Late post for yesterday afternoon ( 01/01/11 ) ,,,, following visit to North Place, ( nice to meet you John , Scott and Andrew ) , we went for a quick mooch around Chadkirk....
8 blue tits
12 great tits
1 coal tit
40 + long tailed tits ( around car park )
20 + magpies
4 crows
2 rooks over
30+ wood pigeons
14 mallard
2 snipe (mill pond )
2 moorhen (on driveway to big house )
No sign of anything on either stream or main river!!!
All the best for 2011 everybody !! Cheers Chris

I then went to look for the Mandarin of which I saw about 20.
coming back from the bridge at wryvale I stopped at the new pelican crossing watching some Longtailed tits, when on the river I saw a Cormorant fishing, Goosander fishing, a Kingfisher with a fish and a Dipper just "dipping", what a day!!!

Nice to meet you today Ken. As I said, I ventured into the field and saw the Mandarin.

Not much else about. Two moorhen in the first field next to the House, and loads of Mallard in the Scape field.

Have you seen all the mandarin ducks near the kennels, I would guess up to 100.
Also several Goosander.

John, will do. Next visit at weekend, weather permitting. Cheers Phil

Great news about the Lapwings, lets hope they enjoy their stay!!

Christmas Eve was quite busy with 6 Goosander on the river along with 4 Heron.

About a dozen Redwing milling about around the picnic area and by the car park. Grey Wagtail and Dipper on the brook but the best of all was getting to within 30 foot of a Kingfisher just upstream from the bridge, Fantastic.

I think things are beginning to suffer now as a Tawney Owl has been seen sitting in the hedge by the roadside at the back of the farm. I saw it today sat in the big barn oposite the farm and then it flew into the 'topped' Horse Chestnut tree before being chased off by a group of Jays. Not i think you will agree the behaviour of either a Kingfisher or Tawneym, so bring on the thaw.

Well all the best for what is left of Christmas.

JR

A lone lapwing on the scape today about 12.15 on the way back with the other two, having walked from Bredbury(Let's hope that is a good sign for things to come.

We parted company at Otterspool, but I know they saw quite a few lapwing on the river field, just before the Kennels, and 20or so mandarin on the river by the Kennels/farm. As it's Christmas we will class that as Chadkirk, as it was before the Poise-Brook LNR

Off out of County tomorrow, so A Happy Christmas to you all.

Geoff

Had my first walk, and not the last one, around Chadkirk today, amazing when I only live 3 miles away! Not too much around, few tits and winter thrushes, nothing on the river aside from some amazing ice formations.

Followings the comments by Chris, I took my scope down at 2.30pm Only managed one bird, from the "gate" and also the path by the stream, but it was a great view as it was walking around on the edge of the scape. Another birder turned up and had a view as well.

At least ten snipe this morning (quite possibly more, couldn't hang around for a good count) near the small remaining bit of open water on the new scrape in the pylon field (I could only see them from the path beside the brook).

Also dipper and a very smart sparrowhawk having a protracted spat with a rather less smart crow.

Chris

Hi Geoff,

No I have a couple of new volunteers who are actually buying the food as well as the feeders to put it in for the feeding station. They come on a regular basis and keep them topped up.

I have only been able to but Peanuts and Black Sunflowwer seed this year due to the cuts so this new input is really great.

JR

Think I will have to go out with Tonyalthough I did manage the L.T.Tits on Thurs pm. and Jim logged a couple of Tree Creepers the day before.

Only just seen the new feeders - did you put them up John?

Hi Tony,

You had a GOOD DAY out here with some good sightings. i was wondering if you could send me some of the shots of the Kingfishers that you got on the brook.

I do intend to put some artificial perches up above the deeper pools along the brook so hopefully as well as aiding the Kingfishers it will allow photographers to get some great shots.

cheers,

JR

10.30am to 2.30pm
Sightings from along the brook, the estate and the river.

