Spent an hour and 30 minutes this morning from 8.35am. Sighting highlights : House Martin 1, Sand Martins 2, Swallows 6+, Reed Warblers 3 (1 seen), Common Terns, Blackcaps 2, Chiffchaff 1, Reed Buntings 6+, Willow tits 2, Song Thrush and Long-tailed Tit 1.

Arrived at 8.40am left at 10.05am highlights of the visit : Sedge Warbler 1 (1st of the year), Reed Warbler 1, Common Terns 2 (1 landed on one of the raft surrounds and stay there till I left), Blackcap 3 (all singing males), Chiffchaff 4, Willow Warbler 6+, Bullfinch 2, Grey Heron 1, Great Crested Grebe 1, Long-tailed Tits 2, Mistle Thrush 1 and a Willow Tit (carrying what look like nest building material).

Site visit this morning 8.45 to 10.20 not much of interest seen : Reed Buntings 3, Willow Warblers 6+, Chiffchaffs 3, Song Thrush 2, Blackcap 1, Rook 1, Bullfinch 1. Great Crested Grebe 1, Buzzard 1 and Long-tailed Tits 2. I drew a blank on anymore Common Tern or Willow Tit sightings today.

A short visit this morning 8.35 to 9.10 highlights : Common Tern 1 flying over the tern rafts and feeding on small fry picked from the lodge surface, my first of the year . Chiffchaff (1 seen, 2 others heard)

and a Willow Tit 1.

Damp and overcast this morning visited 9.00am to 10.30pm. A single Great Crested Grebe on the lodge, 5 Song Thrushes, 1 Female Blackcap, 1 Willow Warbler seen (2 or 3 others heard), 2 Willow Tits seen (one of which was a singing male), 2 Swallows, 2 Snipe, 1 Lesser Redpoll, 2 Chiffchaff (both heard only), numbers of Black-headed Gulls well down I counted 11 on the lodge (usually 50+) and Reed Bunting 6+.   

Had a stroll around the lodge this morning 8.35 to 9.55 birds seen include 1 Bullfinch, 4 Blackcaps (2male & 2Female), 1 Chiffchaff (several others heard), 1 Willow Warbler, 3 Reed Bunting and 1 Oystercatcher which flew low over the island while calling but failed to land.

Notable absentees: Great Crested Grebes if as appears to be happening, it will be the first year they've fail to breed on this site since I started birding here (12 years or so ago). There have not been any Mute Swans this spring so far.  I have not seen any Willow Tits in the last couple of weeks I'm glad Jon had a sighting on Sunday I was worried they may have left also.  

This Morning I walked around the lodge 8.40 to 10.30. The highlights were 2 Water Rail showing behind the reeds at the Moss Bank Way end of the causeway on the eastern side. Also a single Snipe in front of the reeds at the other end of the causeway on the eastern side. Other sightings included Chiffchaff 1 (my second sighting this year I saw one here on the 14th of this month) Willow Tit 2, Song Thrush 3, Goldcrest 1, Pheasant 1(fairly rare to this site) and Reed Bunting 12+. The single Great Crested Grebe that returned after the harsh weather seems to have left again.

Bolton Conservation Volunteers are due to work on the site this Sunday 25th March 2018 including repairing the Common Tern rafts and returning them to their correct positions, anyone interested see their website(www.boltonconservation.org.uk) for details. 

Walked round the lodge this morning 9.00am to 10.25pm. Highlights a flock of half a dozen small birds which land in a tree nearby on closer inspection of 2 of them I I.D. them as Mealy Redpoll (both male with crimson breasts with white wingbars). Also observed were 2 Kingfishers, I was glad to see they had survived the lodge freezing. A single Snipe, 2 Goosanders, 5 Reed Bunting, A Grey Heron and 3 Tufted Duck(usually about 30 to 50) (returned after the lodge thawed out on the eastern side of the causeway), Still no Great Crested Grebe. 

