NestCam Update

At 5:40am this morning the Blue Tit was sitting on two eggs and still continuing to make improvement to the nest.  Anytime now I expect to hear the male calling outside and the female will then leave the nestbox for a while to feed revealing the eggs.  However, she does seomtimes seem to deliberately cover up the eggs with feathers, perhaps to keep them warm or just hide them whilst she is away, and so they may not be visible.
 

Keep watching as the clarity and colour of the video will improve as the light increases. At this stage there are still long periods of inactivity when the female is out feeding and so during some of these I'll replay video clips taken during the day.

Please feel free to leave a comment or tick a reaction box at the bottom of these blog posts.

NestCam: STOP PRESS

We have one Easter Egg in the Big Birdie House!  This was laid sometime between 11pm last night and 6am this morning.  I got up when I heard the male bird calling from outside and the female had already left the box when I got downstairs, revealing one tiny little Blue Tit egg.

The nestbox has been empty for most of the day when I've looked, but it's obviously been visited regularly because a pile of new white feathers have appeared.  These seem to have been used to cover the egg whilst the female was away.

As of 19:46 tonight the female Blue Tit is currently setting down for the night, whilst sitting on the egg and improving the nest by weaving the feathers into it.  The male is still outside calling at the moment, perhaps to let her know that everything is OK.  This will stop soon and he'll return in the morning.

Great Stuff! - Come back in the daylight for some better pictures with a touch of colour. And in the morning there maybe some more eggs in view.

This Evening in My Garden

It was like Manchester Airport with all the aerial traffic in and over my garden this evening when I saw the following:

• Blue Tits in and around the nest box
• Blackbirds - severall pairs
• Goldfinches - singing loudly from the tops of conifers and rooftop aerials
• A Greenfinch singing in a conifer and then from a rooftop aerial
• A Coal Tit briefly
• A Magpie lurking around the rooftops
• Starlings - ever present
• House Sparrows nesting in my next door neighbours eaves - young making lots of noise
• Collared Doves
• Woodpigeons
• Carrion Crows over
• Gulls returning to roost from Astley Tip I expect

Earlier in the day I also saw Kes, our resident Kestrel from a distance and two low flying Carrion Crows one of which had so few ofeathers in its wings I could see straight through them.

Our Nesting Blue Tits

The time now seems right to mention our nesting Blue Tits.  I bought a bird box with a camera from Aldi in February last year and although I put it up last spring, it hadn't been used by any birds until now.  Then in March of this year two Blue Tits started to pop in and out fairly frequently, although there was no sign of any actual nest building.  The female bird would regularly fly in and peck away at the wooden floor of the nest box and this would be accompanied with wing spreading and fluttering for up to five minutes at a time before leaving.  Sometimes both birds would enter the box briefly with the female looking submissive to the larger male.

This behaviour went on for most of March and into April with no signs of nest building at all.  The female would peck so hard at the floor of the box that it could be heard from quite a distance away and it sounded quite like a woodpecker.  After doing some research on the net it seems that this activity is very common but no-one has a definite explanation for it.  Some think the bird is testing the structure to check that it is stable and secure, whilst others think it's part of the mating ritual.  Our birds didn't actually peck away at the entrance hole like some do, but to me it went on for so long and with such vigour that she seemed to be trying to make a hole in the bottom of the box, perhaps to allow air to flow through the nest - just my two penn'orth though.

Anyway, the good news is that in early April the birds (probably only the female) started to bring in some moss and grassy bits. Each night when we got home from work we'd anxiously look to see what had happened during the day.  It was very strange because sometimes there seemed to be less material in the box the box than on the previous day and we suspected that the box might be being raided by another bird, although we never actually saw this happen. And then last week the female bird started to bring in feathers and so it was starting to look serious - but I do know that even at this stage the nest can still be abandoned.

On Monday of this week (18/04/11) I noticed that our other nest box (which is quite close but lower down and without a camera) was being investigated by some Blue Tits - first one and then both of them went inside the box.  I assumed that they were the same pair that we'd been watching over the last few weeks.  When one bird started removing nest material from the top box to the lower box I thought they were considering moving home, but then it clicked - this was a new pair of birds looking to set up their own nest in the lower box by stealing material from the upper box. 

