What a fall

Should I go and see the marsh harrier at walshaw dean or go and find something else I thought when Id finished work today.Well I opted for the harrier,as I approached the plantation at walshaw I picked up the Harrier distantly above the moor,Ill get a better look when I reach the top res i said to myself.
 A falsh of a red tail in the first bit of wood started things off. 2 Redstarts a male and a female type,calling Go;ldcrests and cole tits could be herd.As I got to the end of the plantation another 2 female type Redstarts were seen ,then Spotted flys every where at least 6 were seen flitting about the trees catching prey.Next a female type Whitethroat came to my pishing calls and then 3 Whinchats were seen on the fence below,all the time swallows were overhead with Pied wags and Mipit calls filling the sky .A Tree Pipit was herd calling above and the redstarts were now catching flies in full view,flashing there red tails and landing on the ground momentarily.2 Chiff Chaffs could not be turned into anything else.I looked at my watch id been there 1 and a half hours no time for the top res today.Other birds seen were 6 Kestrel, 21 linnets,4 goldfinch , 1 raven and a few grouse.

Blackshaw Head

A real morning to be out after the initial downpour,the first birds were a large group of 56 Swallows heading n/e soon followed by smaller groups of 5/6 this continued till about 1.30 some so close I could almost touch um ( total 350+).5 wheatear ,3 Raven , 6 Kestrels and a beautiful young male Sparrowhawk,couple of Skylarks.Loads of mipits on the move with at least 200 over and 1 tree pipit was the bird of the morning.

Booth to Midgley

Hundreds of swallows on the move this morning s/w and continued most of the day,at least 700+ , small groups of House martins also with a 2 + 10 + 55 +2  + 4 = 73 s/w , 2 swift s/w, 24 Mistle thrush,1 buzzard and a few Linnets,goldfinch and greenfinch.1 willow warbler and 1 snipe were the best from a long slog.

ADULT MALE Common Scoter found dead at Batings

Mallorca by JCC

Mallorca JCC

3 from mallorca

All Taken by Damian Cockroft aged 9....

Good to be back (BLACK REDSTART)

What a week after finding 5  icelandic Black tailed Godwits at Ringstone on the 25th July then 2 weeks in mallorca,I came back and found spotted fly feeding a juv at Gorpley,a yellow wag and 6 Wheatear at flints and then a classic adult male Black Redstart at Batings.Good numbers of Swallows and Mipits on the move this week and the local Goldfich flock is up to about 70.Also a first for Calderdale in the form of a Large Twin spot carpet on the garage window in July.Lets hope thats not it for the year.

Mallorcan Vis S Albufera marsh

Thee is an osprey in this pic somewhere............................


After a large storm on the 9th i decided to see if anything was on the move first thing the next morning.As i aproached the ' English bridge ' I could hear Cettis and Sardinian warblers from the vegatation on the side of the canal.First birds were 27 swallows south closely followed by  an 8 and a 17 tucked into the last group were 2 red rumped swallows and 3 sand martin soon followed . 100 + Little egrets flew from there roost just up the canal , 7 Squacco and 4 Night herons went the opposite way.Wader calls got my attention 5 greenshank and a Common sand went up the canal soon followed by 3 geenshank and a spotted redshank.
 3 Audouins Gulls went over and more little egrets  flew from there roost.Swifts piled through too many to count  nothing of interset at first but soon I picked out 3 Pallids and a superp Alpine close to the tree tops surrounding the canal. Nightingale and Fan - tailed warblers occasionally gave bursts of song.
  The sky was full of swifts and Swallows and a marsh harrier drifted low over the canal then out of nowhere an adult Elanoras falcon went shooting through the hirundines not to be seen again that morning.
A Little Bittern sneaked out of cover for a brief view and a couple of Purple Herons  broke from cover to give excellent views .A  flock of 42 Black Headed Gulls headed over and a couple of yellow legged Gulls then followed.
  Spotted flys seen to be all over the place and a couple of Hoopoes made for a great morning.a quick look at the nearby salinas produced 2 curlew,4 wood,3 green and 7 Common sandpipers , 24 Black winged stilts,1 avocet , 6 little stins ,2 dunlin ,1 ruff , 6 Kentish,1 Little Ringed and 11 Ringed plovers,4 Purple swamphen,2 Yellow wag ( blue headed) ,1 tawny pipit and a family party of Woodcat shrikes.
  Stone Curlew,Osprey,Quail and Moustashed warbler were seen later on in the morning...Good Stuff........................................Also seen ,marbled duck, balaric warbler, black Vulture,Med Gull, Temmincks stint,Cragg martin , Blue rock thrush and loads of elenoras falcons.
 

