Industrial Estates

I pass through Lowfields "Business Park" most days of the week in the course of my work. Recently having started to note down which birds I spot locally, I realised Lowfields seems to contain a large and varied bird population. Some birds that I see around Calderdale occur in large (or large to me anyway) numbers on Lowfields. For example I might be lucky to spot Goldfinch on my morning walk with the dog down to Cromwell Bottom, but can guarantee to spot anything from a dozen to thirty on a quick walk around Lowfields. I had a quick look round yesterday and spotted Geenfinch, Goldfinch. Bullfinch, Willow Warbler, Linnet, Jay, Magpie, Carrion Crow, Kestrel, Sparrowhawk, Blackbird, Missle Thrush, Song Thrush. OK,nothing particularly exciting, but I did spot the birds in larger numbers than I do around Cromwell Bottom and imagine what a proper birder might have found ? The birds were all seen in one small section of Lowfields in around 20 Minutes.

I have a few points to make about this:
Does anyone check such industrial or former industrial sites in Calderdale ? If not it might be worth someone going round a couple just to see if they are worth investigating in Calderdale.
They might be good sites to stick up nest boxes and feeding stations as A/ its very convenient as most sites have roads running all round and through them. B/ Many of the companies on such sites would be happy to pay for boxes and stocking feeding stations as its good publicity and good for staff morale.
As many will know my main interest is in Moths and such industrial sites are one of the first places I check for moth species that are spreading North and might hopefully be found in Calderdale. Industrial estates are very good for finding such moths as some moths will inadvertently "hitch" a lift on lorries from other areas and secondly many of the micromoths can be found on the plants brought in large numbers to plant such places. I wont go into details but I tracked one new micro moth to Calderdale on Sycamore by driving round and checking Sycamore near major roads in Calderdale. It was very common on roadside Sycamore but almost impossible to find a few hundred yards from the road on seemingly ideal looking Sycamores. Had I looked for this more pleasant traditional recording areas I would have concluded it did not occur in Calderdale......perhaps we are missing some birds in Calderdale for the same reason ? I realise of course that birds and moths are completely different, but perhaps by concentrating on "traditional" bird watching areas important birds or migrants are being missed in industrial sites ?