Black-necked Grebes are back

Black-necked Grebe at Houghton Green Flash Spring 2006. It was too grim and grey for digiscoping this evening, hence here are some I prepared earlier....

Black-necked Grebe, Wigan Flashes 2007

xxx

A crap week finished on a high with the appearance of 2 Black-necked Grebes at HGF this evening. Both were well into breeding plumage. As usual there were the usual plethora of dog walkers with animals going into the water and the grebes looking nervous and edgy. I will be surprised if they are still present in the morning.

xxx

Looking back at recent arrival dates, these birds are early. The recent dates are as follows:

xxx

2006xxxxx25th March

2007xxxxx11th March

2008xxxxx13th March

xxx

There was also 6 Great Crested Grebes, 86 Wigeon, 2 Teal, 16 Tufties, 1 Pochard, 43 Coot, 4 Redshank, 2 Oystercatchers and a Mute Swan.
xxx

On the feeding station front the farmer cut the hedge last Sunday morning - this also removed a lot of the dead bracken and thus removed a great deal of cover. 2 Bramblings (1 male, 1 female) still showed up on Sunday afternoon with a different male and a female present in the garden Monday am. I haven't seen any since. This morning 45+ Chaffinches were present with 9 Tree Sparrows, 2 Yellowhammers and 2 Reed Buntings. This evening when I got home the farmer had ploughed the field - maybe it is time to stop feeding.

xxx

The female Sparrowhawk shot through the garden this morning, disturbing 12 Chaffinches and 10 Goldfinches in the process. Yesterday a Sparrowhawk perched in the large Ash tree in the garden for over 2 hours, consequently the garden was silent. A flock of 80+ Fieldfares has been in a field off Highfield Lane for most of the week.

xxx

Elsewhere a single Shelduck has been present on the pool of Moat Lane, Rixton for a few days with a flock of 80+ Chaffinches and 10 Yellowhammers nr the tip. 4 Corn Buntings were present on the wires nr Holcroft Hall farm this morning. A flock of 50+ Fieldfares was in a field nr the farm shop. 2 Little Owls were perched together off Lady Lane in Croft the other day.

xxx

It would be interesting to see the Twite that Jonathan has found with a Linnet flock by the Silver Lane pools, Risley. That is a cracking find. 2 Little Stints (my target birds from last weekend)have turned up at Frodsham today - they should stick around on No. 6 tank for a while.