Woodcock

Flushed 3 woodcock today in a new bit of wet ground in a private wood .Also first displaying Greenfinch and singing Song Thrush at work.

Quiet

Highlight of the week in northowram was a small flock of siskin by the church about 25 in all.You can buy these t shirts in tesco's...???????......not very PC these days.

Round and about this weekend

The highlight of the weekend was a lesser spotted woodpecker calling loudly near EGP and a Water rail alarm calling on lagoon 1 at Egp on sat evening.7 waxwings flew over boothtown with 40+ Redwings north here on Sunday morning.Common Gulls at Northowram peaked at 45 this weekend. Tawny Owl and Song Thrush have been herd calling over the weekend.

HX1

75 Pied wagtails over bull green about 5.15,1 Blackbird singing at Bull Green 5.20 and a song Thrush in full song at Heath training centre this morning.

Northowram to Hipperholme and back

Loads of rain and wind ,5 Stock dove,150 Fieldfare,100 Redwing ,5 Mistle thrush,50+ House sparrows,30 Goldfinch,36 Woodpigeons,40 Jackdaw,20 Chaffinch,50 BHGull and 20 Common Gull.

EGP and lots of rain

A cracking adult Cormorant in breeding plumage was the pick of the bunch closely followed by a adult male Pochard and male Goldeneye.Goosander 20+,BHGull 50+ and Common Gull 30+,Coot ,Moorhen and 5 canadas.
(Northowram) An adult LBBGull west,6 Herring Gulls west,400 mixed Fieldfare and Redwings north,40 Jackdaws in pairs and the sparrowhawk took another collard dove during the week.

Amaurobius fenestralis

Found this over the weekend in only house wood thanks Bruce for the id.

Scotland..January

                                               Black Grouse Country


Black Grouse 13
Red Grouse 4
Red Kite    2
Buzzard 10
Raven  4
Pink footed Goose 2000 +
Greylag Goose        100 +
Grey geese(not id to sp)3000+
Mute Swan    6
Whoopers     4
Siskin 1
Yellowhammer 16
Chaffinch         75+
Goosander       1
Skylark 2
Woodpigeon    750+
Jackdaw         500+
Rook         300+
Great spot 2
Fieldfare    25.
Other........14 Fallow Deer,18 Roe deer,1 Hare , 2 Fox and a few Rabbits

Last few days

Went looking for Linnets at swales with no luck but did  see 10 Fieldfare, 1 Meadow pipit, 2 Reed Bunting,3 Skylark and a couple of Kestrels.
12 Waxwings flew around the Police station in halifax town centre and 22 Fieldfare  landed in the back garden for a brief moment also a sparrowhawk  and Little Owl were seen down the lane ....Also 1 herring Gull has taken up residence on  the rugby field at Hipperholme.

New Things..

 Opticron BGA 10 x 42 ,, I would recomend anyone buying a new pair of  bins for £500+ to stop and have a look at these first at £200.o they must be the best bargin around.

 The new bird table has at last been found by the garden birds...today in the garden...32 Collard Dove ,10 Magpie.1 wren , 4 chaffinch,1 cole Tit,3 Blue tit,30+ House Sparrow,2 Robin,1 Dunnock and 5 Blackbird.
Also 55 Fieldfare flew over at 4.10...1 jackdaw in the field today showed a white collar stripe..but I dont think its a continental .Just a bit of albanism....

New year vis

12 - 1.30 

450 Fieldfare n/e
Redwing 150 n/nw
62 Common Gull bloggers
45 Pink feet n/w
22 herring Gull west
2 GBBGull west
2 Stock dove
1 Little Owl
45 woodpigeon west

Ogden Artic Tern again

After much reading and searching the web I am still not convinced this is a definate 1st winter bird.??

Ice images on the canal...Canada goose take off..????????

EGP.....Boxing day

A big move of Gulls west today saw 250 + Herring Gulls and 18 GBBGulls west between 11.00 and 12,also around 11 Bullfinch,30 + 10 LTTits,1 song thrush,50 Field fare 60+ Redwing,2 Mistle thrush,1 Teal,10 Moorhen,4 coot,1 Goldeneye,5 tufted duck,4 cormorant,5 Lapwingand 3 goosander

Merry X-mas Song, MINUS 10 and Moon Madness

Reached minus 10 this evening here in Northowram,Fieldfar and redwing were all over the place today along with Nuthatch ,Sparrowhawk,Grey wagtail ,2 Lapwing over and up to 30 House Sparrows around the feeders

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubqr9FPznJE&feature=fvw

More Gulls

Cold as hell up there today ..managed the Med Gull for about 5 mins...Nice BHGull and Common Gulls also

MED GULL

Med Gull today at Mount Tabour ..cheers NCD

Birds at work

Had a party of 7 waxwings over today along with Grey wagtail,12 Long tailed tits,2 Goldcrest , 8 redwing  loads of Common Gulls and a sparrowhawk.

