Permit only site - However viewing can be made from the fence at either the BT Tower within the park or the vantage point at the pump house along Heywood Road.
Also
Common Scoter - 2 male & female Goldeneye 14 Swallow 2 Sand Martin 30
very busy in the park this afternoon. not much out of the ordinary, great, blue, long tailed and coal tits, fair few nuthatch, robin, jay, goldeneye and 2 sparrowhawks soaring together.
Redwing 80+ singing/feeding in the highland cow field - (here every March)
a Pair of Raven flew over NW.
A Peregrine was perched on a pylon before flying north and attacking a Buzzard which was circling with prey, Buzzard dropped it and both went tumbling to the ground.
Nuthatch and GSW calling from woods
Oystercatcher 5 birds flying about
Stock Dove 3, Fieldfare 40 & Greenfinch 16 - plughed field north of park
On the boating lake - 14 Goosander (3 males), 6 Pochard (4 males), 3 Great Crested Grebe and 3 Cormorant, including a very elegant looking breeding plumaged bird. It's amazing how attractive they can be when they make a bit of an effort to smarten themselves up!
In surrounding woodland - 7 Teal, 2 Treecreeper, 2 Coal Tit, 3 Nuthatch, 3 Mistle Thrush, 1 Goldcrest and 1+ Siskin (heard only). I've spent a bit of time here lately looking and hoping for Lesser Spotted Woodpecker.....but without luck. A male Great Spotted was heard and then watched drumming, with another bird calling close by.
Hello all Saturday afternoon - Watched a Greater Spotted Woodpecker just up from "The Dell" on the way back up towards walled garden. Also watched something in the avenue of trees on the way up towards the hall from the boating lake. Have had real trouble identifying it and the closest thing I can compare it to is a swift. I know they're not due here for a few months, but I can't tally it with anything else. About a foot in length, it perched on a tree branch before swooping down into the heavy scrub. It was darkish brown (all over) with a slightly hooked beak, but didn't have the wingspan or look of a raptor. Baffled! Can anyone help?
Very cold this morning - still cant feel my fingers as posting this and been home half hour now!
Really not much about in the park. Magpie 30+ in the stubble field at the north end Jay 2 in the horse paddock by BT tower Fieldfare 5+ - heard more sat in trees by BT tower
Highlight was a Drake Shelduck which assume was the same bird. Which circled & gained height over the horse paddock by BT tower and flew south out of view but then 10 mins later came from the east and carried on North west.
On the boating lake - 4 male Pochard, 1 female Gadwall, 4 Goosander (2 pairs) and 1 Great Crested Grebe. Both today and on 11th Jan, the single Pink-footed Goose from 30/12/10 was still present and associating with the gaggle of other wildfowl and on both occasions was seen coming to and taking bread!
On one of the ponds in an adjacent copse of wet woodland - c10 Teal. There were c35 there on 11th, including much noisy calling and displaying.
In the surrounding woodlands - 2 singing Song Thrush, 2 possibly 3 singing Mistle Thrush and 2 Nuthatch trading calls.
On 11th - c120 Black-headed Gulls and 5 Common Gulls on the ice. Plus 4 Muscovy Ducks, 31 Embden Geese and 5 Greylag Geese.
I spoke to Ivan Ellison today and he fed the heron some herring and sprats and it had no problems feeding. If there is a fish hook in the bird let's hope the hook quickly degrades and the bird does not get an infection.
There has been a heron on the band stand pond not flying off recently too. Also showed interest in the bread and seed I was throwing out on my WeBS count on Sunday. Must be down to the harsh weather, as the coot were even nearly feeding from my hand at the boating lake today?! Stress from this weather holds no surprises in bird behaviour though......
also, several times this year i've seen a heron around the park and thought that it was unusually tame. i saw it fairly often around the boating lake over the summer either perched on an overhanging branch whilst people rowed close by and a couple of times standing in the gardens near the farm and the tunnel when there are lots of people around. not sure if it's the same bird.
no i wouldn't try anything like that. i was thinking about taking some different food for it next time as it was there again today. any recommendations? i didn't notice any fishing line but i will try and get a better look tomorrow. it wasn't on the boating lake it was on the smaller pond next to the bandstand or whatever it is.
A Grey Heron has been seen and photographed here recently with fishing line and lead weights hanging out of its mouth. It doesn't appear to be in discomfort but the observer did alert one of the wardens apparently.
