Trying to make a silk purse out of a sows ear, the blog.

                                Top of Blind Lane

                                          Blind Lane

                                         An amazing view east

                                Bottom of Blind Lane to Low Lane

                                                    Low Lane

            Looking back up at Foxhill School

                                 Low Lane looking up at The Mountain.

                                      View NE across to the 3 peaks

                                        Top of Harp Lane

                                             Harp Lane

           View east from Harp Lane looking beyond Otley Chevin.

A much more comfortable day with a light NW>4 and 80% cloud. With the temperature down the hazy, milky skies had gone leaving clear visibility apart from the distant heat haze.
Todays walk covered Blind Lane, Low Lane and Harp Lane comprising of mostly sky watching.
                                                          Swallows were the bird of the day with at least 30 heading >N up the air valley and my first House Martin of the year. Surprisingly only 2 Buzzard were up , both very high and distant to the east along with a passing Raven >NW.
                                                          A Green Woodpecker was calling from down in the station whilst 2 Willow Warblers and a Chiffchaff were in Hawthorns off Low Lane.
A good check of all the horse fields failed to turn up a Yellow Wagtail, the last one I had in this area was on the nearby Raggalds Flood, 17/5/2013. I also had a Yellowhammer fly over here 5/4/2018 but history has,nt repeated itself as yet.
                                                     Well thats another blog scratched together , sorry about the views but it gives you an idea of the area I,m working and theres only so many Willow Warbler and Skylark photos you can put up with.
 
Blind Lane area.
1 Green Woodpecker calling
2 Buzzard
2 Willow Warbler
1 Chiffchaff
c 30 Swallow
1 House Martin
1 Raven
2 LBB gulls.
BS

Another trek round Queensbury.

           Plenty Mipits and Skylarks on Old Guy Rd
                                            cricket pitch.

           Willow Warbler, Roper Lane plantation

   Steady passage of gulls >W, Harp Lane / Low Lane.

A much more pleasant day with 90% cloud cover and a cool W>4 making walking easier but still the milky, hazy sky both to the east and west.
                               Todays walk covered Old Guy Rd, Roper Lane, Harp Lane, Blind Lane and Lower Lane.
                    Old Guy Rd cricket pitch held 3 male and 2 female Pied Wagtails along with Mipits and Skylarks but still no sign of Wheatear around Old Guy Rd and Roper Lane which is usually a hot spot by this time.
                  Roper Lane plantation had the usual Willow Warblers and Chiffchaff  along with a female Blackcap which remained low down in the trees.
LBB gulls were moving well over Blind Lane all >W with several missed in the hazy conditions whilst Herring gulls moved >W over Harp Lane where a Whitethroat was down in the brambles, an annual occurrence here for this species.
                 Hopefully rain at last this coming week which my garden is crying out for and it may lessen the queue outside the supermarkets.

Old Guy Rd
4 Skylark
6 Meadow Pipit
5 Pied Wagtail
+ usual sp.

Roper Lane
3 Willow Warbs
2 Chiffchaff
1 f  Blackcap

Blind Lane
17 LBB gull.............>W

Harp Lane
9 Herring gull..............>W
2 Lapwing
1 Whitethroat.
Keep safe, BS

A Fly Flatts report from Kim , Ornithologist for Bentleys

Terrible birding conditions today, after a misty start it was back to wall to wall sunshine in hazy skies with a very light SE>2. My head is slowly starting to get toasted!
                                     Oats Royd just produced a pair of very mobile Blackcaps which refused to keep still for 2 seconds so hence another empty camera. After a frustrating hour down there I managed a few Willow Warblers and Chiffchaffs but nothing in the camera, I really am going to have to knock this woodland birding on the head.
                                      Sky watching east from Blind Lane produced around 30 Swallows, some moving >N whilst others were feeding very high up but otherwise no gulls or Buzzards up in the milky still skies.
                          A ray of sunshine came from a report from the young lady ornithologist Kim who I met last year whilst she was doing a bird survey at Fly Flatts for her employers Bentleys before the work started on the reservoir. Kims job is to to check the welfare of the birds before and whilst any work is ongoing.
                         She reported several pairs of Common Sandpiper, Dunlin, Redshank, Ringed Plover, Lapwing and Curlew as well as Wheatear, Tufted ducks, Pied Wagtails and several Herring gulls which always appear on chick/egg watch. Canada Geese are also now in the middle of breeding.
                        Kim is monitoring the nesting situation before the reservoir is allowed to be filled again now that Bentleys have almost completed the work in the reservoir basin.
                       A big thank you to Kim for all she is doing up there and for kindly keeping me informed whilst I am stuck here on lock down, which hopefully won,t be for long now .

I,ve put together a few images from this time last year of some of the species that Kim has reported.

                                        Common Sandpiper and chick

                                              Always plenty hungry gulls present

      Lesser Black Backed and a Yellow Legged Herring gull

                                           YL Herring

                                                 Common Sandpiper chick

                                              juv Common Sandpiper

      2 Peregrines joined the gulls on chick watch.

                                           Oystercatcher

                                                    Wheatear

                                                  juv Wheatear

                                                    Redshank

                                                 Common Sandpiper

                                                       Dunlin

                                                     Dunlin

                                                 Ringed Plover

                                                    Common Sandpiper

Oats Royd
 1 pr Blackcaps
Willow Warblers/Chiffchaffs
+ usual sp.

Blind Lane
c 30 Swallows
Keep safe, BS
                         

A hot and sticky birding walk

       Two pair Pied Wagtail on Old Guy Rd cricket pitch

                                         Bit of courting going on

                      Swallows becoming a common sight

                                  Weather vane on Foxhill school

Websters brewery black cat on the old Pineberry Pub.
A black cat was placed on the roof of all Websters pubs
to mark their centenary.

Looking east over Baildon in the heat haze. The Menwith Hill
early warning system golf balls beyond Harrogate can just
be seen on the horizon.

Yet another of those hot sticky days with a very light E>3 and 100% clear sunny skies.
                                                                       Old Guy road just produced 2 pair of Pied Wagtails on the cricket pitch along with Skylarks and Meadow Pipits whilst Roper Lane was void of anything bloggable.
             Sky watching to the east from Blind Lane did a little better with several big gulls >SE but mega high and not visible to the naked eye whilst Swallows are becoming a common sight now with 16 over, mainly >NW . Just the one Buzzard up today over Clayton but very distorted in the heat shimmer.
              Just waiting for Argos to delivery a water butt for the garden so need some rain to fill it unless they deliver me a full one!
The government today says ' theres light at the end of the tunnel' , my old boss at the garage, who always looked on the dark side used to say, ' if theres light at the end of the tunnel it will be a train coming.

Old Guy Rd
2 pr Pied Wagtail
4 Skylark
+ usual sp

Blind Lane
1 Buzzard
16 Swallow
6 Mipits
11 Herring gull..............>SE
5 LBB gull....................>SE
+ usual sp.
Keep safe, BS