Manchester Birder's March 2025 Summary

 

 

Garganey, Blue-winged Teal, Shore Lark, Red-crested Pochard, Great Grey Shrike, Black Scoter, Hooded Crow, Ferruginous Duck, Crested Tit, Long-eared Owl, Green-winged Teal and Red Grouse some of the highlights of March.

A month that began in the Scottish Highlands walking on snow ended with sunburn and Garganey on Cutacre.  I’ve walked over 150km on local patches this month in search of migrants, largely in futility, but towards the end of the month there was a pair of Wheatear and a pair of Garganey that deserved a long afternoon in the sunshine to soak up the details. 

March has traditionally been something of a frustrating time in birding locally.  I’ve rarely seen a return on the effort to look for migrants this month and it’s a strange phenomenon that Manchester seems to always be three or four weeks behind everywhere else in the country for every species of migrant in spring.  While Wheatears were present from the second week of March in places north of here, it was only the last week of March when a pair arrived at Cutacre.  Perhaps it’s the optimism of spring, or the ability to compare across national sites with the accessibility of information nationally when it comes to things like BirdGuides, but I always raise my hopes of seeing something “springy” locally during the month and yet almost never do until the very last days of March.  I sit and look with envy at the sightings from coastal and southern locations and that makes me yearn the outdoors as much as the changing light and weather.  Lesson learned – wait until April before expecting to see anything; hold the hope more lightly and appreciate what you do see more fully.

Scotland was something of a struggle for me.  My varying mental health has been a focus throughout the duration of 2025 for various reasons, and wrestling with my own internal monologue wasn’t always easy while solo wandering in the almost silent forests of Abernethy.  As beautiful as it is there, and as incredible as the wildlife can be, I found myself craving human company – something reasonably rare for me, more often seeing company as “nice but not necessary”.  Later ventures in the month included more company; perhaps I’m learning more about myself when I’m asking for shared experience and the positive impact the presence of friends has on my own state of mind.  Perhaps I'm finally growing up, at the ripe old age of 44.

I’ve had my first major misses of the year, investing whole days in staking out Bluethroat at Hornsea and Forster’s Tern in the Fylde, and being a day late (optional dollar short) for each.  My mum’s family is from the Fylde, and it was my first return to the area in ten plus years, recontextualising childhood memories and locations through the lens of middle age.  I combined the visit for the tern with the chance to maintain and clean my maternal grandparents’ graves in the Singleton area, which left me in a state of mild (but not unpleasant) melancholy, which seems to have characterised the month, but which has acted as a kind of palate cleanser for April, a sort of sour sorbet to ready me for the real spring experience in Manchester.

On a positive note, the ridiculous fire-starters at Cutacre have been named and shamed on Facebook by people who know them and they’ve been arrested, so hopefully that’s an end to the burning of the very dry habitat at the country park.  April beckons, along with the bulk of migrant birds and that is always cause for optimism.

 

 

 Highlights

Ptarmigan (finally!) on the Cairn Ridge; male Ferruginous Duck at Woolston, Black Scoter at Hoylake, Great Grey Shrike showing really well at Cannock Chase, Crested Tits in Abernethy, Lesser White-fronted and Tundra Bean Geese in Lancashire, Shore Lark in North Yorkshire, Blue-winged Teal in Brough, Lapland Bunting at Cors Ddyga, Osprey at Llyn Brenig and Long-eared Owls wing clapping, Hooded Crow, Garganey, Wheatear, Little Ringed Plover, Green-Winged Teal on patch.  I enjoyed comparing four species of Teal in the month, with Blue-winged, Eurasian, Green-winged and Garganey all allowing some comparisons of the varying marbling and patterns on the flanks and the facial colour patches which have always fascinated me.  Great to meet some new (to me) faces in birding too.

Year List total: 205

New for me in the UK this month: 1 (Ptarmigan)

10k circle total: 98

Birds I missed: Capercaillie (incidentally – while searching for Crested Tit), Bluethroat in East Yorkshire, Forster’s Tern in Fylde.

