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.