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

2 new birds for my flixton garden list.

A male kestrel flew over on Friday, seen often though in the field between me & the ship canal.
Stock dove feeding on the lawn with pigeons, woodpigeons & collared doves was nice to see.
Other birds around...
Lots of juvenile starlings 30+ at one point recently.
Lots of house sparrows
4 collared doves
2 greenfinch
4 adult goldfinch is the most I have seen so far, but 4 juveniles were seen yesterday.
3 juvenile magpies fledged from the nest in next doors garden & are already very confident & taking over.
Chiffchaff & whitethroat have recently been heard only over near the ship canal.

Jay in the back garden today feeding on the fatballs,first time I've seen them feeding on fatballs

-- Edited by pete berry on Monday 3rd of June 2024 04:17:52 PM

2 adult Mediterranean Gulls North over the Astley Green back garden just now.

31 swifts whizzed low over my flixton garden in 10 mins going in a westerly direction this morning, amongst them I got a new garden tick with 2 house martins.

The same scruffy Red Kite just passed over my Davyhulme garden, going south.

Bury . Ten days ago , songthrush making nest in the bushes . Now Mr. Songthrush singing his heart out . Hurrah !
Goldfinch often hovers above the dandelion clocks to take seeds , despite sunflower hearts readily available .
One swallow seen , one swift ; their nesting places gradually disappearing .
Wren feeding chicks . Four newly-fledged starlings being fed fat balls . One greenfinch returned four days ago .

First young Starling of the year in my garden this afternoon.

Hardly any birds visiting my Stretford backyard feeders in the last few weeks except for a few Goldfinch,a pair of Blue-Tit and sometimes a Great Tit.
This morning around 6am there were 5 Goldfinch and a single Blue -tit.
One of the Goldfinch was sat crouched on the phone wires above the feeders and when flew onto the feeders I could see it couldn't stand and both it's feet were enlarged,pale and swollen .
I wonder if this is Fringilla Papillomavirus which affects finches legs and feet.
The bird was still able to feed although not very agile on the perch.

-- Edited by phillipskelly on Thursday 16th of May 2024 12:34:20 PM

-- Edited by phillipskelly on Thursday 16th of May 2024 12:38:04 PM

Male Bullfinch in my Astley garden this morning.