Seawatch again....

Thick fog till 13.20 then a clear day with sunny spells

Manx Shearwater .......1092
Shearwater sp                     1
Puffin                                 2
Artic Skua ) pale phase)    1
Storm Petrel                        2
Sandwich Tern                10
Basking Shark                    1
Dolphin sp                        3
Gannet  , Fulmar , Kittiwake .....

Long tailed Skua

Another seawatch today -
 Long tailed Skua - 1 ad summer plumage
Artic Skua - 1 Dark phase
Storm Petrel - 3
Manx Shearwater - 785
Fulmar - 10
Sandwich Tern  - 2
Gannet - 42
Kittiwake - 9

The Lizard

                              730... great ID  tip for SPBF once you see it you will always remember it..........

Very busy with people but the wild flowers were spectacular as were the Small pearl bordered fritillary's......................A few Red kites and  Chough feeding in the surrounding fields..
Marazion...1 ad summer plumaged Baird's Sandpiper in with 30 Sanderling and 10 Dunlin

Seawatch 2

 I wanted to try and get some good views of European Storm Petrel and this was looking like a good opportunity so I headed for a small headland just to the south of Coverack. I could see about 5 skimming over the water and dipping there feet in the surf . They were as close as they could be about 100 meters away , I could see them fanning there tails and showing off there white rumps. A very active species and you can easily loose them behind a wave and then they will pop up 20 feet away in a different direction. The most I had together was 6 but there must have been at least 30 + in the couple of hours I spent there all headind North east along the coast . 100's of Manx Shearwaters ,Gannets , Gullimots , Kittiwakes and 12  Sandwich Terns made for a great morning.

Coverack

                                                              Common Blue

                                                                       Drinker

A list of butterfly's so far include Common Blue , Large , Small , Green -veined Whites , Orange Tip , Red Admiral , Small Tortoiseshell , Small Copper , Small Heath , Small Pearl -bordered Fritillary  and day flying moths have been Galium Carpet , Green Carpet , Garden Tiger , Clouded Buff , Silver -Y  and Garden Carpet .

Cornwall Seawatch

Long time since I did any sea watching............

Manx Shearwater      2000 + south
Iceland Gull 2cy             1  south
Bonxie                            2   south
Great northern Diver     1 present
Red throated diver         1 south
Kittiwake                   200 south
Sanderling                   35 south
Dunlin                        3 south
Gannet                    300 + south
Fulmar                        6 north
Sandwich tern            4 south
Ringed plover            2 south
European Storm Petrel  27 north (at least)
Dolphin sp                    5 north

Stonechat , Cuckoo , Whitethroat and Willow Warbler in the scrub...

Cornwall

A Red Kite was a good start when we stopped for a well earned break. 2 Great Northern Diver , 10

                                                             Common Blue

                                                                        Orange Tip

                                                         Small pearl bordered Fritillary

Speckled Wood

Guillemot, 25 Swallow, 5 Swift , 200 Manx Shearwater, 157 Gannet, 9 Great Black-backed Gull, 4  Fulmar, 7 Kittiwake, 11 Herring Gull, 2 Lesser Black-backed Gull , Whitethroat , Willow Warbler , Stonechat , and 2 Shag.

Peregrine Falcon

This site near Huddersfield was the first peregrine Falcon Nest site I ever went to some time around 1985 , its was great to hear them alarming today as I got near the nest site. Still at the same site and the first in West Yorks some 30 odd years ago. It was also good to note a healthy population of Curlew , Golden Plover ,Dunlin and Red Grouse on the surrounding moors.....The Red Grouse was a Peregrine victim but they only take what they need...

The Seraphim 

Only ever recorded one of these in Northowram before , last night there were 3 in the light trap..

Golden Plover

Juv Blackbird in the garden

More moors.............

                                                     Short eared Owl

                                                           Green Hairstreak

                                                              Red Grouse

Mountain Hare

                                                                       Dunlin

Curlew 18th May...

Widdop

A few recent bits and bobbs , 1 Red Kite and a few Common Buzzards above the rocks at Widdop stones, Swifts and Swallows have been piling through the last couple of days and my first Linnets of the year on the 10th May..Whitethroat and Blackcap have been  herd singing around the village. White Pinion Spotted and Oak Nycteoline have been in the moth trap.

