Local Birding - Stags Lodge, Brockholes Wetland, Curlew Lane & Quarry - 1st-3rd May 2010

With spring well under way the amount of Warblers have increased on Stags Lodge (Cuerden Valley Park) of late. The Chiffchaff have been around for a while now and I’ve heard c6 across the park with c4 Willow Warblers. After seeing a male Blackcap in nearby Church Walk Woods early on in spring they seemed to have disappeared until this weekend with 2 Males and 1 Female showing. The surprise was a Whitethroat seen in the same area on 2 separate visits, something I haven’t seen in the area for a couple of years. We also had a Grey Wagtail feeding on the river as we made our way home last night, the first we’ve seen on Stags Lodge though we’ve seen them regularly on the lake at Cuerden Valley.

A trip up to the local quarry for an hour to see if the Raven had returned but again no sign but having chatted with Chris Rae he did say they have been seen in and out the quarry so they are still around. The Female Peregrine was on show but no sign of the male. Our second Whitethroat of the day showed well giving us some good photo opportunities though I fear again mine take second place to Reece’s, I think it must be the teleconvertor I’ve started to use, I feel that it doesn’t quite focus sharply enough.

Chiffchaff and Willow Warbler were calling in several spots, Blue and Great Tit, Chaffinch and Woodpigeon were around in numbers. 3 Swift and 2 Swallow flew over as well as 2 Jay, Carrion Crow and 2 Grey Wagtail. On the pool were 3 Coot, Moorhen and Little Grebe.

We’d not been down to Brockholes in a few days but with no count on the previous night and being free to do so we headed down a little earlier than usual to have a walk up to the feeders and see what else was around. Nothing much on the feeders just the usual Chaffinch, Dunnock and Reed Bunting no sign of the Tree Sparrows we saw the other week. We headed past the feeders and to the east side of the site where Wheatear have been sighted in the past and we saw 2 Female and a Male on this visit. Back down to the main pit to count in the Whimbrel and we counted c191 on the main pool, Bill Aspin counted 178 plus 68 on No 1 Pool, for all this years Whimbrels numbers check the Brockholes Wetland forum. Other sightings included Swift, Swallow and Sand Martin, 2 Common Sandpiper and 2 Little Ringed Plover.

After bumping into Nick Green on a recent visit to Stags Lodge I found out that Yellow Wagtail could be seen on Curlew Lane near Martin Mere something we hadn’t seen before. So this morning after getting confirmation and the precise area from Mike Foley who had seen them the day before we headed over to see if we could find them. After a long search we spotted 2 at the far side of a ploughed field so no chance of even a record shot (not even a mobi-scoped one as my mobile is down at the moment!!) The Wheatear were a different matter though with c10 feeding across the field with one showing very close.