Anglezarke, H Bullough and L Rivington Res

[Neville Root]

Anglezarke\High Bullough Res: between 18 and 20 mandarins in tightly against the banks of Anglezarke res. Perambulation of a pretty low level High Bullough res which had goldeneye (5), tufties (6) and plenty of mallard - they might need to look somewhere else soon though as United Utilities plan is to empty the res.

Later on (2.30) had 2 hours of gulling at Lower Rivington res. Numbers low to begin with but by 4.00pm held about 5000 gulls (I'm no good at counting them, but Neil's total from NY's eve seemed about right (4000 BH, 150 LBB, 100 Common and 80 herring gulls - no GBB's though). Also present was the adult yellow-legged gull, very clean head, coloring between a herring and a LBB and just looked very different from the other large gulls. Also present was a mean-looking argentatus type herring gull with very mottled head markings and dark back. Nice to meet Phil Rhodes again.

Bullfinch, pheasant, treecreeper, mandarin, goldeneye, LBB, Herring and YL gull takes Chorley species total for the year to 55.