Walked round the lodge between 9.00am to 10.20am. Highlights Bittern flew into the site from  the Moss Bank Way side of the lodge and passed over me and landed in the reedbed on the island side of the causeway. As I got around the opposite side of the lodge I had a good look at the front of the reedbed, but was unable to see the Bittern. Other birds seen include Kingfisher, Snipe, Goosander, Sparrowhawk, Common Gull, Great Crested Grebe, Grey Heron,Teal and Bullfinch. 

Had a walk round between 8.35am to 10.00am. Highlights of my visit were Willow tits visiting an obvious nest site carrying food, 4 Whitethroats, 4 sedge warblers, a single sand martin, 2 Reed Warblers and the Common Terns most of which were on or around the rafts on the east side of the causeway. There were 2 Common Terns which landed on the raft on the west side of the causeway a couple of times but didn't settle. 40 species see and heard in total. 

8.40 am. to 9.50 am.  Went round the lodge, no sign of any action over the tern rafts, no Common Terns seen on this visit. 26 species seen, highlights. Common Sandpiper 1 seen at the eastern end around the dam etc. Lesser Redpolls 8+ seen in 2 locations, Sand Martins 20+, Blackcap, Reed Bunting 3 and Reed Warbler1.  

Walked round the lodge this morning between 9.10am. to 10.15am. 29 species seen, 2 others heard only. The highlights being : Reed Warbler spotted after a long search while listening to it's scratchy song (my first of the year), A single Common Tern perched on the raft near the causeway, worryingly the rafts have not been moved back to their correct positions away from the banks and this could cause the Terns to move on. As this is one of the best breeding sights in the region I feel that this needs to be addressed urgently. Other birds seen include Reed Bunting, house Martin, Song Thrush & Great Crested Grebe. 

Walked around the lodge between 9.10am. to 10.15am. 34 species seen, Highlights : Osprey hovering over the lodge for several minutes about 10.00am. eventually seen off by some corvids, it flew off to the west towards High Rid. A single Tree Sparrow, Blackcaps 2 & Reed Bunting 1.

Walked round the lodge this morning 8.40 to 9.55 30 species seen, highlights: Chiffchaff 2, Snipe 2, Goldcrest 1, Willow Tit 1, Grey Wagtail1, Teal 2, Reed Bunting 4, Grey Heron 1 and a single Juvenile Mute Swan.

P.S. Late post single Sand Martin seen on 13th March 2017. 

Nice to meet up with Phillip,no show for me,stayed till 5.00pm

Also seen pair Great Crested Grebe trying to build a nest in a sunken nest of twigs,

5 Reed Bunting,1 Chiffchaff,1 Wren,plenty of Dunnocks,few Long tailed Tits.

1 Buzzard over.

I arrived at 14 10 and the Bittern was showing although partly hidden in its usual area.  At first I thought it was a large clump of reed heads until it moved and its head and breast showed well in typical pose. I even managed a photo.

i watched it for 15 minutes till it moved left and disappeared into the reeds. It was very windy and quite cold

My first Chiffchaff of the year was in song.. No sign of any Sand Martins ...Although I didn't look too hard.

A GM tick for me at last having been here twice in November and twice at Pennington.

it pays to persevere.  

Two Sand Martins present mid morning today.

Info thanks to Andy Makin

Went around the lodge 8.30 am to 10.00 am. Many thanks to Dave Sulway who pointed out where the bittern tends to show and the point on the causeway you need to be to see it, also letting me borrow his scope. Also seen behind no.2 to 10 Old Kiln Lane 4 Tree Sparrows. I would suggest not using the tern raft as a point of reference as it appears to be no longer anchored and is drifting about. When I met Dave I was looking in the reed bed on the southern shore where the raft had been the day before. The Bittern is located in the northern reed bed on the Moss Bank Way side. Don't use the maps on birdtrack as the roads are wrong ( Moss Bank Way is shown as Stapleton Ave., Old Kiln Lane is shown as Markland Hill Lane & Chorley Old Road is shown as Doffcocker Brow and Monserrat Brow.) see google maps.

Went back later with David Aldred and my own scope 10.30 am to 12.00 noon, but the Bittern failed to show again.