Summary January 2013

Summary January 2013

Garden

January started much like the tail end of December but it was very warm for the time of year. The two Mistle Thrushes are rarer now that they have more or less eaten all the Rose hips at the bottom of the garden. There are plenty of Tits including Coal Tits and we still see the male and female Blackcaps but the only time that we have seen them together they didn’t get on with each other too well. The Dunnock continues to furtle around and I saw a Wren briefly on 4th. We sometimes have a visitation from the House Sparrows from across the ginnel. By the middle of the month the weather got much colder with snowfalls on some days. As usual, Manchester seemed to get off lightly. The snow at the middle of the month meant that some of the birds disappeared for a bit; the Starlings were an example of this, but the ones that did remain were constantly coming to the bird feeders or table.

The Dunnock isn’t seen any more and neither are the Blackcaps. On 21st I saw a Sparrowhawk perched on our back gate. By the time I had run off to get a camera it had moved to the feeders and perched at the top of the main pole. It flew off before I could get a photo but I still got a good view. Around that time there appeared to be a pair of Robins tolerating each other even if they were close to each other. Conversely the Blackbirds seem to be having turf wars.
Towards the last third of the month the snows started to fall but, as usual, Manchester got it better that most places. Be that as it may, we still encountered plenty of iced over bodies of water. After the snow came plenty of rain and the story of the last nine months seems to have been mud, mud, mud !

Birding Group Days Out

The first birding group visit of the month was on the 8th January to Pennington Flash where a Goosander and a Kingfisher were the highlights. The following week, on the 15th, we went to Burton Mere Wetlands which was a bit disappointing but the day was transformed when we decided to call an early halt to this visit and head off up to Hoylake for the high tide there. This turned out to be a most amazingly spectacular event involving tens of thousands of birds in a huge wader roost just a few feet from the promenade. The following week we had a very pleasant walk through Tatton Park on a snowy morning with good views of both Great Spotted and Green Woodpeckers as well as Siskin. The final day was supposed to be Marshside but the weather was supposed to be very poor so it was changed for Neumann’s Flash. So on the 29th we went to Neumann’s Flash where the weather wasn’t too bad and we had some reasonable birding with good views of Buzzard and Kestrel.

Walks and Days Out

We started the new year with a walk out to the Mersey and along to Chorlton Water Park. Along the Mersey there were only really Canada Geese and Mallards but when we got into the water park there were a few Pochards, Lots of Tufted Ducks and Coots, few Moorhen, Mute Swans and a Heron. In the trees we had good views of a small flock of Long-tailed Tits and we watched a Crow bothering a Buzzard so much that it eventually flew off into the distance. On the 5th we went out to Dunham Massey where it was very wet so we didn’t stay too long. It was long enough, however, to see a Song Thrush singing from a tree near the main building. On the 6th of January we went to Moore Nature Reserve where the highlights were a small flock of Waxwings and a lovely Redhead Smew as well as a pair of Goldcrests.
On my birthday – the 17th – we went up to WWT Martin Mere to order my new scope and just to have a look around. I had some hopes of perhaps seeing the Woodcock that had been sighted there for several consecutive days recently and, although it hadn’t been sighted for a few days, it showed brilliantly for us giving me a fantastic first and a birthday present of a bird. On the 25th we went to Budworth Mere at Marbury Country Park to try to get views of the juvenile Great Northern Diver that had been seen there. Unfortunately it disappeared ten minutes before we arrived which was a shame since it would have been my 200th British Bird !
I returned to Budworth Mere on the 29th after the birding groups visit to Neumann’s Flash with Mike and we had a quick walk around. The mere was almost completely thawed out by then so there was plenty of open water. Highlights were watching a Cormorant feed and a sight of a Kingfisher chasing another one across the mere.