This morning, saw the pigeons who sit on the shops on the Palatine Road all went up in a group. Thought something might have put them up and eventually picked up a Sparrowhawk circling high above.
Nice surprise as I walked down Allanson Road just now. Scanning the skies, saw a bird of prey circling, so legged it back to the house and grabbed the bins. Initial thing I noticed was a triangular shape to the tail, which had me thinking it could be a kite.
Sprinting back with the bins, was pleasantly surprised that the bird was still circling, was able to pin it down as a Sparrowhawk on silhouette - after a while, it tucked its wings and dived, a move I've always associated with Peregrine. But on the body shape, I'm sure it was a Sparrowhawk.
Certainly brightened up a mooch to the local supermarket.
Just had a slightly unusual experience. Left the house and started walking down my road, when I heard a load of flapping. My first thought was that it could be a Woodpigeon taking off from one of the rooftops, but when I looked around, I couldn't see anything.
Carried on walking, then heard further flapping. Eventually managed to locate the noise, which was coming from just below my neighbours' guttering and identified the bird as a Swift, which was clearly stuck. It flapped impotently, but had obviously got hopelessly entangled in something.
I knocked on at my neighbours and with their ladder, scaled the side of the house. I found that some sort of detritus under the guttering had adhered to the wing of the poor bird. I was able to remove some of it, but the Swift remained clinging to the wall. So I decided to go back down and fetch a pair of scissors. As I made my descent, it suddenly shot away, still trailing a chunk of cr@p from its right wing.
I wish I'd been able to totally remove the stuff and was terribly worried that I might have hurt it as it struggled to free itself, but it seemed to fly away very strongly.
Ah well, it has more of a chance now than it did before! And if anybody sees a bird with an extremely strange silhouette tonight, you know what it is now...
blue tits great tits long tailed tits red wings song thrush chaffinch goldfinch pied wagtails black headed gulls mallards cormorants 2 x canada geese blackbird
In addition to Charles' House Martins on Palatine Road, Swifts are visiting the eaves on the house opposite ours (close to the high street). Nice to hear them screaming low overhead when I get home!
Re crazy noises at the bottom of Kenworthy Lane, I always stop there to find and listen to the resident Song Thrush when I can. Could this be your bird?
At the moment, most evenings, a Chiffchaff shows and sings in the trees just after I cross the Mersey on the cycle path off the Princess Parkway - at the top of the hill which leads down to the bottom of Kenworthy Lane.
Charles, the mobile could have been a song thrush. I've observed a couple of my local song thrushes doing this, interestingly, they both had different ringtones! Which would lead me to thinking that they are imitating sounds they've heard.
Spent early morning 6 till7.15 in and around Brittania Country House hoping to re-see the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker but to no joy, Lots of noisey other birds all the common ones + Chiffchaff Blackcap Jackdaw mobbing a Crow
Northenden Village
10+ House Martins dodging the traffic along Palatine Road most of them flying up to the eaves on the row of shops where the P.O is.
Kenworthy Woods
Sparrowhawk Great Spotted Woodpecker Nuthatch and a bird call I could not I D.sounded like a mobile phone and NO there was no one else around, just me.
I live very close to the Britannia Country Park Hotel, so thought I'd take a mooch down there this arvo. No woodpeckers of any ilk, but the picnic area looked great in the sun and is clearly packed with birds.
Blue Tit family At least two Jays Greenfinch Blackbirds Song Thrush Robin Magpies Woodpigeons Great Tit 2 Treecreepers 1 mystery bird (probably a Nuthatch)
Definitely a place worth returning to and I'll keep checking on it when I can.
Between 06:40 to 07:30 getting a thorough soaking looking for Lesser Spotted Woodpecker at Britannia Country House Hotel again this morning, after dropping relatives off at Manchester Airport. But no luck!
However did see nesting/breeding activity from 10 species including:- Treecreeper (3 feeding together - Adult/Juv combination??), Blackcap (male and female in suitable habitat), pair of Mistle Thrush carrying moss to nest site, Great and Blue Tits, Wrens, Blackbirds, Robins, Chaffinches and Woodpigeon all collecting nesting materials or food. 1 singing Chiffchaff very briefly, but that soon stopped as rain got heavier. Also 1 Jay.
So much activity on such a miserable wet morning
Rick.
-- Edited by Rick Donkin on Monday 30th of May 2011 08:14:42 AM
Spent an hour looking around the grounds of the Britannia Country House Hotel, before shooting off to Liverpool Airport to pick up family, and after approx 20mins first heard the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker in trees along the side of the Mersey near to the picnic area - but could not see it.
Great views of Treecreeper, Nuthatch, Blackcap (1m) and a Mistle Thrush carrying nest building materials. Also many Great, Blue and Long Tailed Tits, Dunnock, Wrens, Blackbirds and Robins and also several singing Chiffchaff.
Heard more of the Lesser Spotted further along the trees towards the main car park and then saw it fly across the car park to the trees at the far end behind the hotel and out of sight.
This is normally an area I pass by when cycling along the Mersey to Chorlton and/or Sale Water Parks - but will definitely be stopping and spending time looking around next time I cycle this way - well 'spotted' Charles.
There's a stand of very old trees on the left beyond the "picnic area", also a few dead trees between the driveway and the riverbank which looked promising.
While seeing my Relations of from Britannia Country House Hotel this morning in the grounds were, Lesser Spotted Woodpecker(a Great First for me and probably Northenden).also Great Spotted Woodpecker
I never new the grounds had so many Trees, lots of common Birds also heard.
According to the mersey valley wardens its been there since at least march- glad its still about!
That's fantastic news, Charles! I was just thinking about a possible birding session to Kenworthy Woods and or Wythenshawe Park (nearby) in the near future!
While seeing my Relations of from Britannia Country House Hotel this morning in the grounds were, Lesser Spotted Woodpecker(a Great First for me and probably Northenden).also Great Spotted Woodpecker
I never new the grounds had so many Trees, lots of common Birds also heard.