Late morning today in the Astley garden saw a fair sized flock of Long-tailed Tits moving through along with two Chiffchaffs (one singing a little later on) and best of all a Treecreeper. Also almost 20 Meadow Pipits moving south in one and twos and five local Buzzards in the air together over the field at the bottom of the garden too.

Whitefield. I was woken up this morning around 6am to the sound of a random pheasant on my street. It continued for a good while but I drifted back off. Merlin app confirmed it for me though as I tend to question myself if I'm half asleep. 8.30am. Heard parakeets fly past but didn't see how many this time.

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1 Chiffchaff in my Irlam Garden...even gave a burst of song.

Bird number 50 for my flixton garden, Pink-footed geese 40+ heading south easterly at 5.54pm. Nice to see after only hearing them over back in February.

Again not many birds ( Goldfinch) on or around my Stretford backyard feeders yesterday but a Sparrowhawk did make an unsuccessful attempt at catching one of the feral pigeons picking up seed at the base of the feeders.

Chiffchaff once again singing at bottom of the garden,also Raven over.

Chiffchaff still in back garden calling away as it moves round hedgerow.

300824...Irlam

2 Raven Circling above the house @1315.

230824...Irlam

1 Hornet Mimic Fly

Nuthatch in my Astley garden ten minutes ago, a barely annual occurrence!

Bury . Sparrowhawk , juvenile i think , walking around under the feeders , carefully peering upwards as if in search of loafing prey candidates .

A Chiffchaff calling from the hedgerow between my garden and next door just now.

A feeding flock of 16 Swallows over the back garden this evening, by a long way the most I've seen together locally this summer. Quite a few looked like juvs, probably from nearby farm .

At 0530hrs today a frantic whirring of tiny , brown wings heralded the arrival of what must have been a just - fledged wren at my breakfast table . One look at my kedgeree and he was off .

A Tawny Owl calling just now from trees in field behind the back farden.

2 Kestrel over the garden this afternoon. First for a while.

Over the last couple of weeks I've had a couple of sightings of what I thought may of been a hobby.
This morning 100% sighting of a hobby over my flixton garden, it circled several times then stooped down over towards Irlam.
A whitethroat continues to sing in the fields beyond my neighbours houses, I walked around to see it last week & it actually flew into the gardens behind my bungalow, but not seen in my garden, yet !
Kestrel seen on a few more occasions now.
Sparrowhawk over this morning.
Oddly I haven't seen any buzzards recently, normally see them every day.

5 x Redshank seen and heard at 21.30 over Atherton garden flying SE

There was 9 ravens over my flixton garden this morning, circling & cronking for at least 5 minutes before 7 gained height & headed over the ship canal into irlam. The other 2 went low & out of view.
A new bird for my garden on Friday was a female chaffinch.

Peregrine over the back garden just now,circling round and hunting,eventually drifted off east

I've been away for a week to Dungeness but on my return (Monday 5 pm) my Stretford backyard feeders were completely empty with not a bird anywhere around.
Having filled them only 2 Goldfinch showed up then went.
The next day just a few feral pigeons and a Dunnock, I hope the word gets around where the food is.
My neighbour Sue has been keeping an eye out for the breeding Blue tits but they've completely disappeared ( no fledgelings ... nothing).
The pair of Blackbirds (collecting worms)have had at least 2 of their brood taken by local cats (Sue's son).
Things can only get better... I hope .

Bury . Male , adult great spotted woodpecker just now feeding sunflower hearts and fatball to what must be the younger chick , on the tree , by the feeders . The older bird has been feeding itself for a couple of days .
Great excitement and joy !

A siskin was another new bird for my flixton garden this morning. Nice to see after being heard only flying over.

A Common Tern over the garden this afternoon heading north east ,presumably back towards Blackleach country park.Also 5 Greylag Geese flew over.>I've filled up 3 fatball feeders because of this cool weather and have been rewarded by a constant stream of birds visiting them,mainly Blue and Great Tits including good numbers of young birds. Also several Coal Tits and young,male and female Great Spotted Woodpecker,Blackbird,Robin and a few visits from a Jay. Unfortunately both Magpie and Jackdaw have also discovered them and take a lot of them.
Wondering if this cool weather has badly affected their food supply and that's why we're getting so many birds on them??

-- Edited by pete berry on Friday 14th of June 2024 02:30:43 PM