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Saturday, 9 December 2006

Field Trip to Wigan Flashes

The final field trip of the 2006 programme was to the Wigan Flashes on Saturday Dec 9th. The morning was spent at Pennington Flash, here a variety of water birds were observed on and around the main lake, although the recent mild weather meant that numbers were relatively low. Among the highlights were Great Crested Grebe, Shoveler, Goldeneye and a female Goosander. In the wooded areas small numbers of birds were seen, including Great Spotted Woodpecker, Goldcrest and Long-tailed Tit. The visit ended at the feeding station which allowed good views of various birds including eight Bullfinches and several Jays and Reed Bunting.

The group moved to the Wigan Flashes for the afternoon, this is a large area of wetland and woodland which can be accessed from various paths and the Leeds-Liverpool canal towpath. Again the wetland areas had good numbers of various ducks and grebes such as Gadwall, Pochard, Goldeneye and Ruddy Duck, two Snipe were also present. Several large flocks of finches were also noted in the woodlands including good numbers of Greenfinch and Lesser Redpoll. Just as the group were preparing to leave several hundred Pink-footed Geese were observed as they flew to their roost at Martin Mere.