Eccleston Mere

Teal 1 female
Willow tit 1
Swallow 2
Chiffchaff 2
Kingfisher 2
Black-headed gull 200
Skylark 3 over

Also: 70 Pied Wagtails over Queens Park this evening.

Glossy Ibis, Horwich

Four Glossy ibis today in a field with cows opposite the Bob Smithy pub in Old Chorley road, Horwich, showing exceptionally well in the bright sunlight, and offering great photographic opportunities. More photos on my blog.

 

Twitter @sthelensbirds

Don't forget to add @sthelensbirds on your Twitter accounts for all the latest sightings .... such as the c300 pink-footed geese over Billinge.

We also retweet other local sightings from neighbouring areas. 

Just include @sthelensbirds in your tweet to let us know about your sightings and include the hashtag #sthelens for easy searching too.

Tell your mates too!

Thanks

Peregrine Billinge Hill

We were watching a flock of woodpigeon from the summit when Paul saw a bird land on a distant pylon. He thought it may be a peregrine (I hadn't seen it land and thought it was a woodpigeon through my bins when it was perched!) so I took a photo and saw this when I zoomed in...

Peregrine 1
Sparrowhawk 1
Kestrel 1
Willow Tit 1
Bullfinch 1(f)
Blackcap 2 (f)
Chiffchaff 7+
Swallow 20+

Also yellowhammer, pied wagtails, skylark, meadow pipit, tree sparrow all present.
Damian P

Spotted Flycatcher on Billinge Hill Last Night

Billinge Hill Area

I did a big lap of Billinge Hill this morning starting at Crookhurst Farm and then walking to the summit and across to Crank Road, over to the pine copse, down past Promised Land Farm and Billinge Hall, and then back via Red Barn Road. I didn't see that much considering how far I walked!

Wheatear 1f in the horse paddocks

Skylark10+   in the stubble fields opposite the horse paddocks

Tree Sparrow 35+  30+ in a hedge near to Beacon Farm and 5 on the feeders at Red Barn Farm

Meadow pipit + yellowhammer in small numbers

Female Wheatear

Meadow Pipit

 Damian P

Eccleston Mere

House Martin 20
Swallow 10
Chiffchaff 7 calling
Kingfisher 2

Havannah Flash

Swallows 20
Buzzards 6
Kestrel 1
Canada goose 30 flying over
Grey heron 1

OLD COACH ROAD / DAIRY FARM ROAD

600-700 pink footed geese at 6:30pm
60 swallows
1 barn owl at 8pm
3 kestrel
1 buzzard
2 brown hares

New Brighton - it's that time of year again.

They're back - Leach's storm petrels on the north Wirral coast. There'll be even more tomorrow morning..... 

 

More on my blog.

Black-necked grebe @ Carr Mill Dam

Thanks to info from Dave Owen and Colin McCooey (see his great Flickr feed http://www.flickr.com/photos/94251136@N06/ ) I was able to get there to photograph this wonderful juvenile black-necked grebe.

Also, present was this wigeon which is ringed ... cant quite make out the numbers but hopefully somebody can.  They are quite scarce at the dam so I was pleased to find it feeding and resting amongst the canada geese.

Other birds of note included grey wagtail, kingfisher and a lone great black-backed gull looking quite menacing!

With these winds who knows what will turn up next .....?

Carr Mill Dam

Black-necked grebe between yacht club and Goyt Valley, at far end of Sandy Bay with Coots.

Thanks to Dave for the info.

Eccleston Mere

Willow tit 1
Blackcap 1 male
Chiffchaff a few including 1 singing
Great spotted woodpecker 2
Kingfisher 2
Mute swan 1 adult
Tufted duck 4

No sign of yesterdays spotted flycatchers this morning.

Spotted Flycatchers at Eccleston Mere

The spotted flycatcher was feeding in the dead wood on the south side of Eccleston Mere. It was still present when I left and Colin saw it again at 9.45. The kingfisher were very active also this morning. I had six separate sightings but I'm not sure how many of these were the same birds, two juveniles were together in the bushes at the end of the stream on the south side.

Update - Spotted Flycatcher still present in wood next to stream 1.05pm as per Colin D.

Update 2 - Spotted flycatcher still present at 1.30pm. It's doing a circuit of the trees high up. Walk down the stream for about 30 m until the wood on your right ends, then look in the wood. About every 10 minutes it was returning to the tops of the tall dead tree - Colin

Update 3 - It's moved to the South West corner still present when I left at 4.00 p.m
The latest photos with the spots makes it look like a juvenile and one from earlier looks like an adult. I think there might have been at least two of them. - Damian

Spotted Flycatcher 2

Kingfisher 2+

Willow Tit 1 heard (seen later on)

Goldcrest 2

Nuthatch 1
GS Woodpecker 2

Blackcap 1 male

Treecreeper 1

Mute Swan 1

Tufted Duck 2

Buzzard 1

Lots of willow warbler/chiffchaff including 1 singing chiffchaff

Juvenile Spotted Flycatcher

Adult Spotted Flycatcher

 

Damian P

Eccleston Mere

Gadwall 2 (male and female)
Kingfisher 1
Tufted Duck 5
Swallow 10
Chiffchaff 1 singing
Willow Warbler 1 singing feebly

A misty, murky start to the day at the mere. No sign of the mystery aythya but could easily still be present.

