Queensbury Today

Dailie Fields lunchtime.  Bright with slight W>3, temperature rising.

A steady flow of Swallows >SE was about it for sky movement other than 3 LBB gulls >NW and a single Heron >E.
The hawthorns held 1 Whitethroat, 4 Willow Warbler and 5 Goldfinch whilst 7 Linnet were on and around the gorse bushes. Unusual for down there were 6 House Sparrows which is a bird I dont recall recording from the area in the past.
Fly Flatts is still doing well on wader watch with Knot and Sanderling turning up today,see Calderbirds, but it gets frustrating when I,m stuck at work hearing news of the waders. I,ll be giving it a coat of looking at on Sunday although I expect some disturbance with the bike race on up there.
BS

Foxhill Park Flora

The highly poisonous Laburnum

Sweet smelling Lilac

Fast climbing Clematis

Heavy flowering Apple Blossom

Just to remind you that its still spring time despite the weather, above are some of the flora that surrounds Foxhill park although if you,ve visited Fly Flatts lately you wont need reminding with the amazing array of wading birds to be found there.
The nasty wet and windy weather is ideal wader conditions and this evening with clear blue skies could mean that several will move on.
As long as water levels stay down theres a good chance throughout May that more birds will use it as a stop off point and hopefully my prediction of Little Stint will come off.
A much drier day today though still the strong W>4-5 with very little in the skies although time has,nt been on my side today so Ive had little chance to watch out.
Lunch time saw 5 LBB gulls over >W and the odd sighting of a single female Goosander heading >N up the Aire valley.
BS

Foxhill today

Foxhill park white with dandelion clocks

A bit less blustery today but still the heavy drizzle coming across from the west. Temperatures up slightly.

Foxhill park at the moment is white with dandelion clocks attracting large numbers of Starlings and House Sparrows to feed off the seed.
Any day now we,ll be seeing the noisy young Starlings squabbling for food.
Well done to the birders that ventured up to Fly Flatts to check out the wader situation today, again in attrocious conditions.
They were rewarded with a good number of birds including a Green Sandpiper (NK), a mega rare bird for this area in the spring and even very scarce in the autumn. See Calderbirds and Queensburybirder blogs for reports.
Hopefully the water level will stay down throughout the summer although several of the waders will leave once this weather breaks and the skies become clear.
BS

More Fly Flatts pics from yesterday

Rain approaching over the moor

Shoreline dont get better than this

                                Click to make this bigger and see how the spit makes a breakwater.
                               The Ringed Plovers favoured this area.

Ringed Plover

Dunlin

Just a few more pics from yesterdays trip to Fly Flatts, could do be being up there every day in these weather conditions to see just what calls in .The area at the moment is amazing both at the north and south ends of the reservoir and once waders are present other passing birds are tempted down. The recent Barwit, Sanderling and Gropper brought my personnal Fly Flatts species list to 102 though that is going back over the last 10 years. My 2011 local species list is now at 103.

Nothing to report from Queensbury today in the heavy drizzle and near gale force winds other that large groups of Starling and House Sparrow are frantically feeding in the park which is a sign of young on the way.
BS

Drenching of the year, Soil Hill

Soil Hill,  1600-1730hrs.  Howling W>5-6 with driving horizontal drizzle and limited visibility, lovely.
I knew it would be bad but not that bad but I thought it was ideal weather to bring a Dotterel or two down on the hill. Unfortunately after a full search of the summit I realized that the Dotterel had more sense than me and stuck to the lower land.
Surprisingly in the conditions there were several Skylarks and Meadow Pipits about as well as a group of 15 Linnets feeding on the track.
BS

The Mecca for Waders, Fly Flatts

2 of 6 Ringed Plovers

Dunlin,cracking little birds

Waders liked this spit acting as a breakwater

FLY FLATTS 0730-1000hrs. Attrocious conditions with gale force NW>6 gusting 7. Torrential rain showers and icy cold improving slightly as the morning went on.
Bad weather but good birds which is usually the case when upland birding. Waders were plentiful with a fall of Ringed Plovers and several Redshank. A single GBB gull flew low over the water >W though sky watching was difficult in the wind, I must have done an extra mile chasing my cap. Scoping the far shore was near impossible without nearly laying down to use the scope but I think I got it fairly well covered. The last bird of the morning was a reeling Grasshopper Warbler near the boathouse which managed to evade being seen other that a shape moving in the reeds.

6 Ringed Plover
4 Dunlin
7 Redshank
5 Common Sandpiper
2 Oystercatchers
5 Golden Plover
1 GBB...............>W
1 Gropper
+ usual sp
BS

Whitethroats and fires

Shibden Top, Whitethroat country

Fuel store fire burning for a second day Ringby Top.

Ringby Top over Shibden Valley

A blustery cold day with some sunshine and heavy showers.

The blaze below Ringby Top, believed to be a fuel store continued into a second day with water having to be pumped via miles of hoses from Boothtown road at the bottom of Ploughcroft. The lads of the West Yorkshire fire service are certainly earning their keep around this area lately.

