Not a pressing concern given all that's going on a the moment, but definitely one for the future. I've thought for a while that the line of buoys defining the no-sail zone had been moving. Tonight whilst birding from the ruck it was obvious just how much they have moved. When I was working at the flash, the line of buoys used to run from the point on the ruck, in a straight line to the north bank of the mouth of the river more or less. Tonight the nearest buoy was almost in Rammies and the line looked more like something you'd see on a snakes and ladders board. I appreciate there are no rangers to reset the line, but I'm sure the sailing club could help out - pretty sure they must move their buoys regularly.

Some progress with reporting the madness at the flash 2 councillors have been in touch and will make enquiries for us.

Originally posted yesterday by Lez Fairclough:

Unbelievable scenes on the main spit 50yds in front of Horrocks Hide at 4pm with approx 20 people some of them swimming & a BBQ in full swing!

Hi David, sorry I didn't get any photos, I was so surprised by the time I thought about it they were out of sight. 2 lads probably late teens early twenties both wearing caps with hooddies over the top.

Depressingly, when I arrived in East bay today at 7:30 there was a temporary hide on the end of the spit. It wasn't a angler, it was the type of hide either photographer or a shooter uses. At about 7:45 the person in the hide got out and took the hide down and left. I didn't see either a gun or a camera but whatever he had it was in his large rucksack. I have photos of the person but I'm not going to post them here.

Unfortunately the fishermen are now encamped all along ramsdales reedbed, m fed up of reporting it and nothing getting done,  Boats on main flash fishermen in Ramsdales birds don't know,were to go. 

-- Edited by JOHN TYMON on Wednesday 1st of January 2020 02:40:23 PM

If you are thinking of a nice day in the hides at Penny, forget it, the whole place is underwater. It will need 2/3 dry days for it to drain away.

-- Edited by David Shallcross on Wednesday 31st of July 2019 06:11:11 PM

I have asked the Sailing Club to remind members of the restrictions, any future sightings please email me: leighos.chairman@gmail.com or let them know on the day. Thanks for highlighting this Craig

The powers that be have acted on our request for a deeper channel to be dug around "disaster Island"  When is anybody's guess!!!

Colin, it's good to hear that the Cowslips have now some protection, as requested. Regarding "disaster Island" can i  forward your concerns to both Mark Champion who carried out the work and Graham Workman who authorised it. (not sure where the funds came from)

The subject with also be aired at a forthcoming Greenhart forum meeting.

 

P.S. for anyone with spare time, the volunteer groups have 3 meetings planned on 24th May - 29th May -6th June. 9-30 am in the carpark. or see https://pennyflashvolunteers.blogspot.co.uk/

If you get no joy on 101 then use 999 as motorbikes on narrow and well used tracks like that pose a serious hazard and could easily end up involving pedestrians.

This is a Police issue John, not only as they're breaking the law riding those tracks but its also poses a serious risk to the public. The more it is reported to them (probably via 101) the greater the likelihood they will act.

?

ok

-- Edited by David Shallcross on Sunday 19th of November 2017 11:38:28 PM

There are no current planning applications: https://apps.wigan.gov.uk/planapps
Search for "Sorrow Cow"

Always best to ask the owner directly if there's an opportunity

Arrived on site this morning around 0.730 to find an angler parked on the shoreline near the slipway next to Horrocks Hide. I challenged him but he said he didn't know he couldn't be there and staff had driven past last night without saying anything. Obviously no idea whether the last bit is true but another indication of how much this site needs staffing. I phoned it through to the golf shop and they said someone would come out. No sign 20 mins later but I guess they don't start till kater

up date on LOS PF volunteers

 

The work we planned in the Teal scrape had to be abandoned today as the water levels at Pennington are over the access paths. A contingency plan was adopted so we proceeded to an area at the top end of the main drag past Tom Edmondson's Hide and on the left just before the canal footbridge. A good place for insects, butterflies etc, which had started to be colonised by tree species. We cleared the area of the saplings in readiness for mowing by site staff, this should improve the patch for the wildflowers that the insects need. Next week we intend to get on the Teal scrape again to open up for viewing into the left-hand reedbed before it's too late, as soon winter visitors will be arriving (hopefully a Bittern ) We will meet next Wednesday 20th September at 9-30am on the car park

John Watson wrote:

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David
It's easy for the driver's manager to forget to give instructions, or for the driver to forget them on the day

Perhaps a more reliable protection would be to change the diary date of this mowing ?

