Colliers Moss & Developments

I had an interesting walk around Colliers Moss (http://www.discoverthemerseyforest.co.uk/Country-Parks.aspx?region=2&RefNum=CPK033)  today as part of a "reccie" with new owners Mersey Forest http://www.merseyforest.org.uk/

The idea was to get a feel for the place from numerous points of view because the place has changed dramatically to the last time it was officially surveyed.  See http://www.birdwatchinginsthelens.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/bold-moss.htm for an explanation of how it was regarded as one of the regions best wildlife sites, especially for odonata (dragon and damselflies).  

However, over the past decade or so woodland has begun to encroach the open heath areas thus reducing the opportunities for birds such as meadow pipits, skylark, linnet and (dare I say) cuckoo.  There is however a note of caution not to remove to much of the young birch/alder as the potential presence of birds such as willow tit and spotted flycatcher may be affected.

Elsewhere reeds and typher have begun to encroach seriously on the mosses thus intervention is needed to protect and restore these rare habitats.  One of these mosses is the only place in merseyside for cross-leaved heath (http://www.plantlife.org.uk/wild_plants/plant_species/cross-leaved_heath)

In other areas the reed has colonised the once open pools which has provided ideal habitat for reed warbler, reed bunting and water rail, only a little opening up of pools should be needed.  Oh and maybe a few features put in to make spotting wildlife a little easier :)

Each of these relatively small pieces of work should enhance the site for the return of the wide variety of odonata that the site was put on the map for over a decade ago.  And as you know where there are dragonfly .... there are hobby!

In order to carry out these much needed works the Mersey Forest people will be looking to a funding source and may need a crack team of volunteers to help them, I'm happy to throw my name in the hat  ...... As for now its a case of watch this space 

Whilst out and about the undoubted trip for me were the woodcock.  We had 5 fly out of an area toward Burtonwood Moss and 2 fly out of an area near to Sutton Moss.

Other birds of note:

Reed Bunting x3

Redwing

Fieldfare

Sing Thrush

Siskin (heard)

Goldcrests (heard)

Buzzard x2

Sparrowhawk

Cheers

Paul B

A little twist on Birding in Billinge

Had a lovely day out and about in Billinge with a new acquaintance included getting up close and personal with a few of my feathered friends ....

http://two-in-a-bush.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/ringing-session-with-twist.html

As you can see from the twitter account the photos are causing quite a stir!

If yo look closely at the photos you'll see me too!

Paul B

Rainford Mosslands

Whooper swan 1 adult Dairy Farm Road
Pink-footed goose 5000+ Old Coach Road (best viewed from railway bridge)
Corn bunting 11 (Dairy Farm Road and 10 in Moss Lane)

The whooper swan was my first in the borough for about eight years. It was in a field with sheep to the north of the road. More photos on my blog http://birdingsthelens.blogspot.co.uk/

Promised Land Farm

There was a large flock of Fieldfare here this morning. I didn't realise they had so much white on their lower belly!

My Garden Eccleston

Two goldcrest were flitting around my garden this morning.

Damian

East Lancs

Monday Morning. Mixed flock of about 30 Linnets and 20 Pied wagtails feeding in cabbage field alongside East Lancs. Near layby just before Knowsley turnoff.

Regards, Dave

Moss Lane

The fieldfare and redwing were a lot more settled today, there were about 10 of each on the berry bushes around the sheep paddock, I didn't see any flocks overhead today. A bit further on there were 7 corn bunting at the top of a tree. They're the first I've seen there for a while but they're much harder to find when they're not singing. The starling numbers seem to have decreased, only about 400 there today mixing with a flock of around 100 jackdaw. I had another glimpse of a stoat/weasel but it saw me before I saw it and refused to come back out of the undergrowth despite me waiting there for ages!

Corn Bunting 7
Redwing 10
Fieldfare 10
Reed Bunting 1
Tree Sparrow 1
Meadow Pipit 1 over
Pied Wagtail 8
Yellowhammer 8
Kestrel 1
Starling 400
Jackdaw 100

Damian P

Eccleston Mere

Goldeneye 1 female
Tufted duck 30
Coot 190
Little grebe 1
Great crested grebe 12
Mute swan  1 adult
Grey wagtail 1
 
 

Slender grasshopper

On Saturday I found this tiny grasshopper in my backyard, it's about 15mm long. I was quite excited by it, because I knew that I'd never seen this species before, and to find it in my completely flagged back yard in November seemed strange to say the least, for a group of inverts that I normally associate with flower filled meadows on hot sunny days in summer! On top of that, we don't really see very many grasshoppers of any species in St Helens, so I was quite keen to find out what it was.

