Very late post for thursday
Highlights:
1 herring gull
3 common gulls
1 male goosander
5 great crested grebes
1 dead black headed gull
1 female fingfisher

broad dole ees:
1 grey heron
2 little grebes

Thursday afternoon, 10.03.16.
Approx 2.45pm

Of note...
1 adult Lesser Black-backed Gull
150+ Black-headed Gulls
10+ Common Gulls
2 Cormorant
1 Great Crested Grebe
1 Grey Wagtail over
...and only 1 Herring Gull that I could see with a cleanish white head, it stood out amongst the other Gulls. Think it's a 3rd winter but I'm by no means certain.

Late post for yesterday...

Thursday 18th Feb 2.45 - 3.15pm

Black-headed Gull.
Minimum of 220 when I lost count as they took to the air due to people throwing bread, probably around 250.

Common Gull.
Estimate of around 30-40 including adults and younger birds.

Lesser Black-backed Gull.
3 adults seen at once, and a few 3rd winters present too.

All Gulls mentioned were viewed from main car park, many more Gulls on far side of the lake near the buoys.

Also...
Great Crested Grebe 3
Coot rough estimate of 40-50

14 02 16

Of note today.

3 Gadwall

large amount of gulls on the western side of the WP. (most i've ever seen) Didn't have long enough to sift though them all, mainly BH gulls (winter and breeding plumage), certainly a few GBB's too amongst other stuff.

Great crested grebe's also 1 or 2 coming in to breeding plumage

Dole ees:
11+ Herons
10+ Pochard
3 Little grebe

Plenty of long tailed tits about today too.

This afternoon -
MAIN LAKE.
Mute Swan 28.
Gt . Crested Grebe 5.
Coot c30.
Mixed flock of : Siskin c40 , Goldfinch c10 and at least 1 Lesser Redpoll. Feeding In Alder trees.
Longtailed Tit flock ( very vocal ) probably about 20 birds.
Lesser Black-back Gull 1 .
Common Gull 14 .
Black-headed Gull c350.
Cormorant 5 on pylons .
BROAD EES DOLE -
Grey Heron 14 .
Little Grebe 2.
Moorhen 2.

-- Edited by Ian McKerchar on Wednesday 27th of January 2016 06:43:43 PM

Main lake, this afternoon.

Of note...
- 20+ Common Gull
- 5 Great Crested Grebe
- 4 Little Grebe
- 3 Tufted Duck (2m 1f)
- 3 Cormorant
- 1 Goldeneye (f)
- plus usuals

Yesterday :

Tufted Duck 21

Gadwall 8

 

Saturday morning, roughly 9 - 10

4 gadwall
1 teal
2 little grebe
4 great crested grebe
3 cormorant
30+ mute swan
c150 black-headed gull
4 common gull
2 grey heron

Broad Ees Dole:

1 teal
1 little grebe
1 snipe
1 kingfisher
3 grey heron

This afternoon approx 2.30pm

From main car park / Deckers ...

Black-headed Gulls - approx 80 - 100
(1 individual with blue darvic 2C19)
Common Gull - 1
Lesser Black-backed Gull - 2 adults and 1 sub adult flying around
Cormorant - 2 (incl 1 on pylon)
Coot - 10+

...and the usual high number of Mute Swan and Canada Goose.

Broad Ees Dole 3:00 - 3:30
Viewing from the hide it was very quiet with only a few duck and no Little Grebe today;
1 x snipe
2 x teal
Moorhen
1x heron
Smaller pool more productive;
5 x snipe
1 x kingfisher (present throughout on perch at back of the pool)
1 x water rail
But the trip got better on the way home picking up short eared owl on Chorlton Ees (see separate thread)

a visit here from 12.30 til dark. (also included a trip around chorlton ees sightings in that thread)

32 mute swan
1 great crested grebe
12 redwing
2 bullfinch
12 siskin
1 nuthatch
5 chaffinch
4-6 goldcrest
2 great spotted woodpecker
6 jay
1 song thrush
4 cormorant
willow tit heard only near visitor centre

broad ees dole

8 snipe
8 teal
1 little grebe
3 grey heron

plus all the usuals around.

Barn owl seen flying over the M60 at 6.45am, came from the direction of the water park

Today ... Approx 2.10pm - 2.55pm on a tacho break.

Lots of usuals including...

-Canada Goose - around 75+ at least
-Mute Swan - 3
-Black-headed Gull - around 60 of various ages and adults
-Cormorant 1 swimming and diving, 2 on pylon, 1 of which was leaning forward and then stretched its neck out pointing down and at the same time stretched its wings out aerodynamically angled up and back. Just looked like it was going to dive off, needless to say it didn't.

