...If anyone has any more predictions can they post them a few days in advance
With all the Atlantic depressions that are about to hit us over Sat/Sun/Mon, with their associated S-SW gale force winds, how about wrecked Auks/Petrels/Shearwaters. Although another Sabine's Gull would do
[Or, if I was being really fanciful, and seeing as these depressions are travelling from Newfoundland, how about a Yankee warbler. Anyone for another Parula?]
Hi Tim
Yes John Ts right! I hung around until about 3.50. There were no further sightings after the two flights by the railway line at 3ish.
Funnily I think John R was in the car behind me, but they pulled up further down the road....I thought there was a smell of burning rubber!!
Cheers
Nev
Luck can play a great part in birding! 13:11 I look at the GM site...Dave Thacker posts at 13:07, I need to sort out a few things and I eventually set off to arrive, park, walk down by the cottages. John Rayner (I think), more or less as I arrive, says 'there it is' as it flies across the far side of the field by the railway line...and then it flies again as a train goes by...and it's off, never (?) to be seen again. Not great views for me, but I guess it counts ! ...that's birding..and hell it makes up for all those other times!!! Good to see some great photos for those who got a bit closer too!!
...If anyone has any more predictions can they post them a few days in advance
What you may not have known Nev, was that we first had the news of this bird about the same time as you, but diverted from a successful trip in Hartlepool (Pallid Swift, W. Bonelli's Warbler etc) because one of our party had never seen one in GM. Thanks to Mr Rigby's rocket propelled driving we made it in about 1h 50m and thus arrived only a couple of minutes before you. Missed the main show but got those two flight views.
Luck can play a great part in birding! 13:11 I look at the GM site...Dave Thacker posts at 13:07, I need to sort out a few things and I eventually set off to arrive, park, walk down by the cottages. John Rayner (I think), more or less as I arrive, says 'there it is' as it flies across the far side of the field by the railway line...and then it flies again as a train goes by...and it's off, never (?) to be seen again. Not great views for me, but I guess it counts ! ...that's birding..and hell it makes up for all those other times!!! Good to see some great photos for those who got a bit closer too!!
...If anyone has any more predictions can they post them a few days in advance
Hi Nev you didn't stick around long enough! It showed superbly from just before 2pm to 3pm when it started moving away. I think the last sightings were around 4pm
Luck can play a great part in birding! 13:11 I look at the GM site...Dave Thacker posts at 13:07, I need to sort out a few things and I eventually set off to arrive, park, walk down by the cottages. John Rayner (I think), more or less as I arrive, says 'there it is' as it flies across the far side of the field by the railway line...and then it flies again as a train goes by...and it's off, never (?) to be seen again. Not great views for me, but I guess it counts ! ...that's birding..and hell it makes up for all those other times!!! Good to see some great photos for those who got a bit closer too!!
...If anyone has any more predictions can they post them a few days in advance
Luck can play a great part in birding! 13:11 I look at the GM site...Dave Thacker posts at 13:07, I need to sort out a few things and I eventually set off to arrive, park, walk down by the cottages. John Rayner (I think), more or less as I arrive, says 'there it is' as it flies across the far side of the field by the railway line...and then it flies again as a train goes by...and it's off, never (?) to be seen again. Not great views for me, but I guess it counts ! ...that's birding..and hell it makes up for all those other times!!! Good to see some great photos for those who got a bit closer too!!
...If anyone has any more predictions can they post them a few days in advance
Hi Nev you didn't stick around long enough! It showed superbly from just before 2pm to 3pm when it started moving away. I think the last sightings were around 4pm
I think Nev must have Arrived at 3pm when it flew across the field,and it wasn't much after that when it was last seen
-- Edited by JOHN TYMON on Thursday 24th of October 2013 09:46:07 PM
Mike Passant sent me a PM suggesting that the conversation you, me, Charlie Owen and Tony Darby had in Horrocks about Great Grey Shrikes summoned one to us. It was quite an amazing coincidence!
John Tymon Wrote
Didn't I say when I left Horrock's, I'll go find a shrike, it just felt right on Sunday after the one at Leighton the day before and for once it all came together, when Dave found that one on the Moss, and sorry about passing you at some point on the east Lancs, it must have seemed a bit surreal when you left me at Horrocks at penny to go to your car and then found me again on the moss,getting there 10 Mins before you
-- Edited by JOHN TYMON on Wednesday 23rd of October 2013 08:29:55 PM
Ha ha! Wouldn't have happened if I'd been driving! and Yes indeed you did say you'ld go and find us a Shrike
Well I was beginning to think seeing less common species was a doddle - Glossy Ibis x4 strutting their stuff by a main road, Black Redstart flitting about in the sunshine above Horwich, Pectoral Sandpiper sticking around Rumworth for a good few days ..... easy!
