7th March.

On the lake - 26 Tufted Duck and 10 Pochard (7 males). The rafts of Tufties were giving out that "nervous giggle" type of display call that they do - I have only ever heard it at around this time of year - rafts of this species were also doing it at Queens Park in Heywood and also at Springfield Park in Marland, Rochdale on 5th March.

2 Mute Swan, 1 Grey Heron, 7 Embden Geese and 1 Egyptian Goose were also present on/around the lake. Coots nest building.

In the park :- 2 pairs of Mistle Thrush, 2 singing Song Thrush, 2 singing Nuthatch and 2 birds also seen fighting, 1 Goldcrest calling, 2 Long-tailed tits carried nest material and 2 Greenfinch investigated a possible nest site.

c25 Redwing were singing away in the tops of some mature trees. I love to just stand underneath the trees and listen to and enjoy their song. Beautiful.

c140 Black-headed Gulls and 9 Common Gulls.

Cheers,

Bill.

-- Edited by Bill Myerscough on Sunday 7th of March 2010 01:37:22 PM

24th January.

Mid-morning.

After seeing large numbers of Tufted Duck at Chorlton WP earlier in the morning I was very surprised to see large numbers here as well - c175 on the water and the flock also contained 5 Pochard (1m,4f). Also 3 Cormorants and 1 Grey Heron on the island. 7 Embden Geese and 1 Muscovy Duck.

On the short grassland around the lake was a mixed flock of thrushes, collecting plenty of earthworms - c80 Redwing, c35 Starling, 4 Fieldfare and 1 Mistle Thrush. In different parts of the park there were another 4 Mistle Thrush - 2 pairs. Also 3 Nuthatch - a pair, with a single bird in another part of the park. 7 Greenfinch and 8 Common Gulls also noted.

Cheers,

Bill.

Pictures please !

1 cormorant
5 shoveler (3m2f)
2 pochard (m)
1 egyptian goose
1 heron
greenfinch
c10 common gull
c100 black headed gulls
1 muscovy duck

Magpies 189 counted into the roost 3.30 - 4.10 today.
Also Cormorants 10+
Pochard 1
Parakeets 2 heard near the lake on arrival
Herons 2
Tufties 35+
Just too wet to get the notebook out.

Guess someone will get a better count of the wildfowl tomorrow. Hope it stops long enough for the WeBS!

Yesterday Fri 20 7.30pm Tawny Owl again hooting in tree on Platt Lane

I met 'Pat from Platt' in the pub tonight and grilled him for gen -

Herons have nested again in the same spot as last year and have 4 chicks
Swans have 6 cygnets
up to 7 Parakeets recently, squarking from the island in the morning (council workers don't get up that early ) and then disappearing (I'll say no more)

There is a big do here this weekend the 'Picnic in the Park'

declan savage wrote:

---

As far as I'm aware, Ring-necked Parakeets almost always nest in tree holes, so I doubt if this nest is one of theirs.
-- Edited by declan savage on Wednesday 15th of April 2009 04:12:48 PM

---

Doh! Okay in my defence I was harassed by my kids, wind & 2 bloomin dogs running amok from owners! Got me puzzled though as it's a massive ball of sticks. Knowing my luck it will be man-made part of garden, but it looked too good for humans..... need another visit in evening soon anyway to get them parakeets.
Rae

Spent day in park, started off nice & then got very windy
10.00-12.45
55+ canada geese
14+ mallard
7 coot (1 on nest near island)
4 moorhen
11 tufted ducks
1 muscovy duck
1 grey heron
1 great crested grebe
1 mute swan
16 magpies altogether! plus 7+ more
8 woodpigeon
4 blackbird
3 robin
1 song thrush
6+ swallows
2 dunnocks
2 carrion crow
30+ starlings
1 chaffinch
2 blue tits
1 greenfinch
40+ feral pigeons

So what do you get for 16 magpies? 1 for sorrow, 2 for joy, 16....?
PS there is a large nest at back of eco-garden, looks like a smaller version of a parakeet nest I knew in Spain- does any of you locals know if it is a parakeet nest (behind the semi circle seating area where someone has had a bonfire, on left of path)?


-- Edited by Rachael Hill on Wednesday 15th of April 2009 01:45:57 PM

11th March.

9.30 - 11.00 am.

2nd visit this week to the dark side ... er, I mean the south side of the city, in pursuit of parrots!! (Alexandra Park on 9th).

Parakeets?... Parrots? ... no sight!, no sound!, ... might have had more luck finding a Pterodactyl!! In fact I should have read some of the earlier posts on this thread before I visited, which seem to suggest that I might have been there a bit too early in the day for them? Might be a bright idea to try both parks again next week.

So what was about?

