ACRE NOOK AND LAPWING HALL POOL-MAY BIRD SIGHTINGS

ACRE NOOK AND QUARRY SIGHTINGS:

The Sandwich tern which I found on the 19th of April was last seen on the 13th May which was an incredible stay for an inland bird.On the 13th 39 Shelduck were present along with 49 Lapwing.Reed warblers and Sedge warblers have now all returned to reedbeds and are in full song.A Cuckoo was calling from over the other side of Lapwing lane on the 19th.On the 21st a flyover Hobby was a first for my new patch.Numbers of Shelduck have now departed weekly with only six birds left that have produced two broods.

SHELDUCK WITH YOUNG

On the 22nd two Dunlin were feeding on the sand bank along with a party of Canada Geese with there young.

DUNLIN

CANADA GEESE WITH THERE YOUNG

My first Swift of the year was over the Quarry on the 17th and then numbers have increased throughout the month along with big numbers of House Martins,Sand Martins and Swallows.

SAND MARTINS ARE IN GOOD NUMBERS ON BOTH SITES

On the 30th a Little Ringed Plover was seen.By the 31st of the month Acre nook is nearly dried out so birding looks like its going to get even harder as if it's not hard enough and they are quarrying further as you can see in the background of the photo below and dropping sand off on the site in trucks which is causing major disturbance on site to breeding Lapwings.

ACRE NOOK HAS NEARLY DRIED OUT DUE TO THE WARM WEATHER

LAPWING HALL POOL SIGHTINGS

Tufted Duck numbers reached 37 throughout the month.4 Little grebes remain along with 2 Great Crested grebes.Good numbers of Sand Martins are present feeding and then flying over to Acre nook.18 Swifts were over the Pool on the 21st.On the 13th I came across another first,a calling Tree Sparrow which flew into the near by wood by Foden's farm.The bird has been seen on ever visit this month collecting caterpillars and they are nesting in the farmers garden which he has kindly let me in to get some photo's.

 TREE SPARROW

1 Wigeon remained all month and on the 30th a Pochard was on site.

POCHARD

TEGGS NOSE COUNTRY PARK AND WILDBOARCLOUGH

I visited Teggs nose county park and Wildboarclough today for a an afternoons birding.I started off at Bottoms reservoir and walked up to Teggs nose.A male and female mandarin were seen along with 9 of her brood

MANDARIN DUCK

After a good search around the usual areas for Pied flycatcher not one could be seen which is a worry has this has always been a good breeding ground for this species in Cheshire.

 TEGGS NOSE COUNTRY PARK

Little else was seen in the area apart from a calling Redstart.Moving onto Wildboarclough I soon connected with the resident Dippers that had raised a young bird.

DIPPER

A nice afternoons birding but not great numbers of birds were seen,but the weather was beautiful.Long may it continue!

WILDBOARCLOUGH VALLEY WITH SHUTLINGSLOE IN THE BACKGROUND

BLACK BILLED CUCKOO-NORTH UIST

I was playing snooker in my local club on sunday evening when Fred fearn texted me to say that a Black billed cuckoo had been found at Bayhead on North Uist.I made a few phone calls and there was only Pete antrobus who was up for the long trip north.The snooker game was soon over and I was running home to get things sorted to make the ferry from Uig first thing in the morning.I picked Pete up around 9pm from Northwich and we headed north arriving at Uig just before 6.00am.I couldn't sleep and spent the next few hours birding around the harbour as the ferry wasen't till 9.40.

 COMMON SANDPIPER

 SEDGE WARBLER

 SONG THRUSH

LINNET

The ferry terminal office didn't open till 9.00am and we hadn't booked the car on the ferry but thankfully there was enough room and we were on and then a shout came out the bird was still there!

By now all the usual faces had arrived,all we needed now was the ferry.

The ferry arrived on time and we off.We saw Black guillimt,Puffin,Guillimot,Razorbill,Great Skua,Arctic Skua,Black and Red Throated diver and White Tailed eagle on the crossing and had constant updates on the cuckoo on the way over.

PETE WITH A SMILE ON HIS FACE KNOWING HES GOING TO GET ONE AHEAD OF FRED WITH THE BLACK BILLED CUCKOO

ARRIVING AT LOCHMADDY

The ferry soon docked and we were driving over North Uist in a birding convoy.On arrival the bird was showing in a bush in someones garden.What a bird I never thought i'd ever see one of these yank beauties.

BLACK BILLED CUCKOO

The cuckoo was happily feeding on caterpillars and flying around whilst we were there.Everyone that was there including pete were very happy gripping back this mega bird.

