Late news for 1st December. 35 pink-footed geese West mid pm directly over garden. Just before dusk, a female sparrowhawk landed on the fence with prey it had just caught, and spent the next 20 minutes plucking and eating it until it was almost dark.
Female blackcap visiting fatball and nut feeders last couple of mornings in Old Trafford garden, along with blue tits, great tits, coal tits and house sparrows. Robin and Dunnocks hoovering up underneath.
2 Waxwing just been feeding briefly in next doors rowan tree then flew to the TV aerial on the other side next door. They then preened for a few minutes before flying off southwest. 2 others flew south over Astley street park whilst they were on the aerial. (Tyldesley)
On and around my Stretford backyard feeders were good numbers of Goldfinch with c80 on several days during the wet weather, also a couple of Greenfinch seen plus a Robin and a couple of Blue- tit. Not many Goldfinch today as the weather today is quite mild.
From my front terraced house garden (this pm) there was a good view of a Sparrowhawk in a tree across the road after it spooked c100 ferral pigeons from the nearby Gorse Hill Hotel ( pub).
Needless to say it wasn't long before it was mobbed by 2 local Carrion Crow who are always about,and moved on.
A Jay, feeding on fat balls, was an unusual visitor to my garden yesterday. A first garden record for me in Davyhulme. It has lost half its tail and I recognised it as a bird that has been frequenting the local park, feeding on acorns, but being pushed around by the local Magpie mob.
A Merlin flew south over my garden at 12:29, being harassed by a Pied Wagtail.
Other things on the move - mainly south - over the garden earlier in the morning included: 24 Pink-footed Goose (east) 1 Jay 10 Skylark 419 Redwing 32 Fieldfare 1 Song Thrush 1 Grey Wagtail 10 Pied Wagtail 105 Meadow Pipit 19 Chaffinch 11 Linnet 1 Lesser Redpoll 13 Siskin 2 Yellowhammer 2 Reed Bunting
Other "recent" garden highlights include: 2 Crossbill south on 14 September 1 Spotted Flycatcher on 25 August 20 Black-tailed Godwit south-east on 22 August 1 Little Egret west on 12 June 1 Quail heard overhead at 23:47 on 11 June
A Ring Necked Parakeet in the back garden this morning, still quite a rarish bird round here,also female Pheasant, Nuthatch and good numbers of the usual Great,Coal,Blue and Long Tailed Tits,plus a few Greenfinch on the sunflower seeds.Also 2 Ravens low over the garden and Great Spotted Woodpecker on the fatball feedres
-- Edited by pete berry on Tuesday 10th of October 2023 01:57:29 PM
6 Common Buzzard circling over Gorse Hill, Stretford spotted by my next door neighbour (Sue) who pointed them out to me at 1:15pm today.
Also whilst still in bed,I heard a Raven cronking yesterday 07.09.23 at 8:15 am which was probably being mobbed by a group of Carrion Crows as they were making a racket and the cronking was sounding further and further away.
WFH today and birds seen/heard from the house so far include 2 Sparrowhawk, 3 Buzzard, Nuthatch, Great Spotted Woodpecker and a decent sized tit flock moving through containing at least 3 Coal tit, 23 Long tailed Tit and a Goldcrest.
The Romiley skies were quite active this morning overhead with 70+ meadow pipits, 20 pink-footed geese, c10 swallows and siskin (heard only) on the move. 5 mistle thrushes were of more local origin. A goldcrest was in the garden, and a chiffchaff was singing close by.
Bury . Recently a rat has taken residence under the flag stone in the corner outside the house . We see him on the night camera . On two occasions the long - established tawny has flown into this corner as if looking for said rodent , which has not been visible at the time . We have never seen the owl doing this previously . It is most interesting behaviour . Is the owl purposely seeking out the rat ? Would a tawny tackle a rat with a body length of seven inches ?
21 meadow pipits over my old Trafford garden this morning between 10-10.30am most very low south. 1 skylark also. 1 sparrowhawk caught a goldfinch from my feeders.
Bury . Last afternoon a blue tit flew through the open door of the kitchen , circumnavigated the room and departed , leaving his calling card on the wall . Couple of hours later repeated the manoeuvre , without the card .
Today (Friday 12pm) 2 Sparrowhawk circling above my house in Gorse Hill,Stretford . On Monday at 7:40am after a couple of days inclement weather,on and around my backyard feeders were c90 Goldfinch (very nervous as were the feral pigeons) but not many since thoughout the week and only 20 for a short time this morning.
Lovely morning in my Astley garden finally produced a long awaited garden tick! With small numbers of Meadow Pipits over yesterday and today, at 08:54 a Tree Pipit finally gave itself up over the field just at the back of the house. Oddly it did not seem to be merely heading straight over and instead appeared to be blogging high over the field with another pipit and then flew north at c120 feet over the garden (estimated off the known height of the large sycamore in the garden). Only a minute or so later presumably the same bird came back south over the garden, calling again but was lost to view just south of the East Lancs Road.
A single Greylag Goose flew east this morning, Coal Tits now numbered three, two Chiffchaffs again (one still singing), 1+ Goldcrest, a flock of 18 Long-tailed Tits noisily camped out in the garden for a good while and a Treecreeper (perhaps increasing in sightings here) could be heard from the tree line.
Additional to yesterday, a single Yellowhammer flew over calling at 15:45, an all too scarce bird from the garden these days.
Not many Goldfinch on and around my Stretford backyard feeders yesterday and today as usual when the weather is hot and sunny (water available) but around 6 pm ish there were 20 including several young ones,one of which was being fed by a parent.
Greenshank in flight just south of my Astley garden at 11:50 this morning, heading west(ish), possibly dropping into the old Morley’s sand quarry which I believe has some pools again.
Early this morning at my Astley garden, 2 Grey and a single Pied Wagtail flew over east, 2 Coal Tits and two Chiffchaffs (one singing) in the garden, a Great Spotted Woodpecker and best of all a Nuthatch, a rare bird here. House Sparrow numbers remain around the 80 mark.
Re: Nuthatches, here in Prestwich I'm hearing them frequently even if I don't see them that often - this morning there was one calling again and again and again...
I wonder what exactly determines a desirable neighbourhood for them - I would have thought most urban or semi-urban areas have sufficient mature trees.
Whilst listening to the Nuthatch, I did get a nice view of a Coal Tit which visited our garden for a couple of minutes.
Early this morning at my Astley garden, 2 Grey and a single Pied Wagtail flew over east, 2 Coal Tits and two Chiffchaffs (one singing) in the garden, a Great Spotted Woodpecker and best of all a Nuthatch, a rare bird here. House Sparrow numbers remain around the 80 mark.
and at 8:05pm this evening a superb Hobby flew through the field just 20 metres from my garden, briefly hawked some insects along the oak tree line and the headed off west.