First Chiffchaff

Had my first Northowram Chiffchaff of the year today singing in bright sunshine from the top of a Willow tree.12 Common Gulls making a right racket in the fields . 3 Canada Geese and 4 Mallards have turned up in the flooded fields and at least 4 singing male Greenfinch have been displaying for the last few days. 2 Grey wags and 2 Pied Wags on the cricket pitch yesterday were not there today.Buzzards have been very vocal all week.

Ogden

2  different singing grey wagtails , Kingfisher , Dipper , 2 Tufted Duck , 11 Goosander ,Red Grouse , Curlew and lapwing....Plenty herring Gulls heading west...

Winter turns to Spring

A quick visit to the Duddon Estuary area in Cumbria  produced my first Wheatear ,  2 singing Chiffchaff  , 2 Green Sandpiper , 135 Pale bellied Brent Geese , 34 Twite , 14 Whooper Swans , 400 Pink footed geese , 1 Tundra Bean Goose , 2 Stonechat  , Buzzards , Raven and Peregrine.
  57 Balck tailed Godwit , 10 Shovler and 4 Gadwall at Hellifield Flash ,

Quiet

This morning looked good for a Chiffchaff at least but after slogging round all the local fields and bits of wood in Northowram I had little to show for it. 2 Skylarks , 1 Herring Gull , 1 LBB Gull , 8 Common Gulls , 1 Great Spotted Woodpecker , 2 Buzzards , 1 Kestrel , 3 Song thrush , 1 green Woodpecker , 5 Linnets , and a few Goldfinch/////

Get your Gulls on..!!!!

If you like Gulls then Rufforth tip near York is a treat. It can be very frustrating with 1000's of gulls all over the place ,  but they only settle down every now and then because the area is next to an airfield , a very busy road and gun shots going off all the time.
  But when they do settle down to loaf and preen a hole host of ages and species can be observed closely.In six hours Me and Nick D have found
Glaucous Gull x 3 first winters
Iceland Gull x 1 3rd winter /adult and a first winter
Caspian Gull 4 x 3rd Winter

 Yellow Legged Gull 1 x 3rd winter

Get your Gulls on.!!!!!!!!!!!!!

First migrants

3 Sand Martins north on Tuesday 7th was early , also north 2 Curlew , 2 Skylarks and 5 herring Gulls.
The local Buzzards were active yesterday with a new male Buzzards turning up which caused a lot of chaos for a while , and then at 8.32 the local male and female were seen copulating ,great news
 Also around the village today lost of singing going on 3 Song Thrush , 2 Mistle Thrush , 10 Blackbirds , Goldcrest , Greenfinch , House Sparrow , Dunnock  and the garden Robin sang most of the day.............

Eastern Black Redstart and Gulls galore

What a beauty the Eastern Black Redstart is , Rock Pipit , Fulmar ,Stonechat  and Meadow Pipits.Then off to Rufforth to see some Gulls , 2 Ist Winer and 1 Juv 1st winter Glaucose Gull , 1 3rd Winter Caspian Gull and plenty Herrings , BH , Commons , LBBGulls and GBBGulls

Nest Boxes

Put some nest boxes (thanks dave ) up this week , to try and get some breeding Tree Sparrows over the next couple of years,A  Raven headed N/w , a Grey Wag and 2 Skylarks north..