Purple patch ....

Well a real time at the moment with a Marsh Harrier over Shibden Valley being mobbed by 4 Carrion Crows was icing on the cake,, after Osprey and Red Kite.. you don't see any good raptors for years then 3 in a week...had an adult Hobby in the Nottingham area as well hunting Mipits.now then temmincks Stint on raggalds flood...maybe not..but there will be something,, Must congratulate Nigel for keeping his eye on it over the last few years.....

Eriocrania Sangii top two and Coleophora serratella case on silver birch

Recent Pics

Dunlin at fly ,Shelduck raggalds flood and Grey partridge leeshaw....

Ringed Plover ,Avocet and Red Kite

Dytiscus marginalis

Well a trip to a rather dull part of the river trent produced two very unexpected Avocets , Ringed Plover at the raggalds and a Red Kite over the house,,,This large water bettle was impessive.

Last few days

Raggalds Flood seems to be the place to be at the moment with, Dunlin ,  Shelduck ,Redshank ,lapwing Wheatear , Pied wag , all been recorded...Just shows what a bit of juncuss flush a large pond with muddy edges and little disturbance does for the birds...brilliant really enjoy that little spot.
  This morning a LBBGull on the cricket pitch was unusual for northowram just fly overs mostly. Taking the dog out this afternoon was the best so far 108 Swifts moving north in just over 2 hours was some spectacle  , I had to dodge um at least  3 times when I was sure I was going to be hit. awesome .
 Oystercatcher , Ringed Plover , Redshank , Common Sand , Lapwings(20+) , Snipe , Curlew , Golden Plover and Dunlin at Leeshaw was a great sight as well..

Sunny day

Very busy at the moment and a lot to catch up,,,,I don't know why I stopped at fly flats this morning but Im glad I did,I got out of the car to loud calls from Redshank ,Oyk , Curlew and lapwing,i put my bins up to scan the res and bingo an Osprey flying low over the moor, didnt get much on it but a defo all the same..Walked to the res an adult male Greenland wheatear popped on to the fence .Common sands and dunlin calls could be herd and more Redshanks alarming away...4 noisy  LBBGulls headed over and a steady stream of swallows all  north. A couple of female type Wheatears , 2 Ravens over,3 snipe drumming away it don't get better......................
  Been doing a lot of newt stuff so farthis year managed 50+ Smooths , 30+ Palmates and 3 great crested ( at Nicks carters place on the coast), A migrant Tree pipit on my local patch was a real treat as warblers seem to be void in northowram this year, Linnets are up to 8 so far ...Found a nice Blue headed wagtail and Ring Ouzel in Nottingham the other day..................

Warm Afternoon

The wandering White Stork headed west highlighted in the sun.. amazing birds..A GBBgull also west,3 LBBGull north,a male Wheatear,3 Linnet and 107 Woodpigeons feeding in the field. Swallows heading north and one House Martin.

Friday sparrowhawk

Paul Clough area.........

Plenty of sunshine today at last, 5 + Wheatear , 7 Redshanks , 5 GP displaying , loads of mipits piling through and Pied wags....

Hunmunby gap

A great weekend on the coast (many thanks to Nick and Sandra),First migrants with Sand martin, swallow and chiffchaff, always nice to see Barn Owl , tree sparrows , yellowhammers and Corn bunting, loads of Red throated divers , Sanderling , Kittiwakes , 600 + Mipits north ,pip bat flying round Filey pitch and putt.?? harbour porpoise, Common seal , Great Crested Newt.......

East coast Wreck

In the last two weeks members of the public, including the Beached Bird Survey teams and local bird groups have reported over 200 Puffins found dead or dying along the Yorkshire coast from Scarborough south to Withensea.   Many more birds are likely to have perished at sea.  Those that have been washed ashore are emaciated with little body fat these birds must have been exhausted or starved to death.  It also means that and many birds will be in poor body condition at the start of the breeding season.  Larger numbers of dead birds  have been reported from the Scottish and Northumberland coasts. This is the worst Puffin wreck since the terrible easterly storms of 1947.

  Initially, there appeared to be a 50:50 split between immature and adult birds but in the latter days more adults were found.  Although no systematic analysis was carried out some birds, including adults, were still undergoing heavy wing moult with some birds apparently flightless – Puffin are unique amongst our seabirds in undergoing a full moult of their flight feathers in March, ahead of the breeding season.  This will have contributed to the heavy losses of Puffin when compared with other species. However, the most likely cause of starvation may have been Puffins natural tendency to feed with much shallower dives than the other auks thus making them potentially vulnerable when very heavy seas and turbulent surface waters make feeding more problematic.
Thankfully fewer dead birds were reported over the Easter weekend as the wind strength dropped although small numbers are still being washed ashore daily.
  Whilst this is a natural event it highlights the pressures these birds are under and the importance of locating and safeguarding their main feeding areas – you have to ask the Government why none of the proposed Marine Conservation Zones from Yorkshire to Northumberland coast have been recommended for designation!
   Thousands of cuttlefish have also been washed ashore, along with large numbers of shellfish, lobsters and crabs.
many thanks to Keith for this info....

 

 

 

EAST COAST CARNAGE

The remnants of the worst 'seabird wreck 'since the 1940's was 'still evident with a walk from Hunmunby Gap to Filey producing a catastrophic list-------
21 Puffin
14 Razorbills
11 Guillemot's
1 Gannet
2 Shag
1 Oystercatcher
1 Whooper Swan
2 Kittiwakes
4 Auk sp'
2 Gull sp.
1 Congar
Never seen anything like it and I hope I never do again.

