a walk around ethrow lodge park in the rain produced not a lot really, then a stroll around the rough land behind rossington park ind estate, we saw a male reed bunting calling, and two swallows flew over , first for me this year.

chiff chaff singing in ethgrow lodge woods , first heard it on tuesday, woodpecker (g.s.)heard drumming most days, dipper seen on the river again thursday

-- Edited by William Binns on Friday 26th of March 2010 10:58:02 PM

walk up on castle hill, produced a nice mix of fieldfare(36) redwing(2o ish) and a few starlings mixed in.
yesterday a walk up the longdendale valley , curlew (1) calling over padfield heading towards bleaklow moor, a great crested grebe on bottoms reservoir, and two coal tits mating(yes , i did avert my eyes, lol)

altough i had no binoculars on me ( no time to use them if i did) i saw the little fellow mouching around the skip at work , for maybe 20 seconds ,quite a time to view it before it took off, passing me, into scrub. on the banks of the ethrow. I see grey wags all the time and this was deffo not a grey the yellow /olive back was surely diagnostic.

very rare in winter as far as I know William. When they do turn up they are often washed out juveniles thought to be of eastern race birds which have migrated in an unusual direction. Could you give a more detailed description of the bird you saw?

-- Edited by Henry Cook on Saturday 23rd of January 2010 10:01:59 PM

short walk down to the river Ethrow(Hadfield) turned out to be quite productive , considering we were only out for a short while. first bird to be seen was a grey heron , who roosts in the same place every night, then we saw 3 goosanders (m), showing extremely well.turning back for home (because of the bloody cold weather) we caught sight of a cormarant on the river who had just caught a trout(rainbow) which was at least a foot long, we saw him swallow the trout whole , then make his way to the other side of the river, swollen throat, and just sat there waiting for it to digest. on the way home we saw 1 lapwing heading up the longdendale valley, first of many i suspect.
about 11.00 we saw a swan (mute ) flying over tescos in stalybridge.

Down to the river again this morning, my wife came with me , she is getting into this birding lark, which is nice.
We had barely had time to get our bins out when we saw a sparrowhawk diving , heard the alarm call of a blackbird ,all out of sight on the other side of the river ethrow, so we walked round over the bridge,where crows chastising the sparrowhawk guided us to her she was sat on the blackbird (m), then she took of with bird in her talons, Brilliant!
no sign of the goosanders today,and our walk around the wood, revealed the usual suspects, suprisingly not seen or heard any woodpeckers (gs) for a while,i am sure ai will be hearing them drumming in the next couple of months.

Think we are all sorted for christmas , thanks to my good wife , she is an angel.x. we went birding locally this morning , Ethrow Lodge (Hollingworth).
the canada geese are very active,struggling to feed on our snow covered frozen fields, very noisy flying from field to field. In Ethrow lodge, got good view of redwing ,
" a lot of em about", 1 Bullfinch (m), robin singing, tit flock , including a willow tit(bingo!)
Nuthatch, woodpigeons, wren, moorhen, then when we were coming out of the lodge on to the river Ethrow , we came across 3 goosander (m), never seen them on the river before , so , excellant sighting

walk in the quarry at castle hill, produceded meadow pipits(4) a small tit flock and most amazingly 2 foxes walking straight towards me, 1 was 50 yards behind the other , first one got to within 15 yards of me , stood looking at me wondering what the hell i was, for maybe 10 seconds , then, i presume , caught my sent, and moved away at speed to my left . 2nd fox did not see this , but carried on towards me , realised its mate had gone, and became suspicious, something was not right , so it turned back and walked away with a sence of urgency,, brilliant!!!

An early morning walk up the longdendale trail then dropping down gypsy lane, to stroll along the bank of valehouse reservoir, then walk around bottoms resrevoir.
Lovely weather , 7.05am still dark ,what a start, a tawny owl, showing so well against a gradually lighting sky, no more than 50 ft , hooting , so a male.rest of the walk was very pleasant, including 56 fieldfare landing in conifer just above me, in good light, so i got great views
other birds seen include,
Tawny owl
Robin
Blackbird
Carrion crow
Redwing
fieldfare
Blue tit
Great tit
long tail tit
Mistle thrush
Song thrush
Mallard
Wood pigeon
Magpie
Jackdaw
Blackheaded gull
Redpoll

Walk around torside reservoir again this morning, very pleasant weather , highlights included
Small flock of siskin(5)
Small flock of goldfinch (9 showing extremely well)
2 bullfinch (M+F)
Chaffinch
Mistle thrush
Redwing
Blackbird
Blue tit
Coal tit
Goldcrest
Robin
Jackdaw
Rook
Starling
Dunnock
Kestral
Amazingly , there were no ducks on the water

-- Edited by William Binns on Thursday 12th of November 2009 03:23:48 PM

stroll around bottoms and rhodeswood reservoirs produced little today, highlight was a male and female bullfinch, male showing very well.
G.S,Woodpecker tekking in the silver birches at the begining of the longdendale trail, 10 BH Gulls on the water,normally a lot more.
walk around rhodeswood is always great for tit flocks, today there was a nuthatch amongst them.

out walking this morning through bankswood, then up and circum navigating mouslow(castle hill) i came across the usual suspects in the wood, blackbird, tit flocks, woodpigeon,redwing , fieldfare, really enjoyed my walk . coming down park road, which over looks the fields of top o th hill farm, i was alerted to the sound of a blackbird alarm call, i turned to see it being chased by a sparrowhawk before they both crashed into a holly tree, the blackbird escaped . after a few minutes of them both disapearing inside the holly tree the sparrowhawk emerged giving me great view of it making of over the field no more than 4 ft of the ground, just lifting up to get over walls and fences , brilliant.