The first thing to say is, I've been decorating recently, and this unfortunate insect seems to have walked into some white paint. So ignore the white bits, it's really completely dark brown!

A few tweets and messages later, I had my answer, it's a slender grasshopper (or groundhopper)  Tetrix subulata,  a species which is largely confined to the midlands and south east England, with just a handful of records from the Sefton coast and around Bolton. So it's not a million miles away from St Helens, but so far a I can tell, this is the first record for the borough.

Brick not Delicate

Last week I tweeted a photo of a moth which I thought might be a migrant species known as the Delicate. I was wrong, it turns out it was the Brick, not exactly common, but certainly not as rare as the Delicate.

Moss Lane to Sadlers Lane

I had another look for winter thrushes this afternoon at Moss Lane. After walking all the way to Sadlers Lane, and then most of the way back again, I'd seen very little, but then a flock of  about 10 thrushes landed in the hedge right in front of me. I was chuffed to see my first fieldfare of the autumn. Moments later a large flock of around 100 birds were flying directly towards me - more fieldfare! In the hedge around the sheep paddock, there was one fieldfare eating berries. These were the best photos I could get in the low light...

Fieldfare 100+
Mistle Thrush 1
Song Thrush 2
Starling 1500 getting pretty impressive
Skylark 4
Kestrel 1
Pied Wagtail 10
Yellowhammer 3
Linnet 15

Damian P

Eccleston Mere

I was having my roof looked at this morning after damage from the recent winds - two flocks of redwing flew over while I was outside - about 30 in total, the most I've seen this year. When I got to the Mere I realised I'd forgotten my camera but there wasn't that much there to photograph anyway. A few small flocks of redwing flew over and a larger flock of about 20 thrushes which looked a bit big for redwing but I can't be sure what they were.

Redwing about 25 in separate flocks
Mute swan 2 adults
Tufted duck 35
Grey Wagtail 1
Little Grebe 1
Sparrowhawk 1
Nuthatch 1 (pointed out to me by someone else!)
Coal tit 1

Damian P

Pink Footed Geese

I was wondering if all the geese around the vicinity of Heatons farm/Promised land farm will have left the area for good this autumn now? I noticed them last Saturday and didn't have my camera. Then when I saw the tweet about 3000 flying over last Tuesday , I was at work. I haven't seen any since!

Houghtons Lane and Moss Lane

After the Mere I thought Id have a look down Moss Lane to see if there were any redwing about. On the way I drove down Houghtons Lane and saw about 40 rooks in one of the fields - I don't often see rooks in St Helens.

When I got to Moss Lane, I possibly saw a few redwing in the hedges around the sheep field  but two people walked past and they flew off before I could get close.

I saw a very distant raptor soaring around which drew my attention - I had my suspicions but had to take a photo and then zoom in to be more certain - it looks like a peregrine to me.


Peregrine 1
Kestrel 1
Grey Wagtail 1
Grey Partridge heard distantly
Yellowhammer 15+
Pied Wagtail 20+
Meadow Pipit 1
Jay 1
Mistle Thrush 2

Peregrine  Falcon

 

Meadow Pipit

 

I also found this fungus, but know nothing about them - I'm guessing shaggy inkcap from a quick google search but confirmation would be welcome.

 

 

 

Damian P

Eccleston Mere

There were boats out on the Mere so I wasn't expecting to find much there and unfortunately wasn't disappointed! At least the boats pushed all the coot to one end making them slightly easier to count...

Coot 130+
Tufted duck 4
Little Grebe 2
Kestrel 1
Mute Swan 3

Damian P

Billinge Hill

Myself and Paul went for a walk around Billinge this morning. There wasn't much in the way of over-head passage but there seemed to be distant flocks of pink-feet all over the place.
We walked across towards Mountains Farm and could see a flock of pink-feet coming in to land somewhere near Heaton House, sure enough as we got closer we could see a large flock of pink-feet in the fields behind Heaton House and yet more geese coming in to land.

Pink-Footed Geese 2-3000 and lots more in the distance
Raven 1
Tree Sparrow 5
Redwing 10-15 near to Mountains Farm
Goldcrest - a few calling in the pine copse on the way to Mountain's Farm
Kestrel 2 being mobbed by crows
Few pied wagtails and meadow pipits over
Jackdaw - a few flocks
Jay 3
Buzzard 3
Yellowhammer 1 (heard)

and reported by Paul on the way back to his car...

