Cold Edge

Jack Snipe 1. In dull conditions with rain expected it was flushed from the side of a track, about 7 metres from me. It gave a brief, quiet, quite harsh call. It flew low and dropped down into heather about 25m away. In the 1-2 seconds it was visible, the only plumage feature I noted was a white line on the wing. I walked over to about where it landed (the heather was quite tall and the ground very uneven), but the bird did not fly again.

Cold Edge

Goosander. The white markings above and below the eye age this bird as 1st calendar year (1cy)

1 of 4 Goldfinch

Some of about 270 Starlings. The top left 3 birds are adults, but most of the rest are 1cy, with pale head and neck. The pale underwing can be seen on some birds

1cy Lesser Black-backed Gull. It has the typical dark outer greater coverts, but the tertials are unusual. Normally LBB tertials have a dark centre surrounded by a pale fringe, with a straight (mostly) line separating them, and sometimes the fringe is thicker at the tip: here the proximal two thirds are typical, but the distal third is white with a dark transverse bar

Cold Edge

Reed Bunting 2. They were together, and I think are a pair, with the top photo being the male and the other 2 the female. The male shows signs of feathers beginning to wear away to reveal a black bib. The female has a pale throat and a thick black malar (or whatever we're supposed to call it now) stripe.

The bird with no tail

This tree is similar to the one in Newcastle, County Down, that has just been named Tree of the Year

Lee Mount - 7th October

What a start to the morning with a text from DJB with 7 Whooper Swans >SE over Soil Hill area at 08:50. Mmmm >SE that maybe in my direction so went out on the off chance they might show over here. 

Right on queue..just a few minutes later... 7 Whoopers quite high just to my east, no noise. but looked good against the grey sky. 

Thanks DJB and with a bit of luck thrown in !

Fly Flatts / Withens Head

1 Wheatear still present near the wind-farm yesterday (1st October) but it was so windy up there late morning today I failed to relocate it. A nice surprise was 13 Pink-footed Geese heading >W in the blustery conditions. They were getting higher and higher as I followed them out of site.

1 Raven landed on the mast briefly and a Buzzard headed >S over the wind-farm.

All I managed at Fly Flatts apart from 12 Carrion Crows and 4 LBBG's on the mud - and there is plenty of that. No waders, though I  scoped 3 Teal on a small pool. Distant Buzzard and 3 Kestrels.

Cold Edge

Sparrowhawk juvenile male

Tamer than an adult would be. Upperparts brown with buff fringes, (1 year and older - grey). Irregular fairly coarse brown barring on underparts, (female - greyer barring; adult - finer and more regular barring)

Pheasant: family party with 5 immatures - 4 female (shorter tail than adult) - 1 male (head and neck grey with just the beginnings of red wattle, but like adult does have buff spots on back and black spots on flank)

Cold Edge

Stonechat in the fog

'4 of 5 Pintails' - No, WIGEON - see Daniel's comment and my PS below. The birds were flushed by a dog walker, and flew east, just after I first saw them

Adult female Pintail have scalloped flanks, like Mallard, and none of these birds has that feature. 

The front, top middle and rear birds have plain chestnut flanks and blackish backs, which I think makes them eclipse males. The rear bird has 2 male-type scapulars: black with pale margins.

The lower middle bird has plain brownish-grey flank and - slightly darker - back. I guess this is a juvenile.

The bills comprise a pale grey triangle over a dark grey base.

PS (1 October): I was taken in by the seemingly long necks (? birds alert to dog walker) and did not think of Wigeon (!), but this is clear given the chestnut flanks of 3 of the birds, the visible white inner forewing, and the bills which in Pintail would be longer and less stubby.

Cold Edge

Tufted Duck, male coming out of eclipse. Juvenile would have a dark eye, and female would have brown back and brown flanks.

Stonechat female

Brookfoot, Brighouse

Probable Black-bellied Dipper, Cinclus cinclus cinclus. Upperparts brown, belly black to where it meets the white bib.

The third photo shows a small area of brown at the side of the bib. Certain angles show thin white fringes on some wing coverts and tertials, suggesting a first calendar year (1cy) bird.

All the Dippers I have seen in Yorkshire over 40 years have been on shallow watercourses with exposed stones providing perches. This bird was at the side of a deep wide section of the River Calder.

 

Cold Edge

Reed Bunting 2

1cy Lesser Black-backed Gull. The bird looks quite pale in the bright sunlight, but two features clinch the id.

1. The outer greater coverts are dark - the 'midwing panel' visible in flight. In Herring Gull all the GCs are the same colour as the median and lesser coverts.

2. The tertials are dark proximally and white distally: there is no white edge extending back to the greater coverts. Most often in 1cy LBB, a tertial has a dark centre with a straight edge joining a thin white border. While in 1cy Herring a wavy line typically separates the tertial's dark centre and pale border, giving the centre a shape that recalls an oak leaf: and the pale border goes back to the GCs.

Cold Edge

Lapwing 8, (with Canada Geese). In the top photo, the faces of the right two birds show the buff tone of winter plumage, and between them the three birds show (similar to Pied Wagtail!) winter's white chin and throat, and black breast band

Mistle Thrush and Kestrel

Moorhen juvenile

Pied Wagtail, with the white chin of winter plumage

Dead mole. Impressive claws!

Blackstone Edge

Linnet 1, Meadow Pipit 4, Canada Goose +

A Tree Pipit would have a stronger supercilium, a thicker bill base, and a thin black loral stripe in front of the eye

Cold Edge

 Leucistic (see 31 August post) and normal Greylags

2 Reed Buntings

Stonechat female. The 2nd and 3rd photos show that the underwing coverts are pale: in Siberian Stonechat they are black

Cold Edge

Moorhen 1 juvenile. (Also 1 adult)

Robin

Stonechats

Part of a flock of 21 Greylags

Cold Edge

6 Greylags flew in from the east

The (probably for now) resident Herring Gull - see 19 Aug and 5 Sep - now has a white-tipped primary

Starling 60: adults and many juveniles. All birds now have a fresh spotted body and neat brown-edged flight and tail feathers. The juveniles' heads are pale - some more than others