Cheers Steve. I think your's is a little more likely than my mate's, but I have a patch Robin that starts off doing Song Thrush before it switches to its' usual song, so who knows!
Hi Mike, thanks for your thoughts. We also thought it could be another bird mimicking the cuckoo or somebody with a playback device. I am tempted to go back to the area again - we were stood between the visitor centre and crazy golf course with male cuckoo call coming from School Lane / Copperas Lane direction.
Walk from Red Rock / Bridge 63 (Leeds/Liverpool Canal) - along canal to Haigh Country Park - back through Lady Mabel Wood - along canal and return.
I heard what sounded just like a cuckoo calling in Haigh Country Park today. But I cannot believe one has returned this early. Please let me know if anyone else hears one in this area.
Hi Steve, I was out with a mate on Sunday who thought he heard one in Healey Dell in Rochdale on Feb 6th. Seems like Starlings are branching out from trim phones, firs alarms and curlews (the last of which they've been doing since at least December 1970!)
Walk from Red Rock / Bridge 63 (Leeds/Liverpool Canal) - along canal to Haigh Country Park - back through Lady Mabel Wood - along canal and return.
I heard what sounded just like a cuckoo calling in Haigh Country Park today. But I cannot believe one has returned this early. Please let me know if anyone else hears one in this area.
1 Green Woodpecker calling and seen at Brock Mill Lane which is almost in Wigan central area. 1st I've heard or seen in Wigan borough apart from very rarely at Haigh Hall.
Leeds/Liverpool Canal (Bridge 63 / Red Rock) - Haigh Upper Plantations including bird viewing screen (and filled up bird feeds and bird table) - through Haigh Country Park - bridge over River Douglas - Lower Plantations - Plantation Gates - turned right on to short stretch of A49 (Wigan Road) - right at Leyland Mill Lane - Hall Lane - Lady Mabel's Wood - return via Leeds/Liverpool Canal.
Kingfisher x 1 Great Spotted Woodpecker x 1 Mistle Thrush x 1 Pied Wagtail x 1 Nuthatch x 2 Goldfinch x 5 Robin x 5 Blackbird x 4 Wren x 2 Black-Headed Gulls x 10 Jay x 2 Magpie x 5 Carrion Crow x 10 Moorhen x 4 (including 2 juveniles) Mallard x 14 Woodpigeon x 50 Great Tit x 5 Blue Tit x 4 Chaffinch x 2 Coal Tit x 2 Pheasant x 4
Red Rock - Leeds/Liverpool Canal - Lady Mabel's Wood - Hall Lane - short stretch A49 (Wigan Road) - Haigh Lower Plantations - section of River Douglas trail - Haigh Upper Plantations - return via Leeds/Liverpool Canal
Grasshopper Warbler x 1 (reeling in Lady Mabel's Wood) Common Tern x 1 Greenfinch x 2 Whitethroat x 2 (including one juvenile) Curlew x 1 Chiffchaff x 4 Song Thrush x 2 Mistle Thrush x 1 Grey Wagtail x 5 (including one juvenile) Pied Wagtail x 1 juvenile Buzzard x 3 Kestrel x 2 Nuthatch x 1 Goldfinch x 10 House Sparrow x 1 Robin x 1 Blackbird x 4 2 x Mute Swan adults (plus 7 cygnets) and 2 x Mute Swan adults (plus 5 cygnets) Wren x 3 Black-Headed Gulls x 50 Swallow x 5 Swift x 2 House Martin x 7 Magpie x 7 Carrion Crow x 9 Moorhen x 2 Mallard x 10 adults plus 6 ducklings Lesser Black-Backed Gull x 1 Woodpigeon x 15
Did a round of my nestboxes today, all 19 boxes have been used with Blue tits occupying ten of them and now have 59 young close to fledging, Great tits are occupying 7 boxes with 33 young close to fledging and one box the adult was still brooding so I left it alone, 2 boxes are being used by Nuthatches and they have 13 young close to fledging.
