I was on my way home from work early afternoon and the thought had crossed my mind of trying that spot for Dotterel, but as you said, the weather was poor-so I opted for Castleshaw instead
I was fortunate enough to find certainly 1 (seen very clearly although only briefly) and possibly a second Dotterel here this afternoon in pretty poor weather conditions.
There was a bird was found here by Paul Heaton on 30/4/06 and habitat here seems just right for this species on passage. I must have almost stood on the first bird before it flew off and had a good close up look at the second bird with the naked eye for a few seconds before it flew off high to the east. By my recokoning these are just inside the GM county boundary!!
The approx. grid ref. where I found them is SD983139 and is only approx 300 to 400 yards along the Pennine Way heading SSE on the south eastern side of the A672 not far away from J22 of the M62. Just in the Rochdale and GM areas! I think as Paul has mentioned in another post on this forum it looks like this area might be worth checking out every year at passage times, particularly as it doesn't involve a long and strenuous trek.
There is a muddy, lorry rutted car parking space just where the Pennine Way crosses the A672.
Plenty of wheatears!