Presume this was at the boating lake there? That's a very unusual observation, as herons are normally very wary indeed. They are also dangerous so don't actually offer it bread from your hand, as the bill could go through your hand. The RSPCA use visors and think gloves when dealing with them. It shows you what hunger will do.
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Judith Smith
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Lightshaw hall Flash is sacrosanct - NO paths please!
a grey heron flew down when we were feeding the ducks yesterday and proceeded to share their bread! it was only around five feet away from us at it's closest point. how unusual is this? it must be very hungry.
We quite often get pre- roost gatherings of several hundred birds at Heaton Park Reservoir when we do the gull roost.I think they roost in the woods at the back of the model boat lake adjacent to the golf course.
Driving south along Middleton Road, on the eastern edge of the park, at 7.20 this morning - a quick sighting of 2 separate flocks of Jackdaws of c50 birds each flying eastwards out the park - where presumably they roost?
7 Cormorant and 4 Great Crested Grebe on the boating lake.
A Treecreeper was watched for a short time looking for food over the surface of the exposed stone facade of the Old Town Hall Colonnade at the southern end of the boating lake. Does this count as my first Wallcreeper?
Very cold not loads moving until about 10am when it then became clear that Fieldfare were moving in massive numbers. 72 flocks went NW albeit in smaller numbers than Winter Hill with the biggest flocks being 200.
Fieldfare 3895 NW Redwing 67 NW Starling 52 W Woodpigeon 417 W-SW Stock Dove 4 W Collared Dove - High SW Jackdaw 57 W (7 high groups) Brambling 3 W Chaffinch 102 W Finch sp. 30 W Greenfinch 19 W Skylark 3 S Lapwing 17 S Buzzard 8 S-SW Great Black-Backed Gull 26 SW
Then to top it off the flock 40 Whoopers that flew SE over my apartment at dusk. Brilliant county birding today!
Few ducks moving too or dropping in Pinkfeet 75 SE @ 8.13 Cormorant 16 N (one flock) + 10 SE very high tracked off over pennines Pochard 4 SE, Wigeon 12, Goldeneye 6, Teal 15, Goosander 25 + Kingfisher
Finches also moving Chaffinch 86, Brambling, 11 Redpoll, 2 Bullfinch, 4 Siskin all WSW.
SWIFT - flew SE across the horse paddock latest ever seen (was just a common) Golden Plover 3 SE Snipe SE Lapwing 19 SE Mpipit 150 ish south Redwing 13 south ( no big movement yet - a lot heard over the Pennines last night) Alba Wag 23 S Siskin S
Ring-necked Parakeet - Loud group of 5 birds powering through SE. Pinkfeet 829 SE (see PFG thread for more details) Chaffinch 100 S Siskin 7 S Pied Wag 19 S Meadow Pipit 158 S Redwing North
Vis Mig watch 8.30 -12am Fog clearing to leave clear conditions
Missed the first hour of daylight here as tried another site which was fogged out and when did arrive it was clear there was a bit of movement going on....so if had been here at first light the totals would have been higher!
Best was a Snow Bunting heard calling over going S-SE - (I just couldnt see it as it must have been high)
4 Cormorant & 25 Lapwing south, 10 Pinkfeet, single Wigeon and Greylag Goose (scarse here) west.
Good raptor passage with 9 Sparrowhawks south in singles and two 2's, 4 Buzzard went SW and 3 sparrowhawks and a single buzzard were also milling about all morning.
Other Birds moving south 155 Swallow, 30 House Martin, 76 alba Wagtails, 306 Meadow Pipit, 24 Skylark, 71 Chaffinch, Brambling, 14 Redpoll, 5 Siskin, 14 Linnet, 2 Goldfinch 2 Reed Bunting and a single Redwing which went north!
-- Edited by Simon Johnson on Saturday 2nd of October 2010 05:28:25 PM
Swallow's again on the move today. Single hobby and snipe south too. Pair of pintail present first thing then same? Pair dropped back in from high about 9am
I was out in Heaton Park on Saturday afternoon and came across a green and yellow coloured budgie!?!? Forgot to post it on Saturday, but another free flying exotic for the Manchester skies along with the rossellas, parakeets and cockatiels etc!?
It was flying about near the horse fields at the back of the reservoir, before landing on a tree and calling frantically. No doubt it will be picked off by the local Sparrowhawk in the next few days if it keeps that vocal activity up
Also about in the same area, in the horse fields near the reservoir, were a Chiffchaff, 30+ House Martins, 20+ Swallows and a lone Sand Martin.