Chiff - chaff

My first Chiff Chaff today singing from near Shelf School, another Wheatear over the weekend which make 3 already. Good move of Meadow Pipits started last Friday with many groups seen and herd  , a group of 18 was good for here.Green  and Great spotted Woodpeckers have been herd calling as well as Nuthatch in local wood. Tawny Owls again very vocal.....

First Wheatear

First Wheatear today and a cracking male catching flies and searching for grubs on dry stone wall...its always great to see your first one of the year.................5 + 2 +1+1 +2 meadow pipits and 2 Grey Heron south.......

First Sand Martin

...First Sand martin today heading north west at 7.10

Steady away

22  Mipits on Friday was the first real move of the spring, 2 Pied Wagatils ,1 Skylak and 1 male Reed Bunting the same morning was a bonus. The male Scaup at EGP was another good local bird and the Eider at Todmorden moves me ever closer to the magical 200 in Calderdale, agood spring and autumn should do it.......

Last few Days

Nice to catch up with the Kittiwake this morning and a good patch tick to boot...I have set up a feeding station in the long hedge and after a slow start I have had 5 Reed Buntings, 8 House Sparrows,4 LTTits, Great and Blue Tits, Greenfinch,jay and Song thrush all happily feeding away.

A good dooo........................

Went to Bare Head Tunnel to have a look for some Herald Moths and found 25 (a local record)and 5 Peacock Butterflies hibernating  in the nooks and crannies, A flock of 40+ finches flew over and landed in the tops of some Larch,21 Greenfinch,10 Chaffinch, 10 Goldfinch and 2 Bullfinch. Then went to shelf moor ,last time I went there was 1 Snipe and it was pi**ing it down. Today there were 43 Snipe another great local record. Then off round my local fields 2 Great spots and a reed bunt...a good doooo....................

Pink Footed Goose

A Pink Footed Goose today feeding in the flooded horse field next to the cricket pitch.....

Weekend

5 Reed Bunts,11 Blackbird,3 Song Thrush,2 Mistle Thrush mixed flock 0f 50+ redwing & fieldfare ,Sparrowhawk ,Buzzard, Kestrel,Lots of Jackdaw activity with flocks of up to 50in display mode...................55 Lapwing north up to Shelf Moor,Little and tawny owl,14 Stock Dove,distant flock of Golden Plover and a goosander over made... Foot it.... total 59....

27th Northowram fields

Along the tall hedge today, 8 Blackbird , 11 Chaffinch ,4 Golfinch,2 Dunnock , 3 Blue and 2 Great Tits.20 Rooks and 107 Jackdaws feeing in the fields.1 Herring gull over s/w followed by 64 BH Gulls.Now these Reed Buntings are starting to annoy me, I just car'nt pin um down.there are now 5 and 4 are deffo reeds the other one I just carnt get on to confirm it as a reed..They are very flighty will have to try again tomorrow.........................

25 Jan

3 Redwing and a Mistle Thrush in the first tree in the field was a good start followed by 6 Stock Dove, 15 Goldfinch,2 Dunnock and 5 Reed Bunting (a record count),The horse field held 30 Common and 26 BH Gulls and 3 LBBgulls flew west. Shibden held 11 Moorhen,4 Coot,2 Mute Swan 4 Canada Goose and a Great Spot.

22nd Jan

First time out this week due to fog over the weekend and rain, 4 reed Buntings still in the field first time Ive all four for a while,2 LBBGulls west and 202 Jackdaws went over to roost.

Magical Merlin and Half way

Well its been a bit of a slog(wind and rain ) so far but I should not complain as the birding has been pretty good. Today I picked up a raptor very high in the sky it was a falcon, it stooped (perry ??)very fast (too small)gulls and thrushes every where.I lost it somewhere down near old brods as it stooped behind the trees. Defo falcon but not enough to id it,kept watching and before long it took to the air again heading west a female Merlin beautiful..with Buzzards diplaying ,2 Mute Swans , 4 Reed Bunts , 3 Nuthatch and 1000 + Pink Footed Geese its turning out to be a bit of a good start. now will I make 61 species on foot in January,,,,its still maybe..

Buzzards

2 Buzzards displays to the n/e on Saturday, with one over the house later in the day.Canada Goose and LTTit make it to 53 for the foot it.........................

Brighter day

Managed the last hour before dark an influx of Blackbirds at least 10 along the hawthorn hedge.28 lapwing west and then 11 Pinks drifted high west,35 Redwing north.1 bunting species gave me the run around and I was unable to say it was a definate reed... ''' .??