I soon confirmed that there were at least three birds when I saw one on the camera in the upper box and two other birds squabbling outside the lower box.  These must have been the two males because they started chasing each other all round the garden as one defended it's territory from the other. So the mystery of the disappearing nesting material was solved and the culprit was caught with feathers in its mouth.

But now back to the main story: last night (21/04/11) the female bird nestled down and spent at least some of the night in the box - I don't actually know how long it was there because I went to bed at about 11pm and it wasn't there at 6am in the morning. And. as I go to bed tonight, the bird is once again snugly tucked in - things are definitely looking promising so watch this space.

Live Video Feed

As soon as the feathers had been brought in, I investigated how to make a live video feed from the nest box camera for my blog and eventually I settled on running a streaming video server from my home computer using the excellent WebCamXP software.  While the birds are nesting. you'll see the live video stream at the top of the blog page.

This is my frst go a running a live webcam and although the quality is not brilliant, you can see what's happening.  I may also post some recorded videos of good moments when there are any worth viewing.

Tyldesley Loopline and Environs

A quick walk round my local patch before tea produced:

• Kes, our resident Kestrel hunting and perched in a tree
• Luke, our local leucistic Blackbird who I see quite frequently
• 3 Chiffchaff singing
• 1 Song Thrush
• 4 Robins
• Several Blue Tits and Great Tits
• 2 Magpies
• Many Blackbirds and Woodpiegons
• Another acrobatic Grey Squirrel

Lilford Woods and Environs

First of all I need to say what a great place this is - if you've never been or have not been for a few years like me, get yourself down there.

Apart from a couple of weeks ago, the last time I came here was about 10 years ago, when I was only focused on tiring the kids out on the playground. It's a shame the animal section has long gone, but there's a new trail around the edge of the flood basin and through the woods, and lots of little diversions off it into the trees. A fantastic place in the early morning spring sunshine and the woods were alive with birdsong.

Whilst there today I saw the following birds:

• Chiffchaffs singing but not seen
• Many Chaffinch, Blackbirds, Blue tits and Great Tits
• 2 Long-tailed Tits
• 1 Nuthatch ascending a conifer trunk
• 1 Wren (carrying nest material I think)
• Several Magpies, Crows and Woodpigeons
• An acrobatic Grey Squirrel - they maybe regarded as vermin but they're still fun to watch

I didn't manage to see a Green Woodpecker or a Treecreeper which have both been reported here, but the Nuthatch and Wren madeup for it. There's stiil loads more for me to see so I'll probably be back again this week.

Tyldesley Loopline and Environs

A quick walk round before United play City in the FA Cup this afto produced:

• 1 Jay (I've finally found one here)
• 1 leucistic Blackbird - must be the same one that appeared in my garden
• Several other Blackbirds
• Loads of Robins singing away and posing for photos
• Several Chiffchaff, one of which was quite obliging for photos
• Blue Tit
• Great Tit
• Goldfinch
• Bullfinch
• House Sparrow
• Magpie
• Woodpigeons
• Carrion Crow over

Under a Chiffchaff

Chiffchaff

A Singing Chiffchaff

Dandelion

Jay

Robin on Ground

Robin Closeup

Robin in Tree

Blossom

Woodpigeons

Luke - our local leucistic Blackbird

Silver Birch Tree

Astley Moss

A pleasant early evening stroll round the edge of the Astley Moss SSSI with Dave Thacker prodoced:

• Ring Ouzel - only a fleeting glimpse but positively identified by white bar on chest
• Blackbirds - one with a white spot (mistaken by me for the Ring Ouzel at first)
• Whimbrel
• Wheatear
• Yellowhammer
• Fieldfare
• Mistle Thrush
• Lapwing
• Swallow
• Great Tit
• Wren (ticking away in Rindle Wood)
• Pied Wagtail
• Mallard (three drakes together in a field) as well as a single elsewhere
• Willow Warbler (one sighted as well many singing)
• Woodpigeon

Dave kindly pointed out the Long-tailed Tit's nest that he's been watching develop over the last week or so.  On the Manchester Biridng Forum he recently explained how he sat down and held out feathers which the birds came and took from his hand to build their nest - amazing!

Nice to also briefly meet Melanie Beckford (with the big hair as she puts it) as I was heading for home.

