On my garden feeders in Appleton yesterday M Blackcap and M Greenfinch. A female Blackcap has been around for a few weeks on and off but it was the first Greenfinch back on the feeders for me since last winter.

North Appleton

15th-24th migration reports.

Edit (27/11/24) now had more time to go through data. 17th / 18th 18/7 Woodcock, corresponding with the 'Woodcock November Moon' how good are old Wives tails / almanacs as a source of data...they manged alright decades / centuries ago without EBird or Birdtrack to pick up seasonal trends... though I guess your life depended on it more when you lived on the land.

Still small amounts of Redwing, Song Thrush and Blackbirds recorded each night (5-10 most nights of each)  generally going south apart from on 24th where quite a few birds were going N judging on the time difference between pairs of recorders.

Most interesting was three Bittern flight calls (not me snoring as per the previous Bitten log) around 4:19 am on 17th. All look and sound good when the sonograms are played. Going S.

Lots of Teal (76 reported calls) on 23rd/24th which corresponds with an influx seen at Moore and per comms that mention similar at Woolston.

Today, Ring-necked Parakeets coming out the roost at the Market Garden by Red Lane allotments.

-- Edited by Andy Slee on Tuesday 26th of November 2024 06:53:33 PM

North Appleton.

Nocturnal Migration reports 10th -14th Nov

Redwing well down to between 60 - 20 per night. N-S for the 15 out the 300 calls I compared Sonogram timings for, not a single S-N.

Fieldfare absent. 10-11th Blackbird and Song Thrush popped up with 30-50 records p.n.

Still getting the 6-7 am Curlew movement every day...have moved the sound recorders about off a N/S line to extreme corners of the gardens but couldn't get any better guess than previous than this is a S-N morning movement.

12th Nov / 13th Nov (around 2am) lots of Whooper Swans - 14 detects which look good on Sonogram/Raven.

What is confusing me is we have Tawny Owls in the Garden and sometimes the Market Gardens nearby. They never pick up via BTO Acoustic Pipeline (I've sent the Q in) so perhaps they aren't one of the monitored species. Yet Barn Owl get picked up nightly so I assumed that Barn Owl calls were mistakes for Tawny actual calls. Until at 5:34 am Thursday (14/11) I was driving own my road for an early shift and over the allotment field was indeed a Barn Owl. I'd never appreciated they would venture into 'urban' areas (look on Google Maps, the bird flew from W of Red Lane onto the area by the allotment / Market Gardens. Tell me I'm not going mad and we don't have a leuclistic Tawny knocking about instead?

16:10 in rapid succession flocks of 77, 95, 43 and 88 Pink-footed Geese over North Appleton (coming from the South). The flocks of 77 and 43 both turned west at the Ship Canal and headed NNE over Fiddlers Ferry (which is a direct bearing to Martin Mere) whilst the flocks of 95 and 88 turned again to line up with the Ship Canal and went WSW/SW to either Frodsham Score of the Dee Estuary.

20 Redwings this morning in poplars behind our house central Warrington near bank park . 150 Redwing over sw

Andy Slee wrote:

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Andy Slee wrote:

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Each of the last three night Nocmig Rig has picked up over 200+ Redwing calls pretty much spread through the night. 

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20th to 24th Redwings dropped to less than 100 per night but still a steady stream with 8 Fieldfare on 24th and a Hawfinch which looks good also on Sonogram (0.98 match).

Interestingly I've found that my PC isn't very quick to process files via the BTO Acoustic pipeline (3hrs processing per nights data) but when I run a Windows Emulator App with BTO AP on my iPhone I could do five nights data in seven hrs!

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 28th - 30th around 60 Redwing per night in small groups of up to 10 close together.

Fieldfare 8 29th.

Hawficnh five calls captured between 04:L50 and 05:20 30th Oct.

(These are all North Appleton).

11  Ring-necked Parakeets Red Lane Allotments

Interesting about the geese thanks as I had been watching them in the mornings around 8am (going SW) and evenings around 5/6pm a few times over the last week when I have been around and wondering where they were going between but hadn't got around to looking on a map (watching from Appleton, the most I estimated so far was around 1100 on Sunday in the evening going NE towards Liverpool direction.

A walk near the M56, starting from Arley Road, using the public right of way through fields towards Apple Jacks Adventure Farm on 19th October, over the motorway bridge and around the other side. Not the nicest walk due to the traffic noise at times and the ground conditions requiring vigilance but still Meadow Pipit, Skylarks, Redwing and then late afternoon Starlings starting to gather for murmuration (not huge numbers but already interesting to watch as they swirled around and then came down in the fields repeatedly). 