A flying visit late afternoon to Shibden Top, Deanstones produced 2 singing Whitethroat, 3 Willow Warbler and a Chiffchaff. There were no signs of the suspected Sand Martins from previous years attempt at breeding in the clay hillside.
Several House Martins were present and 6 LBB gulls headed >NW.
Hope this wind drops by morning.
BS

Shelf Moor

A showery cool day but the westerly was less than yesterday >3. Some of the showers were torrential for a time.
A quick glance at Shelf Moor tonight found several Swallows feeding over the fields with 2 Swifts heading >W.
The pond held 1 Moorhen, 4 Canadas and a pair of Mallard whilst a Heron landed briefly before moving off >E.
Several Linnets and Goldfinch were flitting about in the hedges.
There are several posters up around Shelf for a missing Barn Owl which escaped from its owners so if you see one quartering the fields dont be rushing to get your tick list.
BS

Dailie Fields, Warblers paradise

The old railway station, warbler country.

The new hawthorns, a haven for song birds

Willow Warbler

A quick lunchtime dash to the Dailie fields today in sunshine and shower conditions suprised me how the new hawthorns planted down the hillside have come on. Most are packed with bloom meaning a good harvest of winter berries this autumn for the winter thrushes.
Several linnets were on the usual gorse area which is thick and safe from preditors and the hawthorns held Willow Warblers, Blackcap and Garden Warbler which were easily found in 15 minutes down there. LBB gulls were overhead along with several Swallows
Well worth a look down there Howard,(HC) , if you havent been down for a while you,ll be amazed. Howard and me cut our first teeth down the station on railway sleepers, happy days.

5 Willow Warblers
1f Blackcap
1 Garden Warbler
8 Linnet
2 Grey Partridge
5 LBB Gulls..............>W
16 Swallow, various direction.
BS

Foxhill Today

Sundog over Fleet Lane, bottom left.

A mixed day with cloud, sunshine and showers, the showers being every time I walked to and from work. SW>3

Beginning to get that late spring early summer type feeling birdwise now with quiet skies and all local birds pre occupied with nesting rather than moving about more than nessesary.
Plenty Swallows about locally now but no evening Swifts as yet in their favourite area over Foxhill park.
A very high single Curlew came over the garage this afternoon >NW which had me trying to turn it into a Whimbrel but luckily it gave a quick short call otherwise I would have been left wondering.
If all goes smoothly during the morning I should get chance to do a quick dinner time dash to the Dailies in the hope of livening up the boring mid week reports on this blog.
BS

Swifts on the move

A good flock of Swifts moved over Horton country park this evening all >W totally 38,this was either a feeding party moving in front of the rain or birds new in.
BS

Soil Hill

Bright and sunny

Here comes the rain

The charred remains of the newly planted hillside at Ogden.

Soil Hill search, pm visit. Strong SSW>5 Bright then showers.

Another negative Dotterel search on Soil Hill making me think we may have missed out this year but theres still time yet.
Up to 8 breeding Skylarks are on the hill with a few Meadow Pipits carrying nest material.

5 Linnet
8 Skylark
12 Goldfinch
sev Mipits
4 Mallard on a very murky NK pond
+ usual corvids, woodpigs etc
BS

Fly Flatts

Lets hope it stays like this until the autumn

Fly Flatts 0700-0930hrs Mild but strong S>5 easing slightly. Cloudy with rain showers.
Much quieter this morning with several of the waders moved on and apart from Common Sands everything else was up the ne corner.
Just 2 Wheatear were remaining around the area and 2 Snipe spent most of the time in the air.

9 Common Sandpiper
2 Dunlin
5 Redshank
1Golden Plover
5 Curlew
2 Wheatear
1 Sand Martin.................>S
2 Snipe
Several Swallow moving >S into the wind
Several young Canadas and Mallard.
+ usual sp.
No Swifts
BS

A wader watchers paradise. Fly Flatts

Tons of shoreline

An amazing number of waders

evening visit, slight SSE> 2 damp and cloudy.
Not a place for the faint hearted on an evening with druggies, quad biker drug dealers, fly tippers and fly tip scroungers to mention the good ones. Apart from that vans were arriving and people were carrying equipment up to the sacrifice stones for some sort of festival, not a good idea with the state of the moor. Anyway, at risk of getting the car trashed I parked at the northern end and ventured down to another world. Waders were calling everywhere and flying around from one shore to another.
The Sanderling flew from the nw corner to well down the east shore but no Barwit could be found.
I picked up 3 small waders in the scope flying low south to north over the water which were seen to be Turnstone getting ready to land but as they did so 2 Oystercatchers flew at them sending them back up high and away due north.
Thought Id better get up here tonight in case the weather forecast is correct and its wet and misty in the morning.

9 Redshank
11 Common Sandpipers
4 Dunlin
1 Sanderling
3 Turnstone
3 Curlew
4 Oystercatchers
+ usual sp.
BS

Shelf Moor

Warm and cloudy, slight drizzle early pm. Thunder around 2000hrs over Queensbury.
A quick visit to Shelf Moor this evening produced 5 Canada geese at the pond along with 1 Moorhen.
7 LBB gulls went over >W and several Swallows were feeding over the fields, the rain seems to have livened the insects up a bit.
Two Swifts drifted over >NE and a Curlew was in the Hawthorn field which is a strange sighting.
Heavy rain given over the weekend so lets hope its all after dark.
BS