PICS FROM THE PARK

Round up...

A nice v formation of whoopers on April 1st was late for this area but 50 over Sheffield and 30+ in the Bury area showed the last push north for this year....Harold park had GCGrebe, Tufted Duck ,nesting Coot  , moorhen and Great spot  drumming ....
   2 skylarks at the trailer park was about it...
Also today I saw the Starling with a white tail near keelam crossroads farm shop....

Sunday sprwk

Only had ten minutes to bird today but it was a good 10..this sprwk sat on the wall,3 LBBGulls north ,1 Song Thrush belting its song out,1 Greenfinch displaying and a Mipit north....

Friday

A single Curlew over the house was about as good as it got yesterday,,a few gulls on the move and a single Redwing north..

Goldcrest....

Lets hope spring arrives this weekend.....

Goldcrest

Northowram Today

Cold easterly again with snow flurry's all day.2 LBBGulls early on and a few splendid Common and Black heads heading for breeding grounds further north. A new spot for Grey wag was a nice find, and plenty of  common birds singing in the occasional sunshine. The rookery stands at 40 nests.
 The highlight today was a female sparrowhawk carrying a RABBIT it left a great big pool of blood on the snow as it took off......must be getting tough out there for the birds of prey...........

Cromwell Bottom

A walk round today produced all the usual birds.. Cormorant 9 , Mute Swan 2 , Little Grebe 1,
Redpoll, Siskin (some stonking males) Bullfinch, goosander , Grey Wagtail ,Grey heron ,Sparrowhawk , LTTits ,Jay and a large number of small gulls , nowt in with um .....

Big Snow

Snowed out

Needless to say it snowed all night and most of today,,,2 waxwings trilling on the wires outside the newsagents was  the highlight of today,a steady stream of BHGulls all north and 6 Dunnocks around the bird table..

Owl pellets

Your Little Owl pellets contained a number of the necessary bits which allowed me to confirm my original suspicions of your leaf beetle – it is Chrysolina oricalcia. The species is afforded the national status of Notable B – occurring in between 31 and 100 10km squares of the national grid. Other species in the Little Owl pellets were:

The ground beetles – Nebria brevicollis (F.) , Pterostichus madidus (F.) and Pterostichus nigrita/rhaeticus, a scavenger water beetle – Helophorus sp., a dor beetle – Geotrupes sp., the dung beetles – Aphodius sphacelatus (Panz.) and Aphodius fimetarius/pedellus, and a ground dwelling weevil – Barynotus obscurus (F.).
The beetle in the Long-eared Owl pellet was Catops tristis (Panz.). This species, along with most others of the genus, are to be found in rotting detritus – anything from dead mammals/birds, stable refuse and grass heaps – damp owl pellets are ideal. The species is common, so much so that in the mid 1970s a pit fall trap in North Dean Wood, Greetland was overflowing with specimens – they had
pilled in after the remains of a shrew which had inadvertently fallen into the trap.
Many thanks to mike Denton for this information...
The Tawny Owls have had another frog a couple of Birds and another 6 Field voles..

 

Scarlet Elf Cup

Found these beautiful fungi at ogden,after years of looking there they where ,standing out in the snow..

Murdering Crows

2 Carrion Crows murdered a magpie today in the field next to the house.They pecked it to death repeatedly smashing it in the head till it died,it put up a good fight for about 10 minutes it tried to get away,but in the end it was outnumbered.I got it in the scope for a while but it was too grusome to watch.......They didnt eat it,just killed it.................

Owl pellets

The top skull is puzzling and below various bird beaks found in LEO pellets from from site No2
There were 134 Field vole,1 wood mouse,1 pygmy shrew,1 Mole,5 bird sp(1 dunnock maybe),30 beetle Larva,1 Beetle,1 parasitic fly,3 caterpillar skulls and a full pot of things still to be id'd...all very interesting..

Little owl pellets

There were two species of ground beetle – Nebria brevicollis (F.) and Pterostichus madidus (F.), a scavenger water beetle – Helophorus sp., a dor beetle – Geotrupes sp., a leaf beetle – Chrysolina sp. (probably oricalcia (Muller)) and a ground dwelling weevil – Barynotus sp.

The Chrysolina is most interesting as, if it is oricalcia, it is very rare. Unfortunately there are only remains of the wing cases – a thorax or two would confirm it. If you have any further samples please drop them in the post and I’ll see what I can find.
Got this information from Mike denton today who analaysed the little Owl pellets beetle content,if any one is in the area of the Little Owl site and can find any pellets i would be very grateful for them.I have too much work on this week to do any birding .....Skylark singing yesterday

Long -eared Owl Pellets

An extensive search of an upland plantation with eagle eyed MH produced an astonishing 75 Long eared Owl pellets,the whole area was scattered with single pellets with two areas where the owl must roost as the ground was covered with pellets and old decayed pellets.
 The first 3 analaysed produced evidence of 3 Field Vole and 1 Pygmy Shrew.And a very interesting micro caterpillar.

First Skylark

First returning Skylark today along with a mixed flock of 14 redwing,4 fieldfare,2 Mistle Thrush and 25 starling..