Rindle Road and Astley Moss

After reading about it on the Manchester Birding website and forum, I decided to go and have a look down Rindle Road in the Astley Moss area. I was already quite familiar with the area, having lived less than 10 minutes away for the last 26 years, but not from a birding point of view.

I was very pleasantly surprised when I had barely turned the corner at the bottom of Rindle Road and saw two Whimbrel in the first field past the farms. And as I was watching them though my binoculars I heard a cuckoo calling from the field behind me. Things were already looking good.

It was here that I first met Dave Thacker, who confirmed that the birds were Whimbrel as I'd thought although there also seemed to be a Curlew calling somewhere in the distance too. Dave gave me lost of good advice and information about birding in this area - he's been coming here since he was a kid and seems to think of it as his backyard or garden. He also mentioned the Manchester Birding forum which I had already started using a couple of months ago.

That evening I went on to see some Mistle Thrush, Lapwing and a Heron in the fields on either side of the road. What a good start to my burgeoning relationship with this area!