Blackbird
Black-headed Gull
Blue Tit
Bullfinch
Carrion Crow
Coal Tit
Cormorant
Dipper
Dunnock
Goosander
Great Spotted Woodpecker
Great Tit
Grey Heron
Grey Wagtail
Jackdaw
Jay
Kestrel
Kingfisher - On the brook being disturbed every few minutes by dogwalkers.
Lapwing
Long-tailed Tit
Magpie
Mallard
Nuthatch
Robin
Rook
Snipe
Song Thrush
Starling
Stock Dove
Woodpigeon
Wren


-- Edited by Tony Mario on Tuesday 7th of December 2010 04:46:13 PM

Late post for yesterday afternoon (06/12/10 @14:00 ) , quick visit ,still plenty of magpies,jackdaw ,wood pigeon and stock doves on muck strip.... Chaffinch,blue and great tits ,robins and wren in and around hedgerows...Mallards on broadheys and two dippers and a grey wagtail showing well on the stream near the picnic benches ... Cheers Chris

Hi Guys,

Not sure about the mince pies and Coffee!!

Hi John,

That is the Million Dollar question and one that i can only scatch the surface of here.

The bridge is still on the cards (just) but time scales and budget cuts are against us at present but for now i'm affraid it's just a case of watch this space. I'll try to update you if I get to hear anything concrete.

Cheers,

JR

Hi John,

Did the plan to build a bridge over the Goyt get scrapped or is it still ongoing? If so, what's the time scale?

Cheers, John

Well John, I froze at 9am - beautiful though.

Kestrel on lamp midway down the road.
Robin
Songthrush
Chaffinch
Blue
Tits
Grat Tits
+ crows,W.P's and millions of magpies

John,

Rome wasn't built in a day & when you consider the great strides that have been made over the last couple of years at the site, i wouldn't be too concerned.

Hi All,

Sorry I've not been on for a while but things have been a bit hectic in the past few weeks.

Geoff, Sorry to hear your still not doing much at Chaddy, I really think that at this time of year you may just be coming down a little bit late and I think you would do better if you came in the mornings or maybe start your afternoon walk a bit earlier, as there is a lot of the commoner species around at the moment and I was fortunate enough this morning to see a Pied Wagtail (which I don't see too many of) on the road near Roselea.

I also have some good news and some bad news! The good news is as some of you have already noticed the ponds and scrape are filling up nicely and holding water (which isnt supprising considering the amount of rain we've had!) and starting to get bits of aquatic wildlife in them. Not too much on the wader front though but I live in hope.

The bad news is a bit of a double whamy really as English Nature has both turned down my attempts to introduce wild bird seed crops into two of the wildlife strips and worse than that have put the whole project on hold due to the Government cuts.

There's still a slight chance that the HLS could be reinstated but the EN Officer I was working with was not overly optermistic about this.

Sorry for the bad news but I will keep on trying to develop the site to be as diverse as possible and as attractive to wildlife as possible, which will in turn bring in the birds.

Keep up the good work,

Regards,

JR

A little better today.

3 Jay
2 Robin
1 Nuthatch
2 or so Great Tits
1 Grey Wagtail)seen by a chap 5 mins before I met up with him)


See what you missed Chris!

Visited yesterday 3-4 pm ... looked for snipe on overgrown mill pond,to no avail ,however I did flush out a heron,which flew over to the big field .3 jays amongst the wood-pigeons ,crows and magpies on ford field ... Buzzard being harassed by crows and magpies,high over Kirk Wood. Observed the aforementioned heron,stalking along the hedgerow for about 15 mins , ( possibly after frogs,worms ??) Also 7F and 7M mallards on Big Field scrape .. Goldfinches heard, but not seen, a few blue and great tits and wren near car park.. Fleeting glimpse of a probable dipper, heading down the stream, towards the road bridge ... Cheers Chris.

Wander down through Marple Dale, along the Goyt & around to the Chadkirk Estate this afternoon.

Very quiet everywhere,
Buzzard over Manchester canoe club
Female Goosander flying upstream
Heron just before the weir
4 Longtailed Tits & a couple of vocal Jays.

Heron in the Broadheys Pool at Chadkirk
3 Nuthatches in the woods by the chapel & another couple of Jays.

The only birds at the new pools were 8 Mallard in Big Field.

2 Snipe on the overgrown mill pool were likely candidates. I now think this 'pool' has been dredged then laid with drainage to deliberately allow in to grow over

Cheers, John