Quiet walk

Sunshine but cold today made for a brisk walk around the village perimeter.A small flock of Long tailed tits(5),1 Grey wag in the horse manure fileld ,34 Fieldfare went west,2 Chaffinch ,a few BHGulls and Commons heading n/w and a quick view of 62 lapwing up on Shelf moor........

More Sparrowhawk carnage

 

Young female Sparrowhawk is getting well into the swing of things,with another 2 Feral Pigeons in my garden alone this week.(pic above)
  A Dipper at ringstone was only  my third for the site and a flock of 21 Twite on the side of the road in a small quarry on the way to Blackstone Edge was a real bonus.
  Its been a strange week as there seems to have been a  complete clear out of Redwings,Fieldfares and Waxwings and no vis at all.
 The Nordic type Jackdaw was seen on Wednesday onwards and the Herring Gull at Brods has returned for its 3rd winter.

Shelf moor and sainsburys Yeasterday

                                   Candle snuff Fungus

Quick look at shelf moor area today saw 187 Common Gulls,25 Lapwing.4 Mistle Thrush,6 blackbirds,20 Starling,,6 Redwing and 12 Fieldfare,down in Northowram 37 Black Headed Gull.7 Heralds in Bare Head Tunnel are well worth a look and 1 Little Owl near here....Waxwing yeasterday in Brighouse

Great morning

A good morning for late autumn vis started slowly ,then picked up around 9ish all species going its own way.
1 Cormorant west
917 Woodpigeon s/w 22 north
148 Starling west
5 Herring Gull west
96 Redwing nn/east
212 Fieldfare s/w

Northowram to Shelf

Cheers Darrell

White - Tailed Starling

A heart stopping moment at shelf moor today,as I was counting the Starlings(311) a white tail resembeling one of the rare wheatears flipped across my bins..............only to reveal a White tailed Starling never seen one with a pure white tail before...40 lapwing,12 common Gull and one BHGull on a pretty grim day.Flushed a Woodcock from the field and 13 Stock Doves were the first group of the winter ....

Classic Woodpigeon

Early November clear blue skies and light ssw or wnw and its mass Woodpigeon moves s/w or ssw.In the last 3 days 4500 have passed over in the amazing shapes these large flocks make shimmering across the sky.The classic long cigar, tight tennis ball and long tail streamers were all observed today as numbers soared from a few early doorsto a few groups of 500 +.Lets hope it continues but the weather looks like it may put a dampner on the job,,

Sparrowhawk frenzy

had plenty of sightings of Sparrowhawks over the last few weeks with the adult male and female putting in many attacks on next doors pigeons and Collard doves.I have only seen the young male once since last month but the young female is a monster.
  I have seen it hit at least 2 pigeons over the weekend and fail to kill.Yesterday Ann from next door came running round saying there was a pool of blood in her garden and there was a dead bird in the tree.Sure enough a beheaded pigeon was hanging upside down dripping blood all over her nice new flaggs.Apparantly the Sparrowhawk had got the pigeon stuck on its foot and could not get it off until it flew headlong into the tree and this freed it from its talons.It returned 3 hours later and took the beheaded carcass off for another feed.
 Today it was in my garden with a very large feral pigeon pinned to the lawn taking large bits of feathers out of its breast,suddenly the pigeon broke free and both birds flew off and hit the car feathers flying in all directions.The sprk chased the pigeon under the car running along the path.The pigeon nipped round the front wheel and escaped.i saw the sprwk hunting high over the cricket pitch a bit later so it was still hungry......

Over the weekend

A much better weekend for vis with good numbers of Fieldfare 1487,Redwing 1941,Woodpigeon 974,Chaffinch 54,Greenfinch 20
and Starlings moving very close to the ground  wnw 1841.Hoping for a big move of Woodpigeon at the begining of November but some big numbers to the east of Northowram means I may have miised it this year.??

