Gulls and Mute Swans

Plenty of gulls about today wit 5 Argenteus and 1 Argentatus in the field with 2 LBBGulls ,200 + BH and Commons,2 Kestrels,1 Great spot over and 2 Mute Swan still on Shibdenmpark boating lake,,,

Foot it

my plan this year is to see 61 species in January within two miles of my back doorstep. This means Shibden park lake and sunny bunsers are my only bits of water,its gonna be tough.....

Foot it...... warm up

Had a tromp round this morning... 1.Carrion crow 2.Jackdaw 3.Blackbird 4.Common Gull 5 Black headed gull 6 herring Gull 7.Stock dove 8.Magpie 9.Rook 10.Starling 11.Reed Bunting x 3 12.House Sparrow 13.Redwing 14.Fieldfare 15.Mistle Thrush 16.Greenfinch 17.Robin 18.Collared Dove 19.Great Tit 20.Feral Pigeon 21.Woodpigeon 22.Blue Tit 23.Dunnock. day2 24.Song thrush 25.Sparrowhawk 26.Kestrel 27.Chaffinch 28.Wren

Ivory Dip

Missed the Ivory Gull at P/haven but the Humber Estuary was at its best all the same, Little egret 2 , Male Hen harrier 1 , Merlin 2/3 , Marsh harrier 1 , teal 20 , Widgeon 1 , Short eared Owl 1 , Peregrine 2 , Buzzard,Kestrel,Sprwk Knot 3000 , Dunlin 500 , Golden Plover 700 , Grey Plover 30 , Bar tailed Godwit 100 + (one in summer plumage) Oyck's ,Redshank,Curlew,Lapwing 100's Brent Geese 6

Troublesome Gulls

Hard going to find birds today, a few Jackdaws and Carrion Crows on the cricket pitch,A song thrush flushed from long grass had me going for a split second and a Pied Wag was the highlight from the mill car park.4 Goldfinch,9 Stock and 1 Collard Dove from Chelsea Valley .Then a load of Gulls in the bottom field,40 Common and 30 or so Black heads nothing else ,then 2 adult Herring Gulls popped into view,small and clean cut made me think Argenteus, then one more a lot bigger and paler grey made me think of YL /Aregentatus type , then a fourth in second winter plumage with very long neck with grey streaks down the sides, and black beady eye. Interesting,,, but without a better view I was never going to put it to species. I crawled along the wall as not to flush um for about 150 yards, popped up all the gulls still present, except the two interesting ones could not find um anywhere........One Mistle thrush was no consolation on the way back...

Presents from Queensbury

37 Lapwing in the field today must have dropped in from Queensbury and then 3 Reed Bunting(which is a real rarity here)which must be the ones Bri found at Shelf moor..Loads of gulls ,Starlings and Jackdaws about but nothing of note....

Winter Moths .......

 

A fantastic week for Winter |Moths with at least 10000 in the local wood on sat,sun and Monday night,on Tuesday the numbers had dropped to about 5000 .....The flightless females which have been very difficult to find in recent years were also abundant. The bottom pics is a female Mottled Umber the others all Winter Moths.