Out and about

                   Plenty Pied Wagtails around

                         Little Owl on watch

            Over a hazy Shibden Valley to Ringby

            Good flock of Linnets around the old reservoir

          Sun going down over the old underground reservoir

                                   Last sun, Foxhill park

A dinner time dash around Queensbury south found 1 Little Owl, 7 Pied Wagtails, 15 Greenfinch,
9 Lapwing and around 40 small gulls.
Fields this evening beyond Fleet Lane held a nice but distant flock of around 30 Linnets, another 8 Pied Wagtails, 3 Swallows and the usual corvids.
No sign of vis mig this a.m. which seems to have been put on hold due to the hot stuff.
BS

Swalesmoor, Old Guy Rd, Foxhill.

A dinnertime dash on Swalesmoor was a disappointment with very little found.
6 Linnets and a Willow Warbler were near the old Starving Rascal pub along with a Grey Wagtail.
Around 70 small gulls were on the lower quarry site with about 100 Corvids.
A single Little Owl was in the distance near the ski slope but the skies were empty.
Old Guy Rd cricket pitch was having a trim so that was empty but several Mipits were in nearby fields.
Foxhill park held 4 Pied Wagtails , 3 Common gulls and 2 BH gulls but no sign of NKs Wheatears near Fleet Lane.
BS

Queensbury Today

Some from yesterday

                Fly Flatts, northern shoreline

       Nyjer feeding station, all Mipits, no Twite

                    From the SW corner

A steady vis mig over Foxhill this morning with Wagtails still moving in small numbers along with a few Meadow Pipits and Skylarks.
Foxhill park held c70 small gulls first light which soon dispersed to surrounding fields when disturbed by early morning dog walkers.
Lunchtime found the long staying 6 Pied Wagtails in the park and 2 Meadow Pipits which is unusual.

9 Alba Wagtail....................>SW
1 Grey Wagtail...................>SW
4 Skylark............................>S
18 Meadow Pipit...............>WSW
BS

Ringby Top

1500-1600hrs  visit in nasty hot sunshine and clear blue skies.
Went up in the hope of snapping some of DJSs Whinchats but came back with an empty camera and a touch of depression.
The skys, as expected, were empty and the only bird life after 1 hours searching were a few Goldfinch on the thistles, several Swallows and Mipits plus the usual corvids, oh and 1 Mistle Thrush.
BS

Fly Flatts

                     Plenty juv Meadow Pipits ready for off

                  Grey Wagtails piling through

                         Just 5 Wheatear present

                           Buzzard off >SE

A good start to the morning in misty conditions getting things moving before the sun and blue skies appeared.
Plenty Mipits over along with 2 Tree Pipits then Grey and Alba Wagtails started coming in along the banking before filtering off >W.
Only 5 Wheatear showing, 1 being the young juv.
A good decision to drive on to the north end because as soon as I set off a Buzzard was over the moor heading >SE. I stopped dead and jumped out snapping away as it headed through the wind turbines, apologies to the cars that had to wait for me to move the car so they could get past but first things first.

Vis mig

15 Grey Wagtail blogging then..............>W
22 Alba Wagtails blogging then ...........>W
147 Meadow Pipits...............................>SW
Plenty blogging Meadow Pipits
2 Tree Pipits..........................................>W
1 Buzzard............................................>SE
5 Wheatear  Blogging
BS

Ogden.p.m. visit

                                     The ever present LBB

                                     Eck, whats that on the shoreline

                                             A Coot on Ogden, never !

           A common bird anywhere else but not at Ogden

                        The long staying Gt Crested Grebes

                                                     Mirror image

                                                 The odd one out.

