Hi John R,

I did a bit of pond counting today and I thought I found 8 new diggings

The new Broad Heys Scrape (no waders today but already starting to fill with water).
A deeper pond in the near corner of the next field (does this field have a name?) with 2 further into the field along the hedgerow.
Then there seemed to be 4 in the field under Kirk Wood bringing the total to 8.

Birds today:

3 Grey Wagtails (2 River Goyt and 1 youngster on the stream sporting a metal ring on the right leg)
2 Jays
3 Stock Doves
3 House Martins over (south)
6 Chiffchaffs (inc 1 singer)

A Reed Bunting just outside the estate boundary on the overgrown industrial estate pond. This 'pond', which was such good snipe habitat last year is rapidly being lost - no water whatsoever at the moment and birch scrub is dominant.

Cheers, John


Edit: Forgot to mention an adult unringed Dipper on the stream.

-- Edited by John Rayner on Friday 17th of September 2010 11:49:31 AM

Hi John,
Indeed 2 Lapwing yesterday in Scrape.

I have seen Lapwing in that field a couple of times in the past...Last time they were mobbing the Little Egret that visited in January.
There are always plenty of Lapwing in the Goyt Hall Farm area, so hopefully with the improved environment over your side they might become a more common sight.

Anthony

Had a quick look around this afternoon...Looking good John.

2 Lapwing in the scrape in Broadheys.
1 Kestrel near the river.

Very windy and not a lot else about.

Anthony

Nice work John. I hope to pop in one day soon.

Nice to see that digging work has started on time. The first pool, below Kirk Wood, was just finished as I left and they were starting on the second. Looking good

Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff and Goldcrest all singing
5 Nuthatches (1 banging food into tree bark)
1 Stock Dove only
3 Grey Wagtails (on both river and stream)

Cheers, John

A quick mooch around this morning and all a little bit quiet...

2 Kingfishers chasing on the river
2 Grey Wagtail
1 Grey Heron

Anthony

Hi Chris,

My appologies to yourself as well for the delay in getting back to you. Unfortunatelly i have not had the time to get on the Forum for a while.

Unfortunatelly (especially if you were planning on comimg!) the Festival was on the 24th and 25th of July so i hope i have not mad eyou miss it?

The Festival is a pain full stop, but it is very popular and attracts large numbers of visitors who seem to have a great time. From a wildlife/estate point of view it comes a little early as the preparation has to be done a little too early for my liking. But in the main i would say that the wildlife does not suffer too much and we soon get back to normal.

cheers,

JR

Is it the Chadkirk festival soon?
If so, are any of the exciting developments being planned for the estate being publicised at it?
Or is the festival a pain as far as conservation goes?
Chris H

Hi Guys,

I'll keep trying to improve/diversify the habitat and hopefully we'll keep adding to the list of species at Chadkirk.

I do have a rather unusual request to day though. When you are checking out Oakwood Brook for Dipper etc could you keep your eyes peeled for possible Water Vole. I was on a Butterfly event last Sunday (twelve species including White and Purple Hairstreak) and three members of the group siad that they saw a Water Vole swimming down stream adjacent to the camp site.

If this were true (I did not see it so can not confirm or otherwise) it would probably be enough to designate the site as an SSSI which would afford the site a lot of legal protection from development. This would be great and would go nicely with the new designation for the wild flower meadow which has just been awarded an SBI status.

I'm pretty chuffed with that!!

Many Thanks,

JR

JR 1, i'll get my wellies polished,

JR 2, good to see the Reed Bunting making your list

Nice One Guys.

I'm usually looking to start woodland management in November so rest assured I willl give you a shout to see if your free to lend a hand. I'm also responsible for Poise Brook and have a lot of work penciled in for there too.

Many Thanks,

JR

John Rowland wrote:

---

Thanks for the kind remarks Anthony, there are very much appreciated.

I may well take you up on your offer of hepl as well, particularly with the woodland management, oh and how are you at rounding up sheep!!?

Cheers,

JR

---

Just say the word John.

Sheep...Sounds like fun, I'll try anything once!

Anthony

Well we've had one or two very nice passage birds turn up in recent years, so it will be very interesting to see what happens with these developments.

It really is a great site with loads of potential...Can't Wait!

Thanks very much John for your brilliant efforts and if there is anything I can do to help, please don't hesitate to ask.

Anthony

Very good news, John, that's brilliant.

With regards to lack of water, I'm going on holiday in a couple of weeks - that should be the cue for serious rain and, no doubt, flooding!

Chris

Great news,
glad to see you had the confidence to stick at it, when some of us were starting to have doubts that it would happen.

Thanks

Congratulations John, fantastic news...I've had my fingers crossed for you mate.
Exciting times ahead at Chadkirk.

Anthony

Kingfisher and Grey Wagtail again this morning, but not a great deal else.

Anthony

Nice to see a female manderin with nine young round the weir islands

Cyclist indeed Tony!? How many years since you did that one? I still go out every Thursday morning and the third Saturday of my rota if you fancy a trip out? Sometimes go out of an evening if I finish early enough and do a 25 miler over Mellor Moor and Thornset Moor into Hayfield. Just think of all the birding you could do on your way round what with Curlew and Lapwing on the moors, Great.

