I spent a magical 2 hours at the far West end this morning. It was Warbler Central.
At least 4 Whitethroat
3 Sedge Warbler
Cettis seen several times and heard often
1 Reed Warbler
Several Willow Warbler singing
2 Blackcap singing
Garden Warbler singing and briefly seen
1 Great Spotted Woodpecker on a telegraph pole
2 Jay
1 Common Buzzard over
I suspect the redstart moved shortly after the last sighting. When I got there at about 1.30pm there was a council guy cutting the grass immediately adjacent to where the bird was. It was a right racket, and considering the grass was about 2m square it seemed to take ages to cut, a good 20 minutes. As far as I know the bird wasn't seen after that.
No sign of Redstart in a brief look c. 6.30pm. Horrocks hide closed but could see at least 5 Redshank and 3 Oystercatcher on spit and 2 Whimbrel flew on to end of spit calling but dropped out of site.
2 Black tern still present c.4.30pm and showing well between horrocks and east bay, other birds seen this afternoon
2 Arctic tern
1 dunlin
1 Little ringed plover
2 Ringed plover (by sailing club)
3+Swift
1 Greylag Goose flew into Ramsdales c.4pm
Grasshopper warbler singing at Western end
At least 3 Common sandpiper
Sorry its a day late but here are a few shots of the Male Garganey at Pennington yesterday (28-4-2017). A first for me and well chuffed. It was good to see everyone there as well!
-- Edited by Carl Fletcher-Poole on Saturday 29th of April 2017 05:57:20 PM
Nice to be greeted this morning with 6 common sandpipers feeding together along the car park shoreline. Never seen these birds grouped like that before.
4 Common Whitethroat Numerous Blackcap seen or heard
1 Grasshopper Warbler seen in scrub between East Bay and the eastern end.
1 Grey Wagtail at the far West end on the shoreline 1 Kingfisher similar area 3 Cetti's Warblers heard only.
No sign of the Garganey for me but I only dropped in very briefly to Ramsdale's Hide in order to escape the busy-ness of the Park Run.
This am, 4 Common Tern, 6 + Common Sandpiper, 4 Cettis Warbler, single Whitethroat and Sedge Warbler at west end, a Little Egret flew from the western end and carried on over the car park c. 7.40 and a male Yellow Wagtail in the sheep fields along Byrom lane.
same for me, no signs of the pied flycatcher. lots of hirundines throughout my visit, did not make too much of an effort to look through them all the time but only ever seen sand martins. 1 common tern 5 common sandpiper 3 reed warblers singing in ramsdales, report of 5, I got views of 2. 1 grasshopper warbler, eventually seen & even got my scope on it briefly. 4 cettis warbler, heard only plenty of blackcap, chiffchaff & willow warbler around 3 redshank 2 oystercatcher 1 kingfisher 1 buzzard 1 willow tit plus all the usuals around
No sign of the Pied Flycatcher mid afternoon ( no big surprise with the number of people about). A slow amble around the flash produced 6 Common Sandpiper (5 right in front of Horrocks), Reed warbler in Ramsdales reedbed, 3 Cetti's warbler and a site first for me, cream crown Marsh Harrier seen thermalling with 3 Buzzard from Slag lane in direction of Lightshaw Flash c. 2.25pm for 5 minutes before drifting high out of view.
4 cettis warbler still very vocal, 2 Little ringed plover flew west over rucks c.8.25am, good numbers of Willow warbler and Blackcap singing, an especially good congregation of both and Chiffchaff in trees alongside flash on the rucks. Single common sandpiper still near sailing club.
2 Cetti's Warbler singing either side of hide which is the first time I have heard 2 in such close proximity so maybe there are now 5 birds at Pennington Flash? 2 Little ringed Plover 1 Redshank 1 Kingfisher flew over the hide as I was stood outside and then flew over small pond and through trees 2 Shelduck 2 Blackcap in trees behind
In addition to Andy's records, I was at the flash today from 7am - 11am with a detour to Lightshaw from about 8:30am - 9:45am.
Hundreds of hirundines low over the water first thing, I estimate at least 1000, of which 99% were sand martins. A single house martin was seen (not by me) and several swallows. I had 2 common sandpipers and a dunlin on the shore at the yacht club.
Of particular interest, I had 3 egrets appear to fly out of Ramsdales and then away over the Ruck when I arrived at 7am. Unfortunately I was just about as far away as I could get in the south-east corner and only had binoculars with me. My immediate impression was cattle egrets just from the way they were flying, but there has been up to 3 little egrets at the flash and Lightshaw recently so chances are they were them. I managed a few photos, but they don't really help at that distance, except perhaps to say that I can't see any yellow feet on them.
I continued on to Lightshaw and did a full circuit of the flash but found no further sign of any egrets.
-- Edited by colin davies on Monday 10th of April 2017 01:28:18 PM
At least 1 Tree Sparrow this morning calling around buildings near junction of Slag lane and Byrom lane. Green Woodpecker heard from Slag lane in direction of Lightshaw area. Around the flash proper still 4 singing male Cetti's warbler, single Black tailed godwit, 3 Snipe, 5 Redshank, Pr of Goosander, single Common Sandpiper and Dunlin.
At least 500 sand martins and a few swallows low over the water at dusk today. Also two Cetti's warblers singing, one at Sorrowcow pond, the other at the western end.
-- Edited by colin davies on Sunday 9th of April 2017 08:59:01 PM
at 09.10 male Pied Flycatcher showing very well in the sunshine by Ramsdales Hide, watched for 15 minutes before it moved into the taller trees towards the canal.
late afternoon/evening visit. the same as john but did have 3 shelduck on spit, 2 from teal hide, 2 from ramsdale hide. heard 2 cettis warbler, 1 shown well from tom Edmondson hide. 4 oystercatcher 7 blackcap 7 willow warbler 9 chiffchaff 1 treecreeper 2 jay 1 skylark this evening there were masses of hirundines over the flash, they seemed to stay high up the odd group coming down low, then eventually they were all down low. I am useless at counting birds like this but I would put a bet on there being well over a thousand hirundines over the flash. they all seemed to be sand martins but I did eventually get 2 swallows together, then 3, then 8 together. an awesome sight
Drake Garganey still present at 5:30, with Teal on the 'kidney pond' on the opposite side of the causeway from Tom Edmondson hide; viewed from the viewing screen there.