Nov 05 2013

Birding Group Visit to Burton Mere Wetlands 5th November 2013

Birding Group Visit to Burton Mere Wetlands 5th November 2013

The first Birding group visit of the month was to Burton Mere Wetlands on a very windy – but largely dry – day. It as due to be a high tide so we thought we would either linger at Burton Mere Wetlands or go on to Parkgate and/or Hoylake after a bit. We started off at the main reception hide where there were quite a few birds around. There were the usual numbers of Canada Geese and a single Greylag amongst them. Black-headed Gulls were also aplenty with a single Common Gull roosting among them but the dominant bird was the Teal, now arrived in good numbers. Continue reading

Oct 31 2013

Summary October 2013

Summary October 2013

Garden

Things were fairly quiet at the start of the month with just a handful of Goldfinches and a few Blue Tits pretty constant. A Mistle Thrush has been lurking around on the neighbouring house roofs, perhaps eying up their winter supply of berries on the Rowan trees. On the whole though the background temperature has often been quite high and the warm weather may be keeping the usual birds out in the fields and woods so the birding interest for us this month lay elsewhere.

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Oct 29 2013

Birding Group Visit to Pennington Flash : 29th October 2013

Birding Group Visit to Pennington Flash : 29th October 2013

Our birding group morning this week was supposed to be at Wigan Flashes but, as so often happens with Wigan, the poor weather meant that the visit was transferred to Pennington Flash. There were periods of heavy rain and periods of some sunshine so we dodged from hide to hide managing to keep dry and still see some nice birds including a Kingfisher from the Tom Edmondson Hide – something that is becoming quite frequent –  and, from the same hide, a smattering of Redwing. Continue reading

Oct 22 2013

Birding Group Visit to RSPB Leighton Moss : 22nd October 2013

Birding Group Visit to RSPB Leighton Moss : 22nd October 2013

Despite a poor weather forecast the birding group decided to stick with the scheduled visit to RSPB Leighton Moss and it turned out to be a good decision because the weather largely held up and we got at least one notable sighting at one of the main hides and a good number of waders from the Eric Morecambe and Allen Hides.

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Oct 20 2013

Glossy Ibises Bolton : 20th October 2013

Glossy Ibises Bolton : 20th October 2013

Glossy Ibis, Bolton

Glossy Ibis, Bolton

I had been following the presence of four juvenile Glossy Ibises on “Bird News Anywhere” for a few weeks and we even went to the fields at the back of Bob’s Smithy Inn (at 1448 Chorley Old Rd, Bolton BL1 7PX ) on our way up to Scotland on the 2nd of October. That time we had been unsuccessful even if we did meet some other birders also looking for them. This time we were luckier. We parked in the lay-by on Walker Fold Road – an incredibly busy road for a country lane and quite dangerous for the inattentive. We spoke briefly to another birder and he pointed to the four birds at the far end of the field. With the scope at full zoom they gave a reasonable showing but it got more interesting when we decided to walk around in front of the pub and walk up the road to the footpath that comes along the far side of the field and which we hoped would give us close views hidden behind a low stone wall.

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Oct 15 2013

Neumann’s Flash and Haydn’s Pool : 15th October 2013

Neumann’s Flash and Haydn’s Pool : 15th October 2013

Although we had just got back from holiday in Scotland, I was still keen to go to the birding group visit to Neumann’s Flash and Haydn’s Pool. Unfortunately, I seem to have lost my notebook so have to recall the birds from memory. We took the right hand path from the main road and there were a number of birds around including Long-tailed Tits and throughout the site there were a lot of Jays busy to-ing and fro-ing collecting and storing acorns by their thousands. From the first hide overlooking the Flash we could see around a dozen Snipe and in amongst them there was a single Golden Plover.

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Oct 13 2013

Summary of Scottish Birding 4th – 12th October 2013

Summary of Scottish Birding 4th – 12th October 2013

Our Scottish holiday took in a quick stopover at Montrose Basin, a visit to Loch of Strathbeg and environs and on our return a stopover at WWT Caerlaverock. In between we had three great days of birding in the Highlands in Inverness-shire, Ross and Cromarty and Moray. Over all the sites we saw a minimum of 84 species of bird as well as Common Seal, Red and Roe Deer, Red and Grey Squirrels and Stoat. This gave us three more birds for our life list, Crested Tit, Capercaillie and Scaup. We also added thirteen birds to our UK year list.

Our full bird list was as follows

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Oct 12 2013

WWT Caerlaverock : 12th October 2013

WWT Caerlaverock : 12th October 2013

Before returning to Manchester we drove over to WWT Caerlaverock to see how the autumn migration was looking on the opposite side of Scotland and that was exactly what we saw. The air was full of Whooper Swans and Barnacle Geese flying in skeins all over the sky flying in all sorts of directions as some arrived there for the first time this year and others were re-locating to the fields for the day. A truly wild and wonderful sight. And the birds were not the only surprise for us either !

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Oct 11 2013

Highland Birding Holiday Day 4 : 11th October 2013

Highland Birding Holiday Day 4 : 11th October 2013

Our debriefing session with our guide, John Poyner, on the evening of the 10th was not the last time we saw him because the next morning after we checked out we returned to the  Anagach Forest, near the hotel, where saw the Crested Tit on the first day. As we arrived, John was conduction a little tour with around eight clients. As we waiting for the Crestie to turn up we saw a Great Spotted Woodpecker, Greenfinch, Chaffinch, Robin, Coal and Great Tit and a Red Squirrel. John’s party gave up waiting for the Crested Tit but I stayed on longer and eventually it appeared.  I had taken my camera and 500mm lens so I actually managed to get a few pictures – not brilliant because it was a little dark in the woods so I had to ramp up the ISO but I was happy nevertheless.

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Oct 10 2013

Highland Birding Holiday Day 3 : 10th October 2013

Highland Birding Holiday Day 3 : 10th October 2013

The last day of our birding break was to be devoted to a bit more sea watching so we headed off for the coast first thing taking in some other sites en route.

We took the A939 out north out of Grantown-on-Spey and turned off  for  Lochindorb (Loch of the Minnows) where we hoped to perhaps see some late divers but, again, we were out of luck. The view was magnificent and the castle, once the home of the “Wolf of Badenoch” was an impressive sight. (He was a son of King Robert II of Scotland, and derived his name for his extreme cruelty and persecution of the church  and anyone who opposed him in any way dispossessing and murdering at will. When his wife deserted him and the Bishop of Moray supported her, he left his stronghold at Lochindorb Castle and burned Forres and Elgin. In 1390 he burned Elgin Cathedral. Looking at the huge castle isolated in the middle of a vast loch it is easy to imagine how he felt so secure within it.) Continue reading