Michael Laurent
Saturday 11th April 2017 - Broad Heath and Pennington Flash
Peacock and Small Tortoiseshell butterflies on bathroom wall in the sun.
Margaret McCormick
Report of Kingfisher flying into metal garden gate near Pennington Flash. It died.
Claire Joures
Saturday 11th April 2017 - Staffordshire
2 Fritillary and numerous Peacock butterflies. 4 male Ring Ouzel and 28 Golden Plover near Macclesfield/Buxton.
Claire Joures
Tuesday 14th March 2017 - Woolston Eyes and Sale
At Woolston Eyes: A Sand Martin, 4 Black-necked Grebes and 3 Chiff-Chaffs singing. Toads on the path mating and lots of reports of frogspawn.
Claire Joures
Chiff-Chaffs singing.
Michael Laurent
Sale garden: Sparrowhawk seen trying to pull a Pigeon out of a garden pond! Pam and Phil eventually removed the Pigeon and left the Sparrowhawk to deal with it.
Pam and Phil Grundy
Friday 17th February 2017 - Mistletoe in Ashton on Mersey
Third Mistletoe found in our area - this time in Ashton on Mersey.
Not wonderful photos, but didn't seem appropriate to climb into a back garden - and we were definitely being watched and deemed suspicious!
We think the host tree might be Hybrid Black Poplar (the bark is deeply fissured), which is fairly frequently a host tree for Mistletoe. Need to return when there are leaves on (preferably with the owner's permission). This is the third location we are aware of locally for Mistletoe. Does anybody know of other specimens in our area?
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| Mistletoe (Viscum album) |
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| Mistletoe (Viscum album) |
Not wonderful photos, but didn't seem appropriate to climb into a back garden - and we were definitely being watched and deemed suspicious!
We think the host tree might be Hybrid Black Poplar (the bark is deeply fissured), which is fairly frequently a host tree for Mistletoe. Need to return when there are leaves on (preferably with the owner's permission). This is the third location we are aware of locally for Mistletoe. Does anybody know of other specimens in our area?
Pat Hill, Cathy and Mike Pettipher
Friday 10th February 2017 - Dunham and Bridgewater Canal
The Winter Gardens at Dunham have something of interest throughout the winter:
Claire had previously seen numerous snails 'hibernating' in the cracks of the wall supporting the bridge on Woodhouse Lane under the Bridgewater canal. We took a look to see if they were still there - and they were, perhaps about 100 of them. It seemed surprising to see them in such an exposed position. Perhaps there had been vegetation covering the wall when they chose the location. Interesting that these were all on a south west facing wall, with none on the opposite side of the road. A few more had chosen a spot near the top of the wall, above the road.
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| Winter Aconite (Eranthis hyemalis) |
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| Snowdrop (Galanthus nivalis) |
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| Snowdrop variety (Galanthus nivalis) |
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| Algerian (Winter) Iris (Iris unguicularis) |
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| Black Hellebore/Christmas Rose (Helleborus niger) |
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| Black Hellebore |
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| Witch-hazel (Hamamelis) |
Claire had previously seen numerous snails 'hibernating' in the cracks of the wall supporting the bridge on Woodhouse Lane under the Bridgewater canal. We took a look to see if they were still there - and they were, perhaps about 100 of them. It seemed surprising to see them in such an exposed position. Perhaps there had been vegetation covering the wall when they chose the location. Interesting that these were all on a south west facing wall, with none on the opposite side of the road. A few more had chosen a spot near the top of the wall, above the road.
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| Garden Snail (Cornu aspersum) |
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| Garden Snail (Cornu aspersum) |
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| Garden Snail (Cornu aspersum) |
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| Winter sun lighting the Bridgewater Canal |
Claire Joures, Cathy and Mike Pettipher
February 2017 - Parakeet, Jackson's Boat
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