13 occupied nests Sunday AM.

Dave Bishops' 'Jackdaw City' on the friends of Chorlton Meadows blog spot, posted 5th Feb

http://friendsofchorltonmeadows.blogspot.com/2011/02/jackdaw-city.html

I spoke to Dave last week and he wondered of the roost could be around the Ashton-on-Mersey ETW. Ive not had chance to check it out yet.

-- Edited by Pete Hines on Monday 21st of February 2011 10:09:14 PM

My last post refered to 'lots of Jackdaws over at dusk'. From early Dec 2010 I have noticed a steady movement of Jackdaws over Chorlton (and recently Withington) starting about an hour before dusk, all heading in the same direction. The birds are congregating in tall trees along Darley Avenue / Hardy Lane and Chorltonville and then clustering in a pre-roost gathering in the tall trees at the pumping station at the end of Brookburn Rd. 1100 - 1200 birds were there this evening before all departing en-mass over Chorlton Ees in the direction of Stretford (Cemetary ?) by 17.15. I suspect I missed hundreds more which had passed over the Ees earlier. Now to find the roost.

1 Buzzard
1 Meadow Pipit Hardy Farm
15 Greenfich Hardy Lane

Large reedbed/scrub area north of river mersey:
1 Grasshopper Warbler - showed really well after tracking its reeling for a good 15 mins
5+ Reed Warbler
2 Sedge Warbler
1 Pied Wagtail

Also, amazing sight on the River Mersey near Chorlton Ees - a 40 strong party of Canada Geese, made up of 5 adults anf 35 goslings.

Ollie, this will undoubtably be a young Grey Wagtail. Check out the photos on the Manchester Birding galleries for images of juveniles of both species. It would be very early indeed for juveniles of Yellow Wagtail and in a most unusual habitat for them whereas the time/habitat (not to mention description) fit that for Grey Wagtail.

I've definately had juvenile Grey Wag on that stretch of the mersey, last Wednesday being fed by an adult, could be another of that brood??

Am I right in thinking the two look similar when they are fledglings?

At least 4 Reed Warblers in reedbed
1 Sedge Warbler
Lots of Whitethroat
Swifts, Swallows and 2 House Martins over River
Male Grey Wagtail feeeding 1 youngster on rockiest part of River (mouth of Chorlton Brook)

1 Gropper
1 Sedge Warbler
at least 2 Reed Warbler
Herons putting on a good show

07.00-09.45

3 Grasshopper Warbler, 2 reeling, 1 calling, all showed well
2 Sedge Warbler singing
3 Reed Warbler singing
2 Lesser Whitethroat singing at Hardy Farm. 1 at the orchard & 1 at the old scramble track
17 Common Whitethroat (2 females)
1 Goldcrest in song at the heronry (& 1 in song in my garden)
2 pair Reed Bunting
6 Bullfinch
34+ Swift
12+ House Martin
Sand Martin
Swallow
4 Tufted Duck
several well grown soggy young Herons

At least 12 occupied nests in the heronry
1 Goldcrest

A raptor circling over Ivy Green at 12.50, viewed distantly with the naked eye from the Bowling Green pub, was probably a Buzzard.

10/5
1 Gropper - reeling at 9.30am 50yds south of meadow ponds
2 Sedge Warblers
3 Reed Warblers
1 Buzzard being mobbed by crows - far darker than the pale CWP/Kenworthy bird

2 Reed Warbler singing from the meadow pond
2 Swift

Gropper reported yesterday

we walked down from stretford via crossford st. (where the big bass pub is the one that looks like a drum) follow it all the way down under the canal then along the path past the cemetary on your left till we came to the mersey then short walk along the mersey until the little bridge that spanns the small stream and it is the small stream path we followed always staying on stretford/ chorlton side of river, along this path no more than 100yds we first heard it and we cut in left over a small bank into a enclosed wooded area ( you can see football pitches on left of the wooded area) where it took time to track it to a few trees . good luck finding it and if your still there at 6ish (lol) we will be back looking and listening

-- Edited by brandon mulhern on Tuesday 21st of April 2009 08:45:15 AM

i am posting this on stretford and chorlton ees as we heard it more on the chorlton side but also on the stretford side to begin with. A CUCKOO we trailed it for a good two hours (we can't believe it as we are planning a trip to Rindle Road to see or hear the one there!) now to be specific about where we SAW it, we walked down the mersey (on the stretford side) until you come to the bridge over the little stream from there we took the left hand fork down the small path and heard it first there! (brandon heard it i laughed at him then ate my laugh as i heard it) it called for 4 or 5 times then deadly silence ( and doubts from both of us ) i asked a courting couple who were in the football field just off from the path and they said they had heard it for at least half an hour) we stood motionless waiting for about 10 mins and then again we heard it and over the next hour or so traced it to a small area to the right of the football pitches. we walked through this area examining every tree listening and finally we both saw it Brandon first then me although i only saw it as Brandon was trying to photo it unsuccessfully( maybe not we have 1 photo that shows something similar to a cuckoo but not conclusive) I watched it fly across the path behind us over the green bench which is on a path parallel to our original path (there are many paths here tbh) the section of woodland we saw it in has an old burnt out car in it that must have been there years! we heard a gropper nearby and saw grey wagtails as well as the usual stuff for this area. But tbh we were like a pair of demented idiots asking people if they heard it (which they had ) one chap walks his dog there every night and never has he heard one there before. i recorded it on my phone although it is very quiet in the background of a lot of other bird as it was very gloomy and almost dark by the time i thought of it!

-- Edited by brandon mulhern on Monday 20th of April 2009 09:00:10 PM

1 Buzzard flew low over the very active heronry causing some commotion. I watched a heron swallow an egg whole at a nest last week which now contains a very large juvenile.
pair Blackcap
4 Chiffchaff
4+ Pheasant
Gt/sp Woodpecker
Jay

Tony Darby counted 11 nests occupied Sun 1 March

Two herons sitting on nests at the Heronry this afternoon.
Thanks very much for the info Pete.

1 reed warlber - meadow pond
pair of tufted duck - meadow pond
1 reed bunting
3 whitethroat
2 blackcaps (singing)
8 heron nests on the go

dave mcintyre

no chats or wheatears

3 WHINCHAT, 2 males and a female, at the large area of recently burnt grass in the meadow field this evening

-- Edited by Pete Hines at 23:20, 2008-04-28

as viewed across the river from Sale WP bank at 5pm

Kestrel 2 together
Jay 8 in same tree
Grey Heron 4, plus lots of noise from treetops
GS Woodpecker 1
Reed Bunting 2
few Sand Martins and Swallows

2 Blackcap in song
2 Treecreeper together
Chiffchaffs
very noisy heronry with several well grown birds

could only see 3 herons nests occupied , though a more few herons in the area (my son gets bored when not moving in the back pack )
3 grt spotted woodpecker 1 female - 2 males chasing each other
2 bullfinch male & female
female kestral eating a mouse
pair of goosander and a grey wagtail on the mersey


Dave Mcintyre

1 Buzzard over towards Sale WP about 14.00
2 Kestrel
14 Siskin over