Do the cowslips & other flowering plants need reseeding, or will they recover ?

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Yes it's pretty much as simple as that. Don't mow the grass at this time of year. The plants will probably recover if left alone, personally I'm not in favour of reseeding because it wouldn't be the first time that the wrong seeds have been used and you'll end up with German cowslips instead of native British, plus a collection of other plants that shouldn't really be there, and then it becomes a man made garden rather than a natural grassland. Cowslips are perennials so one season of being mown should not wipe them out as long as it doesn't keep happening, plus a few early flowering plants had probably already gone to seed before it was cut.

Somebody suggested that I report this via the Wigan council website, which I have done. I don't know if you've ever gone down this route, but you go into Report an Issue, then into Parks and open areas until you get a list of sub headings where you can log your issue. Tellingly there is no sub heading relating to damage to nature reserves or destruction of wildflower meadows, but there are plenty of other sub headings such as "grass needs cutting". This sums up the British mentality to me. People must seriously go onto the council Web site to complain that the grass needs cutting, yet there is nowhere to complain that a wildflower meadow has been cut. We're a nation obsessed with cutting the grass and manicuring wild places and I have no doubt that this why the tractor driver just mowed without thinking. If as much time was devoted to managing places for wildlife instead of casually and lazily destroying them with a mower, a trowl and a spade simply to make them (allegedly) more aesthetically pleasing to the eyes of the uneducated, we'd have a chance of reversing the declines in our wildlife. But no, we'd rather see a monotone green lawn than a grassland full of flowers, bees, butterflies and hoverflies.

David
It's easy for the driver's manager to forget to give instructions, or for the driver to forget them on the day

Perhaps a more reliable protection would be to change the diary date of this mowing ?

Do the cowslips & other flowering plants need reseeding, or will they recover ?

Thanks David

If I can get down I will, however 2:30 is not the best time for me on Friday.

 

Colin

As if we didn't have enough to contend with, hides being burnt down, anglers in Rammies, canoists going off piste, kids on the spit, Leigh Fire and Rescue practicing in front of Ramsedales hide, plus a whole lot more, it also appears that Wigan Council is devoid of conservation know how.  Take a look at the attached photos, a formerly beautiful glade on the south side of the flash which two days ago had a wide array of wild flowers including cowslips (see the last photo, taken last week) has been butchered by being mown. This is an act of vandalism by the council on a par with the East Bay hide being burnt down and somebody needs to be held to account or at least retrained. Yes I accept that grasslands need mowing (or grazing) in order to maintain them as grasslands but to do it in May, right in the middle of the cowslip flowering season and just as other plants are putting out buds shows a complete ignorance of conservation and habitat management by Wigan Council. Instead of a wild flower meadow full of colour and invertabrates, we are now left with a lifeless lawn suitable only for exercising dogs and all that they bring (and leave). I might also add that this is the ONLY area at the flash where cowslips grow, so basically the entire population has been destroyed before it had time to go to seed. I absolutely despair at times, the sign at the entrance to Pennington Flash says "nature reserve", but it's a long way from being that.

An afternoon on the flash that was highlighted more for disturbance than the birds themselves,The flash was full of boats ,so everything flushed into Ramsdales,and then were flushed back out of there by fishermen who for some reason decide to fish in Ramsdales reedbed ,where there is no fishing allowed when they have the whole flash almost to go at,so the birds ended up at plank lane end,then just before dusk someone came out paddling round the edge of the flash on what looked like a surfboard,he was stood on it and flushed all the birds from Plank lane end then came along the rucks and flushed the whole Gull roost of about 5000 birds ,there seems little peace for birds at the flash these days . :(

colin davies wrote:

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Leigh fire and rescue on maneouveres at Pennington Flash today, including the rescue of these two from in front of Ramsdales hide. Why do they have to do it on the nature reserve part of the flash?

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Put a formal complaint into the Officer in Charge of Leigh Fire Station (it can be posted directly to the station) as it needs to be logged and obviously what was learned from the last time it happened has not been cascaded down to the other watches or indeed stations involved. They will take action to prevent this from happening but it must be logged officially. Unfortunately, the movement of personnel within the service is such that such local information may be lost simply due to new crews being involved each time and the necessity to train and shortages of sites to do so within the county make Pennington an ideal location.