Joel Tragen wrote:

---

David Morris wrote:

---

And...I *think*...1 Water Rail- I was looking down at my Collin's Guide and when I looked up I saw something run quickly from the water to the bush. Has anyone ever spotted one there?

---

Hi david,
A water rail at sale water park would be unusual but I once heard one at Chorlton ees 2 years ago so it is always possible one has turned up.

---

hi david, the answer to your'e question is yes, I have heard water rails on several occasions on broad ees dole over the years but got my very first full view of one on 4th November 2014.

Had a quick look at Broad Ees Dole today. Spotted:

3 Grey Heron
About 6 mallards (3 female, 3 male)
1 Great Crested Grebe
And...I *think*...1 Water Rail- I was looking down at my Collin's Guide and when I looked up I saw something run quickly from the water to the bush. Has anyone ever spotted one there?

quick look at main lake this morning

Kingfisher showing well near boat club
singles of Kestrel, Sparrowhawk and Buzzard over lake
8 Cormorant
23 Magpie feeding on all the rubbish spread around the car park
2 Grey and 12 Pied wagtail feeding on boardwalk
3 Lesser Black Backed Gull and c.40 Black headed gull
single Siskin in trees by entrance road and mixed tit flock of c.30 made up mainly of Long Tailed.

afternoon stroll around.

7 mute swan inc 5 cygnets
2 bullfinch
5 chiffchaff
1 willow warbler
1 blackcap
1 jay
40+ mostly house martins with several swallows
1 buzzard, 1 kestrel & 1 sparrowhawk all circling around together over the dole & towards Stretford ees

broad ees dole... 5 little grebe, 2 grey heron, 1 coot, 4 moorhen

Black-headed gulls starting to turn up here in a few numbers here this evening; perhaps 30 or 40 or so. Quite a few feeding long-tailed tit parties, too.

Broad Ees Dole:

3 grey heron
Roughly six little grebe, including a couple of juveniles
A few moorhen and a couple of coot
c10 black-headed gull
1 lesser black-backed gull
1 stock dove

Great spotted woodpecker heard calling in the wooded area behind the pools.

1 Little Egret
4 Kingfisher
1 Great Crested Grebe
2 Little Grebe
7 Mute Swan (2 adults & 5 cygnets)

Little Egret present on Broad Ees Dole at 2:55pm today.

Info thanks to Tony O'Mahony

Little grebe with several young yesterday on Broad Ees Dole. Also roughly 20 black-headed gull, a big moorhen fight and a kingfisher.

Reed warbler and dunnock heard singing.

I went on a bike ride yesterday evening along the Tranz Pennine trail with a few mates, and thought id break off and do a lap of the water park on the way. As I got to the stepping stones on the far side that crosses the brook there was a family of swans with a few cygnets hanging around. One of the cygnets looked to be in great difficulty stuck stationary in the mud..there was a crowd of concerned onlookers but it was in deep mud and was being furiously protected by the parents.. I stopped for a closer inspection and noticed it was tangled in fishing line.. I know I shouldn't really have intervened but it would of played on my conscience all night if I had not, so I waded out into the mud and with the help of my friends and a passer by,,we managed to use our bikes as a shield round the cygnet, just to stop the parents attacking us as I attempted to free their baby.. It had two hooks connected to a metal tracer and about 6 metres of line and a heavy lead weight completely wrapped around its legs and wings, luckily the hooks had not penetrated its skin. However it took me over 5 mins with the aid of a knife and a lighter to cut and burn the line of until eventually it was free.. I checked it over for any other signs of injury or entanglement and then let it go, it swam out to its other siblings and began to preen itself as it was covered in mud. The parents gave me a massive hiss (which I presume was a thank you in swan language) and off we cycled into the sunset........

Late report for Sunday
1 reed warbler calling outside broad ees dole on the water park it's self
Broad ees dole
2 lapwing and while scanning the shore I spotted a young lapwing wondering the shore got some photos of that as well.
2 little grebe nests with 7 little grebes (2 on nests 5 swimming around) the max count for me here is 14 last summer.
1 grey heron
2 coots
3 moorhen
3 black headed gull
A pair of mute swans with 5 cygnets
7 mallards
2 Canada geese sticking their heads out of the long vegetation on the island directly in front of the hide.
2 cormorants on the pylon outside the hide.
1 of the lapwings flew over the trees at the back leaving just one when I left. On my way home I spotted it taking off from turn moss playing fields heading in the direction of broad ees dole