More wind and rain

The two worst things for a birder are strong wind and heavy rain,,we have been blessed with lots of both so far this year..A walk up to shelf moor looking for Snipe was the plan as I was sat in the office looking at bright blue skies. First step out of the house and the rain started by the time I got to shelf moor it was tipping it down again a full circle of the Snipe field nothing...the second time round I flushed 48.1 Snipe ,49..1 mipit and a Reed bunt...thank goodness, I was soaked to the skin, a walk back down the hill via a couple of ponds produced a few Carrion Crows and 4 Magpies, grim was all I could think.. Relentless rain and wind stopped me identifying two finches that flew overhead.. As I approached the houses of Northowram I did a small detour through a small wood and fluked a 50...Goldcrest...Its been a real struggle so far but to reach 50 on foot is a good start.... On a brighter note a Lesser Pecker called once from a tall Sycamore on Stoney lane,just managed to see it as it flew off towards Crow nest Park.......

Pinks on the Move

January the 5th optimum Pink footed goose time and so it proved with 4 skiens moving west totalling 785,44 th species for the year with 45,Great spotted woodpecker.46 House Sparrow and 47 Lapwing..4 reed buntings and a singing Song Thrush made for a good day....

Hard going.........................

Well its been pretty grim for birding so far this year, the wind and rain don't seem to want to let up and another local walk today produced 1 Song Thrush new for the year, 2 Reed Bunts,70 Redwing north and 200+ Jackdaws.. which makes 43 species within 2 miles walking distance of my house..The target is 61 which may be just doable if we get some half decent weather...????

2nd Jan walk to work..

A walk to town today through Shibden valley and back produced, 36.Sparrowhak(male),37.Mistle Thrush,38,Grey heron,39 Wren, 40 Dipper ,41 Nuthatch and 42 8 Linnet ,not bad but still no LTTit,Great spot,Song Thrush or House Sparrow. 61 will be hard

New years Day

Bloody awful day with wind and rain lashing it down after the first couple of hours. 1.Jackdaw 2 Carrion crown ,3 Rook ,4 Magpie ,5 Jay ,6 Starling ,7 Woodpigeon ,8 Collared Dove, 9 Stock dove , 10 Feral Pigeon , 11 greenfinch ,12 Bullfinch ,13 Chaffinch , 14 Goldfinch , 15 Dunnock , 16 Robin , 17 Great Tit ,18 Blue tit ,19 Cole tit ,20 Kestrel ,21 Common Gull , 22 Herring Gull ,23 LBBGull ,24 BH Gull , 25 Mallard , 26 Coot ,27 Moorhen ,28 Mute Swan ,29 Reed Bunting (4) , 30 Redwing ,31 Fieldfare , 32,Pied Wagtail ,33 grey Wagtail,34 Green Woodpecker ,35 Blackbird.......4 reed Buntings the best for today with a Adult winter male,2 first winter males and a first winter female.......

Gulls and Mute Swans

Plenty of gulls about today wit 5 Argenteus and 1 Argentatus in the field with 2 LBBGulls ,200 + BH and Commons,2 Kestrels,1 Great spot over and 2 Mute Swan still on Shibdenmpark boating lake,,,

Foot it

my plan this year is to see 61 species in January within two miles of my back doorstep. This means Shibden park lake and sunny bunsers are my only bits of water,its gonna be tough.....

Foot it...... warm up

Had a tromp round this morning... 1.Carrion crow 2.Jackdaw 3.Blackbird 4.Common Gull 5 Black headed gull 6 herring Gull 7.Stock dove 8.Magpie 9.Rook 10.Starling 11.Reed Bunting x 3 12.House Sparrow 13.Redwing 14.Fieldfare 15.Mistle Thrush 16.Greenfinch 17.Robin 18.Collared Dove 19.Great Tit 20.Feral Pigeon 21.Woodpigeon 22.Blue Tit 23.Dunnock. day2 24.Song thrush 25.Sparrowhawk 26.Kestrel 27.Chaffinch 28.Wren

Ivory Dip

Missed the Ivory Gull at P/haven but the Humber Estuary was at its best all the same, Little egret 2 , Male Hen harrier 1 , Merlin 2/3 , Marsh harrier 1 , teal 20 , Widgeon 1 , Short eared Owl 1 , Peregrine 2 , Buzzard,Kestrel,Sprwk Knot 3000 , Dunlin 500 , Golden Plover 700 , Grey Plover 30 , Bar tailed Godwit 100 + (one in summer plumage) Oyck's ,Redshank,Curlew,Lapwing 100's Brent Geese 6