The year list so far:

Brent Goose	Red Grouse	Purple Sandpiper	Little Owl	Nuthatch
Canada Goose	Ptarmigan	Little Gull	Long-eared Owl	Treecreeper
Barnacle Goose	Black Grouse	Ross's Gull	Short-eared Owl	Starling
Ross's Goose	Grey Partridge	Kittiwake	Tawny Owl	Song Thrush
Greylag Goose	Pheasant	Black-headed Gull	Kingfisher	Mistle Thrush
Taiga Bean Goose	Red-legged Partridge	Mediterranean Gull	Lesser Spotted Woodpecker	Redwing
Pink-footed Goose	Rock Dove (Feral Pigeon)	Common Gull	Great Spotted Woodpecker	Blackbird
Tundra Bean Goose	Stock Dove	Caspian Gull	Green Woodpecker	Fieldfare
White-fronted Goose	Woodpigeon	Herring Gull	Kestrel	Robin
Lesser White-fronted Goose	Collared Dove	Yellow-legged Gull	Merlin	Black Redstart
Mute Swan	Water Rail	Great Black-backed Gull	Peregrine	Stonechat
Bewick's Swan	Moorhen	Lesser Black-backed Gull	Ring-necked Parakeet	Wheatear
Whooper Swan	Coot	Iceland Gull	Great Grey Shrike	Dipper
Shelduck	Little Grebe	Great Skua	Jay	Tree Sparrow
Mandarin Duck	Red-necked Grebe	Puffin	Magpie	House Sparrow
Garganey	Great Crested Grebe	Black Guillemot	Chough	Dunnock
Blue-winged Teal	Slavonian Grebe	Razorbill	Jackdaw	Eastern Yellow Wagtail
Shoveler	Black-necked Grebe	Common Guillemot	Rook	Grey Wagtail
Gadwall	Oystercatcher	Red-throated Diver	Carrion Crow	Pied Wagtail
Wigeon	Avocet	Great Northern Diver	Hooded Crow	Meadow Pipit
American Wigeon	Grey Plover	White-billed Diver	Raven	American Pipit
Mallard	Golden Plover	Fulmar	Coal Tit	Water Pipit
Pintail	Ringed Plover	Gannet	Crested Tit	Rock Pipit
Teal	Little Ringed Plover	Cormorant	Marsh Tit	Chaffinch
Green-winged Teal	Lapwing	Shag	Willow Tit	Brambling
Red-crested Pochard	Grey-headed Lapwing	Glossy Ibis	Blue Tit	Hawfinch
Pochard	Curlew	Spoonbill	Great Tit	Bullfinch
Ferruginous Duck	Bar-tailed Godwit	Bittern	Penduline Tit	Greenfinch
Ring-necked Duck	Black-tailed Godwit	Little Egret	Bearded Tit	Twite
Tufted Duck	Jack Snipe	Great White Egret	Woodlark	Linnet
Scaup	Woodcock	Cattle Egret	Skylark	Redpoll
Eider	Snipe	Grey Heron	Shore Lark	Common Crossbill
Surf Scoter	Green Sandpiper	Golden Eagle	Sand Martin	European Goldfinch
Velvet Scoter	Redshank	Sparrowhawk	Swallow	Siskin
Common Scoter	Spotted Redshank	Goshawk	Cetti's Warbler	Snow Bunting
Black Scoter	Greenshank	Marsh Harrier	Long-tailed Tit	Corn Bunting
Long-tailed Duck	Turnstone	Hen Harrier	Chiffchaff	Yellowhammer
Goldeneye	Knot	Red Kite	Blackcap	Reed Bunting
Smew	Ruff	White-tailed Eagle	Firecrest	Lapland Bunting
Goosander	Sanderling	Buzzard	Goldcrest	Osprey
Red-breasted Merganser	Dunlin	Barn Owl	Wren	Willow Warbler