Had a wander around Langfield and up to Gaddings Dam this morning.
Wheatear
Skylark - 9
Mipits - stopped counting at 25
Black headed gull - 6
Reed Bunting - 4
Dunlin - 3
While I was creeping up on the dunlin to take a few pics I heard a redshank calling behind me and turned around to fire off a few frames. I saw what I believed to be 2 redshanks and didn't stop to put the bins on them, but looking at the photos this evening what do you think? Is one of the birds a golden plover - the one on the left? The second redshank is just below it, partially hidden by grass. May be just a trick of the light and shadow as the bill looks too long for a golden plover, but the markings look right. Also the redshank just in front looks like a redshank so the light and shadow, if they are playing tricks, should also affect that bird too?
Also saw a squirrel up there on the eastern dam wall, which is pretty unbelievable as the nearest tree is about 3/4 mile away so it must have been lost. A jogger ran past it while I was taking a picture and his dog went after the squirrel, but luckily the dog was on a long lead so the squirrel escaped to get lost somewhere else!
11 comments:
Hi Jeff,
I used to be a bus driver at Todmorden, and once when passing Longfield Dam I was surprised to see a Grey Squirrel in the road in front of me. I was rather alarmed to see it run up and over the stone wall to the south side of the road, and into the field that (a few years ago) contained a number of pairs of breeding Lapwing. I don't know how dangerous a determined squirrel could be to ground nesting birds of this size? Maybe some squirrels have discovered there are nests in this area, and its presence was not as accidental as we might think?
Hi Phil
You're right of course, the creature must have had good reason to wander so far away from its normal food source (probably Horse Wood which is the nearest group of trees) and one such reason may well be a wealth of food easily accessible in ground nests - there are certainly plenty up there to choose from. I don't think grey squirrels pose a threat to fully grown birds, but they do to eggs and young birds still in the nest. Still seems a long way to go for fast food though!
Martyn Hayes has commented by e mail that the mystery wader looks like a Ruff, I have to agree it does look like a Ruff, what was it like in the field? Could just be a trick of the light/camera?
Hmm, you could maybe make a case for the bird on the far right being a Ruff as well.
If you click on the picture for a larger image I reckon the bird on the right is a Redshank, the other is probably Redshank also and this just a camera effect, we get very few Ruff it would be quite a coup to get one in a random photo.
When I looked at the birds I just saw 2 on the horizon, and as I'd heard a redshank I assumed they both were redshanks (never assume, you just make an ASS out of U and ME). Having looked at the series of 6 photos I took, there are actually 4 birds on there but the 4th is obscurred so not worth discussing. The bird in question on the left looks to be behind the redshank and looks larger. Are ruff that much larger?
Also saw a squirrel up there on the eastern dam wall, which is pretty unbelievable as the nearest tree is about 3/4 mile away so it must have been lost.
Jeff....Grey squirrels have by now had at least one drey of young and these are what you usually see well away from their usual haunts. They are driven out of the home patch by the dominant male as the adults start to breed again. The young are forced to try and find new areas from now until autumn when they establish their own home patch
I don't know how dangerous a determined squirrel could be to ground nesting birds of this size
Phil...Andy Cockroft and I took photos of a Mallard egg dropped by a grey squirrel as it scampered up a tree on the canal towpath. I assume it either found an unguarded nest or drove off the sitting duck, either way they are a menace to most birds nests ground or tree nesting
Hi Paul - thanks for the info on young squirrels and it's another good possibility for this animal being so far from 'home'. I was talking to one of the Rangers at Ogden today and he said he'd seen a grey squirrel up beyond the wind farm so perhaps my sighting isn't as out-of-the-norm as I first thought.
Several years ago I saw a Grey Squirrel struggling across the exposed mud at a low Whiteholme res, it managed to get to the bank but was pretty muddy by then.
An interesting sighting from just north of the border at Thornton Moor... Date 01-09-2005 see:
http://vismig.blogspot.com/2005/09/watchpoint-01-09-2005.html
PS Agree with Martyn, it looks like a Ruff to me as well!
Dave
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