Fly Flatts

                                   Several Common Sandpipers

                                           Still 2 Wheatears hanging round

                                             Good passage of LBB gulls

                                          Curlews bred well

                                          1 of 2 Oystercatchers

A decent morning at Fly Flatts with perfect conditions early on before the sun came through and the clouds broke.
Grey cloudy skies with a slight NW>3 until 0930 when the clouds cleared leaving blue skies and sunshine.
No shoreline whatsoever now but Common Sandpipers hanging on in there along with Redshanks and Oystercatchers.
A good variety of gulls moving >W early doors with Black Headed, Common, Herring and Lesser Black Backed. The only other sky movers were Swallows and Swifts >N.
Hoped for Scoters on the water but not to be after last nights fog lifting early and letting things move on, hence the 4 moved from Ringstone.

63 LBB..................................>W
1 Common gull......................>W
2 Herring gull........................>W
2 Black Headed...................>NW
8 Common Sandpipers
2 Oystercatchers
1 Redshank
2 poss 3 Wheatear females or gone into non breeding plumage.
1 Snipe drumming
4 Greylag geese + 5 chicks
c 300 Canadas inc c40 young
Usual Mipits, Curlews and Corvids.
No Twite, no Goldies, no Red Grouse.
BS

Soil Hill, how the winds blew. Then Ogden.

                                Plenty Willow Warblers

                                        Reed Bunting, bit more unusual.

An early evening visit to Soil Hill to check the now perfect scrapes in real bird moving weather.
The wind was howling across W>5 driving horizontal drizzle over the summit with 2 Curlew, 4 Lapwing , 11 Linnets and 3 Skylark the only birds present.
The scrapes are now ideal with plenty water and vegetation growing well in them, we,ve got to have waders up there shortly.
By the time Id checked all the scrapes the fog had rolled in from the west so it was down to Ogden to see if there were any goodies on the water seeing as Ringstone had Scoters on, see Calderbirds.
The water was deserted apart from a large Enviromental Agengy inflatable buzzing around and 2 fellows waist deep in the water doing some sort of survey work, lets hope they,re pulling the plug out.
With time running out I just had a quick check around the western end finding, unusually, 2 Reed Buntings and several Willow Warblers. A female Sparrowhawk flew over the water but was too fast for the camera.
BS

The Frog and the Magpie

The morning started with a phone call from Cllr Paul Cromie to tell me of an incident which happened to him yesterday. As he drove into his garden a Magpie was jumping up and down and as he put it, " generally going mad ". As he got closer he could see that the Magpie had a frog which it was throwing around trying to kill and the frog was screaming loudly. When he got out of his car the Magpie flew off so he picked  the still screaming frog up and released it by his pond. The frog hopped on its way to live another day and the Magpie flew off in search of an easier meal. One lucky frog that.  Thanks for that report Paul.

A day of heavy drizzle blown across by a W>4 with only a short period of fine all day.
Other than half a dozen LBB gulls >SW the day has been birdless but hopefully the ideal Wader/Tern conditions will move something around for the weekend
BS.

Waiting for the Waders

A deteriorating day with a dull dry start but not long before the rain appeared slowly getting heavier throughout the day with heavy rain and fog by early evening.
I think by now we can safely say that its too late for our local reservoirs to show enough shoreline to attract migrant waders so hopefully places like Soil Hill will be tempting enough to entice them down as a stopping off place to break their journey.
Over the last few years Greenshank and Green Sandpiper  have been scarce and although Green Sand has never been an easy bird around our area Greenshank used to be common a few years ago with birds always around our reservoirs during July/August.
With Soil Hill summit pretty much undisturbed now and some decent scrapes, as long as the water holds, all we have to do is get up there regular and wait.
Hopefully the call will come through one of these mornings from hawkeye Nigel K reporting the above plus a Blackwit and Barwit thrown in for good measure. One has to dream doesnt one!
BS

Day of the big gulls

                                     This Dunnock sings day long around the garden.