Eccleston Mere

There's an odd looking aythya duck on the mere at the moment. More photos and a description on my blog. If anybody has an opinion on this I'd be pleased to hear it.

 

Also today Kingfisher and about 30 Swallow.

 

 

Eccleston Mere

Black Tern present 10am, but no sign after initial sighting. Thanks to Dot for the info.

This evening, two eclipse Mandarins, 6 Tufted Ducks, Kingfisher and Buzzard.

At least things are moving now!

Eccleston Mere

Yellow-legged Gull 1 adult
Lesser black-backed Gull 30 adults
Kingfisher 1
Mute Swan 1 adult
Buzzard 1
Jackdaw 200

Hen Harrier Old Garswood Road

Ringtail Hen Harrier seen over fields from Old Garswood Road, near Carr Mill Dam yesterday evening at 6pm. Also large numbers of finches and sparrows, as well as lots of willow warblers and tits. Thanks to John for the info.

Eccleston Mere

Kingfisher 3
Swallow 30
House Martin 10
Tufted Duck 4
Jackdaw 200
Mute Swan 1 adult
Buzzard 1

Plenty of activity from the Kingfishers at the moment, with the adults feeding young. The Jackdaw roost is quite impressive as well, but I'm desperate for something new to turn up, I've been watching most of these birds for two months now!

Eccleston Mere

Little Grebe 1 juv.
Tufted Duck 5
Nuthatch 1
Mute Swan 1 adult
Kingfisher 1
House Martin 20
Swallow 10

Just like buses .....

Promised Land Farm
The highlight for me was finding my second Spotted Flycatcher in a week, when I hadnt previously seen one in St Helens!
2 Little Owl
Sparrowhawk
Kestrel
Buzzard
Chiffchaff

Red Barn Lane
Whitethroat
Yellow Wagtail
12 Greenfinch
5 Yellowhammer
8 partridge (bad light at distance so no species given)
Lots of swallows including recently fledged young

Larch Close, Billinge
Song Thrush
5 Common Buzzard over (inc 1 very pale morph bird)

I was particularly pleased with the song thrush in my garden as these bird are red-listed having declined alarmingly and (almost) unexplainably in the last 30 years.

Peek-a-boo and Mystery Guest

There are a few broken down buildings around the north and west side of Billinge which always mean that there is good chance of catching up with an owl or two given the amount of good hunting habitat.

I started with a quick view of the Barn Owl nest at Fir Tree Farm on a TV screen in the barn.  Happy to report their are 3 healthy looking chicks and 1 much smaller .... will it survive its siblings attentions and competition for food???

But I have been meaning to catch up with the fella  in the photo for some time however and despite the cloudy, grey conditions he played a game of hide and seek with me!  I think I won as the phot below shows but I'll let you judge ......

A few minutes later co-incidentally I met a man who worked the farm for a long time and he said these Little Owls and their offspring have been present for about 40 years!  Here's to another 40 years of occupation

After catching up with a few of the other locals (kestrel, buzzard, yellowhammer)  I made my way to the small Scots Pine copse to chance my arm for a few crossbills .... and maybe even a two-barred crossbill.  No luck with those but I was happy to see the coal tits and goldcrests. 

However, I was nicley surprised to see a Grey Wagtail feeding around a small muddy pond in the copse with a few chaffinches.  Then my attention was drawn to the hedge by a familiar "churp" which turned out to be a 40 strong flock of Tree Sparrows which were feeding on spilt grain along the path, including many young ones

Despite several promising breaks in the cloud the weather was doing its best to keep birds sheltered as the relative hive of activity of a couple of days ago - Red Barn Lane was surprisingly quiet.  A dozen or so pied wagtails flitted about on the golf course but there was no sign of any yellow wagtails as in recent days.

At least a few swallows are still feeding young in the stables but the berry laden bramble and elder were deserted.

For some reason my attention was drawn to scan the fencelines and fields perhaps in the hope of a wheatear or two when this caught my attention ....

And on the back of the camera it looked worse but by watching it go back and forth to a regular perch I deduced that this could be interesting so I crept a little closer and closer and closer until i could take this ...

A lovely fresh looking Whinchat .... just goes to prove if you get out there and have a good old rummage you'll find something worth writing about :)

Newton Lake

Thursday, Newton Lake, 1 Common Sandpiper, 110 Canada Geese, 3 ad. 1juv Little Grebe.

Canada geese

On Havannah flash at 6am this morning and watched a large skein of Canada geese approaching from the direction of Fiddlers ferry power station, as they came overhead they split into two groups one headed towards Newton and the other towards St. Helens. I wondered if these geese are the one,s which are  on Newton lake and the Retail park in St. Helens , making this journey every morning? over the past few days I have seen Canada geese flying over The Flash in different directions.