Mallorca

2 weeks on the island of mallorca was brilliant,,info to follow......

Blackmoorfoot reservoir and surrounds.

1 female common Scoter was a nice suprise along with 1 GCGrebe,50+ Swifts,20 House martin ,11 swallows,175 Lapwing , 2 oycks,2 Curlew, 25 LBBGulls a,70 BHGulls and 3 Golden plover.Nearby were 1 male whinchat, 7 Linnet ,plenty of Reed Bunts,Grey partridge,  Mips and 2 Twite.

Yorkshire Specialities

The best place in Yorkshire to see these two species is Hardcastle Craggs,Top pic Beautiful Snout and bottom pic Devon Carpet.They have both been recorded this year despite the weather.Cheers to Bri Leesey for pics.

Hobby - tastic

Watched an adult Hobby today in  wessenden valley,ive  seen a few locally but this was a jem ,classic adult (prob female due to large size?) Red trousers,heavy streaks on breast and bright white face and jet black moustacial stripes,blue grey back and long wings.I watched it down to 30 feet as it chased across the moor towards me.Headed off towards to Deer hill,the odd Reed Bunt,Lapwing and Mipits starting to gather .10 LBBgulls ,1 cormorant and a flock of 37 BHgulls .

Cupwith Res area/Marsden Moor early July

These are max numbers seen over the last week / 10 days and vis also


Twite   5
Ringed plover 4 n/w
Grey Wag 1 blogging
Reed Bunting 11 max seen on one day mostly juvs
SEOwl     10 sightings of 2 birds
Tufted Duck 2
Mallard 135
Curlew 6 n/w
Swift   137 n/w
Linnet 10
Common sand 1
Snipe 1
Lapwing   34 west
Peregrine 1 juv female hunting swifts
1 Hobby very brief view of a bird hunting low over the moor.
LBBGull 7 west

Monday

The first sighting today of a young female sparrowhawk from the local pair was good news and also a garden warbler in full song from a garden on our street was also welcome news.Swifts north , LBBGulls westand a few House Martins south are the first signs of decent vis to come....

Orchids

Common Spotted, Northern Marsh and Bee Orchids.Found in Calderdale this last week , many thanks to Bruce and Damian for help with the Bee orchids..

Crow Hill

A flock of 85+ Lapwing and 60 + starling at Crow Hill today also around 2 Teal , 5 Pied wags,4 Skylark,6 + Curlew high west and a few locals  a few Snipe still drumming away and plenty Swifts and swallows about.

Raptors

The Buzzard by Tubbs arrived today another good read and a book ive been looking for.Thanks Martyn H.

South Pennines

Green hairstreaks wessenden valley

Its been a poor year so far for Moths and Butterflys but it was encouraging to see lots of small colony's of Green hairstreaks around Wessenden Valley

Female Emperor Moth ,Cupwith res May

Round and about

Nice to see SEowl this week at a nest site with one large young,also scoped a SEOwl eating a Vole..down in two gulps and tail still hanging from bill.Nesting BHGull was a suprise find on the moor tops and Golden Plover,Curlew and lapwing seem to have survived this terrible spring.A Tree pipit was a good find near bridestones and loads of Redpoll,Chaffinch ,Linnet and Greenfinch around...Im sure Twite have been reduced in numbers by there stronger cousins as well as habitat reduction. 7 GCgrebes ,3 Oycs ,Herons and Grey wags at batings .also here Yellow Shell,Chimney sweeper and migrant Silver Y..

