I was slightly delayed in starting my morning on the 5th June thanks to sporadic rain showers that continued on and off throughout the early morning, a continuation of the previous days' downpours. My morning visit to Soil Hill finally commenced at 08:00, when I predicted that it would be safe to venture out without the risk of becoming thoroughly sodden.
As I headed up Taylor Lane I heard what sounded like the song of a male Quail, with the classic ‘whet-my-lips’ phrase uttered once. Unfortunately the song was faint and I could not hear it clearly with the other birds in full song around me, that and the fact that it had caught me completely off-guard.
I waited, anxious that I may have let the bird slip by me, but after 10 minutes I heard the song again. After refreshing the Merlin App so many times to try and get a recording, I was frustrated that the app had not picked up the song. But at least I was now clear that I had a Quail on my hands.
What I did not expect was that I would see the bird, but I caught it out of the corner of my eye as it flew across the road, crashing into the fields on the other side. From there, it continued to be extremely reluctant to sing, normally only uttering the single sequence of three notes. On only one occasion did it start to sing with any regularity, but during this period I was able to get several recordings of the bird. On my way back down the Hill an hour later, it was still sporadically singing, but it had once again crossed the road.
Sadly the Quail was not heard by birders visiting in the afternoon, nor by me when I visited that evening. The following day was very wet but once again there was no sight or sound of the Quail, and now that a few days have transpired, I feel comfortable posting the record on here.
Because of the tall grasses in the hay fields around Soil Hill, Quail has long been a species I have imagined finding here. But its rarity in Calderdale always made it an unlikely prospect, one that I am overjoyed to have fulfilled. This was not only a Soil Hill and Calderdale tick for me, this was no less than a full British tick! I never thought I would have one of those on Soil Hill ever again!
Some video and audio recordings are on the attached eBird list, but unfortunately blogger is not letting me attach them here
