Another of those horrible hot sunny days with clear blue skies on a light W>3 with very little sky movement.
Too hot to do much walking today so a check of the Roper Lane plantation with some sky watching looking >W then across to Low Lane to do some sky watching looking >E.
I managed to re locate yesterdays mystery grey looking Spotted Flycatcher type bird with another very quick look but enough to reveal it as a female Blackcap along with 3 Willow Warblers around the plantation on Roper Lane though the Blackcap stuck in trees down in the Bradshaw valley below the plantation.
Sky watching to the milky west just produced 2 Kestrel, 1 Peregrine and 3 LBB gulls plus the usual corvids.
Sky watching from Low Lane into the hazy east sky found a steady flow of Swallows moving >N over Thornton heading up the Aire Valley with 18 singles in 15 minutes. Otherwise it was down to a distant Buzzard and more LBB gulls.
A text this evening from a new young lad birder, Harry who I met the other day. He was well geared up with scope and bins and seems very keen. Just what we need in the area, some young blood. Harry reported a long awaited sighting of a Short Eared Owl at an undisclosed site, a bird that has been very scarce recently. Keep em coming Harry.
Roper Lane
3 Willow Warblers
1f Blackcap
2 Chaffinch
2 Blue Tit
1 pr Blackbird
1 Kestrel
1 Peregrine
2 LBB gulls
4 Linnet
+ usual sp.
Low Lane
18 Swallow...............>N
1 Buzzard
2 LBB gulls
+ usual sp.
Keep safe, BS.