short visit this morning nothing out of the ordinary to report, oystercatcher on the spit with large numbers of lapwing, canada geese had a number of odd birds with them plus a very friendly pink-foot behind the burger bar.
shoveler teal etc but no sign of any shelduck this morning..as for the firecrest as one birder put it this morning, It just an urban myth

193 GBBG and 8800 BHG tonight in conditions more akin to a sea-watch

lacking the horizontal white line is common enough due to it being concealed by the scapulars (as per the article) and the head lines can appear vague. If you look at enough teal closely you'll get the idea and atleast were all looking a bit closer now it seems- great stuff

hi craig i saw that strange male teal at the back of the teal scrape 2pm-i wonder if it was a immature male?definately didn't have the horizontal stripe.apart from female stonechat and 18 goosander penny was realy quiet today.i think penny is a good bet for re-finding the wigan rare teal as plenty come into penny from that area

No sign of firecrest this morning, plenty of goldcrest, bullfinch etc, water levels high lot of teal but could not turn one into GW teal.
and loads of forum birders present this morning, Rezmole Warfy Pete berry simon johnson and others a regular little hive of GM Birders.
But no Blooming birds.
keep birding

18/01/08 am

1 brambling (bunting hide) missed the firecrest and stonechat,but hats off to pennington when it,s cold and raining some very good birding to be had,i,ve never been midweek it,s a much better site without the dog walkers and kids(sorry).

cheers geoff

18/1/08

Firecrest present again, along main path past New Hide @ 10.15

2 drk Common Scoters present at first light but flew W @ 08.55

Info thanks to Barry Hulme.

last night (Tuesday 15th):
an impressive 228 Great Black-Backed Gulls in roost, like a flotilla of goliaths
371 Herring Gulls
approx 6300 Black-Headed Gulls (funny how this species always roosts in multiples of 100)
plus 12 goosander and 7 goldeneye

SUNDAY-PM SAME AS YESTERDAY APART FROM 1 MALE WIGEON,GOOSANDER-18,SHELLDUCK-1PLUS VERY LARGE GULL ROOSTAlso met sean wilson (coronation streets martyn platt)who was looking for the firecrest seen last week ,had a good chat with him about chat moss and rindle feeding station,seemed a jolly decent fellow-if you read this sean how about posting your sightings on here

-- Edited by JOHN TYMON at 20:46, 2008-01-13

quick wizz around the hides this morning.

didn't see the firecrest, but

brambling
M&F reed buntings
plus all the usual at the bunting hide

kingfisher

2 little grebe teal hide

Ian Woosey wrote:

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6/1/08 early morning


drk Pintail.

Info thanks to Barry Hulme.

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shame i was going to claim a point for that one-i didn't know it had been seen early-i found it at 12.30,can i have a point for a good photo of the pintail .as well as what berry saw there were loads of siskins,redpoll(a very pale one as well near the screen)goosander-15,plus all the usual stuff.

-- Edited by JOHN TYMON at 18:21, 2008-01-06

-- Edited by JOHN TYMON at 18:23, 2008-01-06

Saturday's gull roost from south side:
Adult Yellow-Legged Gull
95 Great Blacked-Backed
320 Herring
c7800 Black-Headed
didn't count Lesser Black-Backed

05.01.07-12-4pm-stonechat-1f,pochard-52,goosander-12,brambling-1m,large gull roost,myself charlie owen,and mike Baron,went through em ,but could not find owt!!about 50 greater black backs among em though,loads of herring,LBB,and thousands of black headed gulls.

Andrew Newall wrote:

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Visited Pennington today for olny the 4th time.

. Do you get Merlins at pennington ?

thanks

Andrew

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i saw a male go down the point at the front of horrocks hide last week!but there are a few male sparrowhawks about too,merlins are quite scarce at penny

Scouser,

i live in Ahston U Lyne on the flight path to Audenshaw and all the gulls come from your direction anywhere after 2.30pm. Some nights it seems to be thousnads others just low hundreds.


cheers

Andrew

Ian

Thanks for the info on the gull movements. I had a conversation with you on this suject approx 6 months ago - that made me take much more notice of the gull movements at HGF - certainly the large gulls have different travel routes to most of the BHG's. There are often large numbers of big gulls which simply fly over HGF late afternoon, moving from manchester sites and heading to the Mersey. This winter I have noticed larger numbers of these big gulls stopping at HGF for a bath before moving on.

Significant numbers of large gulls are rare at HGF away from this mid afternoon window though Black-headed and a few Common Gulls appear at first light (nearly always from the north) and often stay most of the day - obviously from Penny.

