A flock of close to 100 swifts & house martins were feeding over a field being cut for a car boot sale (that well known traditional farming practice) at Waterside farm. The cut was only just starting as I was setting off down the track towards the kennels, and just one swift was seen at that time. On my return, only about an hour later, the others had turned up. Amazing how the news gets around. Not so amazing was the total absence of swallows, which used to nest on the farm (and nearby Chadkirk) until about 5 years ago. What have we done? Whitethroat also heard, and a couple of female goosander were on the river.
A Dipper was in song, sat on rocks in the middle of the river this afternoon; enjoying another Spring-like afternoon. Also 4 goosander (fem types) were on the water, with a couple of cormorants flying down river. 100 starlings were on the farmland. Not a lot else though (model aircraft flyers on Goyt Farm!!!).
I might add that I dont wander around this site. Just inside the gate is a concrete platform. This gives a view of the rectangular flat beds. Further in are circular beds but I consider those out of bounds. Be discrete.
Thanks, John. I walked along the other side of the valley this morning and the most interesting sighting was 8 mandarins (2 groups of 3m & 1f) on the river behind the sewage farm.
Ring-necked Parakeets 3 (2 flew towards Romiley. 1 around Holiday Lane) Kingfisher 2 (at Poise Brook at Holiday Lane and Jim Fearney Bridge) Dipper on R. Goyt Jay 3
Kingfisher and Dipper seen in the same field of view through the bins this morning from Jim Fearnley bridge.
That brings my 'lockdown' list to 50 !
Also seen in the same spot, Grey wagtail, Mandarin, Mallard, Chaffinch.
I've noticed on my walks along the river how adept some species are at flycatching. Robins, Chaffinches, Grey & Pied wagtails all showing their skills and behaving just like a Spotted flycatcher would.
-- Edited by Stephen Fuentes on Friday 8th of May 2020 12:35:38 PM
One lapwing chick at Chadkirk Mill Pond. Could anyone local keep an eye open for any further woodchip dumping into this pond. It's taken me a long time to get it stopped.. There's barely any water in now. ( Great crested newt spot.)
The last few walks have turned up a couple of new birds, 7 Sand Martin (48) on the 29th (with 9 today) and a male Bullfinch (49) today at Middle Farm, I keep hoping for a Peregrine from Pear Mill but no luck yet.
-- Edited by Mark Walsh on Friday 1st of May 2020 01:49:07 PM
My exercize walk today turned up a quite a few new birds for the lockdown list, some commoner species I'm rather surprised it's taken me this long to get.
1 Greenfinch just past Middle Farm 11 Starling in the same vicinity 1 Kestrel over as I walked along Bongs lane Goosander and Kingfisher both on the river near the Hare and Hounds 1 Whitethroat singing deep in a hedge along Mill Lane, he acidentally popped over to my side of the hedge and then hastily moved back to the other side, still I got a nice view
Midday exercise walk to Bongs Lane - Hydro plant - Jim Fearnley Bridge.
The warm sun had a lot of birds out singing with Dunnocks, Robins, Wrens and the occasional Chaffinch joining 7 Chiffchaff and 5 Blackcap. There were 3 new birds for the list with 2 House Martin and 3 Swallow representing my first Hirundine's of the year, a single Great Spotted Woodpecker also heard then seen near the bridge, that brings me up to 40 species since Lockdown.
Same walk as Sunday but in reverse so Bongs Lane to Poise Brook.
5 Blackcap in song (these all along the path from the Hydro station to the bridge). 8 Chiffchaff singing all along the walk. A few new birds again with 2 Jay, 1 Grey Wagtail. 2 Canada Geese and 1 Grey Heron.
It's been a while since I've been down holiday lane but it's only a 20 minute walk from the house making it perfect for a lockdown patch. Mainly concentrated on Poise Brook and over to Old Hall Farm.
Along Poise Brook;
5 Singing Chiffchaff 5 Chaffinch 3 Nuthatch 2 Tawny Owl's called briefly A good few Blue, Great and Long Tailed Tit's
Over the Goyt and heading towards Goyt Hall Farm there was a single Buzzard circling, a couple of Pied Wagtail calling and around 20 House Sparrows at the Farm.
I might try earlier tomorrow and include Chadkirk as well.
