Oats Royd

                          Jay hiding in the branches

                                         

                               Pick n Mix Geese

  Flowering Currant doing well

                 Old Packhorse bridge

             Looking back down the steep climb

                                        The Gulf

                         Bottom of the Gulf and memorial stone

                   Another hill to climb

   Looking over Holmefield down the Calder Valley

Back to the weekend with a dull drizzly evening and it was off down Oats Royd with a very low expectancy to see if JLs sighting of a first for Queensbury Mandarin duck had returned but as expected, nothing.
Plenty disturbance by the ponds with dog walkers and rowdy kids so it was a quick scout around and back to base.
The area produced the usual common woodland stuff along with a couple of Willow Warblers and a calling Chiffchaff although it was 1930 hrs so most birds had gone down.
A Jay showed briefly before heading for the Gulf .
A lovely area but far too much disturbance to hold anything for long.
Anybody on for a local Swift this weekend ?
BS

Stonechat for Old Guy Rd

A lunchtime trip to the Old Guy Rd cricket pitch failed to turn up Wheatear but a surprise sighting of a male Stonechat very briefly on the distant wall then dropping down into the field never to be seen again. This is a good area for Whinchat which I thought this bird was until I binned it.
Otherwise another hot , sticky and quiet day around the village.

A few Stonechat pics for previous year.

                                    Hovering over the reed bed

Thanks to all for taking me over the 600,000 views with over 2000 viewers per day.
BS

Jackdaws in the village

             Jackdaws starting to breed in the village

                     Evening skies over Foxhill

Another scorcher of a day of which you know is not my choice of weather, nor the birds but its better than the fog, just.

Jackdaws are noticeable this year sorting nesting places on the chimney stacks. The beauty of this for Jackdaws is Queensbury has plenty old houses with high, stone chimney stacks, several with stones missing making ideal nest sites.
When I started birding, dare I say 50 years ago, no Jackdaws were to be found in our area and it was a real exciting bird trip to head towards Skipton and beyond to find good numbers of them nesting and roosting.
Seems strange now , twitching a Jackdaw, but thats how the bird circle changes.

Another non birding day today with no time off for good behavior but a bit of sky watching whilst washing the windows this evening, I,m too tight to pay a window cleaner, produced several LBB gulls again very high and >N along with 4 Swallow and 2 Pied Wagtail.

Several Pipistrelle bats are out on an evening now last light over the trees in Foxhill.
BS

Queensbury Today

With a mad busy day at work and an evening at Shelf Moor gardening birding was put on the slow burner apart from the dinner time dog walk and sky watching this evening from Shelf Moor.
Several LBB gulls were heading >N this evening very high in the clear blue sky whilst a few Swallows continued to move over Shelf. Should be seeing Swifts by the weekend.
A Willow Warbler was singing deep in the foliage by Foxhill Park which is unusual for that area and at least 4 pair of Collared Doves are nest building around Foxhill.
A bad job at work yesterday when a distraught lady left her car for repair with the front end stuffed in after one of the Queensbury Station Roe Deers jumped over the wall near the station and straight under the front of the car.
The car is repairable but unfortunately the full grown female deer was,nt so lucky.
BS

A record for Soil Hill,

Three pair of Ring Ouzel are now on Soil Hill which must be a record for that location.
Yesterday I had 2 males and 3 females whilst today DJS had 3 males together making at least 3 pair up there. DP reported 2 females today along with 5 Wheatear then went on to get a Cuckoo at Luddenden Dean.NP , JL and DB also got on the Ouzels today. Thanks for the text from DP and DJS.
Otherwise quiet over Queensbury today but 1 hour gardening at Shelf Moor this evening saw an increasing number of Swallows over.
BS

Soil Hill, pm visit. Ring Ouzel country.

   Mega distant shots from the top of the hill to the bottom

  2 Males, the 3 females were very mobile.

After a lunch time tip off from birders , Angela and Gary, of 3 birds showing briefly on Soil Hill and possibly Ring Ouzels I thought it well worth checking out when I was free late afternoon.
After a lot of scanning and searching, sure enough the 3 Ring Ouzels were re located but very distant, way down at the bottom amongst a muck pile on the Shay area.
The 3 birds were then joined by another 2 female and the 3 female kept flying around, right over the cricket pitch and back. Its surprising how brown these birds look in flight.
As I left,the 2 males were busy feeding in  the grass.
Many thanks to Angela and Gary for the call and re locating these birds when we thought they had moved on.
A real influx of Ring Ouzels this year with hundreds crossing the south coast and several reports from around the region.
A single Ringed Plover headed >N high over the summit whilst a Buzzard drifted high and >N over the wind turbines

BS

Shelduck for Fly Flatts

               Shelduck doing a circuit

           Across on the far banking

                                  The promised Common Sandpiper pic.

     Shelduck from the top road as I was leaving.

            Wheatears finally arrive

        Out of range shots.

What started off to be a quiet morning at Fly Flatts in the icy cold ENE>5 suddenly sprung to life at 0700 hrs when 3 Shelduck flew in doing 4 circuits of the water before landing way across by the east bank. Almost immediately they scrambled out of the water to feed on the banking.
At last, 3 Wheatear were present and 2 Common Sandpipers.
Got plenty Nyger down which later attracted 2 Pied Wagtails.

3 Shelduck
1m 2f Wheatear
2 Common Sandpiper
5 Herring gull..................>SW
8 LBB gull.......................>N
+ usual sp.
BS