Church Lane Flood: Plenty of water and plenty of gulls. Mostly Black-headed Gulls (560) with a few Lessr-black Backs (7) and Common Gulls (2). But the star was an adult Great Black-backed Gull, a scarce bird on my local patches and my first since 2013.
Old Hall Lane: Pair of Stonechats still opposite Golf clubhouse.
Cheers John
-- Edited by John Rayner on Friday 17th of January 2020 05:19:55 PM
Old Hall Lane: Male and female Stonechat on the airfield side, opposite the Avro golf clubhouse. Could be the same that over-wintered last year. 46 linnets c100 Lapwings flew onto the airfield side 1 Skylark 2 Common Buzzard 152 Redwings 57 Fieldfares 1 Goldcrest by the church 26 Goldfinch 2 Mistle Thrush Lots of the usuals too
Thursday 29th August 13:40 Church Lane flood: 3 Little Grebes at the cricket club end C40 Pied Wagtails around the perimeter of the flood. 37 Black headed gulls
Harassed by a pair of Robins, the Redstarts move along to the hawthorns in the field with the big crater (opposite airfield evacuation gate) at 10:15am There were 3 all together. 1 Male, 1 female and 1 juvenile
One returned to its original position about half an hour later and stayed there until I left at 11.15.
Other birds of note off Old Hall Lane:
6 Lapwings (5 juveniles)
1 Reed Bunting
-- Edited by Adam Jones on Saturday 17th of August 2019 09:13:41 PM
Further sightings Church Lane: 3 Curlew 2 Mistle Thrush
Old Hall Lane: A very large and vocal flock of Fieldfare, I'd estimate 75-100 birds. 2 Chiffchaff gave a nice contrast between the winter and summer birds 3 Lapwing on the golf course 4 Linnets Curlews heard on the airfield 2 Mandarin flushed by the golf course Great Spotted Woodpecker drumming
-- Edited by Adam Jones on Saturday 30th of March 2019 10:43:33 AM
Changing every day at the moment. Today the Gadwall seem to have left but a Little Grebe and a second Coot have appeared. The 2 Wigeon and 2 Oystercatchers remain.
This is small beer perhaps but Church Lane Flood, when full of water, has held plenty of local rarities/scarcities in the past few years (notably: Shelduck, Pintail, Black-tailed Godwit, Dunlin, Greenshank, Ruff and Little Ringed Plover with Little Egret, Marsh Harrier, Red Kite and Common Tern as flyovers).
Church Lane: 5 Oystercatchers 95 Black-headed Gulls 3 Lesser Black-backed Gulls 1 Common Gull
Old Hall Lane: 2 Stonechats (m, f) c90 Linnets in one flock 2 Skylarks (singing from the ground) 52 Lesser Black-backed Gulls (on BA roofs) 1 Herring Gull (on roof)
Church Lane: 1 Great Spotted Woodpecker 1 Nuthatch 4 Mistle Thrush c100+ Redwing in the field (with the white geese in) adjacent to Bramhall Cricket Club. The ground looked like it was alive with them. No Fieldfare though.
c70 Pink footed Geese over flying West
-- Edited by Adam Jones on Saturday 5th of January 2019 07:05:01 PM
Stonechat still in the same area ass described previously by John. c150 Pink Footed Geese from the airfield, over the Golf clubhouse. 2 Skylark 6 Lapwings holed up on one of the mud mounds .
Redwings moving over regularly and also in the hedgerow along the lane by the houses. Around the church, a couple of Goldcrests in the conifers. Large roving Tit flock consisting of Long tailed, Blue and Great Tits, working it's way along the lane. I was hoping for a Brambling in amongst them, but I didn't see any. Other birds seen: 1 Meadow Pipit 1 Jay 1 Common Buzzard 1 Grey Heron 12 Goldfinch Lots of activity on a cold afternoon.
Tried AVRO Golf Course again this morning and the Blue-headed-type Wagtail was commuting between the airfield and the freshly mown fairways.
It appeared to have light-ish powder blue tones to the head (which was not a photographic artefact) and rather too much white in the face for pure Blue-headed. It is probably a 'Channel Wagtail' hybrid. I confess I had to resort to Ian's excellent article on the main website for additional information.
Also on the Golf Course and nearby Airfield:
Wheatear 4 Linnet 4 Curlew 2 Tree Sparrow 2 (mating) Sand Martin 4 (over river)
Cheers, John
-- Edited by John Rayner on Tuesday 1st of May 2018 10:57:20 PM
Old Hall Lane - Woodford Airfield - AVRO Golf Course.
Golf Course: Possible Blue-headed Wagtail (bluish-grey head, reasonably sharp, white supercilium, appeard to have all yellow throat) but couldn't clinch the ID at distance and it flew before I could get scope views. 3 Wheatears 1 Oystercatcher 1 Tree Sparrow
Airfield: 1 Little Ringed Plover 2-3 Skylarks Many Lesser-black Backed Gulls paired and roof nesting No Curlews heard