HAPPY TWITCHERS

After watching the cuckoo we headed back to Lochmaddy to find some accommodation for the night and a celebratory pint.We managed to get in at the local hostel which was cheap as chips for the night and then went for a pint.

ME AND PETE IN THE LOCHMADDY HOTEL 

After a few pints and the sleeping arrangments sorted we headed back out birding.First stop was the RSPB reserve at Balranald where we soon connected with Corncrake,up to four birds were calling and one showed briefly.A Glaucous gull was in the near by fields and also Corn buntings were singing away.The beach held good numbers of Dunlin and Sanderling.

GLAUCOUS GULL

 

Corn Bunting

THE BEACH AT BALRANALD

 SANDERLING

DUNLIN

Moving on from here we did an Island loop back to Lochmaddy. We had great views of Golden eagle around the north of the Island and also found four Whooper swans.After a great day we headed out for a well deserved meal and a few pints.
Awoke this morning at 6.00am to get on the ferry back to Uig, I was still absolutely shattered.I drove on the ferry and slept all the way back to Uig.

LEAVING UIG AND HEADING SOUTH

ME TAKING A DRIVING BREAK AT GLEN COE

I eventually arrived home at 8.00pm after a great twitch,shattered from the long drive but it was well worth it.

There are 14 previous records in Britain,the last twitchable bird was on the Scillies in 1982 which stayed for 3 Days.
PREVIOUS BLACK BILLED CUCKOO RECORDS

2014

Orkney

Holland House, North Ronaldsay, first-winter, 23rd October

1990

Isles of Scilly

Trenoweth, St Mary's, 10th October, dead, 11th October

1989

At sea

Sea area Forties, Maureen oil platform, 58°08'N 01°42'E, found exhausted 30th September, taken into care, released 1st October, photo

1985

Isles of Scilly

Porthloo Lane, St Mary's, first-winter, 12th October, photo

1982

Cheshire & Wirral

Red Rocks, Hoylake, Wirral, first-winter, 30th October, photo

1982

Devon

Barnstaple, first-winter, caught 21st October, released 22nd October

1982

Isles of Scilly

Borough/Telegraph area, St Mary's, 21st to 22nd October; same, Hugh Town, 23rd October, found dead on 24th October

1982

Isles of Scilly

St Agnes, juvenile, 29th August; same, near Campsite, found dead, 30th August, photo

1975

Cleveland/Yorkshire, North

Locke Park, Redcar, trapped, 23rd to 24th September

1967

Devon

Lundy, first-winter male, 19th October, found dead 20th October, now at Leicester Museum

1965

Cornwall

Gweek, moribund, 30th October

1953

Shetland

Foula, picked up exhausted, 11th October, died 12th October, now at Natural History Museum, Tring (BMNH 1953.69.1)

1950

Argyll

Achnaslishaig Hill, Southend, Kintyre, first-winter, 6th November, found dead, 8th November, now at Kelvingrove Museum & Art Gallery, Glasgow (GLAMG Z.1950.132)

1932

Isles of Scilly

Tresco, immature, picked up dead after hitting wall, 27th October, photo, now at Isles of Scilly Museum

GREEN WARBLER-THE PLANE THAT NEVER TOOK OFF!

The mega alert went off on saturday afternoon saying that a Green warbler had been found on Unst at Settlers hill,Baltasound in Shetland.The bird had originally come out as as Greenish warbler and then a prob Green Warbler.The bird was then trapped and ringed and also DNA samples were taken for analysis. Allan conlin was up there at his house and had seen the bird which had been found by Mike pennington and was keeping me up to date with the bird.There were no charters on sunday as they were full, after fred fearn had tryed for us all day saturday so we had to pray and wait for it to still be there on monday morning.The bird showed allday sunday so fingers crossed for the morning.

I met up with Fred Fearn,Pete Antrobus and Simon Slade at Lymm services on the M6 and we headed towards York for are chartered flight.Allan had kindly got up for us really early and was searching for the bird has we drove.

On arrival we waited for news on the bird.Two yellow wagtails,Corn buntings and Skylarks kept us entertained whist we waited.

 CORN BUNTING

 YELLOW WAGTAIL

SKYLARK

Allan phoned me just after 9.00am to say that the bird couldn't be relocated and that there were only two birders looking.We hung around till 11.00am but there was no news we were all gutted as this was only the second record for Britain the last one being on the Scilly Isles on St Marys from the 26th September till the 4th October.

THE PLANE THAT NEVER TOOK OFF

Anyway my motto is THEY'LL BE ANOTHER!Allan has kindly let me use his photos of the bird for my blog just to grip me off even more!

GREEN WARBLER 2nd FOR BRITAIN