One of the Blue tit boxes had been pulled down however the culprits on discovering young in the box placed it in the fork of 2 branches in a nearby tree and thankfully the adults have continued to feed the 7 young. Nearby Willow tit feeding young in the nest and a Sparrowhawk incubating
8.00 - 11.00 am Grasshopper Warbler this morning Lady Mabels Wood usual area , as in previous years Chiffchaff and Willow Warbler only other migrants seen Karl
An hour this morning around the lower plantations: 1 great spotted woodpecker drumming, 1 treecreeper, 3 or 4 nuthatch and a good mixed flock of goldfinch and siskin. No sign of dipper or mandarin ducks.
-- Edited by Ian McKerchar on Saturday 11th of January 2020 10:05:06 PM
On Christmas Day walking the dog along the canal towards the Top Lock, we spotted four Goosander (see photo). I know this area well and it is my first sighting of this species here (although they are quite often spotted on the nearby Wigan Flashes).
I also spotted:
one Kingfisher in flight;
one Collared Dove;
Mallard; and
three Moorhen.
-- Edited by Andrew Cross on Wednesday 26th of December 2018 02:02:17 PM
Lower Plantations to Pendlebury lane and back via lady Mabel's wood
1 Woodcock and 6 Snipe flushed from 1 of the fields, for the last few years this field has not held any Snipe on my visits, prior to that I use to flush 20 plus regularly with the help of a Spaniel
Pair of Willow tits feeding at one of the feeding stations in lady mabels wood
Male Kestrel showing well on Sennicar Lane some Meadow Pipits here too which can be hit an miss for this area
Good numbers of the usual residents but especially Redwings Blackbirds and Starlings, according to one of the residents on Pendlebury lane the Sparrow colony (both House and Tree) has had an exceptional year
Walk from Red Rock / Bridge 63 (Leeds/Liverpool Canal) - Sennicar Bridge - through Haigh Country Park - Lady Mabels Wood - along canal and return.
Blackcap x 1 Chiffchaff x 3 Willow Warbler x 1 Swallow x 1 Great Spotted Woodpecker x 1 Kestrel x 3 Buzzard x 2 Greenfinch x 3 (including 1 juvenile being fed) Tree Sparrow x 1 House Sparrow x 2 Coal Tit x 2 Treecreeper x 1 Song Thrush x 1 Grey Heron x 1 Lapwing x 2 Carrion Crow x 30 Jackdaw x 10 Starling x 4 Wren x 1 Goldfinch x 7 Blackbird x 4 Chaffinch x 3 Blue Tit x 8 Great Tit x 3 Robin x 1 Mallard x 2 Magpie x 4 Wood Pigeon x 9 Black-Headed Gull x 3 Canada Geese x 7
4 Mandarins, after not seeing none all winter, 4 possibly six show up.
2 Siskin in a 60+ charm of Goldfinches
3 Dippers chasing back and forth up the river
Single Buzzard
Single Treecreeper
Good numbers of Redwings and Starlings over
Cleaned out the nest boxes and added another 6 new Tit boxes to my nestbox scheme. whilst repairing another 9 boxes, on the way back to the car 4 Blue Tits were already inspecting one of the new boxes
As I got out of my car at the junction of Sennicar lane and Pendlebury lane a Female Kestrel flew from the undergrowth with a kill, looked like a small Mammal but as usual she has mastered the art of disappearing into the undergrowth. later on adult male and juvenile male hunting less than 100 yards from each other.
dippers paired up on Dougy
single Willow tit at feeding station
young Buzzard still hanging around, Adult also seen
single Willow tit at feeding station but I did not stay long
single Great spotted Woodpecker
No Mandarins around here for some time now in what has usually been a hot spot?
Woodcock, 2 sightings but possibly same individual
Single Dipper
2 Kestrels, juvenile Male and a female that caught a small mammal whilst I was watching
2 Buzzards
2 Willow Tits at Lady Mabels feeding station, good numbers of Great, Blue and Long tailed tits there too, also of note there Male pheasant and 3 Reed Buntings, 2 Male 1 Female