With a report of an Osprey on the loose over Halifax this p.m. from Hx grapevine I thought Id better get myself up Soil Hill watchpoint at 1515 hrs with a chance of it coming through.
Vehicle access from the Raggalds is now possible with a single track cut through although walking up to the summit means a bit of wall climbing and drift dodging.
Skies were much livelier today with a real sign of movement but a thorough search of the hill found no sign of Wheatear but its got to happen any day now.
A pair of Lapwing were establishing themselves on the summit and an unusual passage of Magpies was interesting whilst 12 Golden Plover flew >W over the Oats Royd area towards the Withins.
Deborah from Hebden Bridge kindly rang me at work this morning to report c30 Waxwings around her garden just above the Hardcastle Crags area
Glad you got your first Waxwings Deborah, I passed the report on to Halifaxbirders who put the message out on the grapevine but havent heard if they were relocated by the Hebden Bridge lads or not yet.
Thanks again for the call which was much appreciated.
A second grapevine message was from NK reporting c10 Waxwings near the end of Swalesmoor, Queensbury seen from the bus.
Soil Hill 1515-1630hrs
12 Golden Plover..........................>W
11 seperate Magpies.....................>NW
16 Woodpigeons...........................>W
3 LBB gulls....................................>NW
1 pr Lapwing on the hill
6 Lapwing down on the Shay
100+ Corvids down on the Shay
2 Skylark.
BS