Ned Hill Mud Bath

 Had a walk on Ned Hill track today its very muddy on there so take your wellies. As I got to the heather patch 7 Bullfinch were sat in the middle of it 3 Males and 4 females ,,,!! I flushed a Woodcock up on the top and a flock of 45 Lapwings and 2 Skylarks flew south which made for a excellent afternoon walk..The Bullfinch flock was 8 today the 17th with a Song Thrush as well....

Water Pipit and Calderdale today..

                                                           pic DB.....
 Glad to catch up with this little beauty today,,very smart and showed well in the drain from the boat house all the way to the road ..3 Red Grouse , 2 Carrion Crow , ..60 Pinks over the House at lunch and then Barn Owl and Hen Harrier showed well on the moors..Also seems to have been a very good year for Calderdales Mute Swans with 8 + 4 + 2 seen in the last few days...

Sharp and Round HAW...Skipton

 Another beautiful day on the hills , watched a Stoat being mobbed by about 15 Meadow Pipits which was  a first , 2 Stonechat , 1 Red Grouse and lots of Carrion Crows....

Gorple Area early Dec

 Seems to be a good flock of Reed Buntings about with at least 25 + this morning , this attracted a Male Sparrowhawk but it missed ...    !! A Peregrine was causing havoc with the Grouse with two flocks of 20 /30 birds been scattered in all directions .A small group of 18 Pinks headed s/w. Grey Wagtail , Wren ,3 Meadow Pipits ,Raven Mallard , Teal , Little Owl ,Barn Owl , Kestrel , Buzzard and a distant Harrier.......

9 Standards Rigg

 Early morning saw the whole hill side alive with Red Grouse , calling and carrying on..2 Kestrel , 2 Red Kite 2 Buzzards , 1 Woodcock and 1 Grey Heron flew high south.....

Dawn at Lower Gorple

A juv Merlin was watched this morning chasing Woodpidgeons !!!! , 7 Teal , 1 Raven , a very loud skiene of Pink Footed geese followed by 7 BH Gull and a small flock of 6 Reed Buntings,,,,The dawn chorus was of 30 + calling Red Grouse and a distant calling Raven an unexpected noise to start the day..

Elland Gravel Pits......(no more)

There were at least 200 people walking round today with at least 50 dogs,,,,,,Long Tailed Tits , Buzzard, Cormorant and Grey Wag was all I could muster....Its amazing that this site has not produced a Cettis Warbler , Bearded Tit ,another Bittern or something of note..it the last few years...

Ringstone

A windy day up at Ringstone , 2 LBB Gulls , 200 +BH Gulls and 50 + Common Gulls on the water but nothing else of note.70 Canada Geese , 4 Redwing , 3 Fieldfare and a Blackbird.Pretty quiet for Ringstone then out of nowhwere 3 Peregrines were playing around just abouve the water stooping at the gulls and generally having a good time, great too this magnificent raptor....

Dovestones

Whooper Swan on the res and a few Ravens cronking away...A fantastic flock of Starlings over the house first thing at least 500 +...

Ilkley Moor

Tweleve Apostles , Bager Stone and various Cups and rings.....Raven , Red Kite , meadow Pipit and lots of Red Grouse

Busy day

 Pre dawn...view from the Cricket Pitch..

Woddpigeon x 5901 s/w

Whooper Swans x 40 s/w

Pink -footed Geese 200 east 130 west 

Raven x 2 present

Starlings x  408 ...west all day in small parties

Redwing  x 426 north

Fieldfare x 378 north 

Meadow Pipit x 6 blogging

Goldfinch 10 x s/w

Chaffinch 35 x s/w

Stock Dove x 1 s/w

Jay x 3 s/w

Whoopers x 92 .....Pinks  400

Lower Gorple 4th November

Woodcock x 1

Whooper Swan x 2

Barn Owl x 1

Hen Harrier x 2 

Reed Buntings x 10

Greenfinch x 6

North Cave Wetlands

                                             Cheers Fozzy for the photo...
 Green Winged Teal x 1 , Teal 150 + , Shoveler x 20 + , Widgeon , 50 + , Pochard 10 + , Ruff x 2 ...great little reserve ....

Devils Arrows

 

Lesser Yellowlegs

 Finally made it to Nosterfield today ..

Lesser Yellowlegs x 1

Little Stint x 1 

Ruff x 1 

Pochard , Shoveler , Widgeon , Little Egret , Gadwall , Lapwing etc//

Whoopers 50 Pinks 80

 Walked out of the house this morning and 80 Pinks calling right over the house..Glad DJS picked them up........

Whooper x 50 Pinks x 0

 A single Whooper Swan on Lower Gorple at first light soon headed of s/w . This makes 50 Whooper Swans so far at Lower Gorple this October 33 + 16 +1  and not 1 Pink footed Goose as yet...A lone Raven and 1 BH Gull, 1 Pied and 1 Grey Wag......

West Yorkshire Birding...

                                                       Little Bustard Methley 7th August 2019

                                                               Roller Crimsworth Dean 2nd June 2019

                                      Bairds sandpiper , Whiteholme Reservoir 15th September 2017

                                    Franklins Gull, near Redcar Tarn Keighley 14th September2020

                                              Hoopoe Collingham 2nd October  2020

Brown Shrike in West Yorkshire

 Beauty.......

Not my photos , but thanks  to Yorkshire Birders face book page

Lower Gorple first light Sat morning

Whooper Swans x 36 s/w

Crossbills x 11  s/w

Barn Owls x 2 present

Chaffinch x 20 s/w

Lapwing x 4 s/w

Raven x 4 displaying

Reed Bunting x 10 blogging 

Greylags , Mallards , Canadas

Rock Pipits , Lower Gorple 14th October

 On arriving at Lower Gorple a Pipit flew onto the wall , got the bins on it a Meadow Pipit ,another pipit behind it was large and grey we both called Water pipit ,then behind it another large dark pipit..there are two..!!!! After  following them along the dam wall in torrential rain we had seen 1) white outer tail feather , 2 ) two strong white wing bars in flight ..not 100% at this point but we were both leaning towards Water and we had both taken a lot of photos and the weather was awful. We put them out as Water Pipits .When I got home and looked at the photos I was still not 100% sure and TBH they looked like Rock Pipits . Anyway after a few emails and phone calls with Dave , Dave and Dave we came to the conclusion that they were indeed  Rock Pipits....Alls well that ends well ....Many thanks to the 3 Daves.....and the first time two have turned up together in Calderdale...

Red Grouse