Canada Geese - 770, site record by a mile. From an initial 300 they just kept arriving in numbers from the east, a common species it maybe but an impressive sight nonetheless
This morning pretty much as yesterday apart from a Female Stonechat on the bales on the eastern arable land(pic below) . 60 Goldfinch, 2 Yellowhammer also on the set aside on the eastern arable .Trail bikers on the landfill so no chance of anything up there for me today .4 Teal up on yesterday, and a Nuthatch.
-- Edited by JOHN TYMON on Sunday 10th of September 2023 09:37:08 AM
Seems the Canada geese are roosting on the west pool ,I was a bit later today but kept seeing groups leave east including the hybrid from yesterday pic of Hybrid below
Firstly of note this morning Pochard -12 Tufted Duck - 38 Willow Warbler-1 Grey Heron -2 3 broods of Little Grebe ,the only birds that are seemingly doing well one pair on its 3rd brood of the year. Like Lwm post, it seems a real dearth of small birds on site .The mile by a mile landfill Criss crossed this morning produced not a single bird, which is crazy in perfect whinchat, stonechat and every other small bird you can think of habitat, something is drastically wrong with small bird numbers. As most local patchers of note will already know.
Finally the Motorway Service Station has seemingly started with big drainage systems being dropped off (see picture)on site this morning so the end of the SE arable land where Hen Harrier wintered a few years ago ,also 22 acre of the landfill will disappear under solar panels and restrictions to access very soon. Parking will no longer be allowed at Junction 11.
-- Edited by JOHN TYMON on Tuesday 5th of September 2023 11:42:46 AM
This morning notables
12 Pochard
8 Swift
Hundreds of Swallow and House Martin piling through south very high, with a few Sand Martin
Stonechat -1 pair - first arrival for me this Autumn of the usual wintering crew ,why they dont breed onsite with perfect habitat is puzzling.
This morning a large movement South of Buzzard in particular with 18 in the air at one point watching from the landfill summit , all but our regular 4 heading South. Also 1 Juvenile Marsh Harrier , high South and a Juvenile Hobby chasing House Martins South. Other numbers of note.
House Martin - c 300+ South
Swallow - 200+ South some feeding young on the wing
Swift -4
Little Grebe- one pair with newly hatched young on west pool
Whitethroat - a Family of fledged young showing Summer isn't over yet
Grey Partridge 8 - House Martin 80+ along east ridge with a few swallows among them - Swift 2, drifting SW - Hobby flying fast south - Kestrel 3 - Great spotted Woodpecker 1 - Chiffchaff, adult feeding 2 juveniles
Of note today a Juvenile Yellow Wagtail , first ive seen on the floor at silver lane this year, only had flyovers previously. Rest was much the same as a week ago.
15 years ago licence conditions were applied for...........how soon forgotten.
I worked on Risley IV when it was being filled up - my MSc was in the switch from Bentonite Clay landfill liners to Geotextile liners / leachate recovery and gas recovery for energy. Risley IV was an early Geotextile Liner. I wouldn't be wanting to poke around under the ground on that site installing foundations for any minor plant, there is still some nasty smells of degradation gases coming off.
I did reply in both a personal and technical position to the planning enquiries but no avail (as per Port Warrington and the MSA).
(Apols if not birds related enough and needs moving to another section of the forum such as general news).
The combined loss of habitat from the MSA & now the solar farm will be a huge loss of biodiversity for the area as a whole. Having monitored this area for over 20 years and annually sent in detailed records to Cheshire LRC & CAWOS in the hope that it would be of value in making decisions in future years, but clearly not!
Warrington have a distorted idea of "green belt" and "brownfield" sometimes.
Silver Lane and Risley Landfill - the closure plans showed rewilding (I've got Biffas habitat drawings from when I worked at Risley iV); not energy farms and hotels.
Fiddlers Ferry Lagoons to be filled in with demolition waste from the power station to make new brownfield land for light industrial, housing and a small nature park.