Bullfinch 2
Sparrowhawk 1

Damian P

Eccleston Mere

Snipe 2
Pochard 2 (2 males)
Pink footed goose 70 over north
Little grebe 2
Tufted duck 35
Redwing 10
Goldfinch 100
Goldcrest 1
Mute swan 3

Good to see a couple of snipe in the fields, but nothing like the numbers of a couple of years ago when there were also a few jack snipe. The fields where much wetter then though.

Eccleston Mere

I had the afternoon off today so had a quick look around the mere to see if the wind had blown anything in...

Pochard 5 (1f, 4m)
Little Grebe 2
Tufted duck 35
Goldcrest 1
Blackcap 1f
Grey wagtail 1
Willow tit 1 heard in dead wood
Jay 1
Kingfisher 1
Mute swan 4 (2 adult, 2 juv)

 

 

 

 

Damian P

Hilbre Island

I went to Hilbre for the first time ever yesterday, I've been wanting to go for years. It was a cracking day - the scenery around there is amazing.

There were loads of birds around including:

Brent Geese
Oystercatchers (hundreds)
Turnstone
Great Crested Grebe
Redshank
Meadow Pipit (on middle eye and Hilbre)
Wheatear (on middle eye)
Great black-backed Gull

Brent Geese

Meadow Pipit

Wheatear

Ringed Meadow Pipit

 

Damian P

Possible Merlin or Hobby (?)

I was around the Promised land farm area late this afternoon and there were quite a few Buzzards and kestrels about. Then the following came into view. Its a poor picture cos it was quite rushed but I noticed the whitish neck and thought it may be something different from a kestrel; a hobby or a merlin? Ive never seen either before so can anyone id it?

Seven Stars, Eccleston

A grey wagtail on the roof of the Seven Stars seen while driving to work this morning.

Old Coach Road, Dairy Farm Road

We all went for a walk around the Old Coach Road this afternoon. There wasn't really much about and for most of the walk I could hear bursts of distant pink-footed geese calls but couldn't see them. As we were getting towards the end, thousands of  pink-footed geese took to the air from around about here - http://binged.it/1s7P68Y and flew off over Rainford in a few separate flocks. It was an amazing and very noisy sight. I'm not very good at estimating large numbers but I'd say there were over 2000. My five year old thought there were 'about a willion' but I think I'll go with my estimate!

Pink-footed geese 2000+
Raven 2
Jay 3
Skylark 10

One of the large skeins of pink-footed geese over Rainford

Damian P

New Cut Lane

I went for a look for redwing, fieldfare and hopefully brambling today around New Cut Lane although it's probably a bit early yet. I didn't find any of these - the best thing I saw was yet another stoat! I'd only ever seen one stoat before the one I saw In July and I've seen three more since then.

Yellowhammer 15
Linnet 4
Bullfinch 1 heard
Goldcrest 1 heard
Buzzard 1
Kestrel 2
Jay 2

Stoat 1

Damian P

France 2014

We went on a family holiday to Normandy this August and I managed to get in a bit of birding while I was there. The best birds were the 5 or 6 storks that we saw in various fields when driving around. The first one I saw was joined by two others just as I got my camera ready so was lucky enough to catch them landing. The firecrest was one of 3 I saw/heard over the two weeks - interestingly I only heard one goldcrest. Also seen were 6 spotted flycatchers and a marsh tit on a walk through the forest west of saint sauveur le vicomte. It's taken me ages to get around to uploading these...

 

 

 

 

Damian P

Dairy Farm Road and Old Coach Road

I did a lap around Dairy Farm Road and the Old Coach Road this afternoon. There were pink-footed geese around everywhere, mainly flying around but a flock of around 100 in the fields next to Sidings Lane, and a huge flock of around 1500 in the field at the end of Dairy Farm Road. I had a good look through them trying to find something less common and eventually found a single Barnacle goose (and two Canada goose) - no white-fronted though. (photos to follow later) The geese were still arriving when I left at around 6.15.

Barnacle Goose 1
Pink-footed geese about 1600
Grey Partridge 1
Chiffchaff 1
Skylark - about 20
Meadow pipit about 10 heard
Kestrel 3
Mistle Thrush 2

Stoat 1 (brief glimpse of it running across Dairy Farm Road in front of a car)
Brown Hare 1

Damian P

Barnacle Goose among the Pink-Footed Geese

 

VIDEO