Luddenden Dean

Mid afternoon at least one Northern Long-tailed Tit present with other LT Tits but only managed brief sightings.

Just up the hill from Lowe Barn at least 550 Chaffinch headed up to Castle Carr roost in small groups between 3 and 4 pm. Also one flock of 30+ Brambling landed in the tops of trees and a few others were with the Chaff's.
Also heading up to roost, 1 Green Woodpecker and 6 Bullfinch along with a smattering of Goldfinch and Greenfinch as well as numerous tits.

Brambling

At last, a Brambling - on the nyjer seeds this afternoon. There's only been the one up to now though.

 

Mystery Bird

Jeff sent me this having spotted it in a photo he took recently on the east coast. I've cropped it and played with the exposure a loittle to try and highlight the defining features. It's obviously a Plover but am I right in saying Grey or do we think it could be something more exciting. It's been a while since I saw a winter plummaged Grey but something doesn't seem quite right to me.

Barn Owl boxing - round 2

Two more Barn Owl boxes put up today, thanks to the usual stalwarts JU, SLC, HO, JC & AH plus of course the very supportive landowners.

Other news today

Soil Hill - 4 Snow Bunings still present (NK)

Northowram - Nordic/eastern Jackdaw still present

Luddenden Dean - At least one Northern LTT present today

Booth Wood - Common Buzzard present 8 am

Elland GP - one Pink-footed Goose reported, still with the Canadas yesterday

Nearly forgot - tonights Evening Courier, there is a very good report on the Whooper Swan rescue at Sowerby Bridge marina with one of Andy H's photo's.

Stainland

This morning...

Along the Black Brook

Treecreeper

3 Grey Heron

Dipper

Kingfisher

Bullfinch

By Bower's Mill Pond

Teal

Water Rail

Grey Wagtail

Also plenty of Redwing in Stainland Dean/ on Stainland Moor

Feeding Frenzy

The new feeding station by the bridge at Cromwell Bottom really is producing the goods. Also attending several Robins, 2 Siskin, numerous Great tits and Blackbirds and multiple Bullfinch.

Elsewhere 7 Goldeneye (6 female), 1 Pochard, 7 Tufted Duck, 10 Grey Heron, 1 Goosander (female), 3 Little Grebe, 1 Cormorant, 2 Moorhen, 7 Coot, 4 Mistle Thrush, 1 Song Thrush along with too many Canada Geese and lots of BHG, 1 Common Gull also seen.

Nuthatch and Reed Bunting both heard but not seen and no sign of the Kingfisher though 90% of Canal frozen over so it had probably moved onto the river.

I.D. of Jackdaws

Does this help or confuse the i.d. of Andy's Jackdaw, I've just read this excellent article and it dissagrees with many of the comments about the extent of the pale collar in BWP and Crows and Jays, well worth a read.

note it is calling the birds with clear collars in Holland Nordic Jackdaws although these do not have as clear a collar as Andy's bird. Has the second bird with the fainter collar been seen again?

If anyone would like a larger copy of this I can supply one on disc

NLTT

Received via the blog e mail

At Luddenden Dean yesterday, February 1:
I managed to get sight (plus a couple of hurried photos) of one of the Northern Long-tailed Tits close to the bridge at the head of the Dean. It was with four others of the normal race but all were very mobile. Two other Northerns (or one of them perhaps the same bird?) were also reported by another watcher lower down the Dean at about the same time.

Michael Foley

Michael's bird blog can be found at http://mjyfoley.blogspot.com/

Record shot above.

Eastern Jackdaw ?

Tall Andy's Jackdaw at Northowram today, looks good to me for eastern race soemmerringii or perhaps a cross with northern scandinavian race, any thoughts?. Well done to Andy for picking this bird out.

Eastern (?) Jackdaw

Images of this very distinct nordic/eatern type Jackdaw this afternoon at Northowram with Nick D.
Also present
3 Gt B B Gulls over >E
1 Pied Wagtail
1 Sparrowhawk
With thanks to Andy for finding the bird in the first place - and for the hospitality Andy at your 'watchpoint'!

Ripponden and Ringstone Edge, 2nd Feb' 2012

Had a little drive over to Ripponden and Ringstone Edge Res' this morning and saw the following:

dipper by the old bridge in Ripponden, plus a few normal long-tailed tits. Also, 80 plus redwing and fieldfare in pasture between the Barkisland crossroads and Ringstone Edge. I saw three golden plover by the stone circle at Ringstone Edge, but there were probably more obscured by a wall.

Chris

Mixenden Res'r and Soil Hill

3 of the 4 Snow Buntings this morning on Soil Hill


This morning
10 Goosander (8 males) and 3 Goldeneye (1 male) at Mixenden.

Soil Hill produced the goods after about an hour tramping round with a Jack Snipe flushed on the north west slope which dropped back into the heather about 60 meters away. I left it be as guess it will be struggling to feed with the ground frozen hard up there.
8 Skylarks on the top and, eventually, 4 Snow Buntings showing well on the south facing mounds just at the edge of the flat area beyond the mast.

Andy's Eastern Jackdaw

here's a few photo's of Andy eastern Jackdaw, I for one am happy that this is the eastern sub-species C m soemmerringii.

A distinctive bird even in flight, unfortunatley the photo's are heavily cropped and enlarged as it was a bit distant but they do illustrate the relevant features , nice one Andy

Cromwell Bottom

Had an hour down at Cromwell Bottom today and had great views of the Kingfisher. It was totally oblivious to us and apparantly covers the same area all the time. For anyone who wants to get some picks  start out at the Cromwell carpark go onto the canal path heading for Elland and it covers the first 200 yards on the right. Also had 4 Redpol on the feeders along with the usual , plus male and female Bullfinch.

Todmorden area

Went to see if I could find some winter thrushes this morning and found 4 Redwing in Longfield Wood.

Other locations:
Lee Dam
Teal - 2 pairs
Moorhen - 6 (most I've seen here, max of 2 previously)
Mallard - 1
Longfield Dam
Goldeneye - 1 pair
Lapwing - 12
Kestrel being mobbed by Crows
Black-headed Gull - 7
Canada Goose - 18

Nuthatch in Shaw Wood.

Just out of Area

Report of a Slav Grebe at Hollingworth Lake today by the Naval Cadets Centre in the Southwest bay.

Whooper swan

What's wrong with 'Andrew' for a name?

Nordic/eastern Jackdaw

See Andy's Northowram Wildlife link for some shots of this excellent find!

Safe and on the road to recovery

Met Dan from the Yorkshire Swan Rescue centre just after 14:00 this afternoon who with the help of a grappling hook and a loaf of Warburtons wholemeal soon had the Whooper safely wrapped up and in the back of his van.

It appears the only injury is poor feather condition due to oil saturation probably from the boats nearby. Dan will clean it up when it gets back to the centre and give it a good feed before hopefully returning it to the wild. He will ring the bird prior to release and will happily keep us informed of it's progress.

Great job Dan and keep up the good work, looking forward to hearing of it's release and hopefully many of reports of the bird returning safely on migration each year.