Cheshire And Wirral Birding: Hills, Lowland and Coast (1 Viewer)

[Cheshire Birder]

Yesterday - 27 Avocets and Green Sandpiper at Frodsham;

July 4th - 18 Avocets, 2 Black Swans and c1000 Black-tailed Godwits at Frodsham;

CB

 

[Cheshire Birder]

Today - Mediterranean Gull at West Kirby;

CB

 

[Victor Meldrew]

Okay I rarely have a rant. As County Recorder I get to hear of bad behaviour at Cheshire and Wirral sites only on a rare basis, in fact our county birders and visitors are better behaved than many counties.

Generally NW Birder's are overall well behaved ( visiting dicks at the Long eared Owl at BMW excepted) including those with long lens. However the attached must take the biscuit. This is a Kestrel nest! yes I know a Kestrel nest, but this camtwat is stationed less than 15 yards from an open nest site, hoping for than crippling photo of an adult bring prey back to 5 chicks at feathers small, an open nest site which he is 15 yards away from.
Okay He clearly has an IQ in single figures, his field craft skills are in the I spy book of bird watching( unedited first edition, not published) , and his knowledge of Kestrel nest biology, is undoubtedly somewhere between the Greek parliament's view of getting more money out of Germany and the Philae spacecraft not getting frazzled by the sun.
so when challenged , and he admitted no adults had returned during his hour vigil, that he might be a "bit close" his response was " well they are in a nest box so they must be oaky with folks being close"
okay enough said.
I just hope he got that crippling picture before the young starved.

Hugh

How annoying!

Almost as annoying in fact as those self-righteous individuals who feel justified in trapping common resident birds, handling them and then fitting them with rings.

 

[bartolli]

So, I was crouching under my redcurrant bush picking tonight's pud, when i heard some wingflaps very close. Stood up to look + a surprised sparrowhawk took off from the top of the bush not 2 ft in front of me! Brill, I reckon the clever b*gg*r had seen the bush twitching as I picked + swooped in knowing that birds like my redcurrants!

 

[Huwgo]

Spent a good few hours at Frodsham today, I started off at No.6 tank which was full of birds.

1 Great White Egret, 1 Black Necked Grebe, c300 Black Tailed Godwits, 3 Knot in summer plumage, 2 Little Ringed Plover, 10 Dunlin, 1 Green Sandpiper, lots of Lapwing, 12 Pochard, c180 Tufted Duck, 1 Wigeon, and lots of Teal, Mallard and Shelduck.

Walking along the tracks there seemed to be a lot of Chiffchaff, Willow Warblers and Blackcap around. Goldfinches absolutely everywhere too.

The Weaver Bend was at high tide so there wasn't much around, but still managed 3 Avocet, Common Sandpiper, Shelduck, 2 Cormorant and a Great Crested Grebe. Walking back to the car I saw a hovering Kestrel, a flyover Peregrine and a Buzzard sat on a post.

After Frodsham I decided to head up to Winwick to see some farmland birds, along Barrow Lane I saw a single Yellow Wagtail, 2 Corn Bunting, 4 Skylark, 7 Linnet and lots of Swifts and Swallows.

 

[Cheshire Birder]

July 7th - 45 Manx Shearwaters and Mediterranean Gull at Hoylake; 6 Spotted Redshanks at Burton Mere Wetlands; Crossbill at Macclesfield Forest; Little Egret at Woolston Eyes;

July 8th - 5 Spotted Redshanks and Greenshank at Burton Mere Wetlands; Little Egret at Woolston Eyes;

CB

 

[Cheshire Birder]

July 9th - 2 Bee-eaters at Cheshire Oaks; Wood Sandpiper at Sandbach Flashes; Garganey at Woolston Eyes; 5 Spotted Redshanks and 3 Sandwich Terns at Burton Mere Wetlands; 20 Avocets at Frodsham;

July 10th - Arctic Skua at Leasowe; 2 Mediterranean Gulls at Hilbre; 14 Avocets at Frodsham;

CB

 

[Cheshire Birder]

Yesterday - Quail at Parkgate; Great White Egret and Black-necked Grebe at Frodsham; Little Gull at Pickering's Pasture; 3 Whimbrel and 6 Mediterranean Gulls at Heswall; 6 Spotted Redshanks at Burton Mere Wetlands; 2 Common Terns and 3 Green Sandpipers at Woolston Eyes; 2 Mediterranean Gulls at Port Sunlight;

CB

 

[Cheshire Birder]

Today - 2 Quail at Parkgate/Heswall; Great White Egret and Black-necked Grebe at Frodsham; Little Gull, Sandwich Tern and 2 Common Terns at Pickering's Pasture; Greenshank, 5 Whimbrel and 3 Mediterranean Gulls at Heswall; Whinchat at Brereton Heath;

CB

 

[Zoot]

2 quail still at Heswall/Parkgate this afternoon, but the day's local highlight today for me and a visiting mate was prolonged views of an otter on No 3 at Wooloston between 1.15 and about 1.40pm. Presence initially given away by a mass panic amongst the ducks and tightly circling black-headed gulls, it then showed very well and may have been hunting waterfowl chicks. Certainly a large otter, so presumably a dog. Awesome! Also 2 ad black-necked grebes, 2 LRP.

