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.

Flying East over my house

68 Pink-Footed Geese @ 1400

21 Pink-Footed Geese @ 1403

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 ?

2 Ravens low over my back garden this afternoon .

Just now

Single Greenfinch on my feeders

Cannot remember the last time i seen one in my garden

Cheers Jay

Dont twitch and drive

Another Openshaw garden tick, a pair of Nuthatch 

-- Edited by Peter Nolan Woolley on Monday 18th of September 2023 06:04:46 PM

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.

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.

Ian McKerchar wrote:

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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.

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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.

A calling Chiffchaff in my Irlam garden this evening

Two noisy Ring-necked Parakeets east together over my Astley garden at 7:25pm this evening.

The Walkden Willow Tit is back for the 3rd winter in a row

On and around my Stretford backyard feeders earlier today were -
Goldfinch - 30 at 5:30 pm but not many others throughout the day.
Some juvenile Goldfinch have almost complete facial markings now whilst others haven't any.
Also 2 newly fledged young were near the feeders begging to be fed (01.09.23).

A singing Chiffchaff at bottom of garden this morning and at least 2 other birds calling in and around the garden.

First winter male blackcap in my Romiley garden this morning, trying to find the few elderberries left over after 8 woodpigeons had worked it over these last few weeks (it's not a big bush). Yesterday, a chiffchaff was present in and around the garden for c20 minutes.

Bury . Raven , heard only , over the garden just now .

Bury . Very vociferous tawny in the trees the past couple of days and this morning .

A Spotted Flycatcher is in our neighbouring garden at present occasionally flying into our garden which backs on to Gorse Hall, Dukinfield. A new garden tick for us. Heres a few photos.

 

120823....Garden Watch 0845-1045

Having to spend a bit more time in Garden of late but interesting to note that the 'usual'4-5 Greenfinch numbers are actually greater than this with a 2 hour watch...

93 Woodpigeon...all flying east-west or west-east

3 Woodpigeon below the feeders (regulars)

4 Magpie

9 Lesser Black-Backed Gull...Wheeling about the sky

17 Greenfinch

43 Goldfinch

2 Collared Dove

6 Carrion Crow Flying over

2 Dunnock

1 Cormorant flying North

3 Feral Pigeon

5 Black-Headed Gull

2 Chaffinch...1 being a juvenile

2 House Sparrow

1 Blackbird

1 Raven...heard but not seen.

On my Stretford backyard feeders last week have been good numbers of Goldfinch, sometimes 30's and 40's with the majority being newly fledged and juveniles.
Today 8th, I saw my first Goldfinch juvenile with red and black feathers starting to appear on it's head.
I also saw a Greenfinch juvenile for the first time this year on Sunday 6th, but it didn't stay long as it couldn't work out how to use the feeders.
One or two Blue - tit juveniles are also using the feeders.
Swifts over the house have been seen but not many and Swallows very rarely.

-- Edited by phillipskelly on Tuesday 8th of August 2023 04:41:36 PM

Yesterday an inexperienced Sparrowhawk decided to swoop down on our ornamental Ring Ouzel.  

 

Photo attached, please note, the Kingfisher is also ornamental!

Whilst taking a break from some gardening this afternoon in my old Trafford garden a nice fresh willow warbler was flicking around in my pine tree, didn't stay long though, it flew into next doors garden then back into mine before then flying off over my house.

Raven over the garden this afternoon being half heartedly mobbed by 2 Carrion Crows.