Ringstone

A quick look at Ringstone today produced 3 Great Crested grebes 2 doing full courtship display, 35 Lapwing , Willow Warbler , 2 Oystercatcher , Reed bunting , Grey Partridge , 1 Sand martin , 7 Swift , 10 Swallows , 13 LBBgulls  and plenty Mipits.

Gales hit for the start to June....

Plenty Swifts on the move the last few days and Buzzards, Kestrel and Sparrowhawk have been seen out hunting despite the gales. Plenty of Nuthatch at Hardcastle Craggs but no Wood Warbler , Pied Flys or Redstarts. Found a small but healthy population of Lapwing the on Sat morning with at least 15 pairs with 5 Juvs seen. Good news these days also a small flock of Golden plover foraging nearby.
 Butterflies seen the first 2 days of June = 0 very depressing

Buzzards and more Whitethroats

I have now managed to find 3 pairs of Whiethroat around the fields in Northowram and sightings of Buzzard are now daily with 2 in the front field on Saturday giving excellent views of this once rare bird in Calderdale. Its great to see them on such a regular basis (reminds me of being on holiday).in another 5 years if they are left alone they will be in every bit of woodland.!!

Warblers (singing males) at Elland Gravel Pits 22 April and 22 May 2015

Same walk route which takes about 2 hours....
22nd May


Chiffchaff     11
Blackcap       13
Garden Warbler    8
Willow Warbler    6
Reed warbler        4
Whitethroat          5


Total                  47


22nd April


Chiffchaff        16
Blackcap          13
Garden Warbler  1
Willow Warbler   12
Reed Warbler        1
Whitethroat           1


Total                   44

Northowram today

All the local summer visitors are back in place , today 2 Blackcap , 2 Willow Warblers , 3 Chiffchaff and 1 Whitethroat singing this morning. Plenty of Linnets , Swallows and the odd House Martin.
2 Sand Martins and 50 + Swifts heading north around lunchtime. Buzzards are now seen almost daily which is great news...

Wainstalls

Had a walk from Wainstalls to Mount Tabor , 7 Wheatear , good numbers of singing Skylarks, plenty linnets feeding on dandilions and collecting nesting material a Buzzard over and 8 Swifts north.
  Managed to see the  'Mixenden White Crow ' at Shaking House farm and was treated to the call of a Pied Flycatcher in the brilliant sunshine in a nearby valley. Plenty more Swift heading north over Luddenden village and Skylarks singing at Mount Tabor must be in double figures. Amazed to find a couple of pairs of Lapwing at Ogden and also one at Mount Tabor.

Mixenden Reservoir

A quick walk before the rain this morning produced, 1 Swift , 2 House Martin ,15 Swallow and 5 Sand Martin on the res in nearby fields a Wheatear sat on the ground looking exhausted and a Willow Warbler nest building was as good as it got.....

Tripin ........

Well its been a long time in coming but on the 28th April , I came across a ' trip ' of Dotterel there were 7 ,( 5 females and 2 males ). It also turned into a bit of a twitch with no Dotterel at the top of Pendle Hill . It was one of those awkward moments........ I had found 7 Dotterel,''''' I put the news out and then just I had.... they flew off, It took an hour to relocate them and by this time there were a few people looking......Luckily I found them two fields from the original spot.(phewww)
   Not much else this week except lapwing and Whitethroat on Soil Hill and a couple of Bullfinch and a Goldcrest on my local walk.

Weekly Round - up

Ring Ouzel 1 male and 8 Twite at Pike End Rishworth
Cuckoo and 2 Whinchat at Gorpley
Blackcap, Whitethroat , LRP , Reed and garden Warbler EGP
Common Sand and Redshank at Fly Flatts
2 Buzzards seen again at Northowram

Tuesday

Another Swallow first thing over the house followed by a heron and a few Mipits. " 2 very dark backed LBBgulls were thought to be 'intermedius' , 2 Kestrel, 1 Buzzard and Sprwk scarping high up . 5 Linnets today and 80 Woodpigeons in the fields is all I come muster in the strong winds

First Swallow

Had the first Northowram Swallow today , it flew low over the fields towards Queensbury .It was the same date as last year.....Upto 4 Linnets have been kicking around and a few Mipits and Pied Wags  have been  heading north. 5 LBBGulls went north , 1 Common Gull east and a GBBGull west  over the weekend.

