09/12/2022 Daisy Hill WWTW, Westhoughton

Water Pipit: Daisy Hill waste water treatment works (WWTW) does not provide extensive wetland habitats suitable for interesting birds but it does provide areas of rough grass, scrub and hedgerows that are becoming increasingly rare in the wider area.

In recent years modern WWTW's can be valuable winter feeing area for a wide variety of birds as they come to feed around the filter beds. A returning bird that I am always pleased to see is the water pipit which I saw here last winter.

Despite making several visits this bird was found by local legend Phil Rhodes. 

Its a nice little place, and I've made a couple of visits since the bird was found and had a few snipe, grey wagtail, bullfinch, raven and tones of meadow pipit. 

03/12/2022 North Lancashire , Leighton Moss and Fleetwood

Yellow-browed Warbler: Chris and I had a plan to get to Leighton Moss for first light and get some point blank shots f their showy bittern. But our best laid plans went array, when the bittern decided to show briefly before flying to the opposite reedbed, still we had plenty of other good birds to find. 

In amongst the flocks of usual Leighton Moss favourites, like long tailed tit and marsh tit there was a rare YBW.  It’s been seen regurally along the path towards Lower Hide over recent weeks – we found it c50m from the Causeway turn. These small warblers are generally seen in passage, with very few numbers overwintering in the UK.

Marsh Tit: In the same area as the YBW there was a small clearing where some thoughtful birder had placed some seed on the ground and it was here there was a furry of activity. 

Leighton Moss in one of the premier and reliable sites for marsh tit, I see them on every visit to Leighton Moss, but rarely as good as this. There were three birds that kept coming down to the seed and showing incredibly well. 

Nuthatch: The seeded areas also attracted the more usual tits and even a nuthatch who bullied all the other birds away and kept the seed to itself. 

Bearded Tit: We put a birder and his son on the YBW and he repaid the favour by telling us that the beard tit were on the grit trays, so we hot-footed it back down the causeway.

The gathering crowd were firing their cameras as we approached and we sone blowed our way into the middle of the pack as the beards emerged out of the reeds and on to the grit. 

Really good to see these little stunners up close and personal.  

Snow Bunting: Our next stop was to Fleetwood hoping to see the long staying snow buntings that have been faithful to the beach at the back of the marina lake. 

When we arrived there was no sign of the birds, we spent the next hour scanning the dunes, walking over the shingle and scanning the tide line. 

Nothing, so sight or sound. 

We were starting to get a bit fed up before giving it one more walk over, when the birds flew around the corner and landed at our feet!

Great day out locally. 

 

03/12/2022 My Garden, Abram, Wigan

Sparrowhawk: After arriving home from a short walk with the baby I parked up on my drive and could hear a torrent of contact and alarm calls emanating from my garden.

I sorted out the baby and tentatively made my way to to the living room and peered through the French windows and saw this all brown hawk sitting, squat on my fence.

 

I've had a couple of sparrowhawk flying over the garden and have even had one on my neighbours roof, but this juvenile sparrowhawk is the first one I've seen visiting my garden in the 11 years I've lived in this house. 

I take the view that having a sparrowhawk visiting your garden is a good thing and the presence of such a top predator indicates that the bird populations in my garden and my local area redoing well. 

Since bouncing back, sparrowhawks have spread into many suburban parks and gardens they have adopted well relying on the element of surprise  to catch their prey. And as such will often follow a regular route to get close to potential prey, which in gardens means using the cover of a hedge or shed. 

The bird wasn't phased by my presence at the window pressing my big lens against the glass, it wasn't even bothered as I stood on s stool and peered over the back fence to get an unobstructed view without the double glazing. 

It eventually whizzed off over the fence and out of sight. Hope it returns. 

02/12/2022 Amberswood Lake, Hindley, Wigan Amberwood

Greater  Scaup: Working away this week it was nice to catch up the pair of 1st winter greater scaup that have been spotted mid week on a local flash, a stones throw away from where I live. 

Amberswood is one of the local flashes I've not been to before, part of the Flashes of Wigan and Leigh National Nature Reserve and consist of 160-hectare of wetland mosaic consisting of a lake and a series of smaller ponds and lowland raised bog, linked by ditches and streams and interspersed with species-rich grassland and woodland.

The scaup were confiding and not particularly camera shy, foraging close in shore. 

This is a lovely little place that offers something for everyone a new patch to keep an eye on.