off to burger king Oh i believe Mr woosey went to a pie shop. it was fun and we had a laugh keep birding
Hen Harrier (male) hunting between Burnt Edge and the Winter Hill Road at about 12:20. also, possible female Hen Harrier drifted west, quite high over Winter Hill @ 12:00, too far away to confirm though
also on't moors today:
Red Grouse (6) Raven (2) Stonechat (pair) Snipe (3) Grey Heron (4) Skylark Kestrel Magpie C. Crow Reed Bunting
and in the woods:
Sparrowhawk Coal Tit Blue Tit Great Tit Chaffinch Goldfinch Siskin (13) GS Woodpecker Blackbird Robin Wren
6 crossbills this morning about 11 am at the far end of Walker Fold wood. I had walked along the path with nothing to see so went into the wood. Heard them straight away and saw 2 in flight. Luckily I saw where they landed and they seemed to be absorbed into the cones! Had a nice male in view but then off it went and another 5 followed it from the same spot! Steve
in search of crossbills and others ,went up to 'the hill' it was raining a 'bit' and the light was poor,went round a corner sideways on black ice just stopped short of a dry stone wall,so please be carefull, it seems the good people of bolton don,t pay to get all the roads gritted.retired early to lick my wounded pride.
Again no sign of any Crossbillsbut Sparrowhawk,kestrel,Fieldfare,Redwing,G.S.Woodpecker(2),Small flock of Brambling and Buzzard on M61 verge on way to Binn Green.
No sign of Crossbills this afternoon 1-2.30pm. Not much of anything for that matter. Sparrowhawk,Coal Tit,Blue Tit and Chaffinch the best we could muster.Might have had something to do with the weather conditions !! persisting it down Damn Crossbills-do they really exist???
Geoff, get up there quick and strike while the irons hot, they wont be there all winter, take "moorman" with ya he knows where to look, he loves it up there, in fact Mr Woosey why dont u just move to Bolton?
rob.i see i,ve just missed 4 county lifers (finally got good views of a goldcrest at lightshaw)ok you can all stop laughing now,i,ll have to get up there for the crossbills soon,anyone know if their likley to hang around or are the on 'passage'.
2 Crossbills in Walker Fold wood this morning. Also Redpoll, Siskin, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Goldcrest, Coal Tit, Redwing, Fieldfare, GSWoodpecker, Stonechat, Reed Bunting and hundreds and hundreds of Wood Pigeons (The sky was full of them at one point!)
A couple of hours around Walker Fold Wood/Burnt Edge this afternoon. 2 Ravens, 2 G S Woodpecker, Kestrel, Mistle Thrush, Linnet, Goldfinch, several Coal Tits feeding on the cones(no Crossbills) flock of 10 or so Redwing, large flock of Finches moved through very quickly,about 100 birds, mainly Greenfinch, Chaffinch and a few Goldfinches couldn't pick anything else out.
Correct, best to either take cobbled path from Walker Fold road alond south west side of wood, then take path up hillside from Burnt Edge to view over wood, alternatively, park on Burnt Edge Lane accessible from Edge Lane, and walk down hill opposite Matchmoor Lane passed barking dogs (cant be missed).
i popped along there for a couple of hours this afternoon, thinking, after seeing only a single coal tit and a (fabulous) female sparrowhawk perched in a tree that i was in the wrong bit...
entered from the tight s-bend on walker fold lane is that the east end?
lovely wood though, had the soft needles under foot and the sounds of the stream all to myself.
12 Crossbills still in Walker Fold Wood at 12 noon, seen from the hillside to the west, they were towards the north end of the wood in the area where there is the biggest concentration of cones, then seen to fly deeper into woods and lost to view.