A Little Egret was in a field opposite the exit of the Jim Fearnley Bridge path at 3.05, feeding well (it had not been there when I passed 20 minutes before). It flew off after about 5/6 minutes towards Goyt Hall and appeared to drop down behind it, but could not be traced when I looked. Plenty of places to hide here, though. Also seen: 40+ meadow pipits, dipper, fem. goosander, buzzard and 45 mallard on the river. Egret a great find locally, the first I've ever seen 'grounded' hereabouts.
Nice to see a gathering of 60 people today in a walk from Bredbury Hall to Holiday Lane to show support against the building of the by-pass through the valley.
Birds of note from 14:00-16:00 were 1+ Common Buzzard, Grey Wagtail, 30 Swallow, 10 Swift, 7 House Martin, 4 Sand Martin, 3 Blackcap, 3 Chiffchaff, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Peregrine Falcon, Nuthatch and 4 Greenfinch.
Only a handful of Starlings around Brookside Avenue and adjoining estates this morning (but many other nearby areas unsearched). Perhaps the large Starling flock at Ludworth Moor also deserves a thorough scanning.
In Poise Brook Wood: Ring-necked Parakeets (2), Buzzards (2) and a Skylark over.
A first winter Rose-coloured Starling visited a garden on Brookside Avenue, Offerton, which backs onto Poise Brook Woods (accessible via Holiday Lane), on Saturday 23rd March.
The bird has unfortunately not been seen since despite being looked for in the garden but there are a good number of Starlings in the area.
This p.m. from Goyt Hall Farm area to Offerton Water Treatment works. Not too exciting, but at least I was outside after a terrible morning. At least 'flocks' of a few birds made a change for here with c30 redwing, c15 meadow pipits and about the same of pied wagtails at least putting some life into the horse paddocks. The river was too wild for most birds, but a pair of goosander rode the rapids. Amongst other things seen were buzzard, stock dove, goldcrest, up to 4 treecreepers (2 in song), 2+ song thrushes and 2+ mistle thrushes making up about 30 species in all.
7 Ring Necked Parakeets (seem to have replaced the Jackdaws in one of their old nesting areas). 2 Common Buzzard, 2 Sparrowhawk, 6 Grey Wagtail 11 Mandarin Duck, Blackcap, 4 Chiffchaff, 4 Swift, 3 Sand Martin, 5 Swallow, 5 House Martin, Jay, 4 Goldcrest, Nuthatch
I did a thorough search this morning covering Poise Brook (Holiday Lane - R. Goyt), the River Goyt itself from Goyt Hall Farm fish pools to Otterspool Bridge, Bongs Lane and also the brook at Chadkirk where a Little Egret was found some years ago.
Judging by the snow on the branches in the attached image, James Dempsey-Riley's photo was taken before the high winds arrived. There was zero snow on the trees today
So, no Egret but I saw the following:
Dipper 2 (1 gathering nesting material on Poise Brook) Ring-necked Parakeets 2 (Poise Wood) Jay 4 Redwing 12 Lapwing 4+3 (small parties looking forlorn in the snow) Mandarin 17 Goosander 1m, 3f Teal 4 Buzzard 3 (2 displaying with another male tagging on hopefully) Common Gull 2
Great footage of a Little Egret on Poise Brook on Stockport Nature Watch website today posted by James Dempsey-Riley. Not sure whereabouts on Poise Brook though.
A nice walk in the sun rudely interrupted by the noisy screams of parakeets!
2 ring-necked parakeets near to Jim Fearnley bridge this morning. Enquiries with a couple of dog walkers revealed that a bird was on the run having escaped from a keeper in Offerton. However, their apparent efforts to recapture the bird have been unsuccessful, probably due to the fact that it has met up with another 'wild' bird (of which the locals knew nothing about). One bird was inspecting nest holes, so we might be about to have a population explosion locally (unless the peregrine fancies nipping out for an Indian takeaway).
About 30 species of bird seen otherwise, but nothing else really of note apart from the song of a mistle thrush.
A minimum (could not all be viewed at same time due to tree cover) of 48 mandarin moulting near to Offerton Water treatment works. Ducks was all that this afternoon was good for due to rain!
1 whitethroat in farmland scrub with fishing ponds behind you. Otherwise not much apart from maybe 5-6 pairs of swallows, mostly at ramshackle farm towards Bredbury Hall, and many house sparrows. 12 starlings feeding on the grassland was almost a blast from the past.