VisMig (S/SW): 1 Cormorant (probably not a migrant to be honest) 14 Lapwing 3 Swallow 2 Alba Wagtail 2 Grey Wagtail 1 Tree Pipit (heard twice as it flew overhead, but I failed to see it) 6 Meadow Pipit 4 Linnet
Also in the area: 2 Snipe 16 Grey Partridge 6 Skylark singing Chiffchaff
1 Whinchat 1 Wheatear 3 Snipe 3 Lapwing 20+Linnets 2 Sparrowhawks 1 Kestrel 10 Carrion Crows 22 Jackdaws 15 Meadow Pipits 1 Pied Wagtail And 1 Hare put up by a dog walker
A Merlin, probably a juvenile, was present this morning on a fence post, mobbed by a couple of Swallows before flying over Winstanley Road. 12 Meadow Pipits were around a slurry pile on the adjacent Gladden Hey Farm
a Wheatear near Ryecroft Farm. Also loads of Yellowhammer about, a couple of Linnets, 2 Mistle Thrush and, in the "sunken wood", a Reed Warbler was singing.
3 Buzzard 2 Kestrel 2 Sparrowhawk 2 Swallow hanging about 2 Sand Martin over N 1 Curlew over E 6 Lapwing 2 Rook over 1 Chiffchaff 10 Mallard over flock of 50+ Woodpigeon and the never-ending stream of LBB Gulls with the odd H Gull thrown in, all heading NE
Buzzard 3 Kestrel 2 LBB Gull - hundreds streaming North (from the Mersey?) Cormorant 3 Jay 2 C.Crow 4 Stock Dove 1 Linnet 3 Pied Wagtail Song Thrush 2 Starling 2 Mallard 3
stuff hanging about:
Little Grebe 1 on the largest pool Coot 2 Moorhen 2 Mallard 1f Lapwing 1 displaying Woodpigeon 7 Magpie 2 Robin 5 Blackbird 3 Mistle Thrush 1 Dunnock 2 Mipit 14 in a tree together Skylark 2 Chaffinch 3 House Sparrow c10 L-t Tit 2
Looks really good for watching migration from up on top of the slag-heaps... You can see pretty much the whole of the county (well the western half anyway). I had the scope up there and you can see pennington flash, manchester, three sisters, horrocks flash, pearsons flash, scotmans flash, haigh hall, horwich moors etc etc etc... plus you can also see over to the mersey and the runcorn bridge. seems a good spot to watch for ospreys, marsh harriers etc moving north.
That's in the process of being reclaimed for agriculture - lots of JCBs around. We had a look at the site a few years ago in the breeding season but nothing remarkable. The Buzzards are from a site nearby.
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Judith Smith
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Lightshaw hall Flash is sacrosanct - NO paths please!