Grey Partridge on Moss Lane, Astley

Grey Partridges are skittish things and very hard to photograph as they skulk around in the long grass and vegetation only occasionally raising their heads.  I've seen them in ones and twos a few times in the Astley Moss and Rindle Road area, but as soon as they see you they're off and so it's not surprising that I've never managed so much as a record shot until now.

I know it's not the best of photos, but it's the best I've got so far of this elusive bird.

Moss Lane and Rindle Road

As it was cold but sunny today, I decided to pop out mid afternoon to Moss Lane and Rindle Road, which is only ten minutes from where I live. I parked up at the last but one bend on Moss lane where there were at least 200 Jackdaws in and over the fields at around 3pm.  Large groups would regularly take off and head westwards, off to a roost somewhere in that direction.  

Whilst I was there I met another birder from Manchester in search of Grey Partridge.  We chatted for a long time about birds in the area and he gave me some good pointers to locations a little further afield, such as the pontoon which is covered in waders at New Brighton (Wirral) at high tide, and where and when to se the Hawfinches at Sizergh Castle car park. I did ask his name, but I'm afraid I've forgotten it - that's senility for you.

Whilst we chatted a female Sparrowhawk flew out of the trees and low over a field and there were quite a few Wood Pigeons around. We didn't see the Grey Partridge but a Mistle Thrush was in the field next to 'Cobs and Plods' riding school on the way to Rindle Road.

There was another large group (100+) of mixed Corvids (mainly Jackdaw) at the corner of Rindle Road and Nook lane, before they took off and landed in the trees behind.  As I drove down Rindle Road a Kestrel was sitting on the telephone wire outside Moss Bank Farm.

At the Rindle Road feeding station there were less birds than usual, but there were still some Tree Sparrows, Chaffinches, two Robins, a Great Tit and two Blue Tits - no Willow Tits though. I walked through Rindle Wood and around the SSSI trail but saw nothing of note. On the way back towards Rindle Hedge a group of 20 or so Linnets flew out of the hedge and into the ploughed field.  A Jay also flew over the field next to the ploughed field in which there were also three Pheasants.

But the best was left until last - a Treecreeper was showing well in the trees around the entrance to Rindle Wood. I've only seen one once before and have often looked for them to no avail, in spite of visiting many times.  This just shows you what birding is like - go for a nice walk and if you happen to see some birds that makes it even better!

Moss Lane and Rindle Wood

A walk down Moss Lane and through Rindle Wood to the edge of the SSSI from 5pm to 7.45pm on a very windy but sunny late afternoon / early evening produced:

Moss Lane:

• 2 Red Legged Partridges
• 6 Pied Wagtails
• Swallows
• Carrion Crows
• Lapwings mating
• Our Marsh Harrier friend with the missing primaries

Ploughed field next to Rindle Wood and the SSSI:

• Skylarks heard but not seen
• Cuckoo calling and showing in tree tops in the usual place on the SSSI
• A brilliant display of aerobatics by up to twelve Swallows catching flies and just having fun flying low along the furrows in the ploughed field
• Pied Wagtail, Mistle Thrushes and Blackbirds in furrows
• Carrion Crows and one Oystercatcher over
• No hobbies though

Drake Mallard raising its head just above the long vegetation in field next to Rindle Cottages and Curlew calling from nearby on way back to car. It was nice to meet Gary Mills out looking for hobbies too.

I originally posted this report on the Manchester Birding Forum.

Moss Lane, Astley Moss

Moss Lane

Even though I've got loads of work to do, I couldn't resist going out again today as the sun was still shining, intermittently at least.  I went in search of the Wheatear that has been sighted down Moss Lane but ended up with a Little Owl instead!

Little Owl

I've seen a Little Owl only once before down here last year, and when I looked again over the following weeks, I couldn't find it again.  So it was very nice to see it again today -  I never did see the Wheatear though.

Little Owl

Boy has it changed down Moss Lane since I last came a few weeks ago. All the high banks on the north side of the Lane have gone and the fields where the pipeline work has been done have been made good and ploughed. It all looks a lot more open again now.

Moss Lane

Moss Lane and Rindle Road

When I got up at 7:30am this morning it was quite light and the weather looked good, so I decided to go out birding.  I considered going to see the rare Pied-billed Grebe at Hollingworth Lake in Rochdale which has been all over the Manchester Birding Forum and even NorthWest Tonight on the BBC.  However that would take a bit longer and as both the Manchester United and England Rugby Union games were on TV this afternoon, I decided to leave that until tomorrow. So I settled on visiting my local patch at Moss Lane and Rindle Road near Astley Moss to see what was about.

Just before I left I checked my garden to find the usual tits, blackbirds and starlings about.  The Jay I've recently spotted also did another flypast and a skein of well over 100 Pink-footed Geese also flew overhead in a long wavy line heading eastwards. I'm getting to see these more often nowadays.

When I got to Astley Moss I first went down Moss Lane and was pleased to see there were a lot of birds about.  The recent high winds had cleared a lot leaves from the trees and the fields had been either ploughed or cut recently making the birds much easier to see than in recent months.  

I parked at my usual spot on the bend near the end of Moss Lane and walked back along the tree-lined lane.  I was about to start taking some pictures when I found to my dismay that I had no memory card in the camera - I'd left it in the computer whilst downloading my last lot of photos, damn!  As it was a good day for photos, I briefly thought about nipping back home to get the card but eventually decided to stay here with just my binoculars.

