Stags Lodge, Cuerden Valley Park - 27th March 2011

Well a pretty eventful day and not just because I had three trips up to the local patch, Reece managed to get his nose broken playing rugby so all plans of heading out somewhere in the afternoon went out the window. So with about an hour to spare I decided to hit the Stags Lodge without the dogs in hope of photographing one of the returning Chiffchaff.

The one by the bridge over the river Lostock gave me the run around for about 20 minutes so I gave up and had a wander around the patch to see if anything interesting was about. A single Jay, Magpie, Carrion Crow 6+ Chaffinch, 2 Greenfinch, Blue, Great and 4 Long-tailed Tit, 4 Mallard and a calling Greater Spotted Woodpecker were about all I could find. A second Chiffchaff by the bench at the top of the meadow was much happier to hang around for me to photograph.

Back home the feeders seem to have started to bring the birds back in though a different mix of species. The Golfinch have returned in smaller numbers and though I have seen the Greenfinch locally they don't seem to like the new feeders. 2 Dunnock are regular visitors as well as Starling, Collard Dove and new on the feeders over the weekend Woodpigeon, okay not a spectacular bird but we were both happy to see them and add them to our back yard list.