Took my lads to see the geese today and ended up doing a full circuit Little Woolden Moss and along the Glaze.
10 Greenland White Fronted Geese in field 56 (we didn't use the path to North of that field!!) - GM Lifer
Large mixed flock of chaffinch, linnet, reed bunting, AN Others. Hard to spend time trying to identify them with a 3 year old!
A large 100+ flock of skylark on fields just off Moss Lane going towards Glaze Brook
Also a few fieldfare and redwing knocking about.
Distant skien of 80+ Pink Footed Geese heading Eastish
Trustingly left my lads pushchair next to the gates of the reserve and am happy to say it was still there on our return!
-- Edited by Rick Hall on Saturday 9th of November 2024 08:49:28 PM
Hi Rick, it was me and Chris Chandler that saw you at the reserve entrance, we should have introduced ourselves.
Not many birds around at the east end but we had a distant Merlin near the western pools tussling with an immature Marsh Harrier as well as great views of the White-fronted Geese from the northern perimeter path. A guy came through on a pushbike and the geese didn't flush as we expected, but scuttled away on the ground in amusing fashion. They were a GM tick for us too
The 10 White Fronted geese still present in the usual field at 3pm today although they were not too happy with a few observers who were trying to get better pictures/views by walking along the northern edge of the fiepd. There is absolutely no need to use the path north from the reserve to watch these birds. A single Pink footed goose flew north then back south and looked to land on the reserve pools
The ten Greenland White-fronted Geese still present around Little Woolden Moss this morning. Were on field 56 at 10am then moved slightly west before being flushed by a tractor and appeared to land around the west pools on Little Woolden Moss LWTNR
Possible Ring Ousel F in the central area of f42 -seen briefly on the ground with a Mistle Thrush feeding nearby, then flew to the lone hawthorn in the field division on Astley Road side but couldn't be relocated.
Single Fieldfare flew from f17 across Twelve Yards Road into trees along f18, then later NE towards 61
C 200 corvids, mostly Jackdaws with a few Carrion Crows in NE corner of f14, with a flock of Feral Pigeons, c 20 Starlings and minimum 6 Linnets, but very flighty, possibly because of the slowly advancing detectorists and gradually departed south onto Irlam Moss f12 and beyond. Also at least 1 Skylark (singing) in the field.
Mr Tymon's Raven south from f56 over LWTNR
On/around the Nature Reserve Kestrel 2 F/imm along the eastern tree line. Bullfinch 1 heard and flight view silhouette along the track heading to the west end Black-headed Gull 10 west end pools Mute Swan 1 immature ditto 13.50 but flew towards the Glaze around 14.05 (maybe flushed by the smelly model plane!) Goldcrest, Blue Tit, Long-tailed Tit, Blackbird, Wren, Robin, Carrion Crows, Wood Pigeon.
Skylark 1 singing over fields to west on the nature reserve
Collared Dove 10, in pairs f39 between Little Haven and Birch Tree Farm, Pied Wagtail.
Common Gull c200, 1 Common Buzzard 3 male Pheasants f30/34
1 Merlin...Male Perched (for at least three quarters of an hour) betwixt 2 Birch trees and scanning constantly for prey which may elude him as day on day the 'day to day' birds thin out to nought it appears to me...oh how our birdlife is on the edge....and the UK countryside and its insecticide drenched 'Farmland' shun the needs of the wild...
The 10 Greenland White-Fronted Geese still present in same field North of Little Wooldon Moss at 13.30 today ,although they were spooked 3 times by various fly over planes etc they soon returned to the same area .
-- Edited by JOHN TYMON on Wednesday 6th of November 2024 03:38:26 PM
Still 8 white-fronted geese on view this morning, looking settled, even after low-flying helicopter went over. Same field as yesterday. None of the 8 have a tag.
Apart from the 10 very flighty Greenland White Fronted Geese noted below, 2 Buzzards, 1 Peregrine (juv) sat in a field. Also 3 Fieldfare & ~35 Redwing in treetops halfway between River Glaze & LWM. And a huge female Sparrowhawk tried to grab some passerines near there
Thirty Canada geese and c.50 teal on the Glaze by Little Woolden Hall, also a flock of a dozen stock doves over. Five minutes after comparing empty notebooks with a chap by the Eastern pools I had within a couple of minutes a male kestrel, a snipe and an immature female peregrine fly overhead at tree height. I hope he got the great egret he was going looking for. Another kestrel, a female, was mobbing a buzzard in a tree in the field next to the one with the Greenland white-fronts, six of which were showing very nicely.
