Having reached 97 in Manchester District for 2010 I'm challenging myself to try and break the 100 mark this year! Unlike the leafy Districts with lots of hills, woodlands and lakes etc that surround us here in Manchester this will be harder than people may think!

I had some interesting records last year with woodcock, black necked grebe, ruddy duck, little ringed plover, green woodpecker, yellow legged gull, egyptian goose, scaup, pintail, green sandpiper, arctic tern and yellowhammer being some off the highlights, but a bit more effort during migration periods will definitely pay off this year. Good luck to all this year, sean.

Well that's it. 114 for the inaugural bash around Stockport. Time will tell whether that's a good total or not.

All the very best New Year wishes to all subscribers to this forum. Have a great 2011.

Cheers, John

One more day to go...

Mr Thorpe is quite right i,m now on 129,thats 17 missing,if Karen manages to dig out any more I may be forced by borough pride to abandon the current phragmites/ice vigil
and go on the hunt,anyone got a cert merlin in wigan???

to the bitter end geoff

I guess Tameside is back where is belongs then - in the top five!

Just wait till next year, the East will be making a come back!

New rules though- birds in the East count double,just to make it fair!

Rob,thanks for updating the thread,as you,ll see i,ve made the effort and updated my totals,nice to see it,s such a close run 'contest' hats off to the bolton crew for persistance.The battle of borsdane brook may well be on the cards

cheers geoff

Not updated this for a while, too busy birding over the summer/autumn. But now winter is here it's back to passing the time by adding up meaningless lists of birdies and birders

So, just one month to go and just one species separating the top 3:

30/11/2010
Simon Warford Bolton 146
Rob Thorpe Wigan 146
Dave Broome Wigan 145
Simon Johnson Bury 136
Geoff Hargreaves Wigan 128
Karen Foulkes Tameside 127
Simon Hitchen Rochdale 124
Craig Higson Wigan 120
Henry Cook Trafford 119
Jimmy Meadows Wigan 119
Steve Atkins Rochdale 117
John Raynor Stockport 112
Sean Sweeney Manchester 89
Phil Owen Manchester 84
Tony Coatsworth Manchester 74
Rachael Hill Tameside ?
? Oldham ?
? Salford ?

Sorry if I've missed anyone.

I'm still holding out hope that people have been keeping Oldham and Salford lists, and with any luck they might make them public soon ?

-- Edited by Rob Thorpe on Tuesday 30th of November 2010 09:57:10 PM

-- Edited by Rob Thorpe on Tuesday 30th of November 2010 10:36:50 PM

No Bury hasnt withdrawn from the borough listing (not yet anyway) but withdrew the list at the bottom.

Still trying and it is at 116 at present - latest addition is Black-Necked Grebe.

Can add the list back on if other people want to see how its going?

Si

Just jotted up and think its about 7 species which I have missed out on in Bury. Hope them Mergs stay till when I finish work

-- Edited by Simon Johnson on Friday 7th of May 2010 01:57:09 PM

very new to all this birding jargon. when you post your score is it your own personal score of birds from your area and who specifies the boundaries to your area?

soz if this is a hugely obvious question but very new

yours

Ian (aspy) Aspinall

I was a bit too to big time, but a big to those who made 100 possible! all round and hopefully the next time I get on a bus it will be for 101! I'll never catch you Wigan lot up though

-- Edited by Karen Foulkes on Wednesday 5th of May 2010 07:36:25 PM

This thread has gone a bit quiet.... but I feel a big band parade is due for KAREN!!!
She (very quietly) hit the TAMESIDE TON- not a mean feat I let you know & in style with an avocet or two. Now she promised me a dance but I'd settle for a jig
I know many of you will be passed the BIG 100 but us Tamesiders are quite happy with celebrating every milestone