Recent bits

Had a Barnacle Goose and a Greylag Goose with a red neck collar the other day ( the red neck collar I think comes from Windermere ). Plenty Common Sandpipers on the upland reservoirs and the odd LRP. Plenty of gulls on the move with BHGull , Herring , LBBGull and the odd GBBGull heading west. Swallows also trickling through in small numbers and small groups of Chaffinch also heading west. The SEO population seems to be having a very good year with many birds been seen all over the uplands. 2 Common Terns At Cromwell Bottom with 6 Mute Swans here....Cuckoo and a Spotted Flycatcher on the 29th April and my first Greylag goslings of the year............

Marsh Harrier and SEO..(honest)

Been a good year for raptors and Owls  so far with , Marsh Harrier , Hen Harrier , Osprey , Merlin , Peregrine , Kestrel , Sparrowhawk  lots of Buzzards..Barn , LEO , Little , Tawny and lots of SEO.

Osprey No 2

Also in the area Merlin , Peregrine , SEO ,Raven , Buzzard , Wheatear , Swallows and Sand Martin.

SUN

Its was hot today ...red hot........popped to Jay house lane , Blackcap ,Chiffchaff ,Willow Warbler , Skylarks , Curlew and Swallows.10 Guinea fowl....

Sun at last........

Headed for the high moors this morning , Chiffchaff singing , 5 Common Sandpipers , 1 LRP , 1 Sand Martin north , 4 Swallows north , Male and female Sparrowhawk display , 9 Buzzards (1 with pale rump below) , 1 Peregrine , 4 Kestrel ,1 SEO (display clapping) 8 Snipe , 2 Redshank , 1 Golden Plover , Lapwing , Curlew , Oystercatcher(lots of display  and calling) , 3 Jays (a bit odd up there) 1 Raven and 2 Goosander

First Swallow

First Swallow today at Cooper Bridge flying down the river....
2011......1st April
2012.....21st April
2013....10th April
2014....12th April
2015....13th April
2016......4th April
2017.....21st April
2018.....7th April

Oak Beauty

Grey Shoulder Knot

Caught this little beauty last night in the trap at Northowram , its not been recorded before in Calderdale and was a rare moth in Yorkshire till 2004 .It is now recorded as regular in many parts of Yorkshire. First Small Tortoiseshell in the garden on the 5th April..............

Tatty HH

Good to catch up with Little Owl and Common Scoter over the weekend, but no migrants back yet....

High moors

Had a long walk today past the usual spot and up the track to the high moors.Started with a few Buzzards and Ringtail Hen Harrier hunting low down . The numbers of waders in the last week seems to have gone off the scale. I counted at least 15 displaying Snipe , 2 Redshank display and copulation  , 200 + Lapwing , 50 + Curlew , 3 Golden Plover  and  20 Oystercatcher .Lots of small parties of Meadow Pipits on the move with some of  these birds being  heavily spotted and very clean so these may have further to go yet ? but there were a few doing the parachute display flights.Skylarks , 2 Goosander , 2 Grey Partridge , 6 Mistle Thrush  a few Greylags and 100 + Canadas..A Merlin and a couple more sightings of distant  HH and a few snow showers made for another great day.........Not one SEO seen...

Osprey

Osprey low north this morning at 8.08 , only just got on to it in time  as it flew over Northowram and low into Shibden valley .

Robin.........................

Me at Cromwell yesterday with me new mate....

March 22nd more Hens and Shorties

A flock of 11 Oystercatcher on the lower moors today along with plenty of Curlew and Lapwings displaying gave a slight indication of spring but the wind was still freezing .The crazy female Sparrowhawk was at it again flushing lapwings and Fieldfare. 4 Buzzards and 3 kestrels along the ridge.

Shorties were in view from the the moment I reached the dam wall , wing clapping , flight display and at 1 point 4 were in the air together .

  The first fully winged harrier came in at 16.30 flew around , landed on a post and picked at its tallons with its bill for a while and then took flight and  drifted back down the valley right over the res . The male  put on a good show coming in over the hill and then after a short bit of flying around showing the grey central tail feather fanned and the dark trailing edge to the secondries it went straight into roost and did not come out again (this may have been a different bird to the usual male as the dark trailing edge had white tips ?? .The tatty female came in next and was seen flying around for the next hour did a full circuit of the res and was joined by a fully wined ringtail. Loads of Curlew , Canadas , lapwing , Fieldfare and BH Gulls.As we passed dusk the harriers became difficult to id , but at least another 3 birds came into roost . What a fantastic winter it has been for Hen Harriers......

