Great numbers David, better than our measly 7 bird haul! This morning!

Cheers
Jason

On a crisp, cold morning walked with Les Jones round No.3 bed and then all the way down to Bollin Point and back. No.3 bed was frozen over except for a small patch being kept open by 37 teal and 6 Coot. One of the features of the morning was the steady trickling through of Redwing, ahead of the coming weather. Everywhere we walked during the morning birds were filtering past. Thousands must been involved as we counted over 400 during our walk, along with 42 Blackbirds and a few Fieldfare. As usual, the Morgan hide feeders and the seed crop were the most productive areas of No.3 bed, with c.130 Chaffinches, c.45 Greenfinches, and 1 Redpoll counted. A Water Rail, calling from the reed beds was also noteworthy.

On the walk down to Bollin Point, the Ship Canal was highly productive, with 4 Whooper Swans setting the tone by flying past us, heading eastwards. Other good counts included: 133 Mallard, 74 Gadwall, 38 Teal, 237 Tufted Duck, 5 Great Crested Grebes, 32 Pochard and 7 Mute Swans. In the drier areas 13 Bullfinches, 9 Jays, 4 Song Thrushes, 2 Meadow Pipits, 5 Buzzards, 26 Lapwings, 350 Wood Pigeons plus the steady movement of thrushes kept us on our toes.

By Thelwall Viaduct a pair of Peregrines was present and 3 Kestrels included a displaying pair, while the ever present Stock Doves flew nervously around. Altogether, a really good morning.

Cheers David

Given the crisp sunny weather on Saturday, Dave Steel, Les Jones and I decided to spend the morning on top of the "hill" (capped tip-site really) at the eastern end of the Reserve, to see what movements the weather triggered. We didn't pick up anything out of the ordinary but it was one of those days when it was a privilege just to be out.

Highlights included: 1 Raven, 3 Siskins, 34 Redpolls, 37 Fieldfares, 5 Song Thrushes, 32 Redwings, 19 Blackbirds, 709 Woodpigeons, 2331 Black-headed Gulls, 4 Common Gulls, 44 Lesser Black-backed Gulls, 19 Herring Gulls and 1 Great Black-backed Gull. The morning finished with a male Peregrine flying with prey towards a local nest-site, presumably to start courtship feeding the female.

Cheers David

Sounds good fun, Jason - have one for me!

Cheers David

Hi Jason, always good to see you getting results for all the effort you put in. Are you down this Saturday? If so, I'll catch up with you then . Happy New Year to you to - and to City (even though you tonked us 3-0).

Cheers
David

A cool, drizzly morning but with plenty of birds around. At Woolston Weir 7 Goldeneye were among the scores of Tufted Duck and the odd Shelduck. Walking across the footbridge into No.3 bed I noticed two Kingfishers perched below the bridge. Getting into the Morgan hide and settling in for a good scan and shelter from the rain there were plenty of Teal in view, with smaller numbers of Pochard, Mallard andTufted Duck. On the feeders, 60 Greenfinches and 50 Chaffinches were dominating the other birds, with a couple of Willow Tits darting in and out. Around the Seed Crop were at least a hundred more Chaffinches, with 3 Song Thrushes and 11 Pheasants also making use of the abundant seed crop. Walking off the bed a few Goldcrests were moving, along with some large tit flocks and a good number of Blackbirds.

Altogether a soggy but refreshing morning!

Cheers David

A mix of bright sunny weather and squalls this morning made the Morgan Hide in No.3 bed a good place to take occasional shelter. Two Woodcocks flushed from underfoot as I walked towards the Tower Hide and 47 Pinkfeet headed south-east. Eighty Teal were in front of the Morgan Hide and 178 Chaffinches were counted flying onto the bed from a roost on No.2 bed, in the first hour after dawn. The Chaffinch flock feeding on the seed crop is now well in excess of 200 and includes a fair few Reed Buntings. Four Redwing, 60 Greenfinches and 24 Linnets were other counts made.