Friday

Another Common Buzzard north today a very pale bird flew very high. 3 Linnets , 35 Starling , 3 Chifchaff , 1 Wheatear , 2 Mistle Thrush , 2 Greenfinch displaying song flight and Comma , Peacock and lots of Small Tortoiseshell.

Buzzards

6 Buzzards recorded today between 10 and 11.30 started with one very high moving north west, then 3 together and one above this group with 2 Sparrowhawk mobbing it. Another ,,10 minutes later with 1 Sparrowhawk and 2 kestrels mobbing it. A steady trickle of Mipits north and 3 singing Chiffchaff. Plenty of Small Tortoiseshell , Peacock and one Comma today.

First Wheatear

2 male Wheatear were most welcome today ,7th April is very late.Linnets, Greenfinch, Song  & Mistle Thush were singing this morning and a steady trickle of herring and LBBGulls headed north. Plenty of Mipits heading  north over the last few days..

North Westerly,s

Ok wind can you please change direction , we have all had enough of ya.......thanks http://www.cumbriabirdclub.org.uk/ a few recent pics

Hodbarrow to Ravenglass

2 Slavonian Grebes on Hodbarrow was a real treat one in full summer and one in winter plumage, swimming together for comparison and 2 female Scaup , 7 greenshank , 30 Red breasted Merganser , 1 Barnacle Goose , 30 Pinks, a first summer Red Kite , Woodcock , Snipe , Blackcap , 14 Little Egrets an albino Red Deer at Foulshaw Moss...??

Whooper dooper Swans

At 9.15 I looked out the window .....excellent pinks on the move a nice V formation very low.Got the bins on them for a count and ...Whoopers 53 brill ...a quick call to Bri and Dave to alert them to the swans..Glad dave got them from his garden...Then a look to the east wooooooooooooooowwww at least 3/4oo I estimated..........another quick call to Dave...185 went about 100 feet above the house.. the rest in all directions which I was unable to count . All the dog walkers and gardeners stopped to view this spectacular event......

Med Gull

First bird on Monday morning  was a Med Gull an adult summer. a few raptors Perry, Merlin , kes ,Sprawk  and plenty of territorial Buzzards. 21 pale bellied Brents and 54 Dark bellids at Roa island.5 Hawfinch (two singing males),6 Red Throated divers and 500 + Eiders (display and calls).
  Northowram over the weekend included  3 Linnets (first this year locally) , 2 Skylark and calling Green Woodpecker at Northowram today.2 Skylark and a female sTONECHAT.

HAWFINCH

Having been to Whitbarrow / Halecat  on at least 7 occasions so far , I was very pleased to connect with 6 Hawfinch on Friday morning , I had 2 very brief and unrewarding views before but this was a real jem with 6 birds seen in the scope and 1 herd calling from another spot.. A fantastic bird rarely seen these days. Another sighting this week was a flock of 78 WHOOPER SWANS ,,,spring is on its way with Rooks rebuilding Rookeries ,my first singing yellowhammer and displaying Marsh Tits.

 

Eiland Gravel Pits

It was a cold and sunny day , 2 Cormorants overhead as I parked up. At least 6 Bullfinch and a Nuthatch around the car park.2 Little Grebes , 4 Goosander ,1  Male Goldeneye  and 7 Teal round the weir and   Green Woodpecker and Kingfisher around the Lagoons .           

Ravenglass

  Ravenglass is very beautiful and very good for wintering birds...Three small estuaries surround the small village and these hold good numbers of wintering birds. At least 40 Red breasted Mergansers were displaying in the large lagoon , along with a v formation of 47 Cormorant overhead.400 widgeon , 100 Teal, 3 Goosander , 4 Greenshank , good numbers of wintering Shelduck  Redshank ,Curlew, lapwing and Oystercatcher. Pink footed and Greylag geese are regular in the surrounding fields and overhead. Buzzard , Merlin , Kestrel ,Sparrowhawk and Peregrine are there for an easy meal. One Peregrine was watched for 4 hours sat in a field after consuming a Lapwing , it was later seen stooping at a large flock of Lapwing and narrowly missing a stray bird...Dunlin , Little Egret ,Skylark and the odd Stonechat as well.......

Back to Reality................

Walked from Fly Flatts to High Brow knoll and back...40 Red Grouse and 1 Kestrel.....

