Quite surprised today to see a Shellduck fly down and land on the Rochdale canal right outside our office on Broadgate, Chadderton. Just happened to be looking out the window at the right time.

Bill Myerscough wrote:

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Goosander is certainly an excellent local record. Again Wince Brook is one of those under-watched areas but holds some decent birds at certain times of the year. In this latest cold snap it has held good numbers of Teal and also several Snipe forced away from their usual haunts.

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I used to spend a lot of my time in the summer holidays in that area - epescially when there was the 'Brookside' 9-hole pitch and put course. I certainly remember there being Meadow Pipit and Yellowhammer around - and even Sand Martins

Bill Myerscough wrote:

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Uploading you records sounds like a great idea. At the moment in GM we are three-quarters of the way through collecting sightings records for our very own local breeding birds atlas project. So if you are up in the summmer months and see any evidence of breeding birds in GM whilst out and about and are able to submit your records via Birdtrack or via The BTO Atlas website then I'm sure they will be very gratefully received!

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Looking back at my records for 2010, it appears that I didn't actually visit my mum that much. :( I have uploaded all my records as far as April. On my visits in May and September, it appears that we went for a walk at Dovestones instead.

Visited Chaddy Park with my sister (who often goes for a run there) on Dec 24th.

It was rather icy and the canal was well frozen up. Nevertheless there seemed to be lots of Canada Geese in the surrounding fields - which took flight, circled round and returned to their orignal locations - presumably having been disturbed by a do or something.

Otherwise we saw
- 2 Pied Wagtail on the canal
- 1 Redwing in the hedgerows
- 1 Mistle thrush
- plenty of tits and Robins

had been hoping to see some fieldfare, but didn't see any in Middleton/Chadderton/Rochdale during my various birding trips.

also on Dec 23rd there was a (male) Goosander on Wince Brook which is on the edge of your tetrad, Bill - I must find some time this weekend to upload my sisghtings to Birdtrack.

Chadderton - 4th January.

A pair of Collared Doves was nest building amongst a stand of traffic lights that was situated on a pedestrian refuge halfway across a very busy road intersection! At one time a bird appeared to be sitting, although it may just have been "moulding" the nest into shape. They've obviously not been spending a great deal of their spare time watching Kirstie and Phil and "Location, Location, Location!"

Also Mistle Thrush singing this morning.

Cheers,

Bill.

29th November.

A Kingfisher along the River Irk in Chadderton this morning, plus 2 Grey Wagtails. Also in and around Chadderton Hall Park - 7 Mistle Thrush, 6 Goldfinch and c5 Siskin.

Went specifically to look for Dipper in the location where I had found one of 12/5/10 but with no luck. Whilst in this area watching, without binoculars, a Magpie appeared to be chasing a wader a short distance downstream along the Irk - possibly Snipe or Woodcock but it was all over far too fast to ID with any certainty.

Cheers,

Bill.

10th November.

Arrived back home in Chadderton late this morning after a wander around the Brushes Clough Reservoir and Crompton Moor area to be handed a carrier bag by one of my next door neighbours, which unfortunately contained a freshly dead bird. Amazingly and sadly the bird turned out to be a Woodcock. The neighbour said that the bird was just still alive when he discovered it but died shortly afterwards and from where he had discovered it, he thought it had flown into the wall of my other next door neighbour's house.

It was very upsetting to handle such a magnificent bird but in some ways I felt privileged and fortunate to be able to look at the bird in detail, whilst it was held in the hand. Remarkably beautiful, subtle and cryptic plumage and an extraordinary bill, at the base of which could be seen small internal serrations or "teeth". The bill length was 7cm. The bird weighed 302g. Well what else are kitchen scales supposed to be used for! I had a peruse of the BTO website to see if from the weight I could judge if this might be a male or female bird but apparently the average weight of a male is 291.1g ± 59.81 with a range from 169.5 to 359.5g. The website stated there was insufficient data of the weight for female Woodcocks. I understand that this species is sexually dimorphic, with the males much larger than the females. So I'm still none the wiser but at least I learnt a bit about the species! The one other really noticeable feature was the very large, dark brown bulbous eyes set at the side of the head. The plumage of the bird seemed to be in good condition and from handling the bird it did appear that it might have died from a building or window strike, as the neck appeared to be broken.

Many thanks to Simon Hitchen for the gentle reminder to check that it wasn't an American Woodcock! I have to own up that I didn't even know there was one!! A look through my Smithsonian field guide quickly eliminated that exciting possibility!

All in all very sad but at least the birds demise hasn't gone without some benefits. I am taking the corpse into Henry McGhie at the Manchester Museum tomorrow (see Paul Cliff's thread on the topic "dead birds" on the General Birding Discussion section of this forum). I'll probably be the person with the most "interesting" hand-luggage on the train tomorrow! Also, as the bird was still alive it when it was first discovered, it has been entered up as a winter roving record for my home town square of SD80X Middleton Junction, for the ongoing BTO Atlas project.

Bill.

11th October.

Chadderton - early am.

Small single figure flocks of Redwings flying over, seemingly moving in all directions!

1 Chiffchaff singing.

Cheers,

Bill.

8th August.

Short local (Chadderton) walkabout early this afternoon.

Highlights were a Kingfisher and a single Treecreeper. I think this may well be the first time I have seen a Treecreeper near my home. Certainly a new species for the atlas for tetrad SD80X Middleton Junction.


Bill.

16th June.

