Tuesday 11 December 2012

Many thanks to all those readers of the blog who have sent in photographs to us. We are most grateful for them. We are really keen to receive photographs taken of birds that appear in our daily sightings blog, to further enhance the sighting. When a new rare/scarce bird appears, it completes the full story when there is a photo of it as well. We are receiving at present a lot of excellent, good quality photos, but quite a few are of commoner species that don't feature in our news reports. Whilst we appreciate being sent these pictures, we don't really want to become a photograph blog. Our aim is to bring the current bird news of the day into one central blog for everyone to read. Some photographers are questioning why we haven't put one of their pictures on the daily blog. The simple answer is that bird didn't feature in our news. We hope everyone understands our policy, and we look forward to our blog going from strength to strength.

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Silverdale CP
Barn Owl one hunting at Waste Farm at 07:50........JHu.....1w Caspian Gull and 1w Iceland Gull on the Void this afternoon...STu...also probable Glaucous Gull reported from there as well.....

The 1w Caspian Gull at the Void - again present today. By Dave Kelsall 

Belvide Res (permit only)
1st winter Caspian Gull & a probable adult Caspian Gull today, also 16x Waxwings flew over west at 13.10...............

Chasewater

Imm Great Northern Diver still on the Swag

Great Northern Diver at Chasewater by Paul Smith

Waxwings @

Madeley - 6 in trees before the Railway bridge on Bower End Lane......TJ.
Cheddleton - 1 briefly at 08:30hrs....DSc
Belvide Res (permit only) - 16x flew over west at 13.10............

Westport Lake
Common Scoter female still on the main lake......NJS, CJW

Common Scoter at Westport by Dave Kelsall

Croxall GP
100+ Fieldfare, 60+ Redwing, 66 Mallard, 57 Tufted Duck, 279+ Teal, 153 Pochard, 5+ Cormorant, 3 Great Crested Grebe, 2 drake Shoveler, 1 only Wigeon, 30+ Lapwing, 4 Snipe, 3 Grey Heron, 3 Goldcrest, 2 Redshank & 1 Little Egret..............SC

Whitemoor Haye
4 Grey Partridge, several Tree Sparrow, 70+ Golden Plover, 42+ Skylark, 220+ Lapwing, 2 Mistle Thrush, 3 Ruff, several flocks of Linnet & Goldfinch, 3 Jay, 118 Mute Swan, 20 + Fieldfare, 38 Redwing & 150+ Starling...............SC

Fradley Junction to Orgreave
83 Mute Swan, good numbers of Fieldfare & Redwing & 1 Grey Heron................SC

Branston GP's

Ruff, 2x Redshank, 11x Curlew, 6x Snipe, 7x Golden Plover, 219x Lapwing, 20x GBBG, Water Rail, 4x Shelduck, 2x Green Woodpecker, Bullfinch, 2x Buzzard, Good numbers of Wigeon, Pochard, Gadwall, Teal, Tufted Duck, Mallard etc but too foggy to count....JW

A group of Great B B Gulls on the Sandy Pit this afternoon....JW

Pink-footed Geese movement today saw :-
Dimmingsdale - 670 over between 10 and 11:30 in five skeins all heading north-west....TE
Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent - 250 NW over at 10:45hrs......NJS
Longport/Westport Lake - 250 NW at 11:20hrs......PJ
Knypersley - 50 over W at 11:00hrs......GB
Adderley Green, Stoke-on-Trent - Three skeins flying W at 11:30hrs, totally c250.....STU

Radial Park
70 Pink-footed Geese over, 1 Jack Snipe, 5 Snipe  & 60 Golden Plover................RG

Baggeridge CP
09.05 Peregrine eating prey on top of Baggeridge Brick chimney stack, still present at 10.30 but further down stack. Several small mixed finch flocks Siskins Goldfinches and Lesser Redpolls in Alders around Bag Pool, Little Grebe on Spring Pool.....DBu

Parkhall CP

2x Goosander over, Fieldfare, Siskins, Redwings, Willow Tits, Yellowhammers, Golden Plovers, 6 Bramblings old visitor site......Patrick Salt (WARDEN).

Keele
c100 Golden Plover by the Cemetery 13:30hrs....TJa

Alton Farmland
3x Raven, 3x Bullfinches, 1x Kestrel and a mixed thrush flock of 5x Fieldfare, 6x Song Thrushes and 3x Redwing feeding in one field.....TE