Cheers David

Did the monthly Migration Watch from Butchersfield Tip, with Dave Steel and Les Jones, (at the easten end of the Reserve). Quietish but with some real highlights. We flushed a Short-eared Owl at dawn and then at 7.00 ish we picked up an estimated 35,000 Starlings coming in from a roost in the Manchester direction. They were being harried by a Peregrine before dispersing all over the Woolston/Rixton Mosses where they fed and sporadically entertained us, throughout the morning, by swirling and swooping whenever a raptor passed over. Other sightings included 15 Buzzards, one Merlin, 6 Kestrels, 5 Sparrowhawks and a few Siskins and Goldcrests.
Meanwhile, on No.3 bed, the Ringing Team caught another Cetti's Warbler, the second in three weeks.

Cheers David

A good morning on No.3 bed, with lots of movement but no sighting of the Bittern. The most impressive sight was of 8 skeins of Pink-footed Geese, totalling c.1,500 birds, all heading east. Then the ringing team re-trapped last weeks Cetti's Warbler, which was nice. Other interesting counts included c. 250 finches feeding around the seed crop on the North Meadow. These comprised: 150 Chaffinches, 70 Greenfinches and 30 Goldfinches, with maybe 20 or so Reed Buntings for good measure. Four Collared Doves and 8 Stock Doves, both uncommon on No.3 bed, were also benefiting from the seed crop, while just 6 Fieldfares passed over. In the wetter areas 12 Snipe, 1 jack snipe and 110 Teal were the best counts.

Cheers David

Nice one, Jason (hope you liked the new ride and bay, by the way!). Cracking bird in the hand aren't they? As well as all the Woolston ones, I managed to ring a load of them in the Albufeira in Mallorca and they remain one of my favourite warblers. Keep up the good work

Cheers

David.

One Cetti's Warbler trapped and ringed on No.3 bed this morning by Kieran Foster and the ringing team.

Cheers

David

A typical autumn morning at Woolston, with winter thrushes at last starting to move through and a reminder of summer with late Swallows moving south. Counts on No.3 bed incuded:

Swallow 6
Grey Partridge 26
Fieldfare 260
Redwing 367
Snipe 1
Ruddy Duck 2
Gadwall 48
Lapwing 3
Teal 25
Pochard 14
Tufted Duck 70
Starling 120
Wigeon 10
Canada Goose 47
Skylark 1
Greenfinch 54
Chaffinch 25
Reed Bunting 5
Common Buzzard 4
Kestrel 2
Sparrowhawk 2

Cheers David

Spent the first couple of hours after dawn in the Morgan Hide on No.3 bed, then had a wander round No.2 bed and down through No.1 bed to Bollin Point.

Highlights included two Marsh Harriers (an adult female and an immature bird with no creamy shoulder flashes), two Green Sandpipers, one Snipe, two Peregrines, 120 Teal, 130 Gadwall, 50 Shoveler, 6 Chiffchaffs, 5 Reed Buntings, three Sparrowhawks, 12 Common Buzzards and one Water Rail.

Some good birds and a lovely sunny day - despite the forecast!!

Cheers

David

Highlights of morning of 3/9/11. Counts from across whole Reserve: Lapwing 127, Hobby 1 (flew from regular No.3 bed roost), Shoveler 27, Greylag 1, Canadas 28, Ruddy Duck 1 F, Swallow 21, Kestrel 3, Sparrowhawk 5, Buzzard 9, House Martin c.330 (passed through in 30 minutes), Green Sandpiper 1, Great Black-backed Gull 1, Linnet c.45, G.C. Grebe 21, Tufted Duck 75, Goldfinch c.45, Jay 19, Peregrine 1 imm, Green Woodpecker 1, Rook c.80, Gadwall 167.

Cheers

David Bowman

Hi Steven,

You had a good day there on Tuesday, I was down the day before looking for Water Rail and I have still not seen one.

The kingfisher sighting is especilly good as there have been very few sightings this year.

Did you put any of your sightings in the log book, as I am in the process of adding all the records to the "record" web site which collates cheshire sightings.?

A mid afternoon visit to number 3 bed produced a very nice surprise - a possible Yellow-Legged Gull in front of the main hide.

The bird gave good views without moving a great deal, probably because it appears to have an injured right leg.

I've taken photo's and I'm hoping to get a positive Id sometime soon.

Latest: Don't these Gulls just drive you mad ! It seems my Yellow-Legged Gull is almost certainly a Lesser Black Backed - what a shame.