An excellent day for waterfowl/ waders although along with the rain and drizzle the top end of Queensbury, my house, was shrouded in fog all day.
A late afternoon visit to Ogden expecting to see more Wigeon did,nt work out as such even though conditions were perfect with little wind and heavy drizzle and rain. Unfortunately Ogden was just on the cloud base with poor visibility across the water though it was clearing as I left.
No sign of Wigeon or Little Grebe although they could have been snucking around in a foggy corner .
The usual gulls were present along with the 2 long staying Gt C Grebes and 1 Cormorant.
As I scanned the shoreline for the Common Sandpiper I picked up a black ball which turned to show its white forehead, wow, a Coot.  A common bird down at your local park but a mega tick for Ogden which shows just how things are moving around.
BS

Wagtails on the move

         Good numbers of Common Gulls in Foxhill

A very hazy morning with sunshine breaking through seemed to suit the Wagtails this morning with a good steady flow until stopping at around 0730hrs, all were moving West. This is the first substantial
move of Wagtails this season.
Once again the park was packed with around 70 small gulls in the mist at 0600 hrs, mainly Commons, before moving off >S shortly after.
A few remained throughout the day here leaving just before dark when several LBBs were going over >E towards the Eccup reservoir roost.
Two small ducks flew over the garage at distance this morning >SE and going by the jizz and speed I,d say they were Teal whilst a Heron dropped down to the Station Rd pond.

Vis Mig
18 Alba Wagtails............................>W
4 Grey Wagtails.............................>W
2 Teal............................................>SE
BS

Queensbury Today

Very little birding time today with pressure of a busy workshop and time out taking Lynda for a mouth op to insert  implants in the bottom of her mouth ready for getting toothed up. Its her birthday tomorrow and for it shes got a sore mouth and another hospital appointment in the morning but still she battles on without complaining.
A record number of small gulls in the park this morning at 0545hrs with a count of 63, these being around 60% Commons with still some hanging around this evening.
Amazingly this evening it was around 1930hrs when I took the dogs out and it was almost dark.
A few Swallows came over the garage this morning >S but only 4 Mipits in the same direction.
Movement should be hotting up by the weekend and its almost time for the first Pinkies to appear overhead.
BS

Queensbury Vis Mig

A better start to the day with grey skies inviting some movement early doors.
As I let the dogs out at 0600hrs a Curlew flew overhead very high >W and calling as it went.
Shortly after that Common gulls moved over >S in good numbers with around 40 on the football pitch.
Mipits and Skylarks were in small numbers and 2 Linnets headed >SW.

The rest of the day was quiet other than small gull numbers rising in the park now with 15 BHGs and 9 Common at midday.

1 Curlew.........................>W
31 Common Gulls..........>S
2 Skylark......................>SW
14 Meadow Pipit...........>SW
2 Linnet.........................>SW
7 Swallow.....................>S

Anyone had a local Sept Swift yet ?
BS

Churchyard birding

             Checking for migrants in the village parish churchyard.

              LH side is well kept, RH side is the ancient graves

            Ferals roost on the clock tower

    The old part of the graveyard makes a good habitat.

Back to walking to work now that the schools are back so no early morning cricket field check due to heavy traffic through the village not giving me time to watch for movement and get to work on time.
Unfortunately most of the children in Queensbury don,t seem to be able to walk to school and have to be driven.
This morning was a check in the graveyard which can produce decent birds but not so today.
11 Common gulls and 8 Black Headed were on the new mown area of the newer half of the graveyard whilst 4 Robins, 3 Wrens and a flock of around 12 Blue , Great and Coal Tits were mobile around the well overgrown graves in the old  unmanaged section.
Several Feral pigeons were up on the clock tower where a Kestrel can usually be found perched as well as on the mill chimney.
No movement over the garage this morning in the clear blue skies.

Three cracking photos below of a local Wheatear taken and sent in by Tracy Collier

             Nice one Tracy, keep em coming.

BS.

Limited Vis Mig

                                    Some from Fly Flatts yesterday

               Wheatear are moorland birds but seem drawn to water

                                          The Northern shoreline

                                        Across the water to the Nab and Bumps.

A poor start to the morning with heavy mist not clearing until 0800 hrs when I was at work.
A movement of Meadow Pipits was apparent over the garage with small groups of 5 or 6 birds as well as a steady flow of Swallows until mid morning, all birds were moving >WNW.
At lunchtime the family of 6 Pied Wagtails were on the top pitch as well as a single Skylark which was unusual.
A warning text from Bradshaw John this evening saying he had parked his car on the slip road between Ned Hill and Syke Lane whilst visiting Ogden and returned to a smashed back window, a thing we hear about daily at work now.
The ideal solution would be to round up all the scumbags and release them on the moor for the sad men in place of Grouse, then everyones happy.
BS