At work today the pang of seeing these birds got the better of me so by 10.00am I took leave. Glad I went . 9 birds when Ivan and myself left just after 7.00pm...since I dipped these birds by a whisker the last time I was thrilled to get them this time.

Nine Dotterel still present on Brown Wardle Hill at 7pm this evening.

Info thanks to Dave Ousey

All nine Dotterel now approximately 10 metres south of the southern edge of the summit of Brown Wardle Hill.

Thanks for Posting Ian. I agree that the Dotterel were inside GM. Simon and I flushed them accidentally as we were walking up the side of Brown Wardle. The birds were only approx. 30 metres away and flew a short distance, calling, and then began feeding again on the closely cropped turf.

We were joined by Dave Ousey (who was disappointed that they weren't in Rossendale ) and watched the Dotterel feeding until approx. 17:30 hrs. The south facing hillside was still exposed to the strong easterly and at times the birds sat down, presumably to get out of the wind. It's incredible how they blend in to the landscape when sat down. They appeared to be 6 brightly coloured females and 3 duller males.

Simon took quite a few photos but digiscoping in the strong wind was testing to say the least.

It's amazing that the same number of birds has turned up in the same location two years running. Almost certainly brought down by the strong easterly wind that has been blowing non stop for the past four days.

Dave checked the area out last weekend and I also had a quick recce on Saturday evening but possibly overlooked them. There is a good chance they will hang around as long as this wind continues blowing.


Steve & Simon

9 Dotterel on Brown Wardle Hill at 3:45 today (same location as last May). Grid reference is SD897182 and I make that as being inside Greater Manchester

Info thanks to Simon Hitchen and Steve Atkins

A superb spring morning at Watergrove 08:00 10:00hrs

19 Willow Warblers singing in the plantations there has clearly been a major influx overnight and much earlier than usual with just 6 on 9th April 2009. Back in the 1990s the highest count here was 11 birds on 27th April 1997.

A Blackcap singing in the Willow just outside the hide is the earliest ever recorded here. For some strange reason they dont usually arrive until the 3rd week of May.

As I was walking away from the hide a Yellow Wagtail called as it flew over. I managed to relocate it (a stunning male) bathing in a puddle on the cobbled road next to the resr. A pity I didnt have a camera. Yellow Wags are pretty rare in Rochdale although a pair did breed last year in the Heywood area.

3 Greylag Geese on the resr (probably on an away day from Hollingworth Lake)

Skylark 7 singing
3 Swallows hawking over Trap Farm car park (the 1st here was on the 7th).
Linnet
Lesser Redpoll 5
Goldcrest 1 singing
Great Crested Grebe a pair
Fieldfare 6
Wheatear a pair

Sunday 3rd April.
Early a.m.
Carrion Crow sitting on nest (ON)
Lesser Redpoll
Tufted Duck - 7
A Brambling heard calling from Ramsden Rd plantation but I was unable to locate it.
Teal - a pair feeding on pools by the hide
Reed Bunting - 1 male

Later on a walk along the Hades trail to the top of the valley and back the following were seen:
Skylark - 20 (16 singing)
Wheatear 9 - Most of these birds will be moving through but a a male in fresh sping plumage was singing and fanning its tail clearly establishing a territory.
Meadow Pipit - 26 some parachuting
Wood Pigeon sitting on nest low down in a Larch (ON)
A chiffchaff was singing near the windsurfers' club house.

It was surprising not to see or hear any Curlew,




-- Edited by Steve Atkins on Sunday 3rd of April 2011 06:56:46 PM

It looks like things are starting to pick up.

4 Teal on the resr at 08:45 hrs presumably migrants.
Skylark 2 singing and 1 flying north
5 Curlew flew north 1 giving display call

4 Wigeon (3m & 1f) flew in at 10:30 hrs and were resting on the water over the west side. They probably wont hang around for long as a windsurfer was setting up when I left.

Still no sign of any Snipe none seen this year since the big freeze.

Yesterday evening an Oystercatcher standing on the dam wall allowed me to approach to within 30 yds.

Steve A.



-- Edited by Steve Atkins on Saturday 26th of February 2011 11:36:11 AM

1.5 miles down the road in Wardle it was minus 10 C at 7 a.m. today with the temperature climbing to a balmy minus 3 C by the afternoon.
Amazingly 80% of the resr is still unfrozen - being the largest and deepest resr in Rochdale it is the last to freeze over.
18 Goosander looked like they were going to roost overnight, not surprisingly as just about every other still water body in the borough must be frozen. Certainly all the resrs along the Pennine Way were last Sunday and Hollingworth Lake was today. In the winter of 1996/97 during a similar big freeze the site maximum of 76 Goosander was recorded on 24th Jan.

Despite the conditions there were a few other birds about:
Wren - 2
Goldcrest
Siskin - 2
Reed Bunting
Pheasant

A female Pochard roosting by the submerged spit out from the windsurfers' club house this evening, not only my first of the year in Rochdale but the first here since Dec 2007.
Teal - 5
Snipe - 4 flew off at dusk from the pool by the hide
Bullfinch -3
Goldcrest -1
Cormorant -2

sun 31st oct 11.00

2 snipe on pond banking in front of hide.

sat afternoon 23rd oct

sparrowhawk
1 goldcrest in conifers on west bank


-- Edited by stevebozzy on Sunday 24th of October 2010 09:37:47 AM

-- Edited by Ian McKerchar on Sunday 24th of October 2010 03:22:41 PM

4 Whooper Swans (3 ads, 1 imm) this morning - flew off NW at 1245 when spooked by a windsurfer.

Also 220+ Fieldfare, 20+ Redwing, 10 Siskin, 1 Raven, 6 Bullfinch

Yes there were at least 3 Ring Ouzels in the north-west corner of the res'r around the Higher Slack Brook area - I was first alerted by the characteristic hard takking alarm call to the presence of a first winter male and then had 2 birds in flight before getting excellent views of an adult male and a female in the trees at the edge of the moorland here.

