friday 19th oct- 22 wigeon on main flash by point-loads of redwings,plus all the usual stuffthe injured LBB FROM THE OTHER WEEK IS LOOKING BETTER-SEEMS TO SPEND THE DAY BY THE BURGER VAN AND THE NIGHTS UNDER HORROCKS HIDE

-- Edited by JOHN TYMON at 17:13, 2007-10-19

Wednesday 17th October, 11:30am

A two hour stint just around the southern side of the flash, still searching for Yellow-broweds, although a Firecrest would do, best I could manage was:

Blackcap- 1 female
Coal Tit- 2
Loads of Thrushes still...

Not much really was it

I have now put a photo of the poor creature on the galleries, the missing part of it's wing appears to be very cleanly cut with sharp, straight edges to the feathers, this could have been an encounter with a fox I suppose but it looks altogether more 'industrial' to me, as though it had caught it in some machinery or the like, perhaps on a refuse tip?

As for it's age, LBBGulls are notoriously difficult to age due to the extreme variation and they certainly never cease to keep me on my toes! This bird is likely, in my opinion, a 2nd summer/3rd winter. It does have an apparently fully grey mantle, scapulars and wing coverts (visible on other photos I have) although I still think it is not a truely uniform grey and that there is very slight brownish amixed in some on the feathers. The eye is pretty much right for that age, the bill would be too but a pinkish bill base is slightly unusual () and the pinkish legs can be carried right through to 3rd winter on some birds. P10 (the outermost primary) is obviously old and immature being browner and worn looking, whereas the other primaries are still growing and are adult like complete with white tips.

Keeping it brief for the time being (I could go on and on ) but any other comments are welcomed.

12/10/07 early morning

Whooper Swan.
f. Goldeneye.
Dunlin.
35 Snipe.
100 Pinkfeet (details on Pinkfeet thread).

per Barry Hulme.

-- Edited by Ian Woosey at 14:25, 2007-10-12

Monday 8th October 11:45

Raven- 1 flew over the SE corner of Pennington calling and heading east.
Chiffchaff- 2, on the south side

Still no Yellow-browed Warbler though

29/09/07 0930-1430

No sign of Black necked grebe
5 snipe
2 juv common tern
4 common buzzard
3 wigeon
3+ willow tit

Thursday 27th September 09:30am

Black-necked Grebe- juv still in Rammies
Whimbrel- 1 over Horrock's Hide c09:45 (four of us in there and we still couldn't get a visual on it)
Common Tern- 1 juv
Hirundines- still plenty over the water

Monday 24th September 6pm

Black-necked Grebe- 1 juv still in Ramsdales
Pintail-1
Wigeon- 13
Swallow- 5

All info thanks to Phil Rhodes

23/9/07 mid morning

2 Garganey round the scrapes.
juv Black-necked Grebe in Rammys.
Green Sandpiper & 3 Wigeon from New Hide.
7 Snipe.
Buzzard over Mossley Hall.
100+ Shoveler.

(Barry Hulme had an ad.Med Gull on the spit briefly @ 07.00)

22.09.07-1-4pm
garganey-2f,green sandpiper-still at the front of new hide,black necked grebe -1 juv still in rammies,plus all the usual suspects

Tuesday 18th September

Red-necked Phalarope- 1 juv, not seen after 11;20ish (and no it didn't make it's way to Hope Carr and moult all of it's upperparts in the 2 minute journey.)

Raven- 2 flew over whilst watching the Phalarope, both calling whilst heading west, mega Pennington birds my first ever records- what a day

Mediterranean Gull- 1 adult winter, in the gull roost at c7pm found by Rob and Sonia Adderley

Juv RED NECKED PHALAROPE 10.20am at least in middle of main flash feeding.

Info from Ian McKerchar and A Doyle refound it this morning.

Monday 17th September

A Red-necked Phalarope was reported from Pennington Flash this morning, from infront of Horrock's hide at approximately 7:45am. The bird was, apparently, only seen very briefly and certainly wasn't present during the rest of the day, I do have an observers name and hopefully will receive full details to allow this significant record to be included in the county records.

I dont know why people feel so negatively about this shelduck. its them ruddy magpies that annoy me!

ventured birding out of Rochdale for the first time in ages! went to Pennigton Flash;

Ruddy Shelduck near burger van with what i presume is an emperor hybrid (very similar to one we had at Holl Lake 06 - is it the same one?)
Nothing out of ordinary, Kingfisher, 5 chiffchaff (part of a mobile flock of tits), 6 Snipe, 2 Willow Tit, Little Grebe.

