Leigh Ornithological Society Open Day Saturday 30th January

Leigh Ornithological Society are having an open day at Leigh Library next Saturday (30th Jan) for anyone interested in birds and wildlife...

Full details are on their main website: www.leighos.org.uk

Also Facebook Groups

www.facebook.com/groups/leighosnaturephotos

www.facebook.com/groups/leighos

Eccleston Mere

It was cold but bright around the mere this morning. Myself and Paul had a good look around, the Egyptian Goose being the highlight. It was very vocal and was calling for a bit before Paul got a view of it. By the time I'd sorted my camera out and found a gap in the hedge, it was miles off heading towards Prescot reservoirs. I'll put my photo up later, you can just about tell what it is with a bit of imagination!

Egyptian Goose 1
Teal 2
Little Grebe 3
Pochard 1m
GC Grebe 15
Gadwall 12
Willow tit 2
Kingfisher 1
Grey Wagtail 2
Reed Bunting 1
Siskin 5
Mute Swan 8
Coot 50
Sparrowhawk 1


This was the best one I got....!




At least you can see the huge wing panel.

Damian P

Inglenook Farm, Rainford by-pass

1000 Pink-footed geese in fields near Inglenook Farm today. I stopped and had a good look through them but couldn't find any other species.

I'm not sure what to make of this goose. Pretty sure it's not a hybrid, becasue apart from the perfectly symetrical white band it was otherwise just another pink-foot. Probably partially leucistic I suppose.

Havannah flash

Birds present at the feeding station this morning.
Nuthatch 2
Reed bunting 4
Robin
Great tit
Magpie
Wood pigeon
I noticed that one of the Reed buntings had a white ring on its right leg, but could not make out the number.
SteB.

My Garden - Eccleston

We had the first blackcap of the year this afternoon on the sunflower hearts. Blackcaps are pretty much an annual visitor in the garden but have been a bit later than normal this year.
I tried in vain to get a photo of it using my camera on a remote shutter, but it refused to perch on the twig that I had my camera focussed on, the twig that it had been happily perching on for an hour or so before I decided to get the camera out!

Blackcap 1 male

Sankey brook

Just for interest, photo of Sankey brook this morning at 11-30am, showing how high the water level has risen.
SteB.

Havannah flash

Once again the Flash was quite, a lone Moorhen was the only bird present on the water.
Sankey brook was again running fast and high, with nothing present on the water.

Feeding station
Nuthatch 1
Carrion crow 2
Yellow hammer 1
Blue tit
Great tit
Chaffinch
Robin.

Kestrel 1
Bullfinch 8
Along Cooper lane footpath.
SteB.

Cooper lane

Birds present along Cooper lane this morning.

Nuthatch 1

Bullfinch 10

Yellow hammer 1

Wren 1

Canada goose 40, over going towards St helens.

Carrion crow

Magpie

Woodpigeon 100 +

Chaffinch 5

Robin

Grey squirrel 4.

SteB.

 

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Geese

Big movement of geese this morning, several hundred observed flying over Haydock at 9-30am poss Pinks, all heading. East.
SteB.

Cooperlane

Birds seen along Cooper lane this morning.

Magpie
Carrion crow
Jay
Sparrowhawk 1
Chaffinch
Blue tit
Great tit
Blackbird
Woodpigeon
P/F goose over 50
Jay
Around 10 Grey squirrels
SteB.

My Billinge Garden

Its been fairly busy in my garden the last few days which wouldn't normally surprise me for this time of year (ie cold weather plus natural ffod running out) but does given the mild weather we've been having - why when the ground is unfrozen and they're are insects in the air are birds visiting the feeders on a regular basis? Habit? Reliability? Safety? Lack of disturbance?

Anyway a summary of interesting recent sightings below:

2 tree sparrow

5 house sparrow

up 30 starlings but only a few group visits per week

2 greenfinch (1 male, 1 female)

3 coal tit

5 blackbirds (which are quite territorail and spend most of their time chasing each other!)

2 robin (same as above!)

3 dunnock (again similar behaviour as blackbirds!)

3 blue tit

1 great tit

5 long tailed-tits

2 chaffinches

1 sparrowhawk (juv) but other birds in the local area hunting starlings in the fashion of a peregrine ie getting above and behind them before stooping

and perhaps most surprisingly 5 cormorants flew directly over yesterday, only ever seen 3 of them flying over before and I though that was odd were they off to Carr Mill or Eccy Mere? or headed directly for the coast???

And speaking of where birds have come from its intersting to see that a few of the birds above have metal rings on their right legs inc 1 each of blue tit, male chaffinch, long-tailed tit and 3 starlings.  One of the starlings has a left leg black ring with white letter-number combo which was ringed in a garden in Orrell as part of a BTO study by P Alker (of waxwing fame see http://two-in-a-bush.blogspot.com )

Seems to be revving up quite nicley for The RSPB Big Garden Bird Watch at the end of the month https://ww2.rspb.org.uk/discoverandenjoynature/discoverandlearn/birdwatch

And out of intersting another long term study of garden birds that you can help with is http://www.bto.org/volunteer-surveys/gbw

Happy garden bird watching

Paul B

Havannah flash

Flash again very quiet, not a single bird seen.

Sankey brook running fast and high nothing seen.

Feeding station.
Nuthatch
Coal tit
Blue tit
Great tit
Blackbird
Carrion crow
Chaffinch
Magpie
Wood pigeon
Robin
Seven Grey squirrels.
SteB.
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