Feb 19 2013

Birding Group Visit to Pennington Flash 19th February 2013

Birding Group Visit to Pennington Flash 19th February 2013

Our latest visit to Pennington Flash was unusually clement with hardly any wind and, although it was quite cold, there were plenty of birds around and it was a great day for birding. We started off in the car park and from here we saw Canada Geese, Coots, Moorhen, Mallards, Tufted Ducks, Goldeneye and Goosander and the usual range of Gulls on the Flash. In a surrounding trees there were a pair of Bullfinches and on the ground we saw a Song Thrush and a Pied Wagtail.

Continue reading

Feb 17 2013

Day Out To Etherow Country Park 17th February 2013

Day Out To Etherow Country Park 17th February 2013

We started out by walking up the path between the two lakes where there were the usual Canada Geese and Mallards were present with a smattering of domestic geese. On the right there were lots of Black-headed Gulls on the sailing pond. Unusually this far down there were a half a dozen Mandarin Ducks which were looking particularly fine on a lovely sunny day. A little further up we noted two Greylag amongst the Canada Geese.

Continue reading

Feb 12 2013

Birding Group Visit to Point of Ayr 12th February 2013

Birding Group Visit to Point of Ayr 12th February 2013

We planned this visit to coincide with a high tide (10 metres) and we thought that if we arrived at the viewing site by an hour bebore this we would be well in position to observe the tide come in. Unfortunately , even before we got to the new hide, it was clear that the tide was already a long way in. If I had read my notes for our previous visit there I would have noticed that you need to be there two hours before ! Oh well, I wasn’t the only one who thought an hour before would be good enough so we all learned a lesson. Be that as it may, it did not mean that we did not get some good sightings.

Continue reading

Feb 05 2013

Birding Group Day Out to RSPB Marshside and Mere Sands Woods 5th February 2013

Birding Group Day Out to RSPB Marshside and Mere Sands Woods 5th February 2013

Last week we deferred our visit to Marshide due to bad weather though surely it couldn’t have been much worse than we had this week with phenomenally strong winds and later on driving rain. It was all a bit severe but it was not without its rewards as we got some very good views of some nice birds.

Continue reading

Feb 02 2013

Visit to Wirral Country Park for Warden-led Walk 2nd February 2013

Visit to Wirral Country Park for RSPB Walk 2nd February 2013

I had seen references to Thurstaston and Wirral Country Park on birding web sites and it was said to be good for wintering birds. I looked up a web site for the country park and I discovered a warden led walk there at the time of high tide. This sounded perfect so we headed off for this. We often drive past the entrance to the country park when we are visiting birding sites on the Wirral. In fact the entrance is off the same roundabout that we often stop off at for lunch at the Cottage Loaf pub. The day was very pleasant and looked good for a nice walk along the beach.

Continue reading

Feb 01 2013

Walk on Chorlton Ees and Chorlton Water Park 1st February 2013

Walk on Chorlton Ees and Chorlton Water Park 1st February 2013

I had read on a birders message board that someone had seen Fieldfare and Snipe on the rough ground next to the football pitch at Chorlton Ees so we set off for a morning walk over there. We walked the short route which took us by the old sewage works which is a way we do not normally go preferring the longer walk down the side of Chorlton Brook. We were very glad we did because the first thing we came across was a small flock of half a dozen Lesser Redpolls ! These had not been our target birds but you do read that they are around the Ees and Kenworthy Woods so I suppose it should have been less surprising than it was.

Continue reading

Jan 31 2013

Summary January 2013

Summary January 2013

Garden

January started much like the tail end of December but it was very warm for the time of year. The two Mistle Thrushes are rarer now that they have more or less eaten all the Rose hips at the bottom of the garden. There are plenty of Tits including Coal Tits and we still see the male and female Blackcaps but the only time that we have seen them together they didn’t get on with each other too well. The Dunnock continues to furtle around and I saw a Wren briefly on 4th. We sometimes have a visitation from the House Sparrows from across the ginnel. By the middle of the month the weather got much colder with snowfalls on some days. As usual, Manchester seemed to get off lightly. The snow at the middle of the month meant that some of the birds disappeared for a bit; the Starlings were an example of this, but the ones that did remain were constantly coming to the bird feeders or table.

Continue reading

Jan 29 2013

Visit to Budworth Mere 29th January 2013

Visit to Budworth Mere 29th January 2013

After the birding group finished up at Neumann’s Flash, Mike and I thought we had enough time to go over to Budworth Mere to see whether that had thawed out since I had been there a few days before. It had almost completely thawed out so there was plenty of open water at the reed bed hide where we spent some time watching two Cormorants fighting over a huge fish that one of them had caught. The struggle to secure the fish was entertaining enough but it was quite a sight to watch the Cormorant try to get it to go down and stay down. We must have watched it for fifteen minutes after it had swallowed the fish and it still seemed to be struggling to keep it down when it eventually disappeared into the distance. We had been told that a Bittern had been seen from the hide ninety minutes before but we had no luck. We had better luck with Kingfishers as I caught a good sighting of one Kingfisher chase another up the mere, turn around at the hide end and zoom back down into the foliage at the other side of the mere.

Continue reading

Jan 29 2013

Birding Group Visit to Neumann’s Flash 29th January 2012

Birding Group Visit to Neumann’s Flash 29th January 2012

Our planned visit to Marshside and Mere Sands Woods, for a higher than normal tide, was called off due to expected poor weather. Instead we rescheduled to Neumann’s Flash where we were supposed to go to in February. In the end, the weather wasn’t too bad and we largely stayed dry. We parked in the lay-by and turned right down the path that leads to the eastern side of Neumann’s Flash. From the hide we saw a few Pintail, Shovelers, Gadwall and Shelduck and larger numbers of Canada Geese, Mute Swans and Black-headed Gulls but by far the biggest presence was Teal.

Continue reading

Jan 25 2013

Quest for Great Northern Diver at Budworth Mere 25th January 2013

Quest for Great Northern Diver at Budworth Mere 25th January 2013

I had been reading about the appearance of a juvenile Great Northern Diver that was showing at Budworth Mere so we headed off there on a cold, cold morning. When we arrived there we went to the main hide where we could see that the mere was substantially frozen over. We decided that there wasn’t much chance of seeing the bird from here – despite it showing right in front of the hide a few days before – so we walked down the path past the small boathouse looking for some open water.

Continue reading