Foulshaw / Duddon Moss

 An excellent week started with 5 Brambling ,1 male Blackcap at Foulshaw Moss and a Barn owl roost here also. At Duddon on Tuesday 1500 Pinkfeet ,1 Juv European White fronted Goose  , 4 Canadas , 11 Barnacle geese, 200 Lapwing ,30 Eider (displaying),100 Shelduck , 4Goldeneye , 200+ Pintail , 1 Red Kite ,1 Green Sandpiper , 3000 Dunlin and a pair of Peregrines displaying over the Dunlins causing chaos..Amazing seeing the Dunlin and Peregrines in combat flight .Rounded of the week at Hale - cat where there were 5 Nuthatch , 3 Marsh Tit ,and the bird of the week a Hawfinch.

Cold

By - eck  it was cold this morning and birds hard to find.8 tree Sparrows and 9 goldfinch were in the back garden , 1 Meadow Pipit, 2 Wren,1 Dunnock , 3 Stock Dove, 2 Collard Dove  and a Grey Wag were in the fields and 9 Herring Gulls were heading west, 1 Goldcrest and 3 Mute Swans still at Shibden. Glad bri got the Tree Sparrows now fingers crossed for a Yellowhammer or Corn bunt in the spring...

Its ' Bean' a good week for Geese

Working in north Cumbria this week and there have been plenty of geese about ,Its common to see large skeins of geese across the sky heading in any direction. On Tuesday I eventually found a large flock on the ground totalling 512 birds.509 Pink 's 2 Barnacle and 1 Tundra Bean Goose a great find. Totals for the week were 4000, Pinks ,1 Bean ,20 Canada , 45 Barnacle , 10 Greylags and 12 Brents .
 Also this week  watched 3 Peregrines displaying around some Pylons there were 2 males and a female the first male was seen to drop something to the ground , and after some commotion we eventually found a dead Golden Plover with the back of its neck taken out..
  Along the hedgerows many Tree Sparrows , Yellowhammer , Reed Buntings, Redwings ,Fieldfare and Robins.

Duddon Moss

Not a good week to be on the Cumbrian coast with a stiff NW /W  9 blowing at ya most of the time , even so the snow capped peaks of the southern fells and the calls of pinks continually overhead make you feel very lucky to be  out in the elements,
   Very brief views of Red kite , Gos and Marsh harrier and the ever present Buzzard to keep me company. Large flocks of duck Male Pintail and male Eider together are breath taking. The numbers of Curlew , Redshank and Oystercatcher are also worth noting as when the wind blows from the west they all leave the estuaries and feed in the fields close to sea, its not uncommon to see 400 Curlew , 100 Redshanks and 200 Oycks in a large field foraging away out of the wind.
  Also sightings of Raven are becoming few and far between indicating breeding may well be at the incubating stage.??A few pairs of Stonechats have been seen this week on the moss's , also went looking for Hawfinch with no luck as yet.................................
 

Walney Island

This is the first time ive been to this  ' Cumbrian Spurn ' , the site of many rare and spectacular species over the years, but in Jan I didn't expect much. A cracking female Merlin was the first bird seen, showed very well for 20 mins or so. A flock of  100 + Twite and 40 Skylarks kept things interesting and a flock of 45 Barnacle Geese overhead was a surprise.
  A quick scan of a flock of flying waders was initially thought to be Knot but turned out to be 42 Grey Plover which landed just by the road side. Bar and Black tailed godwits with 100's of redshank , Knot , Lapwing Oystercatcher and Curlew. A quick look out to sea produced 2000 Eider , 500 Pintail ,500 Widgeon , 100 Teal , 50 Mallard a flock of 148 Brent geese ( all pale bellied) , 600 Shelduck  and a couple of great Crested Grebes........................beautiful winter birding so much colour..

Tree Sparrows

The Tree Sparrows seem very settled at the moment with lots of calling and feeding along the tall hedge next to the public footpath. Easily viewed from the track next to Hedge top Cricket pitch. There were 5 tree sparrows today and 5 Reed Bunting. Jay ,Bullfinch and greenfinch also today....

Jack Snipe

The bird of the day was a Jack Snipe flushed from the pools at the back of fly flats, Dipper , Tufted Duck , Great Spot ,Red grouse , Goldeneye and Goosander also today , 50 Pinkfeet very low over the house at dusk

New Year...........

No birding on the first but managed 42 species today, which aint bad,, Great Northern Diver , Tree Sparrows, Nuthatch ,Mute Swan ,Golden Plover , Lapwing and 5 thrushes..............