My wife and I walked along the brilliant new towpath constructed by the
Canal Rivers Trust on the Bolton - Manchester canal from Ringley to Nob End.
22 birds seen:
Long Tailed Tit x 2
Cormorant over x 1
Yellowhammer x 1 (my first here)
Herring Gull over x 1
Goldfinch x 4
Common Buzzard over x 3
Starling x 4
Blue Tit x 5
Feral Pigeon x 12
Chaffinch x 3
Magpie x 7
Canada Goose x 2
Grey Wagtail x 1
Carrion Crow x 6
Mallard x 4
Wren x 2
Moorhen x 2
Great Tit x 2
Wood Pigeon x 12
Blackbird x 6
Black Headed Gull over x 7
Collared Dove x 1

Quiet at Pilkington pit and adjacent areas of Waterdale Meadows - 1 snipe still, lapwings breeding, pair of tufted duck and several Gadwall. 2 pairs Stock doves at 13 arch viaduct

Originally posted today by Pete Berry:

A visit to the pool on the south side of the M60 with Stu Marsden was interesting with the following birds seen
On the river:
2 Little Ringed Plover
Several Teal,Gadwall,Mallard and 2 Goosander
On the pool
6+Snipe
With small numbers of Teal,Mallard ,Tufted Duck,Black Headed Gulls,Lesser Black Backed Gulls
In the general area:
4 Buzzard,2 Swallow,several Sand Martin,Willow Warbler and singing Blackcap

Lone Meditteranean Gull at Ringley Bridge yesterday morning 11 a m

Late post for yesterday.
Two Jays screeching warning calls to each other on the
perimeter of the old football pitch in Ringley Woods.
Both seen briefly flying above the tree canopy

Two kingfishers flying under Ringley Bridge this morning

Flock of thirty to forty lapwings over fields seen Sunday 17th and Monday 4th July fields at Ringley and near pilkington tiles.

Ringley bridge this morning 11 a m
1 male goosander
1 female goosander
5 mallards
10 Canada geese
1 moorhen
1 kingfisher
4black headed gulls over
1 kestrel on electricity pylon

Cheers Ian
thanks for your reply I will take them off my list now

Hi Mark consulted the BOUlist it
told me nothing I didn't already know
in the statement I made I was alluding to whether the birds I saw were
birds that had bred in the wild or birds that had escaped from a bird sanctuary

bernard hooley wrote:

---

hi Ian
could you please explain to me how many generations of birds it takes to become accepted as a non escapee
as in the case of the little owl

---

Well from what I understand is that little owls were mostly introduced but most exotic ducks were escapees. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

bernard hooley wrote:

---

late post for yesterday
2 black swans flying N W over ringley bridge at 10 .30
possible escapees but who knows

---

Not in any way meaning to sound sarcastic Bernard but I doubt they'll have flown all the way from Australia. I think we can be certain they're from captive origins

Carters hill farm - above Ringley wood - yesterday morning 26th July

9 Siskin south plus 4 in the hedgerow
60 swallow
Sand martin
309 swift sw
500 Lesser Black-backed Gulls sw

A Kingfisher flying first down and then upstream the river at Giants Seat.

A Green woodpecker was in the trees just before the entrance to the Giants seat garden centre this morning at 9.15am.

on the ponds
20 Tufted Duck
13 Goldeneye
4 Lapwing
Water Rail (heard)

On the river
2 Dipper

23 Siskin feeding around the pond edges

Today:

2 Wigeon
19 Tufted Duck
5 Shoveler
35 Gadwall
Kingfisher
6 adult Mute Swan
38 Teal
11 Little Grebe
4 Grey Heron
52 Mallard
122 Black-headed Gull
2 Common Gull
10 Coot
23 Moorhen
78 Lapwing south
8 Chiffchaff
2 Treecreeper
67 Woodpigeon
4 Stock Dove
6 Wren
4 Robin
7 Dunnock
3 Nuthatch
2 Willow Tit
10 Blue Tit
20 Long-tailed Tit
5 Great Tit
2 Coal Tit
3 Blackcap
3 Bullfinch
1 Chaffinch

Info thanks to Phil Rhodes

Buzzard, Kestrel, Gadwall, Shoveller , Tufted Duck, Willow Warbler, Pheasant, House Martins, swift, swallow, cormorant

-- Edited by Ian McKerchar on Sunday 11th of August 2013 10:13:43 PM

Thanks, Keith. Glad it stayed around!
Steve

Long-tailed Duck still present at 7:15pm

Info thanks to Gary Crowder (via Iain Johnson)

-- Edited by Ian McKerchar on Saturday 25th of May 2013 08:27:50 PM

Female long-tailed duck with 6 tufted duck on the smaller pool south of the M60 at 0800 this morning. May be the recent bird from Silver Lane Pools. Really brightened up my BBS count!

Dog walkers now going into Ringley so not many ducks on the pond
10 Teal (over 100 used to winter here)
15 Goldeneye
7 Gadwall
2 Raven
2 Buzzard

Thanks for the help and advice on the two previous posts.

This am with John Parkinson:

Managed to get a view across the rectangular pool!

Tufted Duck....8
Gadwall......6
Coot........ 4 Including a Juvenile.
Black-headed Gulls....6
A few Swifts overhead.
Passing a bush, on the path that runs alongside the M60, we came across a Buzzard sat on a low fence with its back to us. The bird was just 4 yards from us and did not notice us for 30 seconds.
At the ETW at Ringley we had six Swifts, very close and at head hight
3 Blackcap heard.
A new Electricity transmission pole had had the copper earthing cable hacked off....this will be reported.

Hi, yes those are the ponds I visited. They are probably a couple of miles from Ringley but not too far a walk from there and you get a chance to check out any birds on the river and in the woods along the way too.

I think Ringley was used just as a general area as Shore Top, the canal on the other side of the main road, Outwood Trail and also the fields down Philips Park Road are also included in this thread. Likewise the area covered in the Elton thread is pretty extensive and not just the res. itself. It would be quicker to get to them if you parked at the bottom of Philips Park Road (although the bottom half is pretty ropey) and walked down from there or at the entrance to Giants Seat Nursery and you would still get to walk along the river.

About 18 months ago I saw a barn owl hunting in the evening 3 times in the space of a week whilst walking the dog on the nature trail down Copper Lane that runs down to the Outwood Trail. Never seen one before or since but it was a real thrill.