Singing Blackcap this morning by the sharp bend where Byrom lane becomes Sandy lane. also 2 adult Mediterranean gulls flew north c. 8.30, 2 Greylag geese flew west and c. 50 Sand Martins were over the west end.
This afternoon, now 3 drake common scoter, 2 asleep together and presumably the same agitated bird off the sailing club. Also 11 wigeon still, and 4 snipe on the mini spit.
2 drake Common Scoters though not together, with a sleeping bird closer to the East Bay off Horrocks Hide and an agitated looking bird swimming around the centre of the flash off the sailing club.
Maximum of 47 Sand Martins
12 Wigeon (including five drakes) flew in around 7am
Chiffchaffs - couple heard (1 seen) near Teal hide, but really good view of one singing away only 10' up in a bush by Sorrow Cow pond.
Mandarin Duck - male - walked back along the canal to the Slag Lane end (too much mud elsewhere) and where it widens to form a sort of pond just before the marina, amongst the mallards and nesting mute swans was a male Mandarin happily swimming about. Is it always there? Couldn't see any sign of a female.
Highlights this morning 1 x singing Chiffchaff, 1 x singing Cettis Warbler, 6 x Oystercatcher on spit, 4 x Little Egret, 3 x Snipe, 2 x Willow Tit and 2 x Greylag Goose
Finally got to Pennington Flash on Saturday for a first visit in 2024. As a "tourist" from Northern Ireland I look forward to ticking off a few species I can't get at home. I normally go to the Bunting and Pengy's hide first and then go from there. Unfortunately limited mobility meant I got no further and I was really disappointed at the state of these two hides. My target birds were willow tit, stock dove, nuthatch and woodpecker. I had already knocked off three of these and only needed stock dove but came up empty. The Bunting hide was a lake and all the feeders were empty. Pengy's hide was overrun with squirrels who were monopolising the feeders to the detriment of the birds. Highlight was the sheer number of reed buntings, possibly 12+. The approach paths were wet and muddy and could benefit from some gravel or quarry dust. I will be back in late March but realistically I may give this site a miss. When I first visited 12/13 years ago I really looked forward to visiting and adding hard to get species, recently it has not delivered and clearly the whole reserve could do with some TLC and a bit of money spent. Appreciate budgets are tight, but I feel birders have been squeezed out by dog walkers, families and selling food at the café. Rant over!! I ticked woodpecker and willow at Elton and nuthatch at my son's garden feeder in Bolton. Thanks to the birders who check the gulls and the spit despite the high water levels, I will still check this out before my March visit and maybe things will have improved.
140 Pink-footed Geese over low west at 07:10 and lots of birds in song including Reed Buntings, Skylarks and Bullfinch all on Ramsdales Ruck and a drake Pochard at the western end.
By recent standards it was a pretty small gull roost all around again this late afternoon but three adult Mediterranean Gulls contained two new individuals (so six in the past couple of weeks thus far), one of which was following around and displaying to the usual adult off Sorrow Cow, which itself was flying around calling a lot.
Also nine Oystercatchers, 29 Goldeneye and two Little Egrets.
Early this morning Barry Hulme had four Little Egrets though.
This morning's highlights were a Chiffchaff in the bushes in the western reedbed, Curlew flew north over here, Peregrine west over the western end, small numbers of Siskin in a few locations at least 2 singing Cettis Warbler and Treecreeper in at least 4 locations.also 14 Oystercatcher, 3 Greylag geese and several Water rail heard.
15:15 - 16:40.
Gull roost: adult non-breeding little gull seen from the old hide site on the Southeast bank around 15:50. It passed through a crowd of incoming black-headed gulls but didn't linger, I lost it in the distance. Also one adult Mediterranean gull in breeding plumage. Little egret on the Horrocks spit and water rail by Tom Edmondson's.
Adult Yellow-legged Gull present early on bathing furiously for a while, then flew off SW at 4:04pm (possibly one of the birds from Jan 16th)!
Two adult Mediterranean Gulls, with the usual fine breeding plumaged bird off Sorrow Cow Farm and a new, very patchy-headed bird found by Phil Rhodes. So, four birds in the past few days.
10am - 11-30am Mallard Gadwall Shoveler Teal Tufted Goldeneye Coot Moorhen Shelduck Canada Geese Mute Swan Great Crested Grebe Cormorant Oystercatcher Lapwing Redshank Lesser Blackbacked Gull Herring Gull Black Headed Gull (one with damaged left wing on spit) Little Gull (single from Horrocks, flew across spit headed NE. Winter adult.) Robin Wren Blackbird Song Thrush Great Tit Blue Tit Coal Tit Long tailed Tit Chaffinch Reed Bunting
-- Edited by Ian McKerchar on Sunday 4th of February 2024 05:58:11 PM