Corncrake at Carr Lane, Hale : 7th June 2015 I had been watching reports on Rare Bird Alert of a Corncrake singing in a field off Carr Lane near Hale, Merseyside. I had heard of this site before because the pools on the lane often have reports of good birds. When the reports were still…
Moore Nature Reserve : 5th June 2015 The weather forecast was good for a limited number of areas for the day and Moore Nature Reserve was one of them. My target birds were Yellowhammer and Grey Partridge. Unfortunately we saw neither but we had a nice long walk on a hot and humid morning where…
Goyt Valley and Cat and Fiddle : 21 May 2015 Tuesday outing for the birding group was scheduled for the Goyt Valley but was changed to Pennington because of poor weather. I was keen that this particular venue should not disappear off the schedule if the following Tuesday’s weather was also poor so we decided…
RSPB Leighton Moss : 27th March 2015 After we left Sizergh we drove down to Leighton Moss RSPB reserve again, this time parking at the top of the causeway first and walking down to the public hide. The star attractions here were at least three Marsh Harriers and possibly more and a pair of Otters.
Hawfinch Watch at Sizergh Castle : 27th March 2015 We had last gone to Sizergh Castle for the Hawfinch Watch in early March 2012 and that had been very successful. There had been several cold winters, however, and the numbers of native birds had been boosted by foreign birds escaping the colder parts of Europe….
RSPB Leighton Moss : 26th March 2015 We decided to take a trip up to Sizergh Castle for a Hawfinch spotting morning and decided to throw in a couple of visits to Leighton Moss RSPB reserve. The last time we visited here in similar circumstances we had had three fantastic “life ticks” – a “redhead”…
High Tide at Parkgate : 23rd March 2015 Another chance for a high tide at Parkgate wasn’t to be missed and at 10.2 at 12.20pm the height and timing could not have been better. The problem was that it was a beautiful windless and very sunny day – not always what you want at Parkgate…
Laughing Gull at New Brighton : 22nd February 2015 After getting lucky with the Long-eared Owl at Burton Mere Wetlands, we decided to head off to New Brighton for the last high tide day of February (10.1 metres at 1.27pm). We got there around 1pm so we had half an hour before high tide. As…
Long-eared Owl at Burton Mere Wetlands : 22nd February 2014 While we were on holiday in Lanzarote I had been monitoring some of the sightings in and around Manchester and two in particular jumped out at me. The first was a roosting Long-eared Owl that had been at Burton Mere Wetlands and the second was…
New Brighton Marine Lake 24th January 2015 After we left Riverbank Road we went on to New Brighton to find the Purple Sandpipers again as Anne had missed them. A note to myself, NEVER go there on a weekend; parking is impossible ! Would we have a bit more luck that we had had on…
