Rain, rain and more rain.

 

                                         Flooding in Foxhill Park

Heavy overnight rain and higher temperatures had amazingly cleared all the snow by first light but the torrential rain continued throughout the day with some of the heaviest squally showers that I,ve seen for a long time driven on by a strong W>5 which is tonight increasing to severe gale force by the early hours of the morning.

                               Its not often we get flooding in Queensbury but today several roads were flooded and my back garden was partly underwater which is something I,ve never experienced here before. Foxhill Park looked more like Redcar Tarn but no Caspian gulls present.

                                         With yet another non birding day, tomorrow looks better, I,ve put together some images of Soil Hill from the days when it was bird friendly and classed as one of the areas top habitats.

                                                Grasshopper Warbler

                                         Surprise visit from a Dotterel.

                                            Best count of Linnet was 240

                                                    Whitethroat

                                                   Sedge Warbler

                                     Once a regular breeder on the hill

                                                   Twite turned up regular

                                            Annual Snow Buntings Nov- March

                                              4 Bunts, best count 12.

                                             This gravelly habitat was the attraction.

                                             3 well camouflaged 

                                   A rarity Snow Bunting, race Insulae,  Iceland breeder

                                            My old watch point towards Mixenden reservoir.

                                                                    Supreme habitat

                                             Woodcock silhouetted at dusk.

Apart from the above, the ideal gravel attracted Shorelark and Lapland Bunting during winter

whilst the small scrapes and ponds attracted a good amount of waders including :-

Ringed plover

Little Ringed Plover

Grey plover

Purple Sandpiper

Golden Plover

Dotterel

Dunlin

Oystercatcher

Curlew

Snipe

Jack Snipe

Redshank

Knot

Bar Tailed Godwit

                         Soil Hill always produced the first returning Wheatear with a top count of 34, along with Greenland Wheatear and Ring Ouzel, whilst Wigeon and Teal were regular winter visitors to the NK pond.

                           This is just a small account of rarer birds that visited the hill with many more commoner species present and some rarer fly overs such as Yellow Legged Herring gull, Marsh Harrier,

Hen Harrier, Honey Buzzard, and Osprey plus NK once came across a Goshawk on the mast up there.

                         I have a count of 110 species up there so it is a great loss now that the hill is fully overgrown with long grass and all the summit ponds and scrapes long gone. 

                          The hill is still capable of providing birds but few and far between, the main advantage

of it now is an ideal vantage point with 360 degrees vision being able to see the Humber Bridge to the east, Lancashire to the west, 3 Peaks and North Yorkshire moors to the north, and beyond Manchester to the South.  Several landmarks stand out such as Malham Cove, York Minster, the 3 power stations and the North Yorkshire White Horse.

BS