I had a quick look for the 5 reported Whooper Swans this morning near the allotments by the M62 and R.Glaze. No sign but there are 5 white farmyard geese feeding in the field!
Up and down the boundary 7 Grey Partridge 3 Yellowhammer, 7 Reed Bunting Goldcrest 2 Buzzard lots of Skylarks singing and Lapwing and in a ploughed fields near Great Woolden Wood over 100 Meadow Pipit, 30 Wagtail, 12 Fieldfare Curlew. Along the Glazebrook 6 Teal and Gadwall.
2 Male Corn Buntings singing on the wires near Franks Farm down Holcroft Lane this morning, also one Grey Partridge on opposite farm field.
Cracking birds, I will update my Blog tonight
I also decided to check out Holtcroft Moss, just off Holcroft Lane and a Cheshire Wildlife Trust site which is simply stunning, its a cracking peat bog full of Sphagnum Mosses and grasses (if thats your thing) this site is a SSSI and one of ongoing restoration.
If you go look out for the Hebridean Sheep that graze the land in a conservation friendly way, you can actually see where they have eaten all the young Silver Birch and Willow Trees creating a unique and natural place surrounded by the M62 and farm fields!
The highlight was seeing my first Common Lizard of the year and finding such a lovely site
Glazebrook Lane - Singing Chiffchaff (first of the year); a Sparrowhawk fancied its chances over the village green. School/Silver Lane produced at least 4 non-vocal Yellowhammers, another singing Chiffchaff at the top end, and 3 Buzzards.
23 waxwings in Glazebrook on Glazebrook Lane. Feeding on berries in a garden 50yds south of the entrance to Dam Head Lane (opposite side of the road from junction). Originally saw them flying over Dam Head Lane where there are stacks of fieldfare and redwing feeding on hawthorn too.
While driving between Glazebrook and Culcheth yesterday afternoon I spotted some ducks on Glaze Brook a few hundred yards SE of Hole Mill Farm. The brook has very muddy banks here - the ducks turned out to be 70+ Teal with 3 Little Grebes also present. On one of the banks was a small wader resembling Common Sandpiper through the bins at distance - by the time I got the scope out the landowner had flushed everything!
There are quite regular green sandpiper on the brook in winter,I think the area west of the brook is in cheshire and theland on the other side in gm salford borough,teal are regular in good numbers along the section at the back of the raven inn.its a good little area ,thats underwatched,ive been a couple of times this winter,and seen merlin,and good numbers of yellowhammer etc
-- Edited by JOHN TYMON on Tuesday 23rd of February 2010 07:08:03 AM
The Glaze Brook or R Glaze is the boundary between GMC and Cheshire. Birds on it count as being in GMC so please post any other sightings in the County section. When I was doing a Tree Sparrow survey at Hole Mill for the RSPB, there were regularly good numbers of both Teal and Little Grebes wintering on the river there. Tufted also breed in that area regularly.
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Judith Smith
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Lightshaw hall Flash is sacrosanct - NO paths please!
While driving between Glazebrook and Culcheth yesterday afternoon I spotted some ducks on Glaze Brook a few hundred yards SE of Hole Mill Farm. The brook has very muddy banks here - the ducks turned out to be 70+ Teal with 3 Little Grebes also present. On one of the banks was a small wader resembling Common Sandpiper through the bins at distance - by the time I got the scope out the landowner had flushed everything!