Now she will probably kill me so I'm off

Hi Fred et all
I only started putting my borough year list on as I noticed it helps the generous people that go through our waffling posts () and summarise it in a monthly borough list (hence this thread). I am certainly not bragging & I'm definitely letting Tameside down BUT I am having loads of fun & it has led me meeting some other local birders too & some very light hearted banter especially over boundaries (my Boodle wood!) but all in good fun
I think it can be interesting to know what other borough's are spotting & how some areas have either very lucky spotters or definitely more birding opportunities!
I would highly recommend a go at the borough comp to anyone as it does get you to explore your own doorstep more & be that bit more persistant at finding a bird in your own borough, even if you know you can spot them easier elsewhere, very satisfying .
Rae

i have no problem with people making lists,though i dont do it myself. i consider myself to be in the less than fanatical fraternity.nevertheless i think this is an excellent site and i read it every day.ive never twitched a bird in my life unless its local to me(eg the marsh harrier at bryn flash this year).but putting lists at the bottom of posts i find a little bit disturbing.whats that all about.it smacks of ego and not a little boasting."ive seen more than you" etc.it has no effect on me as i couldnt care less how many species ive seen in wigan,manchester,out of county etc.and if people exist who for these reasons wont set foot out of county i find this very very sad.

-- Edited by fred fouracre on Friday 9th of April 2010 07:45:19 PM

I've been there, done all the lists and got the tee shirt so I'm certainly not going to knock anyone one who still does list every bird they see. Its just not my cup of tea anymore.

I can probably remember where I saw most birds for the first time and I still get the same buzz each time that I see them again. I enjoy my birding more now than I have ever done in my life before, its just listing them is not a priority for me.

I do enjoy putting some of my sightings on this excellent forum and certainly enjoy reading everyone else's postings and all the articles on the website. As Mike Passant mentions "its each to his/her own" and it certainly is.

Mr Woosey

First Cuckoo of 2004 most certainly was on the mosses as was most first Cuckoos of each year since 1970 and I will still enjoy watching them this year around Rindle.

Somebody just said "If everyone gave up listing they'd enjoy their birding more.."

-Well that might work for some people for sure, but sorry not for me. I say each to his/her own!

I dare say I keep more lists than most birders, (literally 100's in cities, counties, states and countries all over) and I do so because for me, quite apart from being able to compare one year/ place with another, it's FUN.

I particularly enjoy doing day lists in whatever of my numerous local patches takes my fancy, and I have records for all of them; for instance 70 species for the patch I live in, 60 in a morning at Low Barns, 67 for Bishop Middleham, etc. just to cite a few examples.
I think the Manchester Mayhem thing is particularly worthwhile and affords me a chance for a full day's birding in good company back in the county of my birth; that means a lot to me now as I get older. My Manchester list is pretty modest but at least I have a good chance in May of moving it along a little, even if I never hit 200.
It doesn't really matter so long as I enjoy it, (all my lists will probably end up in a skip when I'm gone, anyway).

The great thing is that even after 40 years keen birding I still get a buzz out of searching and listening out for relatively common species and summer arrivals; each one counts when I'm closing in on a particular record day count, (there's so often a common species that goes all shy and elusive) and when one is switched onto everything, that's when a good bird occasionally pops up. It's also a damn good way for relatively inexperienced birders to hone their field skills and to check and check again that half glimpsed one (that just may be a Bluetail instead of a Robin!)

- Looking forward to birding down there again soon,
Cheers,
Mike P

Mark Rigby wrote:

---

Reading these posts, does it all really matter that much anyway.

Some people have World lists, Western Palearctic lists, Continent lists, Country lists, County lists, borough lists, site lists, garden lists and OS map square lists.

To have these lists in the first place, you need to have a boundary. It just so happens, that the A-Z and other mapping agencies have produced maps that have a nice black line that tells you whether or not you are in your own boundary. Its your own personal choice what those boundaries are!

But not to recognise other borough's than your own just because you think you are still in Lancashire and the others are not. Bury, Bolton, Rochdale, Oldham etc were all once in Lancashire, just like Wigan once was.

The Manchester Birding website is a valuble asset for us all to record, discuss and learn about birds within a boundary which most of us recognise!


Its simple really, its each to thier own. Count whatever you want, where you want and enjoy doing it, because after all, thats why we do it!