Last week

A poor week with no big arrivals of Thrush's and not many woodpigeons despite perfect conditions.On wednesday a very frustrating large  Pipit found in fading light was probably a Rock pipit,it was running around the puddles and tractor tracks and I got a few glimses of plumage a pale throat,streaked flanks and pale tips to tertials but no calls or outer tail colour.
4 Bramblings,2 whooper swans and a few 100+ Woodpigeons were the best of a bad weeks vis.A bit better with moths and a Common darter was a good find locally in late October...The beast of Ogden was a real treat..........

Over the weekend

A great weekend for vis -mig started with a record count of 17 Jays south on sat morning.A brilliant skein of 650+ Pink feet with pure blue sky backdrop was the best of the autumn so far ,first big move of Woodpigeon,Starlings and Redwings and first gooseanders of the autumn .Skylarks,Meadow Pipit and Pied Wagtails thining out and Swallows were last seen on the 8th.

Motorway Birding

A quick trip to Scotland today produced some good motorway birding
800 Pink footed goose s/e
500  Pink footed goose... east
12 Whooper swans  south
8 Common Buzzard locals
80 Lapwing blogging
14 Pied Wagtail south

Recent sightings

The last of the swallows have just about gone and the first of the winter Thrush's have started to trickle in should be a big influx of thrushes before the weekend .Pink feet have been seen the last couple of days and the pain of the yellow browed warbler was eased with a fly over Rock pipit today,another one for the self found list.For the last 5 years when Ive taken the kids to the beach ive allways chased the rock pipits till they fly over my head calling,it paid off today in the swirling mist one shot through calling 3 times.There were quite a few inland records today so there must be a move on.Snow Bunts next,???

Same place,

2 skylark,3 Swallow and 2  meadow Pipit what a difference a day makes

Swallow Spectacular

From first light Swallows poured through Northowram today ,large groups of 30+ and others skimmimg a foot above the ground,also meadow pipits streaming through largest group 27, 3 Pieds ,2 Skylarks and a Tree Pipit gave there calls as they headed south.The first 10 Pink footed geese struggled along the valley in the strong wind. The bird of the day went to a first year Reed Bunting hiding in the undergrowth near the new Lorry car park.Swallows totalled 850+ and Mipits 350+.a great vis day...

This is great

All hail the Newton Stringer.........



http://literateherringthisway.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/gyr-crakes.html

Thursday vis

A good morning started with a steady flow of mips and swallows,the highlights being my first Raven for ages and a Great spotted Woodpecker flying high in with a flock of 11 mipits.
Meadow Pipit 216 s/w
swallow         96 s/w
House Martin 3 s/w
Raven              1 south
Great Spot      1 south
Jay                  1 south
Cormorant 1 west
Wheatear 1 south along the fence posts andthe flew off south.1 at Paw lane Queensbury later on.

A bit of spare time

time to sort through the hoards of photos from this year,Snipe,Common Sandpiper and white fronted geese

Grim

28 Swallows s/w
7 Meadow pipit s/w
1 LBBGull   east
8 Starling west
1 Linnet and 3Goldfinch

Northowram

A great morning started with 25 Golfinch feeding on ragwort(??),a couple of linnets flew over and a steady stream of Mipits and swallows south,Then 2 wheatear and a whitethroat flushed from cover and a Willow warbler catching flies in the tall hedge...

Walsden

Around Walsden village
87 mipits s/w
54 Swallows s/w
2 reed buntings s/w
1 Willow warbler blogging
2 raven south
3 Kestrels hunting on moor(male female and juv female)
4 linnets blogging around

Weekend Vis

2 Swift sat afternoon with 3 Swallows s/w
1 Tree Pipit fist light on sunday due south
6 Sand Martin west at 12ish on Sunday
25 Mipits s/w sunday morning
2 LBBGull east Sat evening