Chat Moss 13:00 - 14:25.
3 buzzards, two immature kestrels + the male seen earlier on LWM; about fifty fieldfares over; a flock of thirty-odd stock doves with two dozen carrion crows by Twelve Yards Road; mixed tit flocks at Four Lanes End and on Cutnook Lane both including goldcrests, chiffchaff on Cutnook Lane; just one skylark, no mipits and just a handful of linnets; a couple of dozen pied wagtails with the sheep grazing at the bottom of Cutnook Lane near the motorway.
-- Edited by Steven Heywood on Tuesday 5th of November 2024 12:38:28 AM
After being disturbed at LWM the 10 Greenland White-Fronted Geese, landed for a short while south of Holcroft Lane Then I watched them from the summit at Silver Lane landfill flying across the area south of LWM towards Irlam at 15.01. They were lost in the mist as they turned South in that area so could have landed.
Last shot below ignore the exif time as my camera clock cannot be adjusted due to a fault it was 15.01
-- Edited by JOHN TYMON on Monday 4th of November 2024 09:04:04 PM
I didn't notice an obvious juvenile. I guess there could have been a heads-down juvenile in there but my impression was they were all adults. I haven't got a photo of all 10 but every group photo I took shows adults. Chris's photo below has 6 adults together and the neck-collared individual makes it 7. Cheers, John
Thanks for the heads up. The 10 Greenland White Fronted Geese were still present at 10:45 just North of the reserve on field 56. Couple of shots attached. One had a neck collar on.
Also Marsh Harrier, 16 Skylark and 100 Redwing over.
A flock of 10 Greenland White-fronted Geese feeding in the stubble field immediately north of LWT reserve seen from reserve path. Most likely the flock seen over Woolston Eyes recently so they have probably been hiding on the local mosslands somewhere. Light was poor and fading fast but I managed a few poor phone photos through my binoculars. A GM first for me. Unfortunately the flock was spooked by fireworks and flew off east at 4.56pm
-- Edited by Steven Nelson on Sunday 3rd of November 2024 08:20:16 PM
A (reluctant) walk taking in Field Numbers 1-10 covering parts of Irlam/Barton and Chat Moss
It was perhaps a self imposed Hair-Shirt wander of three hours for it confirmed, nay exceeded, my extremely low expectations of encountering much if ANY farmland birds and merely illustrated how the wider countryside (especially Farmland habitat) in the UK is bereft of Birds....
Pink Footed Geese - 2500 in massive flocks heading towards Manchester from the NW and headed over the mosslands (LWM, Irlam Moss, Astley Moss), they seemed to not want to go into the mist and fog that way and most turned SW and headed over me towards the Mersey .
2400 Pink-Footed Geese in (rather than Skeins) what I would felt I wanted to say....in waves between 1105-1115...there is still wildlife to give a chance to stand in awe...a rare treat in these days of such dreadful loss of the natural world especially in the UK...
1 Pink-Footed Goose with Satellite Tracker ----discovered (thanks to Dan Owen) that it was ringed as an adult female on 240317 near Carsethorn Dumfries and Galloway
Barton Moss....Most of the fields I checked today have of late been sown with Silage...these fields have traditionally been Lapwing Breeding Territory...and such a 'crop' is
tantamount to eradicating breeding for these and other farmland birds that also nested here (Yellow Wagtail/Skylark)....I recognise that farmers need to survive and grow the 'crop that pays' it's not incumbent on them to provide nesting sites for endangered birds (and boy are Lapwing and most Farmland birds in freefall) but what I do recognise that a large proportion of Barton/Chat Moss are becoming Farmland birds deserts...YET the UK Government is aware that the UK is one of the most nature depleted countries in the WORLD...and I think I know why....don't you???
2 Great Black-Backed Gull Flying North
1 Chiffchaff
2 Snipe
-- Edited by Dave Steel on Tuesday 15th of October 2024 09:03:54 PM