I used to work on Wingates for nearly 10 years up until 2005. I sometimes heard Grasshopper Warblers on still May/June evenings in what was a scrubby field on the left as you enter the estate. Unfortunately it was built on and the habitat and Groppers were lost. Also we sometimes had Pied Wag roosts in the low bushes around the factories at the far end in autumn.
Had a look at this area today, off the A6 near Westhoughton, for a TTV . There's a large industrial estate within the tetrad. I heard but didn't see, Oystercatcher, and wondered if they could be breeding on one of the roofs there, as they do in Heywood and Rochdale. If there's anyone out there who works on that estate, I'd be very interested to know. There are sheep fields and other grazing adjoining the estate where Oycs could obtain food, and Rumworth Lodge isn't that far away, which has fledged many a young Oyc!
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Judith Smith
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Lightshaw hall Flash is sacrosanct - NO paths please!