---

Well Said Mark.

If everyone did away with the lists they would enjoy the birding more
I stopped listing 30 years ago.

Geoff Hargreaves wrote:

---

On a lighter/darker note my recent visit to Haigh Country Park didn,t slip past the local,s
(seems their toes are very sensitive)i,ve had at least one malicious text,and an email that led to a very heated debate in the sanctus factory outlet,it,s offical they don,t issue permits for Haigh Hall just bags of very nice balls.I try the Legs of Man top end bar before I give up


cheers geoff

---

My dear Mr Hargreaves,

As Haigh Country Park is a Royal Park, only descendants of William de Bradshaigh or the Earls of Crawford & Balcarres are allowed birding rights (of which we, viz Woosey, Risley, Broome & Meadows, have). Poachers will be shot - you had a very lucky escape !

tongue in cheek
YEH IT DOES

On a lighter/darker note my recent visit to Haigh Country Park didn,t slip past the local,s
(seems their toes are very sensitive)i,ve had at least one malicious text,and an email that led to a very heated debate in the sanctus factory outlet,it,s offical they don,t issue permits for Haigh Hall just bags of very nice balls.I try the Legs of Man top end bar before I give up


cheers geoff

A new tier of authority, covering the whole of GM has been proposed by GM's 10 local authorities.
See www.agma.gov.uk

Just to add my 2p. Greater Manchester County Council ceased to exist in 1986 culled by Mrs Thatcher. Unitary authorities replaced them. So its not clear if GMC actually exists. Tameside, where I hark from was combination of old Lancashire and cheshire and I think Yorkshire. I'm an old crock, but not an ancient one and can still remember pre GMC. You still get rather daft line splitting on the rossendale bury rochdale border on castle hill road with a short hop of any bird landing in three two or one of those areas and counted or not accordingly by obsessive line marking. I am not sure if Hyde as anything in common with Hindley apart from many people in both towns may not consider themselves as Greater Mancunians. Of course you can be in denial and that Greater Manchester has never, or should never exist and pine for a golden era of old counties. In Hyde many people I know cling to an address that ends in Cheshire. And why not. I accept the general point of an area of the conurbation where sighting can be counted but I raise the point does Greater Manchester exist?

Rob, I know exactly where you're coming from but for me personally it doesn't exactly work that way.

Of all the rare and scarce I've found in the county the excitement comes from finding a bird out of context, away from where it should be, lost as it were, not from it merely being in this county as such. It's of course exciting that it's around where I live but if it were elsewhere in landlocked Britain then I assure you I'd be equally as happy. I don't keep a county list nor have I any interest in one yet I keep a borough list and am fairly passionate about it. Why? Probably simply because I'm at the top and want to stay there! I've never twitched a borough bird just because I've needed it for that list, in fact all those birds on it are there just because I've been an active birder in the borough for so long (old git!) and had never considered a list for it until I put them on the website for a bit of interest etc. Would I twitch a bird in the borough for my list now though? You betcha I would

That's not of course, to say I'm not passionate about the county because clearly I am. I have and continue to spend considerable time, effort and money in the Manchester Birding ethos of 'encouraging, improving and enjoying county birding', I live here and plan to make the most of what we've got. I am a passionate advocate of Greater Manchester, yes, but I'm just here for the birds at the end of the day (where ever they are) and if by encouraging and improving county birding that contributes to more good birds around where I live then I'll be a happier man.

Unfortunately, despite the banter involved in both this thread and borough birding, sometimes 'boundary birding' can go too far. I'm not talking about anything in this thread or going on in the website but some birders simply wouldn't contemplate being invloved in Greater Manchester just because they don't recognise it's exisitence. Crazy? Some birders ignoring the county aren't old enough to even remember pre-Greater Manchester, let alone have birded in it (and the one's that can are soooo old)!

But it's these invisible boundaries that make the birds we find "special" Ian. You must agree that, for example, finding a Shorelark in your home, landlocked, western borough would feel a lot more special than just finding a Shorelark somewhere in Britain...