Pair Great Spotted Woodpecker - the male was drumming,
c75 Redwing - again with that incessant low-level squeaky chatter that I heard from the flock in Alexandra Park on 9th. Can't say I have heard this sound before on autumn flocks (maybe just missed it?) - is this just a sound made by birds getting ready to depart?
1 Mistle Thrush,
c70 Black-headed Gulls, accompanied by 5 Common Gulls,
13 Tufted Duck (9 males),
Signs of breeding activity for Magpie, Carrion Crow, Woodpigeon and Long-tailed Tit,
Pair of Mute Swan,
A very vocal Nuthatch - calling and singing and giving a weak form of display flight,
1 Goldcrest singing and finally a pair of Bullfinches.

Cheers,

Bill.

lunchtime today:

5 Parakeets, c25 Redwing, mixed tit flock with 2 Nuthatch - sensory garden area.

pair Bullfinch, 2 Goldcrest and 2 more Redwing along stream

c40 Tufties and 1 Grey Wagtail at the lake

c30 House Sparrows in gardens behind sensory garden area

Fri, 2pm

37 species incl

Shoveler 1 drake
Tufted Duck 39
Egyptian Goose
Black Headed Gull c90
Common Gull 23
Herring Gull 1
R N Parakeet - at least 4
G S Woodpecker 1
Jay 4
Grey Wagtail 1
Bullfinch 2
Redwing 3
Goldcrest 3

Loads about in the park today (34 species in total), especially on the lake compared to yesterday when it was quite quiet. The pair of shovelers were back after a few days absence, tufted ducks were up from 41 to 45 and included 3 male pochards that were new in today. Lots more redwings, starlings and greenfinches than usual as well as 2 male bullfinch by the lake and a pair of nuthatches near the chapel entrance.

See post on this thread 6th July - one nest on the island, two juveniles fledged.

13.00 to 13.45, icy and sunny

on lake - partially frozen:
3 Shoveler (2 m, 1f)
35 Tufted Duck
1 Little Grebe
2 Cormorant
1 Grey Heron
2 Grey Wagtail
c100 BH Gull
c20 Common Gull
plus usual mallard, canadas, and assorted other geese

in park:
c25 Redwing
pair Bullfinch
Nuthatch
2 Treecreeper
6 Mistle Thrush
3 R N Parakeet
plus commoner species

Magpie roost slightly down at 307. No sign of Parakeets or Amazon.

Who says Magpies are boring? A fun hour or so with Paul and Dave counting them into the island - cheers guys. We got to 365 and then it was too dark (and too cold). Possibly around 400 in the park all together as some birds hung around in trees around the lake and seemed to be roosting where they were. Also a loud and unfamiliar squawk heard - probably the Amazon we reckoned. The Gyppo kept us company too.

Caroline - if you can remember the date (or even the month) when you saw 600 Magpies, I would greatly appreciate it so I can put it into the county database. Do be careful in any Manchester park at any time of the day.

3.40 - 4.35 No sign of any parakeets - definitely not using the same tree to roost in it seems. It's lost quite a lot more leaves since last week.

However I counted the Magpies in to roost on the island and got to a massive 289. Looking at previous reports this is far greater than anything recorded at the 'Egerton roost' (wherever that is) at least since 2002. This must be the main S. Manchester roost. Most were coming in from the south and west. As it's so big I'll continue to check on this now.

1 male Ring-necked Parakeet at the sensory garden at 14.00
14 Tufted
1 Egyptian Goose

also in Fallowfield:

1 Kingfisher at Platt Brook where the brook goes under the Manchester Cycle Way, behind St. Kentigerns RC Primary School, at SJ843938

Hi Nick and welcome to Manc.

I should have mentioned that the lake here has been plagued with blue-green algae in recent weeks and thus it has been closed to water based recreation. I noticed yesterday that booms of barley straw had been placed by staff at various locations and thus the resulting disturbance in doing this would probably have pushed the bird off. This is a method we have deployed at Chorlton WP to attempt to combat the algae for the last two years (150 bales - they used 5), indeed the staff here got the straw and netting from Chorlton WP. Staff were aware of the birds presence though perhaps not on the day.

There is a small population of nesting BNG's not a million miles away at a private site, though a wandering juvenile to a inner city ornamental pond is quite unusual, I've never even seen one at Chorlton WP although there has been a couple of spring records.

NO BNG 11.00. Last reported on Birdguides on 19th.
1 Egyptian Goose
11 Embdem Geese + 1 type hybrid
new brood of 5 Coot chicks

-- Edited by Pete Hines at 00:27, 2008-07-25

Still there today.... it got scared into flight by a very large carp (Jaws) jumping out the water then later by a cormorant.

-- Edited by Adrian Dancy at 19:01, 2008-07-17

A fisherman friend of mine tells me some 32 Cormorants descended on the boating lake last year and had a field day and its not been restocked

Cheers Tim - and sound advice. Nice to meet you again this morning.

Still present this morning as were 2 female type Ring-necked Parakeets, a Grey Wagtail and 2 Gt Spotted Woodpeckers.

-- Edited by Rob Smallwood at 12:33, 2008-07-12