Soil Hill

   Despite the bright conditions, it was a frustratingly breezy morning on Soil Hill, and sadly this came to play a large part in the story of this mornings star bird.

  Upon reaching the top of the North Slope, I caught a brief snippet of warbler song, reminiscent of Blackcap but faster and more bubbly. Fortunately the bird sang again and was soon in full song, confirming that it was a Garden Warbler, a full Soil Hill tick for me. Although I was able to take some recordings, in the following 90 minutes of tracking the bird I managed to see it just once as the strong breeze kept it deep in the vegetation. It was surprisingly mobile, moving from the top of the North Slope, to the mast and then all the way to the bottom of the North Slope and back to the top. Although thrilled at a patch tick, it was a rather frustrating experience.

  Garden Warbler is my 130^th species for Soil Hill, and the 10^th species of Warbler here. Can’t imagine there are too many sites in Calderdale that can claim double figures of warblers. 

  Audio recordings are attached to the eBird list below

In total managed 38 species today, the full list here; https://ebird.org/checklist/S245812256