*** Posting to this blog - Please read ***

*** Posting to this blog – Please read ***

Welcome to the St Helens Birds and Wildlife blog. We welcome your reports from across the borough regarding all forms of wildlife. Please click on the "Report a sighting" tab if you would like to contribute to this blog.

We ask that you refrain from posting exact breeding locations of any species which may be considered scarce or vulnerable, and in particular schedule 1 species. In the context of St Helens, schedule 1 species usually means kingfisher and little ringed plover. Little ringed plover should not be reported at all on this blog between 1st May and 1st August.

Scarce or vulnerable species include but are not restricted to any species of wader, ducks other than mallard, all owls, any birds of prey, grey or yellow wagtails, grey heron, all grebes, Cetti’s warbler, water rail, willow tit, corn bunting etc. If in doubt, please ask.

We reserve the right to edit or delete posts which contravene this rule.

An unexpected find

Stopped if at the sewage works nr Simms Rd, Garswood as I'd visited last year when it was fairly new I think.

Last year there were a couple of muddy sludge pools which looked like they may attract an sandpiper but I didn't visit often enough.

One of the settling beds was planted with reeds but this year they don't seem established enough to hold any warblers.

Upon visiting today I could see lots of swallows and house martins whilst reed bunting, yellowhammer and skylark could be heard - a nice start.

A scan of the adjacent fields revealed a couple of lapwing and an oystercatcher which turned out to be part of the safest nesting pairs in the county, as they are behind an 8 ft fence!

Just then a couple of duck flew over which were tempting to dismiss as mallard but turned out to be a pair of shoveler! Where had they come from? I found out later as behind these works is a large reed lined pool with dead trees and established willow scrub, looks good for flycatchers.

Here is a rough location
Posted by at

2 comments :

  1. Dave6 May 2014 at 22:35

    Your map is a little bit wrong, Paul. It's actually Winstanley Rd at that point. Confusing I know as it changes to Ashton Road further up the hill then back to Winstanley Rd again after that :-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous7 May 2014 at 09:30

    Hi Dave, the map is correct but its my road naming thats wrong! Apologies all.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments ( Atom )