Today, Wheatears as follows; 4 Fleet Moor, 3 Walker Fold, 4 Mast Road and 2 Holden's Farm.

-- Edited by Simon Warford on Sunday 17th of April 2016 05:39:00 PM

Very little to add to the reports for today on the moors.

Male Stonechat along Burnt Edge, 2 Willow Warblers along Coal Pit Lane.

No Hirundines apart from the mentioned Swallows at Holdens and no Raptors apart from one Common Buzzard coming off the moors (us not the bird) along Coal Pit Lane and very low numbers of Meadow Pipits and Skylarks.

 

Walk Coal Pit Lane, Holdens, Burnt Edge, George's Lane, back via path up near Three Lads and Holden Plantation, 9.00 - 12.30

Saturday, 9th April 2016. 12:15 - 16:00 hrs.

Walk from road off Matchmoor Lane - along Burnt Edge - Holdens Farm - Gilligants Farm - Winter Hill mast and return via Mast Road and Burnt Edge.

Nice to meet you John (must have been you!) - and thanks for tip off about male Ring Ouzel.

Ring Ouzel (M) x 1 (in field to left of Holdens Farm)
Fieldfare x 5
Raven x 1
Swallow x 1
Curlew x 3
Pied Wagtail x 1
Meadow Pipit x 15
Skylark x 4
Long Tailed Tit x 3
Red Grouse x 1
Blue Tit x 5
Great Tit x 3
Chaffinch x 3
Pheasant x 1
Carrion Crow x 8
Magpie x 4
Woodpigeon x 1
Lapwing x 1

-- Edited by Steve Judge on Saturday 9th of April 2016 04:52:26 PM

9:50 Ring Ouzel (m) at Big Hedge. Flew off into Lancs at 10:30. Didn't manage to relocate it.

10.00-15.00 

Rained most of the time, with patchy visibility, although it brightened up as I was leaving.

No sign of Wheatears or any Stonechats throughout.

Georges Lane

3 Bullfinches and 1 Lapwing, otherwise just crows and a few Black Headed Gulls.

Burnt Edge

Lots of Meadow Pipits, showing well, allowing close approach and displaying, but no other passerines

Holdens Farm

3 Ravens and a flock of 19 Fieldfares.

17:30 - 19:15 George's Lane 2 Stonechat (1m, 1f) Edge Lane 4 Wheatear (3m , 1f) Coal Pit Lane 1 Stonechat (m)

There was a carnival taking place beyond the kennels on Georges Lane, so there were few birds about, and certainly no Wheatears.

Wilderswood/ Georges Lane : 1 singing Skylark, 1 Lapwing and 1 Kestrel.

Burnt Edge

Meadow Pipit displaying was in full swing throughout the moor, with 6 birds parachuting along Burnt Edge alone.

Whilst flying over were 1 Grey Heron, 2 Curlews and 4 Ravens. A Buzzard patrolled high above Walker Fold.

2 Goldcrests were in Sugarloaf Plantation, A male Reed Bunting appeared to be on territory by Holdens Plantation.

1m+1f Stonechats by the kissing gate where the path from Holdens reaches Mast Road.

 

Pleasant day around Holdens Farm, 2 pair of lapwings behind farm, single snipe on moor field behind farm and the nicest sight a pair of English partridges in front of the farm.

A single Golden Plover singing on the moor north of the mast just over in Lancs this afternoon.

A brief spell 9-11am from Georges Lane this morning included:

15 Whooper Swan NW over HorwicH
9 Siskin N
20 Skylark NE including a group of 13

Info thanks to Andy Makin

Cooold up on t'moors this morning! Probably not surprisingly - fairly quiet.

3 Mistle thrush over Walker Fold Woods and 2 more singing high in the trees.

50 Redwing flew over from Walker Fold towards Holdens and were then seen perched along the overhead wires until a single Kestrel swooped across and sent them all up and off to the north.

Fair few Great Tit and Blue Tit around the trees, 2 Coal Tit right on the edge of the woods in the larches and pines but little else seen. Looked hard for Dipper from Barrow Bridge up along the brook, but saw none. Extremely muddy there!



-- Edited by Paul Richardson on Saturday 13th of February 2016 10:46:35 PM

Near Two Lads  - this afternoon, only three birds seen Carrion Crow, Red Grouse and Barn Owl (15.30)

Yesterday (31.12.15) 10.00-13.30

Burnt Edge

1 Kestrel, 1 Goldcrest (with a couple of Robins on the conifers), 82 Fieldfares mixed with lesser numbers of Starlings moving South.

Walker Fold Wood

A charm of 12 Goldfinches, a single Blue Tit, and all gathered together on a small hawthorn bush 5 Magpies.

 Coal Pit Lane

24 Fieldfares, again mixed with Starlings, on an adjoining pasture, but very nervous and often flushing and settling on overhead wires.

