Catchup

Before I start a re-cap on our Bolton trip I am going back to a highlight of the Vancouver trip.  

I was looking on YouTube for the pileated woodpecker and came across this so I thought I would share it. We heard the drumming from the treetop walk so were watching carefully and the bird then flew across and landed on the trunk of a tree where it sat for about two minutes in typical woodpecker pose. Has to go down as a great birding moment!!

https://youtu.be/NqPPioNKIfo

Anyway back to Bolton and what was a more normal two weeks of child minding and rain. I actually didn't get a lot of birding done. Etherow Country Park added mandarin to the list but Pennington Flash was so wet the hides were flooded and locked as the ranger couldn't get to them. We had a short trip to Brockholes LWT reserve and during lunch spotted a great white egret fishing in the lake - pleasant and unexpected surprise. Other than that there was little to see and not much to hear. It was July after all so things were quiet and a couple of walks offered nothing more than magpie, carrion crow, wood pigeon and flying gulls overhead. The garden feeders are down for cleaning (my job). The one day we had to explore on our own was so wet we went to see Oppenheimer instead. 

Mandarin duck behind 4 mallard

Mandarin female?

Back to WOW this week where there are enough fish present to pull in 6 cormorants. wader numbers are increasing and the common terns still dominate. Bird of the day however was this rather lost and out of place chicken seen near Hide 2. Comments welcome as to what to do with it, how did it get there, can I add it to my WOW list and would it go nicely at 180 in a fan oven with a hunter's sauce? The update is that the chicken was caught safely and sent to Moira where it is happily living with other female species of the same chicken. 

Other birds included common sandpipers, arctic terns, returning teal, curlew, godwits, lapwing and common gulls. We also saw a lesser black back take a tern chick and two herons were escorted off the premises by the terns. 

Common terns

Arctic and common

Arctic and common

Common sandpiper

As you can see August is on the quiet side, not one passerine was seen at WOW apart from swallow, sand and house martins and swifts. The garden is devoid of birds BUT autumn is on the way and things will improve bird wise if not weather wise. 

2023

152: Mandarin duck

153: Great white egret (USA/Canada: 26 + 179 for the year.

NDCP

66: Manx shearwater

Belfast RSPB

85: Kestrel