Erringden suprise

Thick fog first thing put visibility down  to 50 feet,but mipits and swallows were herd and seen coming out of the fog.5 House Martin were the only ones seen all day.As the fog lifted Mipits were grounded all over the moor flying up from every bit of cover.12 wheatear,1 whinchat, 6 skylark,40 Linnets birds seemed to be everywhere.3 ravens flew towards Stoodley Pike soon followed by a buzzard.A snipe was flushed from cover and 2 LBBgulls went s/w.Mipits were in full migration mode with at least 250 s/w,12 pied wags blogging on the moor.
   As I sat down to watch the mipits and swallows head s/w I picked up a bird flying towards me ,it looked like a Kingfisher at first a bit of blue and orange it could'nt be up here.? as the bird got closer it landed in a bit of Hawthorn al called loudly.....A male Nuthatch right in the middle of the moor it only landed and called then flew off North east low over the moor.A real suprise.Must have been moving between valleys.???also had a few  calls which I have left as  maybes two  flava wagtail sp were herd but not seen and a distant wader herd twice which sounded like a redshank.??

Withens Clough.and Northowram

4 stonechat ( 2 adults and 2 Juvs) ,3 House martin,15 swallows,1 Shelduck ,1 wheatear(which I still havent sorted out)and a female redstart.

  One Holly Blue ,1 Red Admiral, 2 speckled wood , 4 small tortoiseshell and 1 large white today.

Little Egret and busy a Sunday

Up at 6.00 to empty the moth trapd a Campion and Yellow shell were good records for the time of year also the first migrant silver Y of the autumn.
   Then off to Jay House lane to do a two hour watch of the tree sparrow feeding station,27 tree Sparrows the  most seen at one time but there could be more than 40 I reckon.Good to see as I remember years when we had none at all.

                                        Thanks to Fran44 for pic


   A long walk with family around all three walshaw reservoirs  produced a new local self found bird LITTLE EGRET very nice indeed,in the next 10 years I am sure they will become a common sight,but for now only a hand full of records and still pretty rare.8 wheatear,1 whinchat and a Female redstart were a good supporting cast.

What a fall

Should I go and see the marsh harrier at walshaw dean or go and find something else I thought when Id finished work today.Well I opted for the harrier,as I approached the plantation at walshaw I picked up the Harrier distantly above the moor,Ill get a better look when I reach the top res i said to myself.
 A falsh of a red tail in the first bit of wood started things off. 2 Redstarts a male and a female type,calling Go;ldcrests and cole tits could be herd.As I got to the end of the plantation another 2 female type Redstarts were seen ,then Spotted flys every where at least 6 were seen flitting about the trees catching prey.Next a female type Whitethroat came to my pishing calls and then 3 Whinchats were seen on the fence below,all the time swallows were overhead with Pied wags and Mipit calls filling the sky .A Tree Pipit was herd calling above and the redstarts were now catching flies in full view,flashing there red tails and landing on the ground momentarily.2 Chiff Chaffs could not be turned into anything else.I looked at my watch id been there 1 and a half hours no time for the top res today.Other birds seen were 6 Kestrel, 21 linnets,4 goldfinch , 1 raven and a few grouse.

Blackshaw Head

A real morning to be out after the initial downpour,the first birds were a large group of 56 Swallows heading n/e soon followed by smaller groups of 5/6 this continued till about 1.30 some so close I could almost touch um ( total 350+).5 wheatear ,3 Raven , 6 Kestrels and a beautiful young male Sparrowhawk,couple of Skylarks.Loads of mipits on the move with at least 200 over and 1 tree pipit was the bird of the morning.

Booth to Midgley

Hundreds of swallows on the move this morning s/w and continued most of the day,at least 700+ , small groups of House martins also with a 2 + 10 + 55 +2  + 4 = 73 s/w , 2 swift s/w, 24 Mistle thrush,1 buzzard and a few Linnets,goldfinch and greenfinch.1 willow warbler and 1 snipe were the best from a long slog.

ADULT MALE Common Scoter found dead at Batings

Mallorca by JCC

Mallorca JCC