 

Late news for yesterday when three Snow Buntings were flushed from the moor on the top of Winter Hill within Lancashire and flew towards the rocket shaped mast but could not be relocated.

Info thanks to Andy Makin

Other visible migration from Scout Road this morning included:

239 Pink-footed Geese SE in 2 skeins and 200+ NW in 1 skein
15 flocks of Fieldfare south totalling 816 birds
2 Crossbill directly south towards Bolton

Info thanks to Andy Makin

This morning's total 07:30-10:30am:

13 skeins of Pink-footed Geese E/SE totalling 2478 birds
2 flocks of Whooper Swans E
636 Woodpigeon
64 Redwing S
106 Fieldfare S
77 Chaffinch S
1 Brambling N
1 Crossbill N
13 redpoll S

Info thanks to Andy Makin

Visited the moors on Saturday from 11.00 until 2.30. The conditions were dreadful! However, I still managed to see:

Stonechat (in 3 seperate areas- Burnt Edge, both on the right end and left end, and up on mast road.

Kestrel (Hovering over Burnt Edge)

Redwing (Start of Walker Fold Wood)

Mistle Thrush (Start of Walker Fold Wood)

But the highlight was a Raven on my way back down just off Mast Road. The cloud had completely descended on me by then so visibility was poor. A raven was on the path around 20m in front of me before I could even see him (or him me for that matter!)

I was hoping to see some Brambling in Holdens Plantation as I have seen them there for the last 2 years but no such luck!!

This morning's visible migration highlights from Georges Lane and Matchmoor Lane 07:15-10:15:

65 Pink-footed Geese NW in two skeins and 2323 E/SE in 17
210 Fieldfare
1 Brambling S
3 Crossbill NE

Info thanks to Andy Makin

PM (Initially misty, which then cleared but soon afterwards came the rain)

Burnt Edge

1 Woodcock, 2 Kestrels, 1 Mistle Thrush, a flock of 8 Fieldfares, 3 Meadow Pipits and 1 Reed Bunting.

Walker Fold

1 Raven and 1m Bullfinch.

 

Today's sightings 06:50-3pm:

18 skeins of Pink-footed Geese totalling 2536 birds
1 Red Kite circling above Belmont yacht club at 08:30am; flew low west down the valley still in Lancashire
1325 Woodpigeon S/SW
136 Redwing S
4286 Fieldfare S shifting to SW and then W later on
1 Tree Sparrow S
168 chaffinch over
152 Brambling over
43 Greenfinch and 119 Goldfinch over
7 Crossbill
Short-eared Owl still around Adams Hill

Info thanks to Andy Makin

Vis Mig Watch, Scout Road, 06:35 to 12:15, with Andy Makin, Phil Rhodes and Dan Brown.

Best day of the season for us, which was overwhelming for the first hour. Fieldfares moving south right from the onset, consisted of many small flocks up to 09:00 then going quiet, then a burst of several much larger flocks between 10:30 and midday. Very few pure Redwing flocks; most were mixed in with Fieldfares. Significant broad movement of all finches south, including a site record count of 154 Bramblings (previous highest count was 96 in December 2014), some were mixed in with thrush flocks and several pure large flocks. A number of unidentified finches were also possibly Bramblings and some strange calls from some finch types couldnt be ID'd either. A Ring-necked Parakeet came over high and flew east, could have been a wonderer from one of the local populations. Largest count of Woodpigeons so far this autumn and a site record count of 32 Stock Doves, beating the previous best of 25 on 27th September 2014. Good Meadow Pipit count for end of October. All south unless stated.

1 Ring-necked Parakeet east
4,363 Fieldfare (76 flocks)
364 Redwings
14 Mistle Thrush
4 Song Thrush
154 Bramblings
307 Chaffinch
25 Greenfinch
16 Siskin
84 Goldfinch
13 Redpoll
5 Bullfinch
2 Crossbill
2 Raven
32 Stock Dove
1,336 Woodpigeons
509 Starling NW
117 Meadow Pipit

-- Edited by Simon Warford on Saturday 31st of October 2015 06:07:26 PM

Totals from Scout Road today, 10am to 1pm:

17 flocks of Fieldfare totalling 1473 birds
53 Redwing south
Amongst the flocks of Fieldfare were 4 Brambling, 2 Siskin and a Merlin.

Info thanks to Andy Makin

This morning's visible migration from the top of Winter Hill:

808 Fieldfare in 13 flocks S/SW
63 Redwing SE
6 Brambling S
22 Siskin S
Black Redstart around mast building

Info thanks to Andy Makin

Yesterday morning an adult Black Redstart on the mast building on Winter Hill along with 2 Goldcrests and 2 Stonechat.

From Scout Road this morning, 29 Brambling S, 39 Siskin and four small flocks Crossbill numbering 16 S, 118 Chaffinch and 3 Swallow.

Info thanks to Andy Makin