A day of sunshine and showers brightening up p.m. Wind WSW>4 dropping>2
LBB gulls were moving most of the day all > S, and >SW with 43 counted on the way to and from work and over Foxhill at midday. Two Common gulls headed >W over the park and all but landed before taking off again and moving on. By next month we should have Common gulls back in the park joined by Black Headed.
Swifts continue to head >N and Swallows were feeding over the new mown football pitches and several Greenfinch are around the area which is a bit of a rarety in these parts.
BS

Canada Geese Galore

                                           Ollie getting a taste for Canada Goose

                                                One that got away

A good year for Canada Geese with around 300 inc young at Fly Flatts and a record count this evening with 43 at Ogden, possibly some of these are from Fly Flatts.
One this morning was found dead on the shoreline at Fly Flatts, possibly a fox, not Ollie, he just likes feathers.
BS

Ogden/Soil Hill

Despite the fact that I hate woodland birding and knowing that Wood Warbler is a morning singer, after seeing Denises amazing photos on Queensburybirder I found myself heading for Ogden early evening for another try and thinking at least I may come away with a Spotted Fly pic.
By the time I got to the area the wind had increased and the rain was steadily falling making the inside of the wood black as night and deadly silent.
After a quick sighting of a female Blackcap it was get me out of here and up on the tops.
With little time left a quick check of the ponds on Soil Hill, which are now looking much healthier , proved fruitless but if the water remains the same it may just bring a wader or two out of the sky.
BS

Fly Flatts

                      The Much awaited Golden Plover Photos

                       

                                               Several Common Sandpipers

                                                  LBBs moving >SW

A good morning weatherwise at Fly Flatts despite the wind that increased to near gale force at one point before easing again.  Grey cloudy skies  Wind S>4 increasing >7 then dropping >3.

A nice treat to find Golden Plover showing after a noticeable absence and the suprise of a Ringed Plover which flew over the water fast and low and dropped into the ponds at the SE corner.
Swifts were once again piling through all low and tucked into the hillside out of the wind.

5 Golden Plover
6 Common Sandpiper
2 Redshank
1 Ringed Plover
1 f Wheatear
19 LBBs.......................>SW
1 Herring gull................>SW
c200 Swift..................>N
+ same as yesterdays sp.
All trace of yesterdays Nyger seed had gone but no Twite.
BS

Triple Dip, Ogden

 After about 50 shots of Goldcrest high up in the canopy
these are the best I could come up with.

Ogden 1600-1730hrs.
First stop was for CKs Wood Warbler which I quickly realized I had dipped on due to the silence although a single quick sighting of one of DJSs Spotted Flycatchers was a bonus before it disappeared back into the deep Beech trees.
After half an hour trying to photograph Goldcrests in the dark wood and high up in the canopy I got me so wound up that I thought it was time to go get DJSs Tree Pipit and Crossbills on which I added a double dip.
Another 15 minutes waiting for a Tree Creeper to get in a photographic position and when it finally did a  family of nuggets with screaming kids appeared and that was that.
On the way out of the woods a walnut approached me armed with OS map and walking sticks and said " Im
interested in birds, do the authorities release birds regular into the wood for you to watch " on which I replied " Oh yes, they top them up once a month to allow for the ones that fly away ".  He seemed happy with the answer anyway.
Thats enough woodland birding for me for a while, let me get back up on the open moors.
BS

Fly Flatts

                                         Plenty Curlew with young

                                    A tyred Common Sand

                                        Big gulls building up

                                             LBB heading over

                                 1 f Wheatear  hanging on.

Fly Flatts 0715-1000hrs.  Cloudy with cool NE>4 brightening with odd rain shower.

