Fieldfare

I herd my first fieldfare this morning heading south followed closely by 2 +1 +1 Jays a Great spotted woodpecker,12 Meadow pipits,42 Golfinch and then a male Sparrowhawk.

The one that got away......

In the early morning gloom a raptor appeared over the local wood,my initial thought was a buzzard the visibility was terrible with misted binns,but it was clearly an accipiter with very broad wings it stooped and dissapeared never to be seen again.It had to be a Goshawk but with not enough to clinch it ,it will have to be 'THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY'drattttttt.The local Goldfinch flock now stands at 38,a Cormorant flew low s/w,40 Meadow pipits s/w and a Song thrush in the back garden made for a very interesting morning.

FOGGED OFF

Thick fog and drizzle put paid to any early vis,only managed a Chaffinch,1Swallow.LBBGul and 2 Meadow pipits in the gloom.Then had to take the kids to footie in todmorden which still had House Martins feeding young on the sports hall.On the way back had to dodge Godley cutting cos of ongoing roadworks and had to go over Shibden 1 Raven was a real bonus flying towards shibden Head.

Tuesday morning

5 swallows and 14 Pied wagtails s/w at 9.05.

First Pink Feet and Sallow Kitten Update

Had my first skien of Pinkfeet over this evening with 56 west at about 6.30.Very quiet on the vis front this week with 38 Mipits on Friday , Grey Wag over on Thursday21 Goldfinch,Common Gull a small influx of Goldcrests and Blackbirds over the weekend. A femal Sparrowhawk flushed 34 magpies and 26 Collared Doves from next door which was a bit of a suprise .Looks better this week with the wind going s/w.
Out of the 30 Sallow Kitten cats that hatched I have 12 left this one photo'd is the largest and looking well.Gonna let um go down at Ellend soon.

When is a canal tow Path not a canal Tow path.????

When its a ROAD....???? I went for a run today along my favorite bit of canal ,long tailed Tits,floating around,Tree creeper,Kingfisher,Grey Heron Jays etc beautiful autumn sunshine and then turned the corner into roadworks.???Why are they building a road on the Canal towpath,has the world gone MAD, how have they got permission to build a road next to a LNR,I can only concluded peoples shoes are so expensive that the council have decided to get rid of all footpaths and build roads,the off road bikers will be over the moon about this ,a tarmack race course around the local nature reserve.Dear O Dear O dear.This is the end as we know it......................ahhhhhhhh....dont forget to tarmac those horrible old cobbled bits they are so uneven... our new pram form Next/harvy Nicks might buckle its wheels....tarmac our heritage....w*****s.

Jays

5 Jays drifted south this morning the largest group Ive seen for some time 2 swallows the only birds of note.A cracking week on the Moth frount with Frosted orange,Black rustic,Rosy Rustic,Lunar Underwing,Angle Shades and a Silver Y feeding on Lavendar in the front garden

Honey Buzzard......!!!!!

A very quiet start to the morning with clear skies and only a distant flock of 5 large finches(poss Crossbills).At about 8.30 cloud moved over from the n/w,immediatly things picked up 10 LBBGull moved west 15 Swallows s/w,3 House Martin west,Meadow Pipits s/w, 1 Mistle thrush high south , 4 chaffinch and then a large raptor moveing south over coley garden Centre as soon as I got it in the scope i knew it was a Honey its head sticking out and looking like a cukcoo.gliding on flat wings with a couple of powerfull beats and then back to a glide.as it got above EGPits it turned giving excellent views of buldging secondries and long narrow tail with central kink..It then fanned its tail an turned as it was now being mobbed by swallows.Then glided and dissapeared low towards the gravel pits not to be seen again...Very very nice.

Weekly round - up

A round up of casual observations this week started on Monday with a good movement of Swallows and Meadow Pipits and a single Common Gull,Tuesday was the same but a House Martin stood out as the bird of the day.On Wenesday Chaffinchs seem to be every where moving south /west and a influx into the garden ,with alba wags and 1 Geat Spotted Woodpecker.Thursday was Chaffinchs again and a single Tree Pipit heading south at 8.25 and another Great spot s/w . The bird of the week(so far) was a Spotted Flycatcher herd calling from next doors rowan,It gave reasonable views before dissapearing down the valley

Back garden Vis

An excellent morning with a real mipit push s/w.
Meadow pipit 248 S/w
Swallow 109 s/w
Cormorant 1 west then east
Canada goose 19 low s/w
Sparrowhawk 3 hunting(2 f & 1 m)
Stock dove 8 s/w
alba wag 3 s/w(1 poss white on call)+ 10 blogers
Mistle Thrush 4 s/w
Blackbird high 1 s/w
GBB Gull 3 west
Great Spotted Woodpecker 1 local
Steady trickle of Woodpigeons west 40+
Goldfinch 20+ local
Chaffinch 3 high s/w
BHGull 61 s/w