Over our garden near to Bank park today

Pink Footed Geese - 60 > SW

Buzzard over the garden being chased by a crazy

30 Magpies all headed towards the park.

Nuthatch on my garden feeders in Appleton just now. First since Boxing Day 2019.

And for the second night in a row the two juv Tawny Owls and their parents are deciding to practice screeching in the tree outside my bedroom window in North Appleton. Lovely to watch but last night kept me awake from 2:15 to 5:00am! (Old listed house, none acoustic glazing).

(Parent owls are now familiarly known as Osheen and Rosheen, you juvs have been named Screech and Tounge if anyone gets the play on names from 1970s cartoon magazines).

Passed over Appleton at 8:32.

Plenty of other passage going over as I was out doing garden tasks, four Pied Wagtail individually and four Meadow Pipits in a group (Garden tick!). Coal Tits have returned to the garden for the winter and a mixed Tit Flock (~30) held Long-tailed, Blue, Great Tits and two Goldcrest.

13 Redwing and 65 Pink footed Geese west at 10 am this morning over central Warrington near the Halliwell Jones Stadium over our garden . 

Paddington Meadows am.

3 Cetti's Warblers on the North Bank of the Mersey (2 heard on South Bank towards #4 bed at Woolston also).

2 Jay, one Raven, Blackbird, lots of Magpies (24+), two Chiffchaff, Long-tailed, Blue Great and Coal Tits. Wrens, Robins, Reed Bunting all in sub/song.

Great Black-backed and Lesser Black-backed (6+) Gulls over and Cormorant and 4 Black-headed Gulls.

1 Kestrel and one Marsh Harrier soaring over #4 bed. 

Two Oystercatcher over in flight and a Kingfisher on the river near the info boards.

2 Mute Swan, Mallard, Gadwall, Pochard (flight), Coot, Moorhen, Little Grebe, Grey Heron, flyover Little Egret.

House Sparrows, Dunnock, Goldfinch and Green finch at the allotments at Kingsway Bridge with the dreaded Ring-necked Parakeets (5) having a good time on the fruit bushes.

Starlings (~50-55) on the electric pipes at the rowing club with a couple of House Martins and a few Swallows (5-7).

Smallish skein of Pink-footed Geese over North Appleton a few minutes ago, going SE/E judging from the sound.

22 Ring-necked Parakeets into the roost at the Market Garden by Red Lane Allotments tonight. They are taking lots of fruit off the allotment at the moment our cherries, berries and apples are decimated. 

Blue and White Budgerigar past our house in Appleton near the Bridgewater Canal about 35 minutes ago if anyone hears of one lost. Looks like it was going to where the Parakeets roost at the old market garden near Red Lane Allotments.

Funny, I used to keep Budgerigars as part of my cage birds (98-2010s) and blue Budgerigar (Buggerigars) were always the escapists. Wonder if it was the RAF colours in them made them 'reach for the sky'!.

South Warrington round Red Lane Allotments / Market garden along Bridgewater Canal up to 17 Ring-necked Parakeets roosting since last Sunday inc at least 6 juv. Tonight nice to see 11 Swift (only second sighting from house this year) in the local.

A family party of 5 raven over our house

In central Warrington ,near to Bank Park Warrington 

Drifted off South . 

Juv Wren flew in through my kitchen window today, perched on the draining rack at the sink, looked at me confused and flew out again. Never had that before.

Mixed year for breeding in the garden, two successful Blackbird Broods, one Long Tailed Tit brood, two House Sparrow broods and three Dunnock broods from two pairs (I think). Juv Chiffchaff was around the other day in the trees on the lane next to the garden and adult again singing from there. Neither Blue Tit brood made it though cold spells killing them off leaving the sad task of clearing the next boxes.

Last couple nights 12, then 14 Ring-necked Parakeets have roosted in a tree to the South of Kingsway Bridge over the Mersey, only a few hundred yards from Woolston #4 bed!!!

And either the art class at school were having a joke or there was the ghostly dusty image of a Tawny Owl having hit a window at Bridgewater Higher School (upper site); no sign of an injured bird. Two pairs Herring Gulls appear to be nesting on the roof also!

Last night and tonight - Tawny Owls calling and flying between trees by Red Lane, North Appleton.