Yellow Legged Gull - 1 x 4th winter the regular bird that has been around for the past few winter was back in its usual spot on the Buoy opposite the launch area on the north bank all afternoon and also roosted - It was 4 weeks later than last year in its return , also Still showing some of the black marks on the bill it did in the spring.
Mediterranean Gull - 1 Adult late pm and roosted
Little Egret-1
Goosander- 29
plus the usuals :)
Picture the returning 4th winter yellow legged Gull
-- Edited by JOHN TYMON on Monday 3rd of December 2018 06:01:04 PM
Late afternoon dog walk.
Sparrowhawk hunting the reed bed from Tom Edmondson hide.
Kingfisher from screen opposite Tom Ed hide.
Kingfisher from Ramsdale's hide.
Little Egret in trees near golf course.
Sorry Pete. Picked up the Caspian c. 4.25 just around the white bouy straight out from the main watching. Drifted slowly left for c.10 minutes whilst trying to get both kids on it then lost in the gloom. Cracking bird and still stood out pretty well.
Oh sugar,that means I'll have to take her indoors down there again for her tarts tick
Sorry Pete. Picked up the Caspian c. 4.25 just around the white bouy straight out from the main watching. Drifted slowly left for c.10 minutes whilst trying to get both kids on it then lost in the gloom. Cracking bird and still stood out pretty well.
The 3rd. Winter Iceland Gull came into the roost late on but no sign of the Caspian,but as the light had more or less gone before a lot of the bigs gulls came into roost it could have been present
A big thanks to Phil Rhodes for picking out the 1st winter caspian gull this afternoon, I managed to pick out the 3rd winter iceland gull as a thanks Nice to meet mark jarrett.
-- Edited by steven burke on Saturday 24th of November 2018 05:01:21 PM
The Jack Snipe showed well, briefly just before 3pm. It got spooked by a wandering Carrion Crow, sidled off to the water's edge, bounced a bit, then sidled back one step at a time. It then stood next to a regular Snipe before skulking in the rocks & vegetation
Unfortunately, all other birders in the hide had just left to go & shout at a boating fishing pair who had entered the reserve
Friday, 23rd November 2018: 10:00 - 14:30 hrs. Full circuit of Pennington Flash.
Jack Snipe x 1 at end of spit (thanks to Bill Harrison for tip-off) Kingfisher x 3 sightings Little Egret x 1 Goldcrest x 1 Willow Tit x 2 Goldeneye x 5 Goosander x 7 Shoveler x 10 Teal x 12 Gadwall x 25 Bullfinch x 2 Reed Bunting x 4 Coal Tit x 2 Little Grebe x 1 Great Crested Grebe x 4 Mistle Thrush x 4 Goldfinch x 10 Oystercatcher x 1 Grey Heron x 10 Lapwing x 40 Tufted Duck x 200 plus Coot x 40 Canada Geese x 12 Cormorant x 14 Starling x 35 Woodpigeon x 20 Black-Headed Gull x 70 Herring Gull x 3 Jay x 1 Magpie x 15 Blackbird x 10 Dunnock x 3 Chaffinch x 3 Long Tailed Tit x 1 (unusual - only one solitary bird that I could see!) Blue Tit x 7 Great Tit x 5 Robin x 8 Mallard x 30 Carrion Crow x 4 Jackdaw x 1
Jack Snipe found by Bill Harrison this morning well down the spit - giving quite decent 'scope views visually, when it wasn't hiding behind Lapwing or rocks - bobbing frequently. Ridiculously poor record shot through Bill's scope is attached. Bill says he hasn't seen one at Pennington for 20 years.
Otherwise
Teal Hide - 18 Teal, 24 Gadwall, 15 Shoveler, 3 Common Snipe and 1 Little Egret.
Same again this afternoon with a fairly large Gull roost but only thing of note was An adult Mediterranean Gull and again the single boat that now seems to be a daily sail up to dusk covering all the flash ,doasn't help when trying to find something different as the gulls are constantly on the move.Some gulls tonight came in from the North ,so maybe something good will turn up soon .
-- Edited by JOHN TYMON on Thursday 15th of November 2018 09:38:24 PM
An adult Mediterranean Gull roosted,last night in a fairly decent roost ,but the roost was constantly disturbed by a boat up to half an hour before dark,so difficult to keep tabs on ,also 8 Goosander,2 Kingfisher and 400 Jackdaws came in to roost.
Pretty quiet around the flash this morning, nothing out of the ordinary but at least the now resident Oystercatcher was actually probing up and down the spit rather than waddling about the car park with the ducks!
Not much late on either ,and what Gull roost there was which was really small ,was constantly disturbed by 2 boats going back and too across the flash , 8 Goldeneye,1 Kingfisher, and 10 Goosander were the only things of note. All the Gulls this winter seem to be coming in from the SW in the main so seems out Northern feeding area that they have been coming from the last few years is no longer there,and the gulls are thousands down on previous years in the roost .
I called up to the Viridor site in Atherton a couple of times last week and there wasn't a single large gull in the area including the roofs of adjacent buildings and Poundstretcher (where there'd been at least a couple hundred large gulls previously),so maybe the reason why gull nos.have dropped off?. Couldn't see any obvious reason why the gulls had disappeared,maybe they're just not bringing any food waste into the site?
Pretty quiet around the flash this morning, nothing out of the ordinary but at least the now resident Oystercatcher was actually probing up and down the spit rather than waddling about the car park with the ducks!
Not much late on either ,and what Gull roost there was which was really small ,was constantly disturbed by 2 boats going back and too across the flash , 8 Goldeneye,1 Kingfisher, and 10 Goosander were the only things of note. All the Gulls this winter seem to be coming in from the SW in the main so seems out Northern feeding area that they have been coming from the last few years is no longer there,and the gulls are thousands down on previous years in the roost .
Pretty quiet around the flash this morning, nothing out of the ordinary but at least the now resident Oystercatcher was actually probing up and down the spit rather than waddling about the car park with the ducks!
There is a cattle herd at Lightshaw Meadows placed there by the Lancashire Wildlife Trust as part of the site management. The site was checked and watched for quite a while last Saturday after the Pennington Flash fly-through by the Cattle Egret.
-- Edited by dave broome on Friday 2nd of November 2018 10:53:55 PM