A Shrike for just a few hours on a work day .... now that's a tougher proposition!
Paul, you would not believe the years, days, hours, freezings and soakings I've had trying to get a Snow Bunting on the right side of the border on Winter Hill. Loads 100 yards into Lancs!
Well I have to say that in all my 30 or so months of birding, I have yet to see one! Nuisance this work business - must put a stop to it!!
30 Months ,thats nowt,I haven't seen one for 28 years,and 30 years locally before the one on Sunday, if I can remember that far back,and you know how much birding I do
Mike Passant sent me a PM suggesting that the conversation you, me, Charlie Owen and Tony Darby had in Horrocks about Great Grey Shrikes summoned one to us. It was quite an amazing coincidence!
Mike Passant sent me a PM suggesting that the conversation you, me, Charlie Owen and Tony Darby had in Horrocks about Great Grey Shrikes summoned one to us. It was quite an amazing coincidence!
John Tymon Wrote
Didn't I say when I left Horrock's, I'll go find a shrike, it just felt right on Sunday after the one at Leighton the day before and for once it all came together, when Dave found that one on the Moss, and sorry about passing you at some point on the east Lancs, it must have seemed a bit surreal when you left me at Horrocks at penny to go to your car and then found me again on the moss,getting there 10 Mins before you
-- Edited by JOHN TYMON on Wednesday 23rd of October 2013 08:29:55 PM
Well I was beginning to think seeing less common species was a doddle - Glossy Ibis x4 strutting their stuff by a main road, Black Redstart flitting about in the sunshine above Horwich, Pectoral Sandpiper sticking around Rumworth for a good few days ..... easy!
A Shrike for just a few hours on a work day .... now that's a tougher proposition!
Well I have to say that in all my 30 or so months of birding, I have yet to see one! Nuisance this work business - must put a stop to it!!
30 Months ,thats nowt,I haven't seen one for 28 years,and 30 years locally before the one on Sunday, if I can remember that far back,and you know how much birding I do
I have an affinity with the bird as well. Whilst in Scotland in May 1980, my brother and I were walking from Carrbridge to Loch Garten (we had gone up there by train as neither of us could drive then) when we found two Great Greys near Boat of Garten. We were still learning 'the trade', so to speak, and so studied them for ages so as to rule out Wheatears (!!) A bit later on the walk, an RSPB warden took pity on us as he drove past on his way to Loch Garten. He asked us if we'd seen anything, and we sheepishly told him about the Shrikes hoping we would not be wrong. He said he would check the site later himself. Anyway, a few months later in the RSPB magazine (when they used to run a section on what birds had been seen at their reserves), there it was, 'our' shrike record for the Loch Garten area. I'm pretty sure he didn't just take our word, so we had been vindicated!! A few more years later a book written about the area by Roy Dennis mentioned that pairs of the bird had stayed late into May during the early '80's, and that hopes that they might stay to breed were quite high. However, nothing came of this. Still, this was a 'tick' which has stuck in the memory more than many others.
Another Shrike tale- (marginally involving Greater Manchester):-
When I lived in Bramhall in the early 80's and was an active member of the South Manchester Ringing group, local news broke that a Great Grey Shrike had been found on a farm at Poynton (just over the county line in Cheshire) by young Brinley Best (who went on in later life to write "Where to watch Birds in Ecuador"). A huge crowd of 7 of us locals were admiring the shrike when the farmer appeared shouting the odds about "all these people disturbing his privacy and peering through binoculars into his property".
The following day, on the basis that the farmer had hopefully simmered down, I paid him a visit and we struck a deal whereby if he would permit me to trap the shrike, I would relocate it in suitable habitat to Adlington, a few miles down the road towards Macclesfield.
A small party of us duly gathered to search for the bird, and Barbara quickly relocated it by one of the barns, and within minutes it was trapped, ringed, photographed and bagged. En route to Adlington, I made a brief diversion into Cheadle Hulme (of course in G.M.) where Geoff Lightfoot was surprised to get a brief "lounge tick"). It was a happy outcome in relations with the farmer, as I later presented him with a print of the shrike which he really appreciated as the impressive species it truly is. Of course because of the circumstances, I still needed Great Grey Shrike for Greater Manchester, and dipping yesterday in both morning and afternoon, means I STILL NEED IT......
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Challenges are inevitable, but failure is optional.
My first Great Grey Shrike was in the hand of Mike Passant. Remember that Mike? Unfortunately it was in Cheshire so I have still to see one in GM. I was in Birmingham on Sunday so missed it in GM. I hope its not another 10 years before another one turns up as I will into my 80's!
