Pennington Flash

Today I arranged to meet Dave Broome at Penny to collect some unwanted Birdwatching magazines from him that were otherwise destined for recycling.  It was a beautifully crsip and sunny morning but being below freezing I was not hopeful that I'd see much as much of the water would be frozen.  I did have another aim and that was to try to see some Siskin which have been reported there this week.

On arriving at 9:30am I had a quick look in Horrocks Hide before returning to the car park to meet Dave and collect a big box of magazines.  From the hide I could see that the Lapwing had returned in great numbers, with well over a hundred of them on the ice at the bottom of the Spit.  There were also some small groups of Teal and a single Shelduck as well as all the usual suspects.  A quick look over the main Flash which was only partly frozen revealed some male and female Goosander, which I've not seen in this location before - I usually see them from Teal Hide.

This report is still  to be completed, but for now here are some of the better pictures I took today at Penny:

Song Thrush at Bunting Hide

Song Thrush

Male Chaffinch at Bunting Hide



Stock Dove at Bunting Hide



Meadow Pipit behind Ramsdale's Ruck

A pair of Meadow Pipits

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Meadow Pipit on fence

Not a great picture, but is it also a Meadow Pipit ?

Kestrel near Ramsdale's Hide

Kestrel

Kestrel



Part of a Skein of Pink-footed Geese



Mute Swans landing on the main Flash

Mallard Splash 1

Mallard Splash 2



Male Teal on main Flash



Female Teal on main Flash

Teal and Mallard from Horrocks Hide



Teal Cuddle

Teal head on

Teal close up

I call this one 'Rock and Teal'

A poor picture of a Siskin

Another poor picture of a Siskin

Yet another poor picture of a Siskin

Are my ears frostbitten ?

My daughter thought this was cute - until I told her it was a rat!



Moses Gate Country Park

I decided to go to Moses Gate today to pick a Goosander or two for my new year list.  I was also hopeful I might see a Kingfisher or Dipper on the River Irwell there but no luck there I'm afraid. 

Here's a quick summary of what I did see:

• Goosander (8 male and 12 female)
• Grey Heron
• Tufted Duck
• Long tailed Tit
• Dunnock
• Robin
• Carrion Crow
• Great Tit
• Blue Tit
• Blackbird
• Black headed Gull
• Mute Swan
• Mallard
• Pigeon
• Canada Goose
• Moorhen
• Coot
• and two quite beautiful but elusive deer faun



Pied Wagtails

During this week I noticed my first Pied Wagtail of the year but it was topped by today's sighting of 12 of them together in one place in Westhoughton.  I've never seen a group of so many before, only usually managing a pair at most.  It was shame I didn't have my camera with me because I may not see this sight again.

One more for the Year List I started for the first time on the 1st of January and which has now reached 44.

A Quick Walk Round Tyldesley

On a quick walk round our housing estate in Tyldesley on our way to Meat Mart this afternoon, Sarah and I saw the following birds:

• Blackbird
• Chaffinch
• Magpie
• Carrion Crow
• Sparrowhawk
• Great Tit
• Pink-footed Goose skein - distant but clear
• House Sparrow
• Woodpiegon
• Collared Dove - a large roost of 30+ birds, the most I've ever seen together
• Starling
• Robin - several singing very loudly to proclaim their territory

On our way home we were presented with the best sighting of the lot - a sparrowhawk sitting on a rooftop aerial.  The bird stayed longer than any sparrowhawk I've seen, allowing us both a good look through binoculars.  It was just a shame the light wasn't better and that I didn't have my camera with me.

Rindle Road Feeding station

Well, after all the snow over Christmas and the following week of leaden overcast skies, I decided to go out today for the first time in nearly a month.  I wasn't overly impressed by the quality of my photographs today, but I did record sightings of a few new birds for my growing list including this first ever picture of a Jay which I took in my back garden before I left for Rindle Road.

Here's a few of the better photos I took at the feeding station on Rindle Road:

Tree Sparrow



Yellowhammer



A small flock of Tree Sparrows



Reed Bunting

 

A flock of Jackdaws in Silver Birch trees on the edge of the Moss

Willow Tit

Chaffinch

Clifton Country Park

I'd not been out birding since returning to work after New Year, and so when the weather brightened up today I decided to try a new location to which I'd never been before.  The main aim of going to Clifton Country Park in Kearsley, Salford was to see the rare Red-headed Smew that had been regularly mentioned on the Manchester Birding Forum recently.

I was very pleasantly surprised by the Country Park, which included a small visitor's centre and a large free car park.  The lake (which is sometimes called Clifton Marina) is the flooded remains of a gravel pit which was excavated to provide material for the construvtion of the nearby M62 motorway. Today it was mostly frozen, with just a small pool of water available conveniently in front of the viewing platform.

As I was getting ready to leave the car I, a fellow birder called Keith Mills passed by and so we had a quick chat. Keith had also come see the Smew and so we both made for the viewing platform where another female birder was already taking photos.

Goldeneye

Smew on ice

Smew

Smew

Cormorant over

Cormorant

Mute Swan on ice

Mute Swans landing

Male Tufted Duck

Female Tufted Duck

Two white Mallards ?

Duck melee !