New Year's Day - afternoon walk round the valley. Never seen the area so bereft of birds...

Flock of House Sparrows in hedge at Ogden.
Canada Geese and 1 Little Grebe on Ogden Resr.
7 Starlings at top of Piethorne Resr.

and that was it - not even a Crow!

First Gosanders of the season.  2 Females on Ogden in the morning and a male and female on Kitcliffe in the afternoon.

Also a first of the season Fieldfare but not quite geographically in the correct location as it was in the no-mans land between Piethorn Valley and Hollingsworth Lake.

 

Large Heath

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This butterfly isn't found in this part of the country. Long gone are the days when it was known as the Manchester Argus.

Have a look at images of the Gatekeeper (Pyronia tithonus), which are currently emerging.

If you are still convinced it's Large Heath, try to get a photograph, and contact the GM butterfly recorder, Peter Hardy at pgll@btopenworld.com

Late evening stroll to just past Doldrum yielded:

blackcap, singing,
several willow warblers, singing,
goldcrest, singing,
multiple meadow pipits,
skylark, in song,
two reed buntings,
lone swallow,
four swifts,
linnet, pair,
curlew and
several sand martins between Doldrum and Longden End.

Regards, Chris J - B

Stonechats have fledged. (Parents and three sighted.)

First swift for the year also seen

11:30

Quick hour round Kitcliffe and Piethorne

Greenfinch
Kestrel
Common Sandpiper
Dipper
Willow Warbler
Skylark
Meadow Pipit
Wheatear
Pheasent
Numerous Swallows
Great Tit
Blue Tit
Several Starling
Lapwing

-- Edited by Ian McKerchar on Monday 4th of May 2015 07:43:33 PM

A walk around the reservoirs turned up the following species:

Carrion Crow
Blackbird
Robin
Magpie
Mistle Thrush
Wood Pigeon
Blue Tit
Blackcap
Lesser Redpoll
Swallow
Greenfinch
Chaffinch
Pied Wagtail
Common Sandpiper
Mallard
Canada Goose
Meadow Pipit
Lapwing
Skylark
Dipper
Wren
Willow Warbler
Great Tit
Great Crested Grebe
Pheasant
Jay
Goldfinch

2-3:30 this afternoon.

Hobby flying at speed up the valley over Kitcliffe Res, great sighting, first for me locally.
Little Owl
Wheatear 2
Cormorant
Common Sandpiper on Piethorne Res
Greenfinch
Heron
Blue Tit
Great Tit
Goldfinch
Magpie
Carrion Crow
Plenty of Willow Warbler
No Chiffchaff seen or heard although we did see a few Monday evening
Jay
Swallow quite a few about.

On a pleasant, if breezy walk I saw/heard the following:

four willow warblers (by Piethorne House, Piethorne Plantation, Knowlsley Plantation and west end of Bluebell Wood),
chiffchaff near the water treatment works,
great crested grebe pairs on Kitcliffe and Ogden,
three curlews,
single wheatear in the pasture between the lime house and the site of Norman Hill Farm,
pair of lapwings on the same pasture (my first spring birds for at least five years I'd say),
swallow, over Piethorne Res',
little owl, back at Springholes...good do,
linnet over,
raven, over Turf Hill, heading SE and
no common sandpipers and nor many skylarks and meadow pipits.
Also, two small tortoiseshells.

Regards, Chris J - B.

raptor day today in the Piethorne valley.
beautiful view of common buzzard flying low over Norman Hill res. He was a lovely rusty brown colour.
Pair of peregrine falcons flying low over Piethorne res: one with talons down. I was alerted to them by the cry of a terrified curlew (who got away).
Pair of kestrel northern edge of Kitchliffe Res being mobbed by 3 pied wagtails.

Also got stonechat and reed bunting at Norman Hill res, dipper at outflow of Norman hey res.

Treecreeper and nuthatch in garden of house next to the treatment works.

Gillian




-- Edited by gillian notheis on Sunday 5th of April 2015 12:53:31 PM

Good day for me today

Not sure where Springholes is. The little owl that I saw today was in quarry high up on the south side of the valley.

Also 20 curlews arrived, circled for a bit and then dropped onto banks of Ogden res (next to oystercatchers) with a fanfare.

Oddly only one skylark and that was one I flushed- no singing today.

dipper was in shallows at head of Piethorne res.

flock of over 20 fieldfare still- moving with about 100 starlings.

goldcrest and coal tit in grounds of old homestead.


Gillian

A pair of oystercatchers back up Ogden this evening.

Regards, Chris J-B.

Thanks Bill. Great to hear from you.
I really do think it was a curlew but I am now wondering if it was on a piece of drift wood or something because it was right out in deep water. Either way it stopped me in my tracks. It was just not something you would expect to see. I have searched web page after web page of images looking for something it might be but I couldn't even get close to anything else except the curlew or Whimbrel.

I have just seen a bird so rare that I cannot identify it . . . Or a phenomenon that I can find no reference to.

