Photographed by Zac HinchcliffeEventually 5pm on Friday 25th February arrived, my lecture finished and with bags packed, myself and Zac met at the station where we later hopped on a train; a few hours later we were greeted by Kane at Newton-Le-Willows station, ready for what was hopefully going to be a great weeks ringing. Ciaran then joined us later on in the evening..
Meeting up with Steve Christmas on Astley Moss {SSSI}, at Rindle Road early on Saturday morning. We erected 3 mist nets along the hedge, so to maximise our disturbance in the area. Retreating back to the cars, we waited for the birds to appear. Several hours later we had caught a sufficient 23 birds, which included several nicities such as Willow tit and Yellowhammer.
Other birds caught during the morning included Reed Bunting, Great Tit, Chaffinch, Greenfinch and Tree Sparrow. Moving off from here we headed off in convoy to check out a flock of c.40 Waxwings in nearby Westhoughton by the Doctor's surgery. On arrival the birds could be seen sat in a nearby Willow tree and shortly descended to the berries.. Unfortunately, it was too windy to try and catch them..
Grabbing some lunch back in Atherton, we headed to Shakerly where a small pool had formed in the last week, in which Kane had 2 Coot on them just the day before. However, overnight; torrential rain had made the pool into a lake but as we were used to catching Whooper swans this way, we dove right in...
If the pool had been smaller we would have been able to catch the 2 Coot, but after a failed attempt to corale them into a small area that we could have caught them in, we gave up as we were somewhat rather wet.. Icy cold water above your waist was enough to tell us it was time to get out.. Many thanks to Steve Christmas for inviting us along..
Drying off back in Atherton, we arranged to net the Redpoll garden in Worsley the following day..
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