A cool morning for mid June with very few warblers in song, heavy tree foliage and undergrowth made it difficult to pick out the passerines with a lot of fleeting glimpses, but did manage the following sightings.
Great Spotted Woodpecker...have bred well with several young seen including 3 juveniles in back garden.
Nuthatch....again have bred well, several family parties around the route.
Green Woodpecker... Pair have fledged at least two young just of the cycle track in Strongstry.
Great Tit....young and adults seen in most areas
Blue Tit... Heard more than saw but appear to be in good numbers
Long-tailed Tit.... Only one family party seen, and two singles, all were feeding in bramble.
Coal Tit...some heard but few seen, suspect they have bred well.
Blackbird....large numbers everywhere including adults and young with lots of song and alarm calling.
Song Thrush....several in heavy undergrowth, only two in song.
Mistle Thrush....two separate pairs in field along Helmshore road.
GoldFinch....good numbers all round, family parties feeding in Birch woods.
Chaffinch....Birds seen and heard all round the route.
Bullfinch....one pair opposite the house with young, the good news is that three more males and two young were seen in different areas around the route, will be interesting to see how many we find when fed in the winter.
Robins and Wrens were everywhere, in one fallen Hawthorn at Alderbottom were 7 Wren and 4 young Robins.
Dunnock...saw one opposite the house and that was that, not surprising concidering the density of the undergrowth.
Treecreeper.... Only saw one near a nest site in Lumb
Warblers.....I am sure they are still there and doing well, but struggled to find any Willow, and Chiffchff, one male Blackcap in song and one juvenile male near Porritt lodge. The best sightings were a male and female Whitethroat feeding several young in newly cut trees near Alderbottom, and a fleeting glimpse twice of a Garden Warbler.
Curlew and Lapwing....five of the former flew over Helmshore road, 7 of the latter were feeding in fields below Pleasant view farm, could not see any young.
Corvids....30 plus Rooks feeding in above fields, Carrion Crows in same fields, huge numbers of adult and young Jackdaws in and around Irwell Vale.
Pheasant....one male at Alderbottom farm.
Jay......individuals seen in Strongstry woods, 2/3s at Ewood bridge.
Magpie.....three groups of 3/4/5 round the route.
Wood Pigeons....many in fields and Buckden woods.
Collared Dove....only one pair in Irwell vale.
Sparrowhawk....very active male hunting in Lumb vale
Kestrel....one on the Moor road, also two Buzzards over.
Meadow Pipit....several along the Moor road.
Dipper...several seen, young and adult, but well spread along the river, would expect second broods to be underway soon.
Grey Wagtail...5 adults seen between Stubbins and Ewood bridge, no juveniles witnessed.
Mallard.....some young on the river but not many, plenty of males in groups.
Great Crested Greebe.....this was a turn up, it was on the river at Irwell vale chasing small trout, unusual for such an enclosed water, I got the impression it may not have been able to fly.
Swallows, Swifts and House Martins.....there was only 3/4 of the latter but the others were in good numbers.
Sand Martins......these are the success story of my home patch this year, between Strongstry and Ramsbottom I have counted 43 active nest sites, most of these have fledged young while I was away and are now on second broods, assuming no disasters we could have a late summer population of around 350 for a small area.
On the negative side I have no Spotted Flycatcher reports this year, none were seen or heard and all the boxes are unused, the following were not seen or missed, Kingfisher, Goldcrest, Greenfinch and Grey Heron.
On a brighter note, of my five Tawny Owl boxes two have produced young, three fledged in mid May, and there were two young in another box when I went away, when checked today it was empty with no signs of disruption.