Also Migrant Hawker Dragonfly from new hide.

Dave

Thanks to superb images from Mike Baron I have received this morning (which will still be appearing in the galleries shortly), it is obvious that the Ruddy Shelduck is NOT of wild origin and therefore is not acceptable to be counted on any lists that appear on the website, which follow BOU guidelines. Why not wild? Well, despite having no rings and being fully winged it's presence happily waddling around the area behind the burger van does it no favours at all, sure the Coots are wild and the Canadas acceptable but true Ruddy Shelducks are true rarities and are best only acceptable after large movements of the species throughout Europe, usually after dispersing from breeding grounds. Single birds like this one, happily co-existing with man (in car parks) don't really cut the mustard

BOU currently only list Ruddy Shelduck on the following catagories, B, D and E, only B forms part of the British List, the catagories mean the following:

B Species that were recorded in an apparently natural state at least once between 1 January 1800 and 31 December 1949, but have not been recorded subsequently.

D Species that would otherwise appear in Category A except that there is reasonable doubt that they have ever occurred in a natural state. Species placed in Category D only form no part of the British List, and are not included in the species totals.

E Species that have been recorded as introductions, human-assisted transportees or escapees from captivity, and whose breeding populations (if any) are thought not to be self-sustaining. Species in Category E that have bred in the wild in Britain are designated as E*. Category E species form no part of the British List (unless already included within Categories A, B or C).

It's a nice bird either way

THE WHITE HEADED GOOSE AT PENNY HAS BEEN AT THE FLASH SINCE ABOUT APRIL-USED TO BE BY THE YAUGHT CLUBS WITH THE CANADAS THEN ROUND THE CHIPPY VAN DURING THE SUMMER-ITS VERY AGRESSIVE-NEARLY TOOK MI LEG OFF ONCE FOR A CHIPI THINK ITS A MONGREL CROSS BARNACLE/BAR HEADED/ANYTHING THAT JUMPED ON ITS MOTHER-PROBABLY A PART PIT BULL TERRIER THE WAY IT RAN AT ME NEAR THE ICE CREAM VANLAST WEEK THERE WAS A HIDE FULL. ALL COVERED IN LEICA TRYING TO MAKE IT INTO A SNOW GOOSEBY THE WAY THE SAME GROUP WERE CONVINCED THE GREEN SAND WAS A GREENSHANKDON'T ALWAYS BELIEVE WHAT PEOPLE SAY A BIRD IS BECAUSE THEY ARE CARRYING £2000 WORTH OF GEAR,JUST AS LIKELY THE FELLA WITH THE LITTLE PAIR OF BINSAND THE NIKON CAMERAKNOWS MORE

SAME AS IAN EARLIER ALL STILL PRESENT AT 3.30PM

Been working away all week. Got back late yesterday afternoon, grabbed the dog, bins and camera and shot off to PF.

Usual Green Sand at New Hide, 2 Willow Tits at Bunting hide. Nuthatch appeared and was in and out for 30 mins or so - managed one half decent photo. Only when I got home I realised I had never seen Nuthatch here before and even more surpised this morning to find it had MEGA status.

Mike

12/9/07

Nuthatch seen today at the feeding station.

(before you all start falling about laughing, Nuthatch is a Pennington MEGA ! ! !)

info from B Hulme, though the guy who saw it is called Carl.

tues 11th sept 10.30-11.45
Blackneck grebe and little grebe still on Rammies good comparison togeher.
snipe and kingfisher showing from teal hide also another kingfisher from lapwing hide.
teal,gadwal,shoveller and wigeon showing well still eclipse plumage.
Plenty tits beginning to flock,willow at feeding station.

Sunday 9th Sept.

Black-necked Grebe- 1 juv still in Rammies
Little Gull- 1 through at 10:05am

All info thanks to Birdnetinformation pager services.

ah thanks. i saw a kingfisher on that bit a couple of days ago.

Hi, Im new to this forum so my sightings are a bit out of date.

I usually park up at the small car park near the canal crossover at lowton, and near the tip. Last week I saw a green woodpecker on the telegraph pole by the car park, also about three weeks back, a female wheatear on the fence around the flash (canal side, on the top of the hill). Sorry I dont know the local lingo for all the locations at the flash. what is rammys?