Moore Lapwing Lane and Pool and Big Wood and Dog fields plus Black-Fields Pools to be built over for Port Warrington, replaced by a "country park" on the Arley Landfill site (which is still giving off a lot of degradation gas so the 2025 date for that happening that WBC published in 2020 - quietly during the first lockdown..........seems unrealistic....yet prep works on the Ethelyene Pipeline through Moore are starting for Peels plans). No one seems bothered - raised with CAWOS, no response. Spoke to Wildlife Trust - they've no money no Landfill funding came to an end. Other large bird charity not interested as a done deal with Peel anyway and site diversity being lost already due to vandalism lack of habitat management and changing water management.
From first thing this morning
Cormorant - 4 on raft
Herring Gull - 11, dropped in with
Lesser black-backed Gulls - 12, & then all out south
Great crested Grebe - 2
Canada Geese - 2
Kestrel - 3
Long tailed Tit - 3 separate small flocks moving round area with juvenile Blackcap, Chiffchaff & Willow Warbler among them.
Common Whitethroat - feeding young on nest
Goldfinch - 50, flitting around summit
10 Cormorant showing change of the season this morning on the west pool , Male Marsh Harrier was over the eastern arable over the spoiled crops 4 Kestrel, 2 Great Crested Grebe best of the rest ,otherwise much the same as last week .
Nothing of real note again this morning apart from the 3 juv and 2 adult Kestrel hunting across the area ,whitethroat Juv and plenty Tufted Duck, and good number of Little Grebe. Main note really is the total dirth of birds on the landfill basicly a mile square of perfect flower meadow, and grassland habitat held more or less no birds .
Note for anyone visiting 30 caravans of travellers gave taken up summer residency on the west end of Silver Lane .
-- Edited by JOHN TYMON on Saturday 29th of July 2023 03:16:18 PM
Great Crested Grebe - 2 unfortunately as Rob says lost their nest in the flood
Little Grebe - 1 Pair with 2 Juveniles west and a pair with the 2nd set of Juvenile on entrance pool
Swift - at least 300 mainly tracking South
Kestrel - 2 adults with 3 Juvenile
Seems more or less like the end of a bang average season, luckily the 2 weeks of sunshine mid June allowed some of the common birds, the time to get their young off , but overall the area is quiet , basically the whole of the landfill zig zagging across about a mile and half walk I saw 10 Goldfinch imagine that 30 years ago in perfect habitat for small birds. At least the Kestrel have been successful which i suppose is a good thing these days , but year on year its so noticeable from a patcher that all birds in general are in decline away from major reserves like Woolston etc ,basically a 2 x 2 mil site with 1 sedge Warbler were 30 years ago I would have expected 20+ . Where have all the Hobby gone to this year ? obviously the poor weather means Dragonflies are not surviving well so they have left early.
A new Juvenile Black Necked Grebe present this morning and early afternoon Gadwall Female with 6 young also .Great Crested Grebe still sitting on 2 eggs . Also a fair movement South this morning of Swift and a Hobby over the west pool at 2pm .
-- Edited by JOHN TYMON on Thursday 6th of July 2023 04:03:00 PM
From yesterday evening. Goosander, female on raft - Great crested Grebe, 2 still sitting - Mallard, 28 inc female with 6 young & a white farmyard duck - Tufted Duck, 22 - Pochard, 3 - Cormorant, 2 - Coot, 27 - Swift, 70+ & House Martin, 40+ hawking over pool - Sedge Warbler, 1 - Willow Warbler & Chiffchaff, lots of young in every tree it seems at times
No sign of juv Black Necked Grebe this morning ,and great crested who sat asleep for 3 weeks in the hot period, decided to lay 2 eggs on a bit of floating weed last week just lost both to the rising water :(
-- Edited by JOHN TYMON on Monday 3rd of July 2023 01:08:02 PM
West pool: Canada Geese 7, Mallard 22, Tufted Duck 8, Heron 1, Cormorant 1, Little Grebe 2, Coot 14 - Herring Gull 3, Lesser black back Gull 2, Greater black back Gull 2 flew over north
Nothing if any real note this morning , just the usual Skylarks etc in good numbers ,pools almost birdless as we're the skies prob due to constant low flyovers of 2 motorised Hang gliders bombing the summit.