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BACK TO THE MANCHESTER BIRDING WEBSITE HOMEPAGE -> Manchester Birding Forum -> All other Greater Manchester wildlife sightings -> Strinesdale (other wildlife)
Post Info TOPIC: Strinesdale (other wildlife)
Mike Chorley


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RE: Strinesdale (other wildlife)
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Lots of Speckled Wood and a single Small White.

Common Bonnet &
Birch Milkcap
were new finds for the site, plus a couple of good clumps of Velvet Toughshank

Best find of the day was a scattering of Autumn Crocus around one of small ponds. First I've seen here.

Nice to chat to the Friends of Strinesdale people.

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Mike Chorley


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A lot of the plants seem to have gone over fairly quickly this Summer, but among the almost ubiquitous Himalayan Balsalm blehevileye a good selection of Willowherbs (Rosebay, Great and Broad-leaved), together with Yellow Loostrife and Ribbed Melilot provided some variety

A few Small Heaths and Meadow Browns, several Speckled Woods and Peacocks and good numbers of Large Whites, including a couple which didn't seem to know if they were mating or fightingconfuse

Looks like a good crop of Rowan berries this year, although there would be more if some of the trees along the side of the overflow channel from the Top reservoir to Golden Steps hadn't been cut downdisbelief. With luck, Chainsaw Charlie's next port of call will be at the viewpoint, which doesn't have a view at the moment! At least the resulting scramble through the Birches on the old dam wall to confirm breeding on the Top Res. produced some new records of Brown Birch Bolete.

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Mike Chorley


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In addition to last month's plants:

Foxglove

Common Cleavers

Ragwort

Herb Bennet

Broad-leaved Willowherb

Garden Iris

Common Spotted Orchid

Monkey Flower

Meadow Vetchling

Black Medick

Dog Rose

Selfheal


1 large mass of Bramble in flower attracting a couple of species of Bumblebee (Buff- and White-tailed) as well as several species of hoverfly, including at least 1 wasp mimic.


New site for Blushing Bracket


Ringlet (c 10), Speckled Wood (2), Meadow Brown (2) Large Skipper (1) and a small white butterfly, to distant to i.d. but about the size of a female Orange Tip. Also 3 SilverGround Carpets and at least 2 species of grass moth.


The little pathside pond between the reservoirs looks to be too muddy to have produced any frogs this year but plenty of Pond Skaters and other insect life to attract 1 male Broad-bodied Chaser, 3 Common Blue and 2 Small Red Damselflies (the latter in tandem) - unlike the dipping pond, where a large number of small flies had only 1 Small Red Damselfly to pursue them. Maybe the Moorhen family here have had an effect! Other invertebrates included 1 Mayfly-type heading upstream towards Bishop's Park and lots of Cuckoo Spit.


-- Edited by Mike Chorley on Tuesday 9th of July 2013 08:46:19 PM

-- Edited by Mike Chorley on Tuesday 9th of July 2013 09:17:01 PM

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Mike Chorley


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Among an abundance of Buttercups, Daisies, Vetches and Red Campion smaller drifts and singletons of:
Ragged Robin
Southern Marsh Orchid
Yellow Flag
Birdsfoot Trefoil
Meadow Cranesbill
Welsh Poppy
Water Forget-me not
Silverweed
Meadow Thistle

NO Butterflies, but plenty of other winged invertebrates including
Drone Flies
and two newly emerged Damselflies

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Mike Chorley


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White-tailed Bumblebee

Orange Tip and Small White Butterfly males having a punch-up

Cowslip
Coltsfoot
Cuckoo Flower
Marsh Marigold
Pink Purslane
Greater Stitchwort

Weaselbiggrin

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Mike Chorley


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A few signs of Spring

Buff-tailed Bumblebee
Frogspawn -reasonable amount in the usual pond

Common Daisy
Daffodil (feralbiggrin)
Dandelion
Coltsfoot
Golden Saxifage (Opposite-leaved)

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Mike Chorley


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Grey Squirrel 6 (including one with a twisted tail)

Jelly Ear
Peeling Oysterling
Elder Whitewash
Stagshorn
Bleeding Broadleaf Crust
Split Porecrust
Smoky Bracket (lots of it)
Birch Bolete
Tripe Fungus
Waxy Crust

Bramble, Ragwort and Bush Vetch still in flower

-- Edited by Mike Chorley on Friday 16th of November 2012 08:45:34 PM

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Mike Chorley


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14/10/2012

Several Fungi, some still to be identified.

As well as the 'usual suspects':
Birch Polypore (a new site)
Candlesnuff
possible Smokey Bracket

I noticed that one of the as yet unidentifed brackets was leaking a golden fluid (I assume rain coloured by chemicals within either the fungus or the dead stump) It may or may not help with the i.d. but it looked interesting and was an attractive effect

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Mike Chorley


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Butterflies:
Speckled Wood 7/8 at least
Large White 5
Comma 2/3
Meadow Brown 3
Gatekeeper 4
Small Tortoiseshell 1

Common/Migrant Hawker - only glimpsed fairly briefly

snouted Pyralid-type moth

Blushing Bracket - new growth in woods around the nature reserve.

