We have a rookery at the back of our house in Rastrick, had 13 succesful nests last year but have 19 this year, are those in Manchester showing signs of increase after the two previous bad winters?
Hi Rodney,
Pleased to hear about the increase at your local rookery. Wonder if you might have a few more next year after reading on some other forum of possible disturbance near to the rookery at Hartshead Moor Services on the M62 during this breeding season?
I suspect that for many birders Rooks are one of our less interesting species and sadly don't attract a great deal of attention. I'm lucky that I personally enjoy the sights and sounds of a rookery in spring and have counted a few this year but like many things bird related I suspect that timing is of the essence and I probably counted a few a bit too early in the breeding season to be sure I had got the maximum numbers of nests that may have been built. Whilst updating my records I also had a look at some recent historical records that I could find at some of these sites, which I thought might be of interest.
Site 1 - 32 nests on 26th Feb had increased to 88 by 25th March. There were 50 in 1996, 60 in 1997, 75 in 1999, 70 in 2001, 80 in 2004 and 109 in 2009.
Site 2 - 19 nests on 17th March. There were 60 in 1996, 60 in 1997, 56 in 1998, 50 in 2000, 42 in 2001, 34 in 2002, 28 in 2004, 41 in 2005, 44 in 2006, 32 in 2007, 34 in 2008 and 25 in 2009.
Site 3 - 42 nests on 18th March. There were 61 in 1996, 50 in 2004, 34 in 2006, 35 in 2007 and 33 in 2009.
Site 4 - 23 nests on 8th April. There were 30 in 1996, 21 in 1998, 23 in 1999, 21 in 2000, 23 in 2004, 20 in 2005, 9 in 2008 and 20 in 2009.
Site 5 - 18 nests on 18th April. There were 25 in 1996, 22 in 1997, 20 in 2000, 27 in 2003, 16 in 2004, 15 in 2005, 9 in 2006, 13 in 2008, and 17 in 2009.
Site 6 - 4 nests on 9th April. There were 4 in 1996, 10 in 1999, 3 in 2002, 10 on 2004 and 8 in 2009.
Site 7 - 1 nest on 20th April. This held as many as 18 nests in 1996 and 10 nests in 1998, down to 6 by the mid 2000's.
From the above it would appear that some colonies appear to fluctuate, whilst a few have declined, some substantially in the timescales noted. Finally, a little further back in this thread Judith Smith detailed the figure work for the last two organised Rook surveys in GM when in 1975 there were 45 rookeries containing 1418 nests but by the time of the next one in 1996 these figures had declined to 43 rookeries containing 956 nests. I wonder if it might be a good idea for all of us GM birdwatchers to have a concerted effort next year to count all of our rookeries?
We have a rookery at the back of our house in Rastrick, had 13 succesful nests last year but have 19 this year, are those in Manchester showing signs of increase after the two previous bad winters?
Plenty of birds and activity around the large rookery at Birch this morning. Numerous birds carrying nesting material and c42 nests at various stages of build at the present time.
hi, im reasonably new to birding and i still need to carry a book to reference to but i am getting better each trip. The other day i managed to track down a very large rookery in happy valley the best view is from the entrance on jacksons lane next to norbury athletics pitch , walk down the path until you reach the end of the football pitch and they roost the other side of the river directly infront. Its an amazing sight around four ish there are thousands of them flying in formations/displays. Thanks Rob
Hi Rob and welcome to the forum,
I live on the 'racecourse estate' in Hazel Grove and each winter large numbers of corvids fly over my house in the evening to roost. These are mostly Jackdaws plus some Rooks and single flocks of 1-2000 are not uncommon. They also fly out again over my house early morning to their feeding grounds.
Your flock has been reported elsewhere on the forum - have a look under 'Hazel Grove' thread for December 6th - 13th 2009.
