Bretherton eyes floods .

[gary lilley]

7.30/9.45am , cold and very windy but plenty of birds about , the great white egret was one of the first birds seen ( spotted several times through the morning in the long grass ) then a peregrine shot through and flushed a good number of wigeon ( maybe up to 100 birds ) , hundreds of geese , canada , greylag , 1 barnacle and pinkfoot , along with the wigeon were 1 shelduck , 1 pintail , 2 shoveler , 4 teal , and lots of mallard , wader species were plenty of lapwing , 2 ruff , at least 5 snipe , and one small unidentified wader which flew past was probably a dunlin , along with the peregrine ( which was seen several times) there was 2 buzzard , sparrowhawk and kestrel , plenty of gulls , several redwing passed through , hundreds of starlings , skylarks , meadow pipit , looking through my year list it appears ive not got wigeon on my list which would bring me up to 139 species .

[John Frankland]

Good to see you this morning Gary. Hope you're warming up now !

The only thing to add to your list after you left was that I got up to 5 Pintail, 3 with the geese and 2 with the Wigeon.

Cheers.

[Neil Southworth]

I can't believe all these people who are just ticking Wigeon!!! Mind you I'd better be careful, I still need Gadwall!

[John Frankland]

I thought I'd closed the gap to one yesterday when I "found" the GWE only to see that Gary had posted it 4 minutes earlier when I was posting my sighting !!

And then Gary pulls this Wigeon from up his sleeve to leave me 3 behind

I think you need to have a word, Neil !!

Can you not ground Gary until the end of the year for these tactics to give us all the slimmest of chances to catch him ?!!

[Paul Hodson]

I was there from 10.30-11.45. I thought I'd had a good morning until I saw Gary's list!

No sign of the GWE, Barnacle Goose or Pintail.
Full sightings. Canada Geese c350. Greylag c40. Mute Swan 3. Wigeon 7. Shelduck. Mallard c40. Lapwing 75. Moorhen. Black Headed Gull c100. Herring Gull 12. Lesser Black Backed Gull. Starling c200. Skylark c50. Meadow Pipit. Reed Bunting. Yellowhammer. Chaffinch. Grey Wagtail. Kestrel and a Kingfisher flying low over the stubble field

[Leonard Poxon]

Brief visit this morning, nice to meet Paul. Birds generally as Paul's post.

Looking at my photos I did see what appears to be a female Pintail on the flooded field (sorry Paul). I also saw a Great Spotted Woodpecker flying west parallel to Eyes Lane and then continued west above Red Bridge. Watched 5 Skylark which were very low (and within 15ft of me at one point) as they battled against the wind. No sign of GWE although two white stakes (ditch depth markers) in the reeds along the ditch near the pylon made me look at them very closely. There was also a pure white duck with the Mallard on the River Douglas. A male Chaffinch was feeding in the car parking area near to Red Bridge it had badly deformed legs/feet.

[Paul Hodson]

Decided to pay another visit this afternoon and it paid off. The Great White Egret was showing well, firstly in the long grass and then by the flooded field.

Additional sightings to this morning were, Grey Heron 3. Buzzard. Peregrine hunting over the flood. Ruff 3. Tree Sparrow 4. Canada Geese numbers seemed to have increased to well over 400 and a solitary Pink Foot was with them
Also 5 Pintail thanks to Neville Root and his scope, I later repaid the favor by pulling him out of the ****, literally!

We also saw a huge flock of several thousand Pink Footed Geese over Croston Moss, headed west.

Mammal. Stoat

Great White Egret takes my score to 122

[Neville Root]

Many thx to Paul for pulling me out of the Eyes Lane manure heap, can be dangerous this birding business.

[Neil Southworth]

Are we talking man or car here?

[Neville Root]

Man. I present as evidence a Wellington boot still ensconced in 2 ft of Bretherton muck.