Have contacted Mr Wisher, and he has confirmed that he did see the Dotterels (in the place where we looked, Paul, Rob and Sonia) - I'm sending him a rarity form.
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Judith Smith
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Lightshaw hall Flash is sacrosanct - NO paths please!
Courtesy of www.192.com I have found a guy of this name in Little Lever...will contact him to see if it is he who saw the birds. Ken Haydock has also never heard of him.
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Judith Smith
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Lightshaw hall Flash is sacrosanct - NO paths please!
The message about the Dotterels was sent to Birdguides by someone called Alan Wisher (alwisher@btinternet.com) This birder is completely unknown to me - if anyone can vouch for him, please let me know.
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Judith Smith
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Lightshaw hall Flash is sacrosanct - NO paths please!
Rob and Sonia Adderley, Paul Hammond, as well as me and Eddie (my husband, yes he does bird occasionally!) had a good look for these. There are 2 trig points - one on the ridge painted white, where there is a line of smaller masts, and one on the LH side of the road, opposite a fenced enclosure, about 400m down the hill from the TV station. This had a bit of stony ground near it, but no luck. We also checked out Two Lads hill on the way down, but no luck there (there were some there about 10 years ago). I think we're going to have to know the name of the observer if this record is to go on the county database, and some more details. The trig point near the masts has the county boundary going through it. Just behind it, in Lancs, the land drops away very steeply and would not be attractive to Dotterels.
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Judith Smith
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Lightshaw hall Flash is sacrosanct - NO paths please!
According to my dad and most old Boltonians the idea of Winter hill or Bolton being remotely in something with Manchester in the name is obsurd.
Anyway here's the map for all you county list obsessives. The lower black dash and dot line represents the GM border http://www.streetmap.co.uk/newmap.srf?x=367500&y=414500&z=4&sv=367500,414500&st=OSGrid&lu=N&tl=~&ar=y&bi=~&mapp=newmap.srf&searchp=newsearch.srf what you need to do is get together in a line north of the summit and walk south clapping your hands in the air so as to flush over the border ;) (inserts wink smiley to show only kidding).
Good luck to any hardy souls trying for it, great record. I am off to Pendle tomorrow for what a reckon will be better chance of seeing my first ever one.
No one's sure yet as information on them is, well.........non existant other than the Birdguides report
And I do still need Dotterel for my county list................not that I really keep one of course If they are still up there, I'll be stuck at work in about half an hour until tomorrow morning