A real lively birdy morning with nothing special but plenty birds around throughout.
Swifts were piling over >NE into the wind with 3 Sand Martin mixed in.
Big gull numbers are rising with plenty on the north shore before moving off >SW. Two Herring gulls were in with the LBBs so we can expect a Yellow Legged anytime.
Thanks to Chris King for the call so I was able to get the message out of a Wood Warbler at Ogden which NK later found. Thats the second local Wood Warb that Chris has turned up, the other a few years ago at Shibden Head, well done Chris.

232 Canadas + c50 young
5 Greylag + 5 young
8 Common Sandpiper
3 Redshank
2 Pied Wagtail
32 LBB gull
2 Herring gull
c150 Swifts
1f Wheatear
2 Snipe
+ usual sp.
BS

Mixenden Reservoir

                                      Hirundines love this weather

                  House Martins stuck to the middle of the water.

                                       Around 100 Swallows

Mixenden reservoir 1630-1800hrs  Heavy rain throughout E>3-4

A full day of rain but ideal Hirundine weather with c 100 Swallows skimming low over the water and banking.
Around 10 House Martins stayed out in the centre of the water with 2 Sand Martins briefly before disappearing.  A few Swifts were overhead along with a passing Heron >SE.
The water just held 3pr Mallard + 4 juvs and 2 Canada Geese.
A Song Thrush was singing in the wood along with Robins and Chaffinchs.
Hopefully the Soil Hill scrapes will be holding water now but thats a job for tomorrow!
BS

Bank Holiday Ogden

                                       Broom in Bloom

                                    A bit of shelter

                                    Down the overflow

                                    Heading for the Giants Tooth

                                                  Made it.

                   Tree Pipit favoured this row of trees.

One thing you can depend on is Bank Holiday weather and today was no exception although its much better than that hot stuff, at least it was quiet.
Fog on the tops cancelled Fly Flatts so another visit to Ogden where it was mainly clear but heavy rain throughout with a E>4.
The water ,as yesterday, was quiet with no sign on the Common Sand although with the conditions I could have overlooked it.
A pair of Bullfinch was nice but as with all the birds they were keeping well down so no photos other than views.
With the crowds missing I ventured up to the Giants Tooth and was rewarded with a quick call from one of DJSs Tree Pipits which kept flicking about in the last row of trees before the moor.
On the down side, still so sound or sight of Green or Gt Spotted Woodpecker!

1 Tree Pipit
1pr Bullfinch
1 Heron
4 Willow Warblers
1 singing Blackcap
+ usual sp.
BS

Ogden

                                   Plenty Swallows about

                                                A tranquil moment

                                                 Chaffinchs up singing

                                  Always plenty Robins

A quick skim around Ogden this evening found the water quiet other than the usual Mallards and Canadas but a very mobile Common Sandpiper was a nice suprise on the now expanding shoreline. Another bonus was a Tawny Owl calling from the wood in the NE corner but not much time so didnt chase it up.
Otherwise it was the usual Willow Warblers, Chaffinchs and Robins singing with several Swifts overhead.
I hoped for Common Tern in the easterly wind and drizzle but not tonight Josephine.
A single Jay flew from the Lodge garden but still no peckers.
A trip on Green Lane on the way back for Little Owl proved fruitless but a good number of Swallows, Swifts and House Martins.
BS

Dont burn rubbish in the garden!

 This jolly gardener 50yds down our road decided to burn his rubbish

  Wasnt long before he realized things were going wrong

 Think the lads got here in time to save his car and bungalow.

Nice grey skies today after the mist had lifted inspiring some movement.
Several Swift feeding parties were moving around with flocks of up to 30 whilst 4 LBBs headed >SE with a single Common gull close behind.
This evening 3 Kestrels were hovering over Grimstons field, one being a juv so a nice breeding success story there.
A charm of 15 Goldfinch were on thistles at Shelf moor with masses of young Starling feeding in the fields.
Hope you,re not too busy getting the flags out for the street parties this weekend instead of birding, the only bunting I want to see this weekend is a Little Bunting , although it is a bit early in the year.
Have a good weekend all.
BS