Surprise Visit By Ibises

During the week I paid a visit to the Horwich moors to observe the four Glossy Ibises that had appeared a few days before. They are part of an influx that included a dozen at one locality in the Lake District and should have migrated in the opposite direction down to Iberia. The Ibises in the Lake District were very wary and unapproachable but the ones I watched were incredibly tame, feeding as close as fifteen feet on one occasion. They devoured masses of worms during their non stop feeding, I have to say they looked completely out of place and looked like they had just escaped from Chester Zoo! Click here. On Hopwood a party of ten Bullfinches were feeding on the Rowan berries with twenty plus Goldfinches feeding on seeds in thistles and birches. A party of Long Tailed Tits numbered at least fifteen, plus Redpolls and one Siskin. No Redwings just yet but they are due anytime with a change in wind direction. In the garden a female Great Spotted Woodpecker made a welcome visit but we can’t say the same for the male Sparrowhawk.