I'll have to check what can go in the seed mix when I discuss options with FWAG and see what is and what is not allowed. Hopefully though I will be able to get a good mix that will cater for/atract the greatest number of species.

i don't supose anyone has been around Turner Lane Playing field have they I would still like records before it goes under the developers bulldozer!

cheers,

JR

Great news. That wild life strip has been there for several years now and has barely moved on from improved grassland. I reckon 100 yrs before it gets diverse again unless it is given a helping hand. Please include Reed Bunting in your target species list, as it is much easier to monitor than Linnet and/or Yellowhammer.
I've been having success with House Sparrows in my garden; after a decade with none, two appeared in 2008 (nearly started listed list ticking again!), they bred and 2009 we had more. Now we have a garden chirping with them. They love Buckton's Wild Bird Mix, a cheap and cheerful concoction with no sunflower seeds; I don't think Sparrows like sunflower seeds. We use a similar mix at our ringing site at Woodford and the Reed Bunting love it.
Linnet are a bit more of a problem, as one of their favourite seeds is Charlock; you could give your inspectors apoplexy with that, thinking you are growing Oil seed Rape.
Still got my French Audax 200km medal in my car, but you never seem to be working when I go past Chadkirk. (Ha Ha).

Cheers

Tony

7am-8am this morning

1 Buzzard
2 Cormorant
1 Grey heron
2 Grey Wagtail
1 Dipper

Anthony

Hi Guys,

Its's great to have your support for what I'm trying to achieve at Chadkirk, your records may well prove to be invaluable at some point in the future so keep them coming in.

There are several points to answer from the previous messages so I'll start at the bottom and work up!

Tony, Good to hear from you old friend (yes i know less of the OLD!) I thought you'd gone off and got tangled in a net somewhere never to be seen again!

Unfortunatelly the rap do check to ensure the money is spent how you have said it will be. I do have a cunning plan though if I can pull it off. I will if possible add in a percentage of wild bird seed to the nectar seed mix in an attemp to cover all bases.

You loose money under the SPS for ponds as the rap only pay you for available grazing and if part of a field is under water (as a pond) then they say that the land is unavailable for grazing and thus not eligible for suplementary payments.

Andy, Many thanks for trawling through yould old records, I'll add the new info to mine. Lesser Whitethroat that's a good one too as I didn't know that, that species had been reported at all.

Thanks again to everyone and hopefully Chadkirk will keep improving year on year as habitat, food and nesting sites are improved/created. Up to now I have 21 UK BAP Species listed at Chadkirk (not all birds I hasten to add!), the more I can encourage onto site the more protection from 'Undesirables' it will have.

I do have one more thing to ask you guys. Have any of you ever done any birding at Turner Lane/Mill Lane playing fields in Woodley while you've been out on a walk or something? If you have and you have any records could you please send them to me as there is a substantial redevelopment proposed which will see a number of sports pitched built. We need as many records of all kinds as we can get in order to try to ensure that we preserve as much habitat (hedge rows, trees and grassland) either by retention or creation as possible.

Cheers,

JR

Hi John,

I'm still struggling with this Stewardship business. In simple terms 'How big is a pond? and how big is a meadow?' Where does the meadow end and the pond begin. As some birders know I ring birds at Aqualife Nursery in Poynton, a business engaged in growing, among other plants, wildlife species like Phragmites which are planted in many municipal wildlife ponds/lakes the length and breadth of the country. This artificial habitat is fairly popular with a variety of wildlife, not only birds and the habitat is the draw; the greenhouses even held roosting Meadow Pipits last winter for example. Success is just around the corner.
Is Chadkirk to be denied 'woodland edge', the favoured nesting habitat for many of our winter warblers?
At the nursery Reed Bunting is our main target ringing species; we ringed 2 in the winter 2008/9 and 29 in 2009/10 winter after ground feeding with cheap (sunflower seed free) wild bird mix. We rarely saw more than 3/4 at any one time but 29 total? Next winter will tell if it was a fluke!
It is intriguing to watch what ringed birds do on release. The tits fly into Wigwam wood, the thrushes fly into the laurel hedge and surprise, surprise the Reed Buntings fly straight for the Phragmites.
Basically sacrificial seed plants are not in the context of Chadkirk, a crop, surely.
Finally no-one checks how a Stewardship grant is spent, only that any annual paperwork is filled in on time.
With Andy's valuable historical records and a possible increase in numbers in nursery style, which bureaucrat is going to risk suggesting that a grant has been misspent?
Go for it John, even a modest improvemant would improve the miserable lot of Stockport birders.

Cheers

Tony

John,

Have at last reached the record for reed bunting at Chadkirk in my notebooks. First recorded it on 13th June, 1989. Also, in the same year, there was a lesser whitethroat at the same spot 1st - 13th June at least (haven't read further yet). I don't know if there have been too many records of that species for the site?


Regards,