Imagine a curlew - swimming like a duck - in the middle of Ogden Reservoir. Today at 13.00. The bill was long and slender and definitely curving down. It had brownish upper parts , paler underneath. A darker bar across the underside of its tail

After 2 minutes of observation at about 200mtr it lifted of from the water and flew towards Hollingsworth Lake.

I was not dreaming. At first I thought it was a cormorant struggling with an eel but when it flew right over me head I ruled that out. Completely the wrong shape and flight style.

I can't get past that curlew look.

A pleasing, snowy walk, taking in Raghole, Springholes, Piethorne Res' and Spring Mill yielded:

two (possibly three) woodcock, above Raghole,
kestrel, above Town Hill Holes,
stonechat pair, between Springholes and Piethorne Res', with
a single male goosander on Ogden and two females on Piethorne.

Regards, Chris J - B

-- Edited by C Brown on Saturday 17th of January 2015 06:54:07 PM

12 Goosander Rooden Res. late afternoon and a singing Dipper Hanging Lees on the white inlet pipe viewable from the dam at dusk.

very blowy walk over lunch yesterday.
little about except one or two good sights.

A hardy stonechat at edge of piethorne res, adjacent to hanging lees res. It was really blowy at that point.

Also 3 good sights of a male Merlin around the terrace of houses next to Ogden res. He flew just over the gate a few feet in front of me into the large garden with the feeders then about 10 mins later out from the back of the public loos, flying away from me just below wall height following the wall right to the end of the field behind the pub and then a few mins later flew from there towards geenhalgh's end of the graveyard.

-- Edited by gillian notheis on Saturday 3rd of January 2015 12:41:11 PM

I was there late afternoon today, all pretty quiet still with ground frozen and layer of snow. Only 20 on my list today (had 31 yesterday).

best moment was 2 stonechat on the same pond as on 5th Dec and this time there was a reed bunting with them. The only thrushes today were the usual resident mistle thrushes.

not seen the lesser redpoll for 2 weeks. Best sights today were flock of about 150 fieldfare irritating resident mistle thrush. They were moving with a similar sized flock of starlings. Greater variety of gulls than usual (probably confused by tip closure). Now I'm no expert on Gulls, but there were at least lesser black-backed and common gulls in addition to the black-headed and they weren't just flying over. Also got house sparrow today.

blinking cold day today. not much about.
lesser redpoll (in silver birch by waterboard buildings)
goosander
kestrel were best of it.

Tuesday PM to evening. Best of the day.
Grey partridges
Fieldfares
Treecreeper
Redwing
And a dozen or so Scandanavian blackbirds.

Some days are better than others. (High level circuit of the valley.)

Two minutes from home I saw a minimum of three but possibly five dippers on the Woodmill Brook below the dye works. I was watching one when two more, squabbling, flew over it downstream. A minute later looking upstream I saw two more. Now they could have flown back while I was distracted by other birds calls in the trees above but if that was the case then they had returned silently right under my nose.

As I left the buildings and cover of Higher Ogden to access the rough open pastures above I saw a bird of prey sitting on the drystone wall. It turned out to be a sparrowhawk. I have not seen one in such open country before and it had baffled me until it took off and darted through the clumps of cotton grass and thistles to try and take a meadow pipit. (Missed)

Next I had lunch with a short-eared owl. I put it up in one of the groughs and it flew to roost on a fence post about 40 metres away. It just sat there so I did as well. I left before it did. That was superb.

I also had close encounters with 2 stonechats, a kestrel an 2 waders that I am reluctant to name. (I want to say that wood sandpipers seem to be the closest match but I don't think I could have had that much luck in one day.)

I didn't see this particular bird Chris but you've got the jist of what I mean, and it looks like you may have seen something others haven't, just not 100% could've been the difference, although other times when it looks as though there's something really wrong but all of a sudden they take off and prove they're fighting fit...
Case in point, the Audenshaw Great Skua. Looked as though it had an injured wing and was acting ridiculously tame, but then took out a couple of Lesser Black-backed's for lunch during its stay and almost had a farm type Goose infront of me on the res and didn't look injured then one bit.
Would be interesting to find out cause if anyone does a PM on it, ie Toxicology tests and the like
Cheers
Rob

-- Edited by Rob Creek on Friday 3rd of October 2014 08:13:44 PM

Geoff Eldridge wrote:

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The shag is dead.
One of the Springmill residents found it this morning and told me where she had put it because she was not certain whether it was the rare visitor or a resident cormorant. I have had a look, and taken a couple of photos, and while not an expert I would have to say it is the shag. Probably dead about a day because the carrion scavengers have yet to find it. I could not begin to guess a cause. Of death either.

---

...Geoff what a shame if indeed it is the juvenile Shag. By all accounts and posts, this bird 'SEEMED' to be healthy enough, feeding well and favouring what I thought would've been a good location to rest / preen / sun itself etc on the water tower.
Obviously not jumping to conclusions and the fact that natural causes can always be a factor...(as you can't always tell if anything is wrong with animals just because appearance and behaviour seems normal)...but do you think foul play could come into it?
Or is anyone (a group or body) doing a post mortem on a Greater Manchester county rarity?
Just wondered.
Cheers
Rob