More Pinks , Coppers and lady's

26th Sept

42 and 96 west today at around 9 o'cock thanks Mike and Dave............2 Snipe also
100 west sat 29th...

27th

70 West and 35 Meadow Pipit on cricket pitch

Butterflies 27th Sept

Small Copper x 30
Red Admiral x 3
Small White x 3

28th

Small Copper x 30
Red Admiral x 11
Painted lady x 1

25TH SEPT 2018

                                                     Carrion Crow and Sparrowhawk

                                                          Red Admiral

                                                   Comma


Another busy day Sparrowhawk and Carrion Crow having a tussle and the Buzzards were terrorising the local jackdaws . 16 Small Coppers , 1 Large White , 1 Comma and 3 Red Admiral at home and then off to Hebden where there were 10 + Red Admiral , 10 + Comma , 3 Small Tortoiseshell and 1 Speckled Wood.
 On to the hills ,Raven ,  8 + Buzzards , 10 + Kestrels , 1 Sparrowhawk , 1 sat tagged Hen Harrier , 6 Barn Owl , 1 Tawny Owl and at least 5 SEOwls. A Song thrush on the path back down lokk like it was a migrant.??

Monday

Started with good walk round the local fields,,,12 Small Copper , 3 Speckled Wood , 4 Red Admiral and 3 Small Whites. A juv Stonechat was a good find and the local Buzzards and Sparrowhawk were pretty active in the sun.
   Up to Fly flatts in the evening watched 3 Barn Owl , 2 Buzards and a couple of Snipe .

Beautiful day today..

Pink footed geese             32 and 43 west and 3 east
Canada goose                      2 west
House martin                      23 south
Swallow                             4 south

Butterflies

Red Admiral x 10
Small Copper x 7
Small White x 4
Small Tortoiseshell x 1
Silver Y x 3

Marsh Harrier on the hills

Another great morning to be out watched Marsh Harrier for about 55 minutes
Marsh Harrier x 1 juv cream crown
Hen Harrier x 1 ringtail
Kestrel x 5
Buzzard x 1
SEO x 2
LEO x 1
Curlew x 5 s/w
House Martin x 3 s/w
Swallow x 2 s/w
Pink footed Geese x 42
Meadow Pipit x 458 s/w
Mistle Thrush x 2
Snipe x 3 s/w

the ups and Downs

Had a look round today in the storm hoping for a scarce gull or summat ...
Ogden

1 Little Grebe
1 tufted Duck
30 Mallard
4 LBBGull
2 Common Gull
20 BHGull

Cromwell Bottom

2 BH Gull

Jay House lane

50 + BH Gull
300+ Starlings

Ringstone
304 Canada Goose
1 Moorhen
2 Tufted Duck
179 Lapwing
7 Golden Plover
1 House Martin
20 Meadow Pipit
BH Gull 3

I was just about to pack in and go home as the rain was horizontal , when I picked up 2 Terns in the middle of the downpour...They looked all white ?? and quite large ? had to switch to the scope quickly but I had the zoom eyepiece in  and did not pick them up until they were flying low across the big field ...just got them black bills and black heads...2 Sandwich  Terns ,then they were gone off towards Batings lost in the gloom...............

Fly flatts Mipit bonanza

A beautiful morning to be out..........
9.00 - 12.00
Vis mig
Meadow Pipit        550 + s/w
Swallow                     9  s/w
Pied Wagtail               5 s/w
Snipe                          1 s/w
Starling                      3 s/w
Skylark                       1 s/w

Present
Kestrel x 4
Sparrowhawk x 1 female
Peregrine x 1 juv
Buzzard x 1
RL Partridge x 6
Teal x 1
Little Owl x 1


Red Admiral x 4
Small Tortoiseshell x 1
White sp x 1

One of those nights.....