Rindle Road, Rindle Wood and Astley Moss SSSI

Tonight, between 4:30 and 6pm on a very pleasant walk with my other half round Rindle Road, Rindle Wood and the trail around the edge of the SSSI, produced:

• Male and Female Pheasant on Rindle Road near Nook Lane
• 2 Tree Sparrows in f67
• 2 Yellowhammers in f67
• 1 Chaffinch in hawthorne along road
• Buzzard over the trees near the railway line
• Several Lapwing displaying in f67/68
• Many Carrion Crows and Wood Pigeons in f69
• 2 Kestrels (1 over Astley Moss and the other over f67)
• 2 Mallards in pools
• 3 Blue Tits in Wood
• 1 Great Tit in Wood 
• 1 Wren in Wood
• 4 Wheatear in the ploughed field between the SSSI pools and Rindle Hedge (year tick)
• 1 Yellowhammer and a Pied Wagtail in same ploughed field
• 2 Mistle Thrushes and 2 Grey Partridges in f69
• Several Crows, Magpies and Blackbirds around
• Several other unidentified LBJ's (moved too fast for us)

On leaving the 'Moth Man' (whose name I'm afraid I don't know even though I've met him many times) said there had been a Corn Bunting on the wires near Rindle Cottages earlier in the week.

Tyldesley Loopline and Environs

I've finally got round to starting a new thread on the Manchester Birding Forum called 'Tyldesley Loopline and Environs'.  This is a narrow strip of land that centres on the old railway line route in Tyldesley which separates the main road from the large housing estate down below. 

The railway line which used to run to Worsley and Eccles was scrapped by Beeching in the 1960's and in this area it's been turned into a wooded pathway by planting a variety of trees about 25 years ago when I first moved in.  I, and a few neighbours who moved in 1982-3, have still got some of the cinders and rocks in my garden because we used to raid the disused trackbed for rockery and other materials for our newly-built houses and gardens.

This is now my local birding patch as it's only about 500m from where I live and I intend to post my sightings here at least once a week.  So watch this space!

On my trip out tonight I saw the following birds:

• 3 Chiffchaffs singing and two seen
• 1 very vocal Wren
• 2 Robins proclaiming their territory
• 3 Blackbirds
• 1 Goldfinch
• 2 Magpies
• 2 Great Tits
• 2 Blue Tits
• 1 Carrion Crow over
• Several Gulls over
• Numerous Woodpigeons

Aye Jim lad !

But the surprise of the evening was a green coloured Parrot or Macaw with a yellow and reddish underbelly and a greyish head. It was tame and ringed and it flew down on to my back whilst I was photographing it munching the blossom.

I walked with it on my back (aye Jim lad) for a few hundred metres but it flew off when I opened my car door. Anyone know what this bird might be and if I should I report if somewhere?

Who's a pretty boy then?

And no, I haven't put it on my life list.

Postscript:

Thanks to Steve Christmas on the Manchester Birding Forum this parrot has now be identified as a Senegal Parrot - cheers Steve!

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

Moses Gate Country Park

After forgetting to charge my camera battery this morning and having no spare with me (thus ending up with a useless camera at Pennington Flash) I decided to take advantage of the remaining sunshine this afternoon to try out my new digiscope adaptor at another location. I chose Moses Gate Country Park near Little Lever in Bolton, another favourite haunt of mine.

Crompton Lodge

Armed with a freshly charged battery, I set off in the hope of seeing something new or at least getting some good photographs. When I arrived things started off well - I was greeted by a single male Goldeneye as soon as I got down to the water, and so I started snapping immediately.  Here are some of the results:

Goldeneye

Goldeneye dribbling

Goldeneye in a flap

Goldeneye

Black-headed Gull coming in to land

Look at my lovely chocolate head - why do they call it black?

Great Crested Grebe through a digiscope

A pair of Great Crested Grebes through a digiscope

Mute Swan nest building

Pair of Mute Swans nest building

Greylag Goose

Beautiful, but what am I - a Mallard hybrid?

Beautiful, but what am I - a Mallard hybrid?

You're quackers

Tufted Duck

Coot on nest

Big and Proud - Mallard

What you lookin' at?

Mallard

Teal

Teal

Teal

Teal showing off

Don't be 'daffed' - of course spring has sprung

Pennington Flash

This week I bought a second-hand FSA-L1 adaptor which will attach my Nikon D90 DSLR to my Nikon ED82A spotting scope for taking distant photographs.  Over the last year I've read a lot of reviews and comments about this set up and so I'm not expecting too much from it, but I got the adaptor for a fairly good price and so I'm not too worried if it doesn't perform quite as well as I'd like.  I also knew in advance that I need to upgrade my tripod setup too, as any minor wobbles at this magnification will blur the images, but even so I couldn't resist using it today with my old aluminium thing.

