Manchester Birder's February 2026 Summary

For the last two years I have found February has been a slog of a month.  Cold, wet, little noteworthy locally means it's a month to be endured until March comes with the relief of spring migration.  With that said, there have been some days of excellent birding both within the 10km circle and beyond.

I've spent much of the month preparing for and then searching actively for Goshawks in the local area.  I know they're around - I found a juvenile in a flyby last autumn and that report led to learning a little more about the population and their breeding range.  I've invested a lot of time into OS maps and then following up to check on habitat and narrowed my search down to a particular valley in the West Pennine Moors, just over the border into Lancashire.  Because my birding exploration and focus has been the 10km circle for the last five years I have relatively limited knowledge of the bordering counties and this next step out has left me feeling a bit amateurish (which I really am!).  The confidence of local knowledge isn't present as a reassuring safety net in my mind, and it means I have to be aware, alert, focused as I explore.  I've been slow, walking a hundred plus miles across two weeks in meandering fashion rather than marching to a destination, and this has led me to a number of places I've never thought to explore, a network of paths and plantations that wind between major roads and reservoirs, liminal spaces that I tend to think of as being largely bird-free places.  Conifer stands that are planted too close together to allow light to reach the forest floor, damp and soggy bogs with big skies that should be full of raptors but instead play host to sheep and the suspicion that the Hen Harriers, Short-eared Owls, and Goshawks that should be there are being driven away by the vested interest in lamb.  I haven't found any Goshawks yet - the weather has not been conducive to display flights in the north west - but I have found a small and mobile population of Crossbills, a huge number of Siskins, a roost of Long-eared Owls and half a dozen Tawny Owls.  Hopefully March will give me sight of the brilliant raptors I've put so much effort into finding.

The other local speciality that I've spent some time with has been Willow Tits.  As the experts tell us, late February to late March is the best time to see and especially hear them as they reaffirm bond pairs and begin to excavate nest holes.  That pulsing song that's the easiest to hear, then the nasal contact call, a sound at odds with their neat and beautiful appearance, and then the rarely heard complex and quiet twittering song all fairly easy to hear here in Manchester.  I wrote last February about the status of Willow Tits, and thankfully they're stable here as far as I can tell as a non-scientist, but the threats remain the same and their position precarious.  I've spent much of my birding time seeking these, my favourite birds, and they have alleviated a sometimes difficult and dreary month.

Towards the last third of the month the White-fronted Goose influx that the rest of the country has been enjoying for 9 weeks finally arrived locally, with 40 hiding away in a dip at High Rid reservoir.  Slavonian Grebe has been a long stayer at Elton Res and these winter birds have clung on to the end of the month when the Sand Martins have started to arrive in the area.  A planned trip to Scotland went the way of three other days of planned birding: cancelled due to friends having better offers.  A slight disappointment that forced me to bird more locally more often than I was intending, and probably contributed to a feeling of not really seeing what I had hoped for during the month.  Such is life!

Further afield Great Grey Shrike, Iceland Gull, Black-throated Diver over in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire and then very poor views of Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, Green Woodpecker (which is ridiculously hard to see closer than 30 miles from here - I saw more Bee Eaters in Manchester last year than Green Woodpeckers) and Hume's Warbler in the Midlands have added some welcome quality and rare focus.  My year list, while not the focus of the year, has stalled and I'm itching for there to be something interesting to see closer to home than the usual raft of rare and intriguing birds that have graced the south of the country the last 18 months.  Missing out on Hooded Merganser, Ross's Gull and the rest simply because I can't justify the lengthy solo drive does bring home the paucity of bird variety where I live, and underneath the joy of seeing Willow Tits and the drive to find local Goshawks is a murmuring of discontent that most of us in this area feel when we compare our anaemic wildlife with that of geographically richer places.  It's not that I don't love my patch, and it's not that I don't celebrate what I can see here, it's simply that by February it's become so predictable that I need a change just to keep me looking at the beginning of spring migration.  One day I'll live somewhere better for birding, but for now I'll keep exploring and who knows, maybe one of these late winter days I'll be surprised by what I see.