Barn Owl

Had a Barn Owl fly over the road at Bradley Hall farm this evening , it went over the river and started hunting in the fields and along the hedges, great to see....On the Owl front I still have not seen Little Owl this year , but all the others (LEO , SEO , Tawny and Barn very odd).................

Busy day 9 x 9 and a Knot

A busy day started with taking the dog round fly flats , 3 Redshank , lots of  displaying Curlew and Lapwing around the res  a Perry a 2 Raven over . Bumped into DS for a quick chat and had some 6 Goldies , 3 Skylark and a Stonechat over.( 86 )
   Then the phone call of a grey wader at Ringstone (DF) so a quick dash to see what it was , located it and it was a winter  Knot.. Then headed to the high moors with DF and NCD...and what a day it was..

Pic D Sut..thanks

Short eared Owl x 9 (display and wing clapping a fantastic day for this species , looks like the vole population has exploded)
Hen harrier  x 9  (male briefly  + 8 ringtails watched for long periods , with the breeding season just round the corner a lot of the ringtails now all look fully winged except No3 which is still very tatty  .? The sat tagged bird was the only one not seen , so thats 10 in the last 2 visits , quite amazing )
Redshank x 1
Lapwing 60 +
Golden Plover  35 +
Skylark x 2
Curlew x 30 +
Kestrel x 6
Buzzard x 2
Sparrowhawk x 1
Fieldfare  x 200 +
Starling x 300 +
Oystercatcher x 10
Grey Partridge x 2
Raven x 1
Teal x 1

Crazy Sparwhk

Had a couple of hours  on the lower moors today  , Loads of Chaffinch heading n/w at least 70 , 14 Stock Doves , 7 Oystercatcher , 6 Kestrel , 4 Buzzards .  A couple of accipiters over the moor were interesting one drifted right with slow wing beats (poss Gos) but was lost to view before I could get a good look.
The other headed left  and was a crazy bird it went into the middle of a Lapwing field and started chasing them about ,  then up into the sky for a scrap with a Carrion Crow , twisting and turning it was a large female sparrowhawk but very brown with little contrast between its head , back and tail of note ( no white coverts could be seen and looked very square at the edges and short ). It then headed onto the moors and picked up a ring tail Harrier it would not let it go , bombing it repeatedly it went on and on  seemed like 5 minutes before it gave up. It then drifted  down the valley and started at the lapwings again. I turned my attention to the harrier  it was going slowly low over the moor flushing grouse left right and centre , then went for a rabbit but was too slow , watched it for another 10 minutes before it drifted out of view and off to the roost no doubt  , a fully winged ringtail with dark secondries and orange flush breast looked like (6).

Shorties and Hens

Another interesting visit to the high moors , strated with a distant  Ringtail HHarrier flushing Grouse , 2  Kestrel and 30 Fieldfare. A male Goosander flew up the valley. A female Merlin (last seen by me on the 12th Nov 17 )  flushed 75 Lapwing and 2 Teal , it landed on a wall for about 5 minutes . Then we saw 6 different Hen Harriers (( 4 (sat tag) 2 , 7 and 3 fully winged ringtails (3 spots , 2 spots and 0 Spots) ,  with the male (1) and tatty tail(10) that makes 8 birds in the last two visits)) ,  into roost , sparring with 2 Short - Eared Owls , 3 Kestrel and  10 Curlew were also about the reservoir . A great evening with very good views of Harriers and Shorties for long periods , below are a couple of pics taken by Nick. Watched the SEOwl sat on a post switching its head from side to side beautiful.

A break at last.....

With a break in the weather and the chance to get out without being blown over , I made it round the local patch..I have been keeping a close eye on an area of  shallow water with a few bits of juncus since November hoping for jack/snipe and had nothing except a Song Thrush for my effort . So today when I flushed a Woodcock form this area , it was very pleasing....not had one for a  year or so  in Northowram. On the 7th the first Skylark of the year , Green Woodpecker and 3 Buzzards.