So I set off for Penny eager to try it all out, but when I got there I realised what an idiot I can be - I'd not done my usual battery check this morning and as I took a different bag I didn't have a spare battery. A perfect example of 'Sod's Law' (anything that can go wrong will do) then occurred when I found the battery in my camera to be absolutely flat. Undeterred, I put a smile on face thinking 'Oh well, I'll be able to concentrate on just looking at the birds then', something I do far too little of when I'm taking photographs.

I started at Horrocks Hide where I met Joe Wynne, a very keen and knowledgable 14 year old birder from Sale who I'd briefly met before last year.  Joe posts quite frequently on the Manchester Birding Forum and so I knew his name from there.  We chatted for quite a while whilst Joe helped me find the tiny Little Ringed Plover near the end of the Spit and identify the White Wagtail (although there is a lot of debate about whether this is a separate species).

From here I set off on my walk round all the hides, albeit in a slightly different order to my usual route.  I called in at all of them (except for East Bay Hide) and met several friendly birders on the way.  Chiffchaffs were singing everywhere I went but there was not much else new about until I returned to Horrocks Hide, when I got my first ever clear sighting of a Blackcap in the trees outside the hide.  This was the only time I missed having my camera today - damn!

Back in the hide Joe was still there some two hours later, but he did say he'd been out and come back.  There was also another couple of birders (a young lad and his Dad) who I'd nodded earlier at on my tour round.  It turns out that the young man was James Hall, a name I'd also seen on the Forum, and for some reason he thought I was the great Ian McKerchar of Manchester Birding fame - I wondered why he was looking at me in awe!

Fortunately James didn't seem too upset when I told him I wasn't and that he probably knew more about birds than I did, something that he went on to prove later in our meeting.  So James and his Dad, Joe and I all chatted together about birding for a good 25 minutes or, whilst James pointed out a Snipe in the distance and Joe mentioned that the Black-tailed Godwit were now in full breeding plumage.

I was very impressed by the knowledge and enthusiasm shown by these two young men, I just wish I'd been so interested in at their age - they have a whole lifetime of birding ahead of them and I have such a lot of catching up to do over the next 30 or so years!  Who says young people are all layabouts and yobs? These two certainly aren't and both are excellent role models for the youth of today.

No photographs today then (for reasons mentioned above) but here are the birds I saw :

• Little Ring Plover
• White Wagtail
• Black-tailed Godwits
• Redshank
• Oystercatcher
• Cormorant
• Snipe
• Blackcap
• Goldeneye
• Great Crested Grebes
• Lesser Black-backed Gull
• Shoveller
• Gadwall
• Teal
• Chiffchaff
• Plus all the usual suspects

I also briefly heard and got a fleeting glimpse of a Willow Warbler thanks to another birder pointing it out at Bunting Hide, but it was not a good enough sighting for me to list it here.  And without a usuable camera, I never did get to trying out my new digiscoping toy today.

Chiffchaff in Lilford Park

I've finally done it! I've finally managed to see the elusive Chiffchaff. Their calls are one of the easiest to identify but trying to actually see one is very difficult.   Anyway, this morning I took a walk in Lilford Park in Leigh whilst on a visit to Leigh Infirmary and I was very pleasantly surprised by how well-managed this park is. 

The last time I came here was when my kids were young, when we used to visit the small animal section and play on the swings.  A local dog walker told me sadly that the animals had long since gone, but there had been new developments in the woodland area where a trail had been created along the course of the flood protection basin.

As I walked down the familiar main path two or three Chaffinches were chasing each other from tree to tree, the white streaks on their tail feathers being particularly noticeable.  I then veered off towards the flood basin and saw four Magpies on the ground.  I could already hear the sound of the Chiffchaff too, coming from a clump of trees down in the basin.

Luckily I had my binoculars with me today and after a few minutes I'd spotted a small olive green bird within the branches of the the birch trees - I smiled to myslef because it was the elusive Chiffchaff which I'd never seen in the flesh before.

Happily I walked back to the car and drove off to work with another lifer tick for my blog