LEO's

Undisclosed site - with juveniles now flying around.

 Adults

Juvenile

Mixenden and Fly Flatts

Common Scoter drake on Mixenden Reservoir this morning along with 6 Canada Geese, a L B B Gull and a few Swifts, Swallows and House Martins in the rain

Common Scoter - distant shot was the best I could do !
Probably a first summer male as there is only a small bulge at the base of the bill and the wing panel still shows brownish rather than black feathers.

 

Fogged off at Fly Flatts along with rain, wind and the Fire Brigade on exercises but the Swifts were still there undeterred.

Fly Flatts and Withens Head

Female Common Scoter on the water this morning though it was tricky to find in the waves from the strong wind and mist drifting through added to the fact that it was diving for quite a lot of the time and seemed to stay under for quite a while at a time.
Still there mid afternoon (BS)

Also from this morning 2 Barnacle Geese still with the Canada flock which now, with the juveniles, amounts to well over 200 birds plus a few Greylag Geese.
I couldn't get a decent count of the waders in the conditions but they included Common Sandpipers, Dunlin, Snipe, Redshank, Lapwing and Curlew.
1 Lesser Black-backed Gull present with 50+  Swifts feeding at a frenzy over the water - fantastic to watch at the speed they were moving !

Caspian Gull ...some very good advice

https://www.facebook.com/Punkbirder/videos/568885576615051/?fref=nf

Red Kite over Claremount & Boothtown

       Red Kite seen over Claremount coming from over town
       toward Shibden valley harrassed by a single crow all the
       way, great to see one over this way even though it was
       very high up, this was about 1.30 in the afternoon.

     

Long-eared Owls

Staying with the owl theme, here's a few shots and a short video from a pair of LEO's and one of the Owlets, I've been following since the end of March, unfortunately outside our recording area. The pair have 3 Owlets branching, all seem to be doing well.

 Last couple of weeks I've visited 4 breeding sites, all have young hunger calling.

3 sites within a few miles of our recording area and one being in South-west Calderdale, making at least 2 breeding pairs in our area, great news!

Year before last, I was visiting a Calderdale site where a pair were still feeding Owlets up to the end of August, fingers crossed there's still more to come.

All shots and video were taken from the roadside, they've been an absolute pleasure to watch hunting and its been superb to see the Owlets so close. 

Spotted on twitter

Short-eared Owl

A fledgling 'Shortie' at one of our local moorland sites this week. A little different from Barn Owl chicks but a very nice find all the same.

Barn Owl chicks !

No not in Calderdale unfortunately (we don't get sights like this locally) wish we did..!
Thought blog watchers might be interested in this. It sounds like a good year for them down there with 2 other broods of 5 and 5 near this one.

Friday Mytholmroyd

Yesterday evening a hobby flew over the garden heading towards the water works
Also 2 oystercatchers and nuthatch seen from the garden as well

Yesterdays Scoters

Yesterdays Scoters at Lower Walshaw.

Canal & River

Saw something I'd not seen before yesterday. A Mallard duckling catching & playing with a fish.

Kingfisher then did a flypast on the river close to Hollas Bridge, Copley.

Common Scoters

A pair of Common Scoters Tonight on Lower Walshaw Reservoir.

Re: post below

This is a female redstart, taken recently by a friend at Bolton Abbey. I think it looks a lot like the bird below?