A few weeks ago I was at Fishmoor watching the Glaucous Gull found by Bill Aspin. As you know the large gull roost there comes from Winney Hill and also now a local tip in Blackburn. Bill stated that the buildings the gulls roost on in Walker Park are up for sale and there is a possibility this roost may disappear - maybe some of these gulls will then start frequenting Manchester sites. Glaucous & Iceland are relatively regular in this roost.

Mike

The subject of county gulls and their movements has long been centre of discussion for county gullers, certainly for Pete Berry and I during those cold evenings waiting for the masses the drop in, and it's no secret that they utilise tips differently at various times of the week. This is mainly due to tipping activity of course, some like Astley Tip regularly used scaring methods such as falcons to discourage gulls nd although it worked recent increase in gull numbers there suggests they may have stopped or reduced their scaring. ther tips regualrly 'cap' the tips with soil and such to cover the rubbish which also prevents gulls from feeding, this may happen more specifically at say, weekends when there is no tipping so gullsmove to another tip and so utilise another roost somewhere closer.

In general the Heaton Park roost comes from Pilsworth Tip although we regularly have birds coming from the tips in Lancs like Whinney Hilland when they are disturbed, like recently by a Peregrine or distressed gulls caught up with plastic bags or rubbish fom the tip, the roost disperses, probably accounting for the occasionally larger numbers at Audenshaw. Audenshaw's roost is a bit of an mystery sometimes with it's varying numbers of larger gulls but the above reason with birds coming in over the Pennines from the Derbyshire Tips?)may account for some of it, Rob will have a better perspective than I on that one. Pennington's roost has for many years been poor for large gulls but increased numbers are undoubtably connected to their now seemingly undisturbed use of Astley Tip and it's close proximity to Pennington. My house lies directly in their flight line from Astley to Pennington and I regualrly watch them flying west to Pennington before dusk. There is also, as has been mentioned, much movements between tips, with birds from the Cheshire Tips like Arpley and the one near Risley clearly been seen flying from there to Astley Tip and also from Astley to Pilsworth. In the past large gulls definately used to invariably overfly Pennington on their way to the roosts on the Mersey but now it seems that their ability to feed later and fuller bellies have once again seen Pennington's roost come back to life, something I for one am very happy about,as that of course, should and indeed has, led to an increase in good gulls.

It's a subject I could and usually do go on and on about but if you haven't already seen it, the article on county gulling on the website may provide some useful reading.

Finally, my apologies for the crappy spacing and spellingon some of this post but I'm using my dad's computer which is rubbish as half of the buttons don't work from time to timeand it often deletes words as you type them which isn't best pleasing

I THINK THE GULLS NUMBERS IS RELATED TO FEEDING SITES,AT THE WEEKEND THE GULLS WERE COMING IN AT 2.30-3PM,ON MONDAY THEY WERE LATER,AS THEY WERE ON TUES -SEEMS RELATED TO THE TIMES THEY LEAVE FEEDING SITES AT TIPS,NOTICED TOO THEY SEEM TO COME IN FROM DIFFERENT DIRECTION DEPENDING ON THE DAY?AT WEEKEND THEY WERE MAINLY COMING FROM THE EAST/SE,YET ON MONDAY & TUES THEY WERE COMING FROM THE WEST/SW.I THINK A LOT OF THESE LARGE ROOSTS AT PENNY COME FROM THE MERSEY,AND THE LARGE GATEWORTH TIP WEST OF WARRINGTON.I THINK SOME OF THE GULLS THAT DROP IN AT HOUGHTON GREEN ALSO DROP IN AS A RESTING PLACE IN BETWEEN GATEWORTH AND THE FLASH.LETS FIND A FEW GLAUCUS NOW

we couldnt find it at 4.20pm even with Paul Heatons spotlight

1-1-08-STONECHAT FEM BY CANAL-AND A PINK FOOT WITH THE CANADAS IN EAST BAY18 GOLDEN EYE,35 SISKIN,SPARROWHAWK-1 FEM.PLUS ALL THE USUAL STUFF

aye john same here was nearly dark when we left and didnt see anybody with a torch

surfbirds sightings report ,pennington
ad caspian gull in roost at 4.20

JOHN TYMON wrote:

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Ian McKerchar wrote:

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that iceland's a superb record, your 2nd in a year there john?

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if i carry on like this i may think of entering your competition in 2008

-- Edited by JOHN TYMON at 13:09, 2007-12-31

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and I jolly well think you should John...

Someone has reported an adult Caspian Gull per BG's..