                                                                 Dusk

 Every now and then when you are least expecting a good night , it turns out to be one of the best . With a strong wind ( Storm Helene) gusting 5/6 occasional 7 SW blowing over the dam wall we had to retreat to side of the old Barn with restricted views of the area. A couple of Buzzards and a few Kestrel on the way up was a bonus in the high winds.  Two Raven and a Buzzard were having a scarp over a piece of old rabbit on the far shoreline and a  small raptor chasing Meadow Pipits looked like a Merlin initially  but turned out to be a Sparrowhawk as it landed on one of the fence  posts ,  it carried on over the moor and then low over the reservoir .  As soon as it disappeared a female Merlin appeared over the hill chasing Meadow Pipits it stooped and then up into a hover ?? (is it a Kes) then again a stoop and up into a hover it repeated this another 2 times before heading off over the hill top. A hovering Merlin.!!
 We then picked up the adult male Hen Harrier behind the wood , it was hunting along the far edge , it then rose over the trees low over the reservoir and into the roosting area , it was turning left and right the sun catching it occasionally highlighting the grey and black against the golden / orange moor.
It went for a Meadow Pipit,  its yellow legs hanging below trying to grasp its prey but it missed , it turned and tried again but missed again ,it flew low south twisting and turning in the high wind.  Immediately as it disappeared a large female with sat tag highlighted in the sun was in the roosting area it landed on a fence post and gave some distant views, long enough for Nick to get some distant photos.It flew after a bit of preening and went straight into roost . ...breath...
  A Short - eared Owl and Barn Owl were both seen hunting and 2 Oystercatcher were kicking around the dam wall . The Male  Hen Harrier was seen again behind the wood hunting from right to left then back again. After  a  while the male gained height and was joined by a ringtail , this was soon identified as the larger juv female which has been around for a few weeks now , still fully winged , pale coverts and large white rump make it easy to identify. The male escorted the young female into the roosting area and for the next 20 minutes they danced around the moor close together occasionally landing on the ground together and 2 or 3 times we thought they were going into roost but kept on bouncing out and continuing flying around together.  They eventually  went into roost at 19.20.
 At 19.25 the Merlin returned and started hovering again as we got back to the car it just started to rain !!

Pied Wagtails

1 on the 16th a small very dark individual with very dark grey flanks and dark  grey face.
6 on the 18th including 4 with bright yellow face and 2 adult Pied.
1 on the 19th another dark individual probable juv female .
2 on the 23rd Adult summer male and adult winter male

Raven ,

                                                               Local Buzzard


Looking out of the window I could see the local Buzzards  in combat , got the bins on them and its
 was a Raven and Buzzard having a good old tussle in the sky. A flock of 29 Canada geese flew east and 30 Goldfinch
 Up on the hills the wind was blowing a strong westerly. SEO , Merlin and a juv male Hen Harrier.

TWITE

Well its been a long time and my first this year in Calderdale but , I stumbled across 5 Twite today on the way back from Fly Flatts , just after the Old Withens pub a small bird flew off the road and into the nearby field it looked like a chat and I was thinking its gonna be a Stonechat , but i could not relocate it in the strong gusty winds, but I did flush 5 small birds that landed on the fence 5 Twite ..its been a few years since I have seen them up there......Up at  Fly there were 24 Mallard , 11 Teal, 3 Kestrel , 2 Buzzards and 1 Pintail....

Pintail .......................

A look round Fly this morning had 2 Raven 5 Meadow Pipit ,  2 Wheatear , 5 Kestrel , 2 LBBgull , 9 Teal and a Pintail (found by DJS yesterday). In the evening on the hills 1 female Merlin , 3 SEO , 1 Common Sandpiper , 2 Reed Bunting , 4 Kestrel and a beautiful male Hen Harrier and a juv female Hen Harrier, few Buzzards and Swallows...
.
.

Calm again on the hills

A great still evening with the first birds seen 2 Ravens having a tussle with a Peregrine. Then  the first of many SEO's and a distant Marsh Harrier. 4 Goosander , Oystercatcher with a nearly fully grown juvenile. Then a Barn Owl started hunting on the hillside this bird must have been a juv as it could not catch a thing after many goes. Swallows  were on the move s/w all evening and a flock of 80+ Meadow Pipits were on the wires.A small group of Wagtails landed on the dam wall 2 Grey , 4 Juv Pied and a stonking adult White. 5 SEO and  2 Barn Owls were now hunting around the reservoir and were joined by a Juv LEO. As the light was fading a female Merlin was seen hunting the Meadow Pipit flock.............................

FLY

Distant Ruff and Teal , Kestrel  and Vapourer at fly today....(16 Teal , 3 Wheatear ,4 Kestrel)