Hobby and Cuckoo

A good day started well with Cuckoo calling near mixenden res,Blackcap,Willow warbler and Chiff singing from plantation.an adult Hobby was seen briefley hunting along the west side of the valley heading off towards Ogden.Plenty of Curlew,lapwing,Linnets,Skylarks,1 Oyk and a few reed Bunts made for a good walk in the sunshine (whats that ...!!!!)

Hell Fog

Today I walked from Holme village to Holme Moss,it was steep and unforgiving,I carried my scope,bins large flask of coffee and packed lunch.it was good to see Red Grouse in there natural habitat of billberry slopes just off the moors edge ( a beautiful species when in its own).Short eared owl,Curlew,Golden plover and lapwing were all observed in good light.I reached the top and set up my scope ,I could hear Golden Plover overhead but could not locate them.I could easily see Ovenden moor wind farm in the distance and a small whisp of cloud on the nearby hill.Within 20 minutes of reaching the cloudless top,it was covered in thick fog from nowhere,it covered the whole area.the bottom of my tripod was covered,i dont recall ever seeing such thick fog in JUNE visibility was down to 10 feet.I had to stumble down the track to the car and away , the fog stll thick at Blackmoor foot but had lifted by the time I got home..................????

Last of the summer wine Country

A party of 20 Crossbills was a great site and sound as were 3 differnt Cuckoos.A male whinchat was my first of the year,plenty of singing Redpolls and a few Charms of goldfinch(9+7).Plenty of drumming Snipe and alarming Curlews in and around the moors edge.I was suprised to see so many lapwing chicks with at least 40 seen of varying sizes from 4/5 different large fields continually wary of the ever present carrion Crows.A flock of 10 Curlew foraging in a field must have been failed breeders.Wheatear are thin on the ground now with one late female the only one seen.

North Yorkshire

Golden Plover clutch Its nice when you can away and a few days in North Yorkshire produced 20+ Tree Pipit 7 Cuckoo 1 Male redstart 2 Willow tit 3 spotted fly 1 male goshawk 1 pair Merlin 17 Whitethroat 1 lesser whitethroat 9 Garden warbler 6 Blackcap Lapwibg,Curlew,Golden Plove,Siskin,lesser redpoll and Crossbills were common.

Swift mega move and a few breeders

Got my first young starlings ,magpies, and green Woodpeckers this morning along with Great spots feeing young at the nest site,2 Chiffs ,3 Blackcaps and 4 willow warblers in good song . Vis 4.00 - 5 ,30 Swift 491 nn/e LBBGull 2 nn/e House martin 9 north Swallow 5 north

Sat Vis mig

1 Curlew west 3 Lapwing south 2 Sand Martin north 2 House Martin north 35 Swift north 22 Swallow north 1 Buzzard south 2 alba wags north 1 Grey wag north 1 Song Thrush north 25 LBBGulls various directions female Sparrowhawk and Kestrel out hunting , linnets in the garden eating dandilions and the House Sparrows copulation for second brood

Wheatear and Grasshopper warbler Bonanza

well what a year for wheatears,today I counted 17 in one field and all of them look like 'greenlands' to me .So far this spring I have had over 60 individulas which is better than the last 5 years put together and also 6 Grasshopper warblersso far.The other species doing well are short eared owl with 13 sightins to press.Also today a lesser whitethroat at the crem with 2 Buzzards low overhead.Ravens with 3 young and Lesser repolls displaying at an upland site.Also had 2 pairs of stonechats this week which have become pretty scarce.

Sunday

Not a bad morning to be out ,but the first hour produced nothing of note,Thena pair of lapwing calling overhead was a nice suprise,2 Willow warblers,1 Blackcap ,2 Chiffchaffs and the best birds of the day 2 singing Whitethroat. Evening visit to an upland site produced 1 Ringed Plover,1 Common Sandpiper,2 SE Owl and a Raven.

Wheatear at last

A cracking male wheatear today on local walk 1st this year here and Willow warblers singing as well. Hudderfield area last few days 6 + SE Owls 4 male Ring Ouzel 1 osprey 1 female redstart 1 Cuckoo Lapwings with young calderdale area today at least 7 sightings of SEOwl indicating at least 3 pairs,Male Merlin food pass,20 + Wheatear,lots of displaying Snipe Golden Plover and Curlew in good numbers