The Hazel Grove thread is further down this page but, when logged on, it's better to use the useful 'search' facility at the top of the page.
hi, im reasonably new to birding and i still need to carry a book to reference to but i am getting better each trip. The other day i managed to track down a very large rookery in happy valley the best view is from the entrance on jacksons lane next to norbury athletics pitch , walk down the path until you reach the end of the football pitch and they roost the other side of the river directly infront. Its an amazing sight around four ish there are thousands of them flying in formations/displays. Thanks Rob
tbh Henry thats kind of what i meant by saying the ones the airport are worrying about. As in they see the odd rook nearby and use them as the excuse to look for the largest colony nearby to desimate! There were 3 or 4 there again today at 1.45pm (in the field across the road from the romper) they are very shy tho as twice now i tried to get some good photo's only for them to disapear towards the bolllin.
I would assume that Rooks feeding near the Romper would be from a much more local breeding colony. Can't remember seeing nests very near by but there is a potential site in tall poplar type trees near the large round-about by the M56 junction. And some decent woodland along the Bollin valley locally. The Dunham Massey colony is several miles away which is the reason for outrage at trying to exterminate them. Miles away from the airport and plenty of local feeding grounds (the golf course etc). It would be interesting to see if they did fly as far as the airport but without evidence a cull can't be had. My local colony is much closer to the airport and I'll be taking offence if they just come along and wipe them out without public consultation on the matter. Thanks. Henry.
there were several rooks (along with swallows lapwing and carrion) in the fields just off sunbank lane near the romper pub yesterday. This is just on the other side of the airport from civic centre and an easy flight across the airport. Maybe these rooks are the ones from Dunham the airport is so worried about.
I have been having quite long discussions with a couple of people at the Airport today. I suggested that they colour-ring the Rook nestlings, or fit radio transmitters to them, at Dunham Forest GC. They seemed glad of a practical approach, and are going to ring the BTO to find out more. Basically, I think the problem is not birds on the airport itself, but large numbers of corvids and woodpigeons flying across the airport on their way to a communal roost somewhere. They may get a student in from MMU (where they have contacts) to study this as a long term project.
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Judith Smith
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Lightshaw hall Flash is sacrosanct - NO paths please!
Today round Dunham Massey were a number of posters talking about Manchester Airport shooting Rooks on 30th April. There was an online petition
http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/dunhamrooks
This says
"On April 30th at 6am Manchester Airport will be sending 5 Men, armed with guns with the intention to kill all the birds in the Dunham Massey Rookery. The Rooks have been living in these nests forever.
The Airport's intention is to try and prevent bird strikes, which of course is essential as obviously humans safety is paramount, but killing these rooks will not solve the problem at the airport. "
I find this a bit strange as DM is quite a way from the airport and why pick on Rooks ? I thought you could only shoot Crows under special circumstances such as Agricultural pests - not on the off chance they might fly near the airport ??
Edit - Having spoken to Judith, apparantly they are within their rights. Rooks on nests are an easy target and are classed as pests. According to CAA guidelines, any 'bird attractant' within 13km of an airport is to be 'controlled' so maybe we shouldn't be publicising Rookeries in the vicinity !
-- Edited by Tony Coatsworth on Monday 27th of April 2009 11:52:45 AM
Jackson's Lane Hazel Grove; the trees disappeared a couple of years ago. Typical Stockport!!!! The Adlington Rookery south of Poynton seems to be breaking up, and the birds in Hazel Grove were probably a break away faction which disturbed the locals. Most Rooks seen in south of Stockport seem to be flying towards Adlington or at least Cheshire. We are possibly back to the one Rookery behind The Devonshire Arms at Mellor but not been up there for a while.
Allan Rimmer and I will be doing the canal/river via the towpath between the Navigation at Gathurst and the road bridge at Appley Bridge next Tuesday (weather permitting) as it is a BTO Waterways Breeding Bird Survey. Is the new banking on that stretch?
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Judith Smith
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Lightshaw hall Flash is sacrosanct - NO paths please!
just as a matter o f interest judith there were about 8 sandmartins showing great interest on a section of the duggy bank where there has been a landslip revealing a clay/sandy bank.i will revisit as ive never seen sandmartins on the river douglas though they nest in their hundreds on the ribble so why not.