Most flowers except Ragwort gone over, but some good splashes of colour from the last Meadow Cranesbills.

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Mike Chorley


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Common Frog

Plenty of both Marsh and Common Spotted Orchids around the site today

-- Edited by Mike Chorley on Tuesday 10th of July 2012 09:52:53 PM

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Mike Chorley


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Since last month's visit:
Black Medick
Marsh Hawksbeard
Monkey Flower
Ox-Eye Daisy
Dog Rose
Common Sorrel
Welsh Poppy
Ragged Robin
Meadow Cranesbill
Birdsfoot Trefiol
Tufted Vetch
Foxglove
Buttercup
Red Clover - these last two in great drifts

Pond Skater

Phyllobius Pomaceus - green weevil on nettles
Gastrophysa Viridula - pregnant female

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Mike Chorley


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It seems that one of the local schools (Hodge Clough Infants, I think) is using the area for their Forest School classroom. Good to see they're getting them interested at an early age.
Shame some of the other people who use the area don't have as much respect for it. (The black bags on bushes brigade)

A good variety of things for them to see (and find) today:
Herb Robert
Southern Marsh Orchid
Crab Apple
Good Friday Grass
Common Frog (and some large tadpoles in the small pond)
Grey Squirrel (several)
Orange Tip
Speckled Wood
Green-veined White
Water Carpet

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Mike Chorley


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Roe Deer: 3
Grey Squirrel: 1
Tadpoles: quite a few in one of the path side ponds.

Apart from Dandelion and Daisy also in flower:
Pink Purslane
Marsh Marigold
Cowslip
Primrose
Blackthorn
Opposite-leaved Golden Saxifrage
Meadow Buttercup
Wild Cherry( not quite sure on this one, could have been Crab Apple, but that's a bit early. The pink-tinged flowers were showing in thicket of Bramble and Wild Roses, so I didn't get a good look at the shrub)

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Mike Chorley


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Too many galumphing hounds to have any chance of any mammals

Elder Whitewash
Good spead of Coltsfoot in flower in the scrubby area by the Top Reservoir.

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Mike Chorley


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3 Grey Squirrels foraging together

3 Roe Deer - buck & 2 does

Large area of one of the mature broadleaved trees covered with a crust. Couldn't get near enough to test it for 'bleeding'

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Mike Chorley


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1 Roe Deer feeding in the Wildlife Area

Around the site:
Velvet Shank
Exidia recisa
Lumpy Bracket
Cylindrobasilium laeve
Birch Polypore
Bleeding Broadleaf Crust
Coral Spot
Purplepore Bracket
Elder Whitewash
Turkeytail

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Mike Chorley


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3 Roe Deer hinds in the Wildlife Area and a Fox making it's way along the east side of the Top Res. this afternoon.

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Mike Chorley


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Fairly quiet today

Grey Squirrel 2
Molehills 6 fresh ones in one of the wooded areas

Single flowering specimens of
Dandelion
Meadow Buttercup
Gorse
Black Medic
Pink Purslane
plus
several clumps of Ragwort
& second crop of hips on a couple of the Rose bushes

Very few fungi. The interesting ones from last month have disappeared and the beautifully lichen- and moss-clad Elder with the Jelly Ear and one clump of Lumpy Bracket has been felled in the latest round of chainsaw 'tidying-up'. Someone seems to have gone along the track from Waterworks Road randomly cutting back and cutting down branches and trees along the verges, but the Willows & Birches blocking the view from the viewpoint are still intact

additional to last month's remaining fungi:
Conifercone Cap
probable Alder Bracket
possible Ivory Woodwax

-- Edited by Mike Chorley on Wednesday 23rd of November 2011 10:25:24 PM

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10.15 - 13.15

Grey Squirrel

The following still in flower (often only single plants)
Ragwort
Red Clover
Herb Robert
Red Bartsia
Meadow Buttercup
Ragged robin
Meadow Cranesbill
Gorse
Black Medic
Pink Purslane
Tormentil

Fungi
Jelly Ear
Lumpy Bracket
Peeling Oysterling
Tar Spot
Stump Puffball
Cylindrobasilium laevae sp.
Turkeytail (lots)
Purplepore Bracket
Coral Spot
Stagshorn
Birch Polypore
Beech Tarspot
A Crust that I thought was Bleeding Broadleaf - until it didn't bleed
and a couple of others that I've stil to identify.
Forgot the lichenised fungus Cladonia pyxidata growing in the cracks on the tops of the walls

But the highlight was a Stoat. Seen briefly crossing from the bridge at the top of the Golden Steps into the small wood on the East side. Then, while I was leaning over a fence peering at yet another Bracket, it walked past about two yards away, carrying a large Frog in its' mouth. It has to be the best view I've ever had of one. It gave me a glance in passing but carried on at its' own pace.

-- Edited by Mike Chorley on Tuesday 18th of October 2011 01:10:28 PM

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