My first Great Grey Shrike was on the same day as I got my first Waxwings in Macclesfield. I went there by train. Some kind birder asked if I'd seen the Shrike on the canal at Bosley. I explained I had no car and was on the train but he gave me a lift anyway and we passed other birders who'd missed it when we arrived. We got to the canal and it popped up within minutes! Then someone found a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker down the canal and we got that too. It was a magical day.
Just a thought yesterday as I drove home after seeing the Great Grey Shrike at Astley with a smile on my face, was to recall a similar sighting 30 years ago, and how different it was back then compared with now. It was the 2nd November 1983 I was walking with my companion at the time a small Jack Russell called Sam and my elder Brother Robert, who I now see as often as I see a Shrike, which is not very often, and I was doing my usual walk from westleigh to daisy hill and back and as we were walking the river that we used to call the Blue Brook as it was so clear, in the area near Daisy Hill sewage works, in fact the exact area the Lapland Bunting was at a few years ago that caused a minor twitch locally. I remember looking up that day to a high bear birch tree and right on top not 30 yards from me was a Great Grey shrike, and what is different to today was it caused little excitement as in previous years it was not unusual to see a Great Grey Shrike at my other local patch of Pennington Flash, and I just noted it down and carried on, there was no phone calls, we didn't have a phone, no chasing round, no cameras, If I remember rightly Paul Brown came for a look a few days later with me ,but there was no signs of it, and all I had was just a little note in my note book- Great Grey Shrike -1 !!!. I just sent it in at the end of the month on my notes along with everything else to the Leigh ornithological society, but with a couple of stars at the side of it to show it was rare in Westleigh . Compare that with yesterday ,The bird was well found by another local patcher Dave Thacker, who trudges the mosses, and got his reward, but now within half an hour we had text messages and were all firing to the moss, where there was many expectant gatherers, and soon we were enjoying the sight of what is now a very rare bird, and most welcome sight ,many saw it, some photographed it,many who came later missed it, but it created a massive stir, and especially as many needed it for their county lists, everyone in the UK knows its been seen and many seen the photographs ,How things have changed in 30 years.
How strange that you,me, Tony Darby and Charlie Owen sat around in Horrock's Hide at Penny looking at nothing much and hearing that tale of yours. We discussed seeing Great Grey Shrikes in GM. Then by some magic Dave was watching the first GM Great Grey Shrike since 2003; Ian put the text out and those of us who stuck to the speed limit were there in 20 minutes.
It's the first for a decade and the first to be photographed digitally. As you say John: how times have changed.
-- Edited by JOHN TYMON on Monday 21st of October 2013 07:51:15 PM
These birds have a special place in my heart. Ive mentioned it before but at 13 yrs old it was the first rare bird I ever saw. The 1983 penny flash bird.Ill never forget it. Being so ununmistakeably and having such great features to match the pictures in my little bird book. I remember putting that little tick next to the bird and thinking I never thought I would see one of these and it was a long time till I saw another. What a great bird. Pardon the pun
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Did you see it? It was small and brown and flew that way.........................
Just a thought yesterday as I drove home after seeing the Great Grey Shrike at Astley with a smile on my face, was to recall a similar sighting 30 years ago, and how different it was back then compared with now. It was the 2nd November 1983 I was walking with my companion at the time a small Jack Russell called Sam and my elder Brother Robert, who I now see as often as I see a Shrike, which is not very often, and I was doing my usual walk from westleigh to daisy hill and back and as we were walking the river that we used to call the Blue Brook as it was so clear, in the area near Daisy Hill sewage works, in fact the exact area the Lapland Bunting was at a few years ago that caused a minor twitch locally. I remember looking up that day to a high bear birch tree and right on top not 30 yards from me was a Great Grey shrike, and what is different to today was it caused little excitement as in previous years it was not unusual to see a Great Grey Shrike at my other local patch of Pennington Flash, and I just noted it down and carried on, there was no phone calls, we didn't have a phone, no chasing round, no cameras, If I remember rightly Paul Brown came for a look a few days later with me ,but there was no signs of it, and all I had was just a little note in my note book- Great Grey Shrike -1 !!!. I just sent it in at the end of the month on my notes along with everything else to the Leigh ornithological society, but with a couple of stars at the side of it to show it was rare in Westleigh . Compare that with yesterday ,The bird was well found by another local patcher Dave Thacker, who trudges the mosses, and got his reward, but now within half an hour we had text messages and were all firing to the moss, where there was many expectant gatherers, and soon we were enjoying the sight of what is now a very rare bird, and most welcome sight ,many saw it, some photographed it,many who came later missed it, but it created a massive stir, and especially as many needed it for their county lists, everyone in the UK knows its been seen and many seen the photographs ,How things have changed in 30 years.
-- Edited by JOHN TYMON on Monday 21st of October 2013 07:51:15 PM
