A single short-eared owl and eight woodcock tonight. The owls are showing in the extreme SE corner of the moss, and only at last light. If they start hunting before the light has almost gone they get mobbed relentlessly by some of the scores of corvids using the moss as a roost.

Big movement of pinkfeet this afternoon 2-3.00pm - probably 1500-2000 birds heading south east.

Male whinchat in front of the watchpoint this afternoon, plus hobby over the moss.

John O'Neill wrote:

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Yes...RM closed on Fridays

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Thanks John

Is Risley Moss still shut on Fridays?

Thats really interesting Jonathon as I'd assumed it to be the bird touring Chat Moss for the past week or so. After today's bird had quartered the Astley Moss for a while it gained height with a Buzzard and soared around moving very slightly north. I lost it whilst trying to get closer at this stage but had an inkling the bird may had moved off north altogether but couldn't be sure. It will be interesting to see if the recent bird on Chat Moss had any primaries missing

No sign of the se owl last night but eleven woodcock seen, plus at least two water rails calling.

A decent hour at Risley Moss yesterday afternoon during a window of reasonable weather. Sixteen buzzards up in the air at once, though several were distant, a couple of sparrowhawks and a peregrine lazily circling over the landfill. A pair of shovellors on the first pool, calling redpolls flew over, a yellowhammer below the viewing area, and a party of folk out on the moss flushed two snipe, a pair of teal and a woodcock. A hundred or so lapwing flushed off Rixton Moss at one point, with them were nine golden plover. As I walked back to the carpark two goldcrests were singing in the wood.

Post for yesterday afternoon , ( 20/02/11 ) 14:00 -15:30 hrs .
Only one buzzard seen from tower , mind you ,we didn't stay long due to biting wind .
Woodland feeding station alive with birds :
Blue,great,coal, long-tailed and willow tits.
Dozens of chaffinch .
Five siskin dropped in for a drink from puddle .
Plenty of reed buntings and nuthatch.
3 Greater Spotted Woodpeckers at once , 2 squabbling males and one female .
2 pair of bullfinch .
Jay passed through.
Woodpigeons aplenty.
Two cracking yellowhammers.
Several blackbirds, and one song thrush.
Cheers Chris ...

At least eleven Woodcock this evening between 17:25 and 17:40 plus some other probable birds flying out into the moss too far to be sure. A flock of twelve or so Canada Geese flew in to roost along with lots of duck but fewer Redwing than lately but it was very windy. Hello To Brian and Helen and Brian, all lurkers on here who enjoyed the flypasts this evening.

Thanks for pointing out the first few Mike whilst I got my eye in! Some stunning views as the Woodcock banked round the tower - more than made up for the fact that it was too dark for a record shot. Cheers, Peter

30/1/11

Late afternoon with Jonathan P, Mike B, and Ste:

4 Woodcock
2 Snipe
1 Yellowhammer
2 Siskin
12+ Lesser Redpoll dropping in below the Tower
3 Great Spotted Woodpecker
2 Goldcrest
50+ Redwings, 2 Song Thrushes and 10+ Blackbirds going to roost
4+ Reed Bunting
5 Bullfinch
2 showy Nuthatches and several Coal Tits at the feeders

Great company made the dropping temperature slightly more bearable

3:30 arrival after visiting Moore NR. Good view of two well displaying Goldcrests infront of the viewing tower. Also a couple of lesser redpoll fliting about.
The feeding table had Yellowhammers, M and F Bullfinch and Two pairs of Reedbuntings. M&F blackbird, Robin and Dunnocks.

Quiet over the Moss itself, but there was a distant Buzzard perched on a crane, a large flock of Starlings was gathering and passing Circa 120 Pinkfeets flying over was observed.

A Falconers Peregrine at a distant was noted, and the jessies hanging beneath confirmed this.

J&J

Lunchtime today saw two pairs of Bullfinch at the Tower Hide plus reed bunts and yellowhammer. At the woodland hide:

10+ Chaffinch
Bluetit, Great Tit numerous
2+ Coal tit
1 Jay
2 Yellowhammer
1 GSW
2+ Nuthatch
Robins, Dunnocks etc

and best of all... a fleeting view of a Brambling - flushed from a Rhododendron when a woodie crashed into it and then quickly exited the back of the clearing

Very cold hour as it went dark to try and see Woodcock but none this evening - however good to see Yellowhammers, Bullfinch, Reed Bunts [one with a very yellow head which got me going for a minute], hundreds of mixed Corvids flying across going to roost in the trees to the back of the moss. As John said lots of Redwing and Blackbird swooping past the base of the tower to roost in front of it and making a right racket.

Also good numbers of other birds coming out of the moss or the woods to settle in the banking. Best of all was a Tawny Owl - heard but not seen as the light went.

More waxwings this morning along Moss Gate (about 200m from the entrance to Risley Moss). In trees opposite, and just to the north of, the entrance to Birchwood Forest Park. No idea how many as I couldn't stop, but I could see 8-10.

Four whooper swans flew west then north this afternoon (2.30pm-ish), two yellowhammers landed in front of the watchpoint, two goldcrests in with a flock of long-tailed tits, and a treecreeper was calling by the car park

Gorgeous day at Risley Moss today, nothing exciting but plenty of the usual tits and finches around, couple of nuthatches anda cracking jay at the Woodland Hide feeding station.

Plus a squirrel making the stangest noise I've ever heard, thought it was a bird in distress at first until I tracked it down.

You always find the good stuff Jonathan, i might just follow you around with my camera, good find, well done, never seen a hen harrier at risley, ps i saw Jeff at leighton moss this weekend

Jonathan Platt wrote:

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Gorgeous male hen harrier on the moss between 1.45-2.45pm at least.

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3 hobbys today flying together, 2 sparrowhwk, 3 buzzard, 1 treecreeper and lots of jays collecting acorns, 1 call from Jt to go looking for wryneck at penny, cheers JT, worth a try but no luck myself wit wryneck

LATE PM
HOBBY-4
BUZZARD-5
HOUSE MARTINS AND SWALLOW THROUGH
COMMON SNIPE-3
KESTREL-1

JOHN TYMON wrote:

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11.40am-1.45pm
beltin marsh harrier-not great at aging these, but pretty sure it was juv-but got some good shots,so send them to Ian later-12-1pm ended up being chased off NE.
hobby-1
buzzard-5




-- Edited by JOHN TYMON on Saturday 28th of August 2010 03:08:45 PM

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it was a juv confirmed via the pics by Ian

This afternoon,


3 distant hobby doing nice aerobatics, one of them seeing off a sparrowhawk, also buzzard, 2 sparrowhawks flying together, green sandpiper calling, bulfinch and yellowhammers near the tower too

Stopped off at Risley Moss after lunch and the locals said that they had seen 2 Hobby's, when I aked how long it was since they had seen them, the reply was there is one sitting on the dead silver birch right now! The dead tree was not that easy to pick up, a single tall thin stem in a mass of green. But once found a Hobby was perched on the top. It was distant but filled the scope giving me my best ever views of a Hobby at rest.We stayed about an hour and it flew off a few times to be joined by a second Hobby giving great arial display. One kept returning to its favoured perch.

I was even able to lower my scope to allow a very small girl to have a look through as she wanted to know what bird I could see. She did not have much luck with my bins but she was very exited to see it through my scope! Not a bad end to the day following really close views of the Little Gull at Penny Flash, it was close in by the car park.