-- Edited by John Barber on Tuesday 17th of May 2011 09:39:52 PM

-- Edited by John Barber on Tuesday 17th of May 2011 10:24:51 PM

Very rare to see Water Rail chicks Nick, a great achievement.

A lovely morning visit here from 9.30am to 12.00pm.

Highlights were:

2 Cuckoo (1 seen next to Tower hide and 1 heard only)
3 Black Necked Grebe
A Water Rail was also seen on a few occasions from the John Morgan hide just before I arrived.
Also, I got a few photo's of Black Headed Gulls collecting nest material in front of the viewing screen. One of the birds has a ring on with what looks like 5836 on it.

John Barber wrote:

---

A little more information:

I checked the postings for Pennington Flash and a Bar-tailed Godwit was reported on Tuesday 3rd May. Chances are this may have been the same bird.

---

Just been speaking to one of the founders of the WECG and the last Bartail Godwit was 2008 but the one before that was 1992. So not a common bird.

Main highlights this afternoon :-

5 Black necked Grebes
1 Little Grebe
4 Sedge Warblers
1 Reed Warbler
3 Reed Buntings
Great Crested Grebes
4/5 Buzzards
1 Kestrel
2 Jays
1 Water Rail - smashing views, well out in the open for a couple of minutes
1 Redshank
6 Pochards
3 Shelducks
Whitethroats, Willow Warblers and Chiffchaffs plus many other of the more common species giving a total of 40.

Rick.

-- Edited by Rick Donkin on Sunday 8th of May 2011 11:40:44 PM

John Barber wrote:

---

Hi Alan,

It was me who reported the Bar-tailed Godwit at Woolston. I'm afraid I didn't enter the sighting into the log book but I did put the details on the Nobo board.

I noticed that there were three Black-tailed Godwits reported on no.3 bed a couple of days ago, but I'm pretty sure this was a Bar-tailed It was only 25 yds away in front of the main hide and had a definate slight upcurved bill and managed to fan it's tail very nicely and show the pale bars. I hope someone else gets over to confirm the bird.

Along with the Godwit there was also a Redshank ( with which it kept fairly close company ) and a little later they were joined by an Oystercatcher - almost felt as though I was at IMF !

---

Hi John, Thanks for the reply, the Bar Tail Godwit as I said earlier is not a common sighting for Woolston, so its a good record and I will add it to my records.One of my tasks is to submit all the log book records onto the "RECORD" web site at the end of the year.

Permit holders have asked for the notice boards to be placed in the hides so they can see what birds of interest have been seen. However to ensure records do not get overlooked we still need the log book to be used for our main source of sightings.

alan patterson wrote:

---

I have just got back from buying a pair of binoculars and the salesperson knows I am a Warden at Woolston so he told me a Bar Tail Godwit was being reoprted on his pager on No 3 bed Woolston ( Permit only) at 3.15.

Its the first one reported in the 10 years I have been going to Woolston. I have no idea who reported it and I hope that they entered it in the log book! I heard last night that some one had seen c30 Waxwings on several occasions before xmas on No 4 bed and only reported them now when bumping into a warden.They would have been a nice record for our annual report that will be out later in the year.

-- Edited by alan patterson on Friday 6th of May 2011 06:00:15 PM

---

Alan, the barwit was reported by John Barber (a friend of mine). He told me earlier by text. I'll find out if he put it in the log book.

Saturday 23rd April 6.15-8.30am

I didn't manage to locate the R N Duck or the Graganey this morning, but did locate two different Grass Hopper Warblers. Both were showing very wellmoutside the Frank Linley hide area.
Other birds of note were 4 B N Grebes, 2 Little Grebes, 2 G B B Gull, 1 Buzzard between number 3 bed and the canal. Lots of Whitethroat and Chiff chaff.

Quite an exciting afternoon at Woolston today.

Arrived at the main new hide to find two highly excited birders observing possible Honey Buzzard over the lagoon on No.3 bed. This bird came and went several times over the next 15 minutes giving reasonable views until chased off by a ' standard ' buzzard.

A little later a Black Winged Turn briefly turned up, again over no.3 lagoon, followed by sightings of the pair of Garganey resident at the moment.


Thanks to Sid Ashton for spotting my 'deliberate ' mistake - the Black Winged Turn should obviously read: Black Tern.

-- Edited by John Barber on Saturday 23rd of April 2011 10:25:01 AM