 

[Bananafishbones]

Something I have just seen on the Deeside web pge

"Report from Shotton Lagoons SSSI (access by PERMIT ONLY):
Common Terns doing well with 593 chicks ringed plus another 20+ yet to be ringed, also highlights for July 16th: 32 (Thirty Two) Common Sandpiper, 3 Green Sandpiper, 6 Cetti's Warbler and 200 Black-tailed Godwit."

I get the reasoning for ringing birds, and the conservation benefits that come with it, but why do 600+ chicks of the same species all need to be ringed. Surely this is over kill and excessive with unnecessary handling of many many birds. I have never ringed and don't understand all the finer detail. I am curious, as to me It certainly seems like "I can ring more birds than you".

I know plenty of people will come back and defend it but no one can claim that all those 600+ need to be ringed,

Regards
Dave

 

[hampers]

Dave
Recovery % is very low so out of 600 the data gained would be low. Without ringing there are species that we would have no idea of what happens and as a result be unable to take conservation steps to maintain/help them. As you say there will be other views. Would we have known that my 'mate' was 9 years of age and that is incredible for a passerine.

Phil

 

[Bananafishbones]

Dave
Recovery % is very low so out of 600 the data gained would be low. Without ringing there are species that we would have no idea of what happens and as a result be unable to take conservation steps to maintain/help them. As you say there will be other views. Would we have known that my 'mate' was 9 years of age and that is incredible for a passerine.

Phil

Hi Phil

I know what you are saying but I stick by this.........it seems like "I can ring more birds than you".

Sure it is important, sure the recovery rate maybe low, but all 600+ chicks ringed....?? over kill and excessive and something I will never be won over by.

 

[hampers]

Sorry Dave disagree.

 

[Bananafishbones]

No probs Phil, many will agree with you and many with me.

Don't get me started about why the hell we still need to ring Blue Tits etc..... if we haven't learnt enough about them by now we never will.

I may campaign to Stop ringing Blue tits now!

 

[Jane Turner]

House Sparrows were not ringed in the 70's and 80's because "there was no reason to ring them". Consequently the decline was picked up much later and with less certainty than it would have been.

 

[Victor Meldrew]

No probs Phil, many will agree with you and many with me.

Don't get me started about why the hell we still need to ring Blue Tits etc..... if we haven't learnt enough about them by now we never will.

I may campaign to Stop ringing Blue tits now!

With you 100% Dave. I'd go one step further and campaign to stop all 'constant effort' ringing which is undertaken by birders who have outgrown the hobby of just watching birds and is 'authorised' by the BTO who are just hungry to obtain data for data's sake.

In reply to Jane's comment - there may on occasion be a decision not to ring certain species but they are still indiscriminately caught in the nets and subsequently handled aren't they? And personally I don't buy all that alarmist guff about declining House Sparrow numbers. Sure, there are less of them in the big towns and cities but we have more in our village now than I can ever remember. We need to acknowledge that bird populations vary and, more importantly, redistribute. You're never going to influence a move to build houses the same as they were built in the post-war period or to return agriculture back to the same era, so there's little justification to amass tons of pointless data, except perhaps to keep Chris Packham happy.

 

[Cheshire Birder]

July 13th - 2 Black-necked Grebes at Chelford SQ's; Arctic Skua at Hilbre;

July 14th - Caspian Gull at Sandbach Flashes; Great White Egret, 4 Green Sandpipers and Black-necked Grebe at Frodsham; Great White Egret and Hobby at Parkgate; 2 Quail at Heswall; 5 Spotted Redshanks at Burton Mere Wetlands; 3 Yellow-legged Gulls at Richmond Bank;

CB

 

[Cheshire Birder]

July 15th - Quail at Heswall; Quail at Whitley Reed; 6 Spotted Redshanks and Whinchat at Burton Mere Wetlands;

July 16th - Black-necked Grebe at Frodsham; 6 Whimbrel at Hilbre;

CB

 

[Cheshire Birder]

July 17th - Black Redstart, Guillemot, 2 Manx Sheawaters and 13 Whimbrel at Hilbre; 3 Avocets and Yellow-legged Gull at Neumann's Flash; Great White Egret at Hale; Black-necked Grebe at Frodsham; 3 Yellow-legged Gulls at Sandbach Flashes; 8+ Manx Shearwaters and 2 Mediterranean Gulls at New Brighton also possible Storm Petrel;

CB