This morning I did my second and final breeding season Timed Tetrad Visit (TTV) for the BTO and GM atlas projects for the 2 by 2 km square that is SD80X Middleton Junction. Looking at the map this appears to be a quite unattractive area to survey, with a large expanse of suburban Chadderton and Middleton to the north of the tetrad. However, there is also a small area of decent farmland, a small but attractive municipal park, a good stretch of the Rochdale Canal and it also includes a small brook and some scrubby areas surrounding the local sewage works!

40 species recorded today, compared to 30 on the earlier visit on 10th April 2010. Was very, very pleased to be able to confirm breeding for 20 of the 40 species seen today, although all but 19 of these 20 species had been confirmed as breeders at some time earlier in the atlas projects for this tetrad.

Highlights included: - my route took me past where the pair of Whitethroats were seen carrying food into a nest in brambles on 14/6. Today 2 small nestlings (probably still flightless?) were perched and huddled closely side by side together on a bramble shoot just above the entrance to the nest site. What a really gorgeous sight! The adults regularly brought in food. I also managed to come across another adult male Whitethroat carrying food in another area this morning. I spent a while chatting to the local farmer and he kindly allowed me to look at the nesting Swallows in his barns. When I visited this area on 10th May, at least two pairs of Lapwings had chicks in the fields. At least 2 immature birds were present in these fields today and the farmer told me that thankfully some of the chicks had managed to survive the predations of the local Foxes and Magpies! Whilst chatting with one of the park keepers in the local park, we watched as an adult Mistle Thrush collected food for 2 begging juveniles, which trailed after it. He also told me where he thought the Great Spotted Woodpeckers had bred and a female was seen today and there were at least 2 other unseen, calling birds present in the park - probably the male and the juvenile seen on 14/6? A family party of Greenfinches were in the park, which included some begging but unseen juveniles. 6 House Martin nests, being regularly visited, were found on a single building.

Also evidence of positive breeding activity for - Mallard, Moorhen, Feral Pigeon, Sand Martin, Wren, Robin , Song Thrush, Blackbird, Blue Tit, Great Tit, House Sparrow, Magpie and Jackdaw.

Cheers,

Bill.


-- Edited by Bill Myerscough on Wednesday 16th of June 2010 03:40:16 PM

14th June.

Had a quick look around some of my local "doorstep" sites early this afternoon. A single independent juvenile Great Spotted Woodpecker was in Foxdenton Park - I have seen adults here before but not today.....and the juvenile seemed to be doing OK on its own. Also along the local brook some Sand Martin nests, with about 7 holes present including two which had 1 and 2 juveniles peering out from the entrance to the holes. 3 family parties of Moorhen, 1 with 5 young, 1 with 4 young and 1 was sitting, with a large juvenile close-by from an earlier brood. Managed to come across a pair of Whitethroats giving their churring alarm calls around a suitable nesting site of nettles and brambles. How do they manage to make that sound without the food dropping out of their bills? I watched the female twice carry blue damselflies into the nest site to feed their young. I also watched the male twice collect smaller insect prey and carry it towards the nest site, which he then promptly ate himself....not the most responsible and impressive parenting skills I've ever seen!

Cheers,

Bill.

PS - have been doing a bit of reading since this post on the diet of nestling Whitethroats...well who wants to watch Paraguay verusus Italy?....and I can't find any mention of damselflies being part of it. I personally wouldn't have thought that such an item of large long-bodied insect prey would be really suitable for small birds in a nest. However, that said I did also observe adult Sedge Warblers carrying damselflies into cover to either feed nestlings or hidden away, recently fledged young at a site on the outskirts of Bury last year on 5th July. Any comments appreciated.


-- Edited by Bill Myerscough on Monday 14th of June 2010 09:22:18 PM

-- Edited by Bill Myerscough on Monday 14th of June 2010 09:24:00 PM

10th May.

The highs and lows of local birding all in the space of a few minutes.

Had a great 20 minutes or so watching a pair of Lapwings with three reasonably well grown young. All of a sudden many of the Lapwings and Jackdaws were in the air, as what was presumably an unseen bird of prey, made an appearance. I watched an adult Lapwing making an erratic escape flight over my head but it must have touched a fairly low overhead power cable and "exploded" with a puff of feathers and plummeted to the ground. Really, really upsetting......the only very, very small compensation being that it did not appear to be either of the adults attending the 3 young.

11th May.

First fledged Long-tailed Tits of the year seen this afternoon alongside the Rochdale Canal. Also Dunnock feeding young and pair of Canada Geese with 5 goslings.

Bill.

Hi Bill, it's a cracking WBBS that one, i've done it for the last 4 or 5 years but had to give it up due to other survey commitments. The lesser whitethroats breed at the top end, with oystercatcher a surprise roof top bird there too. A lovely sand martin colony exists at the top end too, whilst i've had sedge, reed and garden warbler over the years too. Towards the bottom end near the warehouses that are unused! There used to be breeding lapwing, little and ringed plover on the rough ground. Something interesting turns up every year, so enjoy it and don't forget to ask the fishermen if they've seen the kingfisher, as it can be missed sometimes! Also had redshank, dipper and common sand along the canal too. Good luck, sean.

Tetrad today

1 Chiff Chaff (Crossley Brook)
2 Blackcap (1 Crossley Brook, 1 Chadderton Cemetry) - singing males
5 Willow Warblers - 4 singing ( all Chadderton Cemetry)

1 Red-tailed Hawk - have seen the hawk far more regularly than any Common Buzzards

22 Blackbirds (mostly singing males) but in general, lower numbers of certain species such as Blue Tits, House Sparrows etc, hopefully because half of the them are sitting on eggs

Grey Heron over Broadway, flushed from Crossley Bridge area, harrassed by single crow. Also regular Common Buzzard over Busk. 2.20pm