Wigan Flashes : 19th April 2016

Wigan Flashes : 19th April 2016

The last two times the birding group have been scheduled for Wigan Flashes, it has have to be called off due to bad weather. Nothing could have been further from the truth on this day and, with a beautiful blue sky above, the birds were out and Spring had definitely sprung with plenty of Warblers about and singing loudly.

We started off going over thebridge and, just before we turned down the path to the bird feeding station, we stopped to look at a pair of Jays that were immediately followed by another pair. In a gap between the bushes and looking to a small clump of, primarilly Willow, trees we got two male Blackcaps –  a “year tick” for me. The trees were full of warblers and we soon got both Willow Warbler and Chiffchaff. In fact this was a feature of the day and we saw many of them, down to identification level, and heard many more. The Willow Warblers were also “year ticks”

Down at the feeders we immediately heard a Cetti’s Warbler right next to us. This one managed to evade us even though it was calling over and over again – deafeningly. I actually saw two others during the morning and probably heard more. We also got a female Bullfinch, Goldfinch and Robin on the feeders with a female Pheasant cleaning up underneath the feeders.

We walked through the woods until we got to Pearson’s Flash and we were a little surprised to find a small group of Goldeneye still around. Apart from that we got Pochard, Tufted Ducks, SHoveler and Gadwall. Over on Scotsman’s Flash there were lots of Lesser Black-backed Gulls and Black-headed Gulls and a couple of Great Crested Grebes.

On our way back we heard a Song Thrush and then our last bird of the day was a nice Kestrel perched in a tree deep in the woods.

We did not see the Red-crested Pochards that we have seen there before but we had a fantastic day with the general feeling being that Spring had sprung at last !

Bird Sightings : Wigan Flashes