Troublesome Gulls

Hard going to find birds today, a few Jackdaws and Carrion Crows on the cricket pitch,A song thrush flushed from long grass had me going for a split second and a Pied Wag was the highlight from the mill car park.4 Goldfinch,9 Stock and 1 Collard Dove from Chelsea Valley .Then a load of Gulls in the bottom field,40 Common and 30 or so Black heads nothing else ,then 2 adult Herring Gulls popped into view,small and clean cut made me think Argenteus, then one more a lot bigger and paler grey made me think of YL /Aregentatus type , then a fourth in second winter plumage with very long neck with grey streaks down the sides, and black beady eye. Interesting,,, but without a better view I was never going to put it to species. I crawled along the wall as not to flush um for about 150 yards, popped up all the gulls still present, except the two interesting ones could not find um anywhere........One Mistle thrush was no consolation on the way back...

Presents from Queensbury

37 Lapwing in the field today must have dropped in from Queensbury and then 3 Reed Bunting(which is a real rarity here)which must be the ones Bri found at Shelf moor..Loads of gulls ,Starlings and Jackdaws about but nothing of note....

Winter Moths .......

 

A fantastic week for Winter |Moths with at least 10000 in the local wood on sat,sun and Monday night,on Tuesday the numbers had dropped to about 5000 .....The flightless females which have been very difficult to find in recent years were also abundant. The bottom pics is a female Mottled Umber the others all Winter Moths.

More vis

Woodpigeon          136979
Pink Footed Goose    6991
Whooper Swan            148
Fieldfare                   13290
Redwing                   22460
Meadow Pipit             5040
Totals since 2005

Visible Migration

10 years ago Brian Sumner and Peter Smith told me all about the wonders of Vis - Mig in the |Pennines and since then it has become a bit of an obsession  ,  David barker and the Ox crew never cease to amaze me with what they record at there site (not too far away) , it has had great rewards over the years but I've never had a really  BIG DAY until today......
   I got up at 6.30 the ground frozen underfoot and clear skies in every direction with stars still glinting. The local Jackdaw roost broke at 6.45 with about 300 noisily flying overhead .At 7.10 the first Woodpigeons were seen counting went something like this 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,20,30 ,40,50,100,200,300,500 ,1000 ,1100,1200,1500,first flock... amazing then it just went belistic with flocks in every direction ,close ...another 1000, distant 500 x 3 long streams all across the sky. Starlings in small squadrons heading west and 10 Pinks the same way/By now I was struggling with the sheer numbers of birds, A ' chew'  bunting was herd but a black sillouette was unidentifiable to species. Woodpigeons were not letting up at all and there were massive flocks high in the sky and a continuose  stream heading sswest between Emily Moor and Holme Moss.I had a quick count up and had 20,000 + and it was getting  out of control.I had to give up on the distant flocks and just consentrate on the ones close enough to count.
   Large Gulls started to move west with LBBGulls and Herring gulls and the odd GBB,Common Gulls as well made a big move, Then another chew and a rattle then a good visual of the bird less than 10 feet away and about only  8 foot above the ground.Lap Bunt..no let up in the Woodpigs with numbers now reaching 40,000 and beyond. The final total at  10.45 was 48,841 with a small move of 1427 back NEast. A Raven over west was another rare sighting here .

GANNET

Well what can I say...stuck at work getting texts of big moves of Redwings etc and then a 15 Gannets at gorple I nearly choked..........Got home full kit on wellies... hat... coat..Binns  ...flushed a couple of mipits scanning all the time ,Starlings on the move Redwings heading north west and then a bloody cormorant  ,,how come I get a bloomin cormorant when KM gets 15 gannets I was thinking.....better
have a look at it to see if its an adult or what ever...Bloody Hell its a Juvenile Gannet about 30 foot above the tree line. As it banked sideways a black silloette of long pointed wings and head were surreal against the penine backdrop....................well chuffed..

Tuesday more Whinchats

Another good day with a Buzzard north over the house the first bird to be seen,then a Wheatear in the field and Swallows heading south, Mipits calling overhead and a Grey wag south.2 Whinchats on the fence together along with 8 Mipits. Cormorant west with a few gulls and a distant large  Goose sp was unidentifiable...