Of course the only really important thing is that the location of sightings are accurately recorded for official purposes for the Greater Manchester Bird Recording Group, which sightings on this forum do not contribute towards. As we know only too well Dave (New Manchester!) locations in the county can be confusing enough regardless of your experience .
As for the bird information services and their use of sightings off this forum, I have little sympathy to be honest. It is they who jump to conclusions or worse still can't be bothered to actually simply check the information in front of them and in their desperate rush to get the information out sometimes neglect accuracy of information.
As discussed on the Hindley sightings thread there has been confusion on one of the national bird news services regarding Pennington Green and Pennington Flash. I think there have been previous instances involving Horrocks Flash, Wigan and Horrocks Hide at Pennington Flash. Aside from these there are potentially confusing names for areas of common land. The Glossy Ibis currently present is adjacent to an area of registered common land, Pennington Green, which though close to Hindley is actually in Aspull. Then there's the area of registered common at the SE of Pennington called Aspull Common. In Aspull itself there are large areas of common land, collectively called Aspull Common. So you can take your pick from Pennington Green in Aspull, Aspull Common at Pennington or Aspull Common in Aspull. If the Glossy Ibis commutes between these we've had it....
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