Gathurst is in GM and some of Appley Bridge, The Douglas is the county boundary and then the Calico Brook. The rookery ison the other side of the Dougy.
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Judith Smith
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Lightshaw hall Flash is sacrosanct - NO paths please!
judith.....there are no nests in the valley area now.they are right at the top of the hill by the farm.i would never have thought gathurst appley bridge area was not in manchester.
-- Edited by fred fouracre on Monday 13th of April 2009 12:58:41 PM
Thaks Fred - this is actually in Lancs. There used to be a heronry there too but it was "discouraged" a few years ago. One year I counted 144 Rook nests - as you say, they are spread over a wide area on the slopes of a valley so partly out of view. Decreasing though.
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Judith Smith
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Lightshaw hall Flash is sacrosanct - NO paths please!
there is a rookery at valentines wood at appley bridge.very active today.at least 16 nests but its a long way from the canal bank so there may be more.
Shuttleworth St John's - 45 nests. Summerseat nr Peel Hall (on my BBS) 10 nests all in one tree on Newcombe Rd. Nothing at Ramsbottom Rose Hill or behind the Grants Arms. Holcombe church - 24 nests
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Judith Smith
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Lightshaw hall Flash is sacrosanct - NO paths please!
8 nests in the Chamber House, Heywood area this evening - not certain though that all were in use - 1 bird was sitting, other nests were still being built. Couldn't see any in the adjacent Primrose Hill Farm area - maybe looking in the wrong place? Surprising how easy it is to miss these small colonies!
However, I did notice that driving from Rochdale towards Heywood there appeared to be a small rookery just on the outskirts of Heywood at SD868111 (Captain Fold?) of about 3 and a bit nests but on both my visits this rookery appeared to be unoccupied.
Revisited the rookery at Birch this morning and spent a fair bit more time there. I counted 109 nests - I made sure that I double and treble checked this figure, as it was considerably higher than my conservative count made on 14/3/09!
An interesting 10 minutes was spent here watching a Carrion Crow trying to lure a sitting Rook off a nest. This particular nest was well separated from the main colony and the Crow made several attempts to dislodge the sitting Rook (presumably to steal an egg or a nestling?). The sitting Rook on every occassion that the crow attacked, came off its nest and chased the crow only a short distance away but always keeping its body between the nest and the crow. The Carrion Crow left immediately on the return of the other bird from the pair of Rooks!
Other rookeries visited this afternoon:- 20 active nests at Nutters (top local restaurant!), Edenfield Rd, Rochdale (presume this is the rookery know as Wolstenholme in earlier county bird reports?) and 17 at Healey Dell, Rochdale. Many thanks to Dave Winnard for pointing me in the right direction to these two sites (otherwise I would never have found them!)and to Mr Nutter Snr for allowing me permission to wander on their land to count the nests in the rookery.
Cheers,
Bill.
-- Edited by Bill Myerscough on Saturday 4th of April 2009 03:42:21 PM
-- Edited by Bill Myerscough on Saturday 4th of April 2009 03:47:49 PM
Latest counts: 38 at Golborne St Thomas's; 19 at Jubilee Park Ashton in Makerfield; 33 at Bottom o'th Moor Horwich; 3 at Church St Horwich; 70 at Worthington Lakes. Thanks to Tony Johnson and Allan Rimmer.
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Judith Smith
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Lightshaw hall Flash is sacrosanct - NO paths please!
Adults where sitting at the nests on the M62 (Westbound) just before Birch Services today. Also adult sitting on one nest in Milnrow. Nipped into Tyldesley cemetery this evening and most nests had sitting adults.
Checked out Tyldesley Cemetery Rookery this afternoon. 23 nest occupied. Not sure if this Rookery already been posted. Great entertainment watching the rooks stealing twigs from each others nest. Cheers Ian.