Whilst on Moss Lane I saw the following birds:

• Common Pheasant (male and female)
• Robin
• Wren
• Dunnock
• Chaffinch
• Blue Tit
• Carrion Crow
• Woodpigeon

Later on I drove round to Rindle Road where I encountered a mass of birds on the floor at the feeding station, the most notable of which were the Fieldfare which gave me a good closeup view being only a few metres away this time. At the feeding station there was also a Robin, various Tits, Starlings and I was almost certain there were some Tree Sparrows.

Just as I was about to leave and go home for breakfast when another birder turned up a the feeding station.  It was Geoff Hargreaves, a name that I'd seen many times on the Manchester Birding Forum especially recording sightings at the Wigan Flashes.  He'd popped in here to see if there was a Merlin about on his way back from seeing the Pie-billed Grebe at Hollingworth Lake and I told him that I was thinking about going tomorrow. Geoff kindly let me look through his scope and helped me to positively identify the Tree Sparrow whilst also pointing out a Yellowhammer which I'd missed.

We went on to have a quick walk through Rindle Wood to look out for Treecreepers following flocks of Long-tailed Tits (apparently a useful thing to look out for) and then along Rindle Hedge where we got a beautiful sighting of a Kestrel hovering low over the fields looking for a meal.  On the way back to the car Geoff pointed out the familiar call of the Jackdaw as several flew over us, but unfortunately there were no Merlins or Treecreepers to be seen.

Thanks Geoff, nice meeting you.

Rindle Road and Astley Moss

After a short break in my birding activities (whilst I erected a garden shed), I decided to start off tonight by looking down Moss Lane first and I wasn't disappointed. As I made my way up the lane in my car I came across a Red Legged Partridge which took a sudden turn into the excavations of the new pipeline workings on the northern side. I parked up and followed it for a short while when another appeared, and when they spotted me taking photos, both ran off across the field.

Then I tried taking photos of some Lapwing diving down into the fields but without much success - as you can see by the blur, I'm still getting to grips with taking pictures of moving birds. So I drove a little further down to the trees near the bend in the road just before the lane ends. There was nothing much showing down here and so I slowly crawled back along with my windows wound down. Soon I could hear a bird calling from the trees and so I headed in that direction - I was amazed to find it was a Little Owl, the first time I've ever seen an owl in the wild.  The pcture below shows my first view of the bird, and no, it as not been distorted! The owl really did look as squat as that!

I was so excited I just fired off a load of shots on automatic, without paying too much attention to the settings - I didn't want the bird to fly off without me having any record of it. What I find quite unbelieveable about these pictures is that they are of the same bird. The differences in colour are due to the light, camera settings and post processing.

The next time I looked up the owl had gone, and after a quick search failed to find it I moved on down the lane. I parked up again in a small side lane next to wooded area with very thin birch trees which were all gently swaying in the breeze - the effect was quite mesmeric. I thought I caught a glance of something unusual in a tree but it now looks most likely to be a mistle thrush.

After spending ten minutes here I moved down to the layby at the end of Rindle Road just before the level crossing. Once parked up, I scanned the horse paddock and adjacent field from the metal gate, looking for the Whimbrel which are frequently reported here. Sure enough, there they were, but too far off to take even a half decent photo - I'll need to come back for that one.

Whilst I was there I met Phil Owen and his mate Steve who asked me if I'd seen the Whimbrel. For once I could be of some help, but I very quickly explained that I was still a novice birder. We had quite a long debate about whether or not it was a Mistle Thrush sitting on a fence post fairly close to the Whimbrel - we eventually decided it was after looking through Phil's scope.

I then offered to show Phil and Steve around Rindle Wood and the edge of the SSSI as they weren't sure exactly where it was. Like me, they were interested in finding the Ring Ouzel which had been seen here many times in the last few weeks.  I did my best to explain each area where different birds had been seen, all from what Dave Thacker and others have told me and from reading Ian McKerchar's site information on manchesterbirding.com.

In the ploughed field we saw some Yellowhammer and a small bird which again was debated about for a while before Phil and Steve decided it was definitely a Whinchat.  And all the time we could hear a Cuckoo calling from trees behind the SSSI.  Not only that, there was a birder stalking it too. As we moved on in search of the Ring Ouzel, the Cuckoo calling got louder and so we stopped.  It was then that we saw our first glimpses of the bird sitting in the distant trees.  We decided to walk back for a better look and hopefully try for some photographs.

The next few minutes were brilliant because we were treated to a fly-past by two Cuckoos, one of which landed in some vegetation directly opposite us. It was here that I managed to get my first identifiable image of the bird. Still a long way to go on that front!

As we marvelled at the Cuckoos, the stalking birder came across from the SSSI and greeted us. He turned out be Denis Atherton who had spent a few hours trying to get a good view and a picture of the cuckoo.  We chatted for a while and pointed out the Whinchat which he hadn't seen. Denis later e-mailed this cracking picture of a cuckoo sitting on the Astley Moss SSSI sign.  It may be a little blurred, but that's really not the point, is it?

Now I must really try to get one of my own!

On the way round the ploughed fields and back to the road we saw a distant Buzzard over the railway line.

And a solitary Wheatear in the ploughed field near Rindle Cottages.


No sign of the male Ring Ouzel anywhere though - shame, he must have moved on.