Feb 29 2024
New “Year Ticks” in February 2024: 28
New “Life Ticks” in February 2024: 0
Total Species for 2024 so far: 66
The month got off to a good start when we managed to see a small flock of Waxwings at the end of Caapenhurst Close in Wythenshawe. The rest of our birding for the month was done with the birding group and included some very good birds including 20 new species for the year.
Feb 20 2024
The birding group outing this week was to Brockholes. We decided not to go there.; instead we went to Burton Mere Wetlands where, last week, we had gone before going up to Parkgate for the high tide. Unfortunately they were strimming all around the scrape that morning, so we had very little chance to see anything there as everything had gone somewhere quieter. This week there were repair works down at Inner Marsh Farm so there wasn’t much prospect of seeing anything there. However, the rest of the site was free of uproar so we had a chance to catch up on a couple of things. When we arrived there were already a lot of cars in the car park, presaging something special. It turned out that an Otter had been seen at the screen hide.
Continue readingFeb 13 2024
We managed to get to Parkgate for a high tide on the 13th February 2024. It was due to be 10.1 metres at 1:33pm and reports from the previous day were remarkable. The tide came all the way in and Jack Snipe and Water Rail were both flushed from the marsh. A Water Rail was found wandering around the pavement outside Nicholl’s Ice Cream Shop and an RSPB person rescued it from danger and returned it to the marsh later. Our expectations were quite high but we were disappointed when the tide really didn’t come in that far. However, we still managed to get some good sightings.
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