Also 1 Cormorant 1 Kestrel 20+ Redwings 1 Green Woodpecker 4 Siskins over and 2 Lesser Redpoll

The last thing I was expecting to see this morning was a Common Swift which came flying in from the south near Million Tree Wood at 08:35 hrs. The bird passed within 50 yds at tree top height giving me a clear view of the uniformly dark upper and underparts (except for pale throat patch) ruling out the possibility of Pallid Swift It headed north over the compensation lagoon, then turned heading back south over the resr.
30 + Redwing flew south (the first of the autumn here).

Saturday 9th Oct - some movement of Siskins with 6 + 10 north a.m. and 3 north p.m.
male Stonechat on castellated wall at top of Shore path.

Friday 8th Oct - the male Mandarin is now back in full plumage and looking splendid. It has been seen regularly since last August. Normally on the north shoreline by the path to the hide, it was on the hide pools.

Wed 6th Oct - 2 eclipse male Wigeon.

-- Edited by Steve Atkins on Sunday 10th of October 2010 04:52:21 PM

A Shelduck roosting on the island in the middle of the resr this evening. The first of the year here.
Also 3 Cormorants.

Mark,

You're not the only person to ask this question! None other than messrs McKerchar and Woosey, on a visit to Watergrove a couple of years ago (I think they were trying to sneak some tournament points off me, but I intercepted them in the car park before they'd had the chance to raise their bins ) were wondering where the name came from. "Surely there's not a million trees in that wood" or something along those lines.

You may not remember the Great Storm that hit mainly the south of England in 1987. It caused a massive amount of damage and uprooted many trees. A campaign was launched to replace the lost trees.

To quote from Watergrove - A History of the Valley & Its Drowned Village
...on 6 March (1991) the Million Tree Wood was established. On that day BCTV's three-year campaign involving 65,000 people to plant one million trees, to replace those destroyed during the great storm of 1987 came to fruition. And Watergrove was chosen as the site where BTCV's vice-president ........Professor David Bellamy, would plant the 1,000,000th tree.

What it doesn't say is who counted the other 999,000.

A Spotted Flycatcher this a.m. on edge of pine plantation at top end of res, NW corner.

-- Edited by Steve Atkins on Saturday 28th of August 2010 06:49:54 PM

2 Spotted Flycatchers at 07:00 hrs hawking from Willows by path to hide.

33 Lapwings on nature reserve spit.

Green Woodpecker flew into Million Tree Wood below the car park.

On Sunday 22nd Aug the first sighting of Kingfisher here since the 8th Jan. The bird was on the pool by the hide and seen again on 25th.
It was really pleasing to see this bird, as I thought they had all been wiped out on the east (upland) side of Rochdale by the big freeze last winter.

Migration continues!

2 Tree Pipits flew low over head calling early a.m., but heading north

A site rarity, Little Grebe on the resr, last recorded here in 2006! I remember it well, as I brought Dave Winnard up to see it, and whilst scanning the resr he picked up 2 adult Little Gulls in breeding plumage hawking over the water. Slightly rarer than Little Grebe here.

Green Woodpecker
Goldcrest calling form plantations
4 Teal
Eclipse male Mandarin
Lapwing -22
Sedge Warbler

2 Greenshank here this evening were calling and circling low over north shore near windsurfers' club house. They circled the pool by the hide and then flew off north over the moors.

Only the 4th record here and the first since 2008.

2 Curlew flew over yesterday evening, heading south-west. It's fairly unusual to see Curlew here in August, as they normally leave the moors by mid July.

A bit of activity this morning.

Dunlin (still in breeding plumage) feeding on the nature reserve spit. The first I've seen here this autumn.

Male Mandarin (now in eclipse) on the same spit.

As I approached the hide a Grasshopper Warbler was heard reeling loudly. Opening up one of the window flaps the bird was perched on the top of Juncus about 30 yds from the hide. Yellow at the base of the bill suggested a juv.

Juv. Sparrowhawks heard hunger calling. 2 seen in flight, one making a half-hearted attempt to stoop at a low flying Wood Pigeon.

Lesser Redpoll -2

SD896183 could be on the border, 50 metres into Rossendale or 50 metres into Rochdale which is why I took 8 figure grid refs (i.e. accurate to 10 metres) when watching the Dotterel on Saturday and Sunday, so I could be certain they were in Rochdale.
Not that I'm a GPS nerd of course

A Whimbrel on the north shoreline by footpath to the hide at 07:15 hrs today. The 3rd seen here this spring. Possibly the closest views I've ever had of a Whimbrel, only 30 metres away.
It took flight and attempted to land on the island (soon to be spit) which has emerged as the water levels drop. A Lapwing decided it wasn't going to tolerate any other waders on its territory and drove it off.
The Whimbrel then flew off to the north-east calling.
Whitethroat - 1 singing
Willow Warbler - 7 singing
Wren - 3 singing

Thanks for the call Dave.
I went right up to the top without finding them. Dave said they were more on the Whitworth side so went down just over the border and suddenly came across them and they flew into Rochdale! Very lucky as they could have gone the other way!
Easy to count 9 in flight and also see where they landed. I sat down and they very kindly walked back towards me and so able also to get a few photos even though it was a bit grim at 8pm. Lovely friendly birds!
Steve