Waxwings in Christmas tree formation

21 waxwings today at lane Head and 13 herring Gulls west...should push a Smew or Slav our way this cold snap..................

Buzzards

Lots of Black-headed Gulls and Common Gulls heading west most of the day with a few small flocks of Woodpigeons heading north.A single Buzzard was picked up over EGP mid afternoon it headed northwest over Northowram and 2 minutes later another Buzzard went the same way............

Waxwings

10 Mistle thrush,17 waxwings at Lane Head today and 40+ Lapwings in fields opposite EGP.

Jackdaw Roost

A large roost of mainly jackdaws but also Rooks and Carrion Crows was seen this evening at Ryburn reservoir at least 700.... but we were observing through trees and it could easily have been 1000+.Also 2 Tufted Duck,2 Moorhen,1 Cormorant and a handful of mallards.

Lee Evans Reply

http://www.birdguides.com/webzine/article.asp?a=2400

He sounds ok to me.....

Early Morning Calls......

Having done a few pre - dawn vis sessions recently in scotland ,I have been amazed how many calls you can pick up in the hour before daylight. I have herd waxwing ,Lapland Bunting ,Snow Bunting ,Pink footed Goose, Fieldfare , redwing ,Snipe ,Meadow Pipit and Skylark.Its also strange that when it gets light little or no vis is going on.?

Scotland

Had a right weekend in Scotland,.............as I was getting over a gate yesterday morning a bird landed on the top of the fence at the same time...Lapland Bunting   very nice and today as we got out of the car a Richards Pipit flew out of the field next to us calling loudly....
Vis Yesterday and Today (next to the coast in S/W Scotland)
Great Northern Diver 5 south
Black throated Diver 1 on sea and 1 south (both adult winter)
Long Tailed Duck  1 south
Red Breasted Merganser 1 on sea
Fieldfare 44 n/w
Redwing 2 n/w
Skylark 13 n/w
Woodpigeon 1540 south(along coast)
Starling  520 n/w
Stock Dove 2 north
Snow Bunting 1 North
Hen Harrier 1(male south)
Greylag Goose 9 south
Pink footed Goose 8 south
Rock Pipit 22(bloggers)
Eider 30 (bloggers)
Stonechat 10(Locals)
Twite 45 *
Linnet 180 *
Golfinch 10*
Reed Bunting 17*
Pied wag 15 *
Chaffinch 300 +
* feeding in old turnip field with sorrel.

Violent Storm 11

Drove up to Scotland yesterday in Violent Storm 11(shiping forcast)it was a grim drive.3 hours sea wathch today produced
Great Norther Diver   4 south
Black Throated Diver on sea 1
Long tailed duck        1 south
Eider                       10 on sea
Cormorant 17 south
Shag 2 south
Kittiwake 4 south
1 male Peregring chasing woodpigeon
Curlew 1 south
Oyks 10 south

Boo hoooo

How fustrating, I could see loads of Woodpigeons way out to the east pouring through,but all the ones over Northowram were heading north/east (no doubt a bit of reverse migration going on) 1000+ throughout the day.I see in Dorset they had 161 thousand south ...Loads of Starlings in small flocks heading low west all day about 700+ in total.....

More Waxwings

25 over A&E  this afternoon taking my 7 year old in cos he nearly chopped his finger off.....................................................................

Pigs on the wing(Part 1)

 A classic Woodpig morning with clear blue skies and excellent visability.
Woodpigeons
7.00 - 8.00    3850 s/w
8.00 - 9.00    1375 s/w
9.00 - 9.30      350 s/w
total ...............  5575 all s/w

Pink footed Goose
8.00 - 8.45
130
175
180
  50
 535 all east
Other birds of note apart from a Skua species which eluded id .. I was going with juv dark phase Pom and I see no reason on refering to books that it was'nt this species.but the view was all too brief (drat)??
2 Goosander west
10 Greenfinch west
30+ Chaffinch west
22 Siskin west
50 + Common Gull west
1 Pied wagtail  west
1 Mistle Thrush   north
5 Mallard  west

Round and about....

Its allways nice to see birds when your working and a group of 10 Waxwings over Manor heath today was no exception..!167 Lapwings between Northowram and Queensbury was a good count with 10 linnets also here.