A few days on the Lincs coast ,,33 Snow Buntings at Saltfleetby , Short eared Owl , 80 Whoopers Swans , 400 Pinks , 3 Barnacle Geese , Little Egrets , Great Northern Diver , Red Throated Diver , Velvet Scoter , 400 + Common Scoter , 30 Dark bellied Brent Geese , Sanderling , Bar tailed Godwit and plenty Grey Plover.............
Great to get away for a week in the sun , only bad news was my trusty Lumix blew up on the way out there . So phone shots only .The first few days were spent between the concrete hotels with the smell of food and sun tan lotion over powering. In the local park I counted 43 Canary Island Chiffchaff P .canariensis distinctive explosive call and quite different from our local birds. 2 Hoopoe were feeding on the track and a small flock of 7 Atlantic Canary Serinus canaria . flew over calling. 11 Blackbirds race T.cabrerae feeding around the water sprinklers and 2 Kestrels race F.insularum were hunting along the roadside.100 + Plain Swifts overhead and plenty of Gulls to looks through on the beach most seemed to be Asores Gulls larus atlantis with a few Lesser Black Backed and Black headed Gulls . Cory's / Scopolis Shearwaters were seen in good numbers most days , most looked to have the extensive white inner primary' s...but tbh it was great to watch them in such abundance.....I did find 2 Berthelot's Pipits between the hotels and the odd African Blue Tit of the Canarian race teneriffae .
A real bonus was the local population of Monarch Butterfly they were common and seen most days drifting around on a massive 4.5 inc wingspan superb....African Grass Blue , Long tailed Blue , Bath White , Germain Bronse , , Red Admiral , Small Copper , Clouded Yellow , Painted Lady and Canarian species of Speckled Wood and Large White
A car for a couple of days and a look round the Island for a few specialities started in the high mountain woods at Las Lajas looking for Blue Chaffinch which was easily found , a flock of 10 Blue Chaffinch and 6 Atlantic Canary around the water taps. 3 Great Spotted Woodpecker , 2 Bussards , 30 + Ravens , African Blue Tit and a pair of Sardinian Warblers. Then on to Mirador del Ingles for Bolles Pigeon and Canarian Kinglet ,with also many Canaries Chaffinch tintillon .(below)
The last Morning was spent at Palm Mar , the first bird here was Southern Grey Shrike Koenigi and before long another 3 or 4 showed well , Spectacled Warbler , Lesser Short toed Lark , good numbers of Berthelots Pipit , Canary Island Chiffchaff , Grey Wagtail and Sparrowhawk , 2 Barbary Partridge flew across the road and more birds could be heard calling all around.
Been a while since I was up the Hill , so it was very pleasing to to see a Red Kite drifting over a first for me on the hill , taking me up to 83 species this year , not bad as I have not been up since June...!!! 25 rooks , 1 Stonechat ,3 Meadow Pipit , 2 Redwing , 20 + herring Gull and 8 Goldfinch..
Walshaw Dean estate....14 .10 . 21
A sat tagged Hen Harrier , 6 Bueto Beuto , 1 Red Kite , 6 Kestrel , 4 Siskin and 3 Pied Wagtail
23rd Sept ...... 62 west 18.35
80 west 19.15
7th October . 53 east 09.21
9th October 160 east 09.29
10th October 150 east 08.40
100 east 08.51
170 east 08.53
48 east 08.54
11th October 50 east 08 .29
65 east 08.42
125 east 08 .52
150 east 08.54
12th 290 east 12.42
16th 48 west 11.25
1351 from the garden so far this autumn......
Long toed Stint St Aidens....
Northowram 10th October
470 + Pink footed Geese right over the house this morning heading east
1 Swallow and 1 Redwing south
11 Herring Gull west
5 Pied Wagtail south
3 Jay south
2 Great spotted Woodpecker n..orth
Always great to hear the first Pink footed Geese on the 23rd with two skiens heading west a 60 and an 80 also call heard at night , 11 Swallows south on the 26th ,with 2 Sparrowhawk in hot pursuit....3 Bueto Bueto also about most days...Pied wags have been on the move this week with 4 on Monday 5 on Tuesday and 8 on Wednesday...
A couple of trips to Ringstone produced 3 Shoveler , male and juv Blackcap , 3 Chiffchaff , 4 Snipe , 2 GCgrebe , 1 Tufted Duck and a message about a juv Pochard at Dean Head turned out to be a juv female Scaup ...thanks Matthew both Pochard and Scaup are very scarce in Calderdale..
White Tailed Plover x 1
Spotted Redhanks x 4
Green Sandpiper x 7
Ruff x 11
Black tailed Godwit x 20
Greenshanks x 4
Dunlin x 20
Bearded Tit x 3
Sedge Warbler x 6
Water Rail x 1
Marsh Harrier x 1 ad fem
Little Egret x 8
Northowram 16th August
10 x Swift
5 x Sand Martin
Northowram 18th August
Adult Hobby chasing Swallows
Fly Flatts 26th August
A walk round the whole reservoir, wish they would take those stupid Access only signs down..
1 x Snipe
2 x Wheatear
4 x LBBGull
1 x Spotted Redshank flying and calling
2 x Kestrel.
Lower Gorple 28th August
Marsh Harrier juv Cream Crown a real beauty picked up by PD
1 x Merlin
21 x Raven
5 x Barn Owl
1 x female Sparrowhawk a real beauty with rustic colour to back and wings..
2 x Snipe
A cold and quiet visit, 1 Juv Green Woodpecker , 1 Sand Martin , 6 Swallows , 1 SEO (juv) , 2 Lapwing , 8 Mistle Thrush , 7 Kestrel , 4 Buzzard , 2 Oystercatcher , 1 Grey Heron , 1 Dipper , 3 Greylags , 20 Canadas , 24 Mallard , 1 Wheatear , 2 Raven and 7 LBBBGull............
Prsume this Dragonfly the first Ive had in the garden is a Common Hawker...
117/8 species recorded in 4 hours at Hollas bridge on the 23rd July 2021....
Great to get a Common Whitethroat in the back garden this morning cracking adult male ...Swifts , Swallows BH , LBB Gull have all been common moving in various directions. Male and female Sparrowhawk , kestrel , 10 Stock Doves , 2 juv LTTits , Red Kite went high east and a couple of juv Tawny Owls could be herd calling from the local wood last night...
What a fabulous day red hot sunshine , loads of butterfly's , moths and Dragonfly's , mant thanks to all who turned up and thanks to Paul B for the photos......
