Whiteholme

Whimbrel, with 3 Curlews. Thanks MH.

Blackstone Edge

Whimbrel. This bird showed how whimbrels are tamer than curlews: a dog (with walker following) approached to about 25 yards before the bird flew off.

I know my photos are not very good: just record shots. But I'm trying to contribute to local bird recording without using a car, and with equipment that in total cost less than 1K: Kite Lynx HD+ 10x30 bins and Lumix FZ82D (the D is vital) 60x zoom bridge camera. My usual Blackstone Edge/Whiteholme walk is over 4 miles, and aged 81 I could not do this with two heavy weights around my neck.

Baitings

Kestrel. I thought this bird was a male when it showed a grey tail on landing, but (with the help of Dick Forsman's 1999 'Raptors') I've identified it as an adult female.

The underparts have light streaking, and spots, - not the heavy streaking of a juvenile. The cere and feet are yellow, (tinged green in juv). The bird is moulting its flight feathers and tail: some primaries are missing and 3 tail feathers are not fully grown, (first such moult occurs when a year old).

The crown, posterior eye stripe, and moustache are pale - perhaps indicating a young bird (? 2 or 3cy). Upperparts are brown with typical black flat triangular bars. Tail has grey feathers with black bars and broad subterminal band, (Forsman quotes a study finding 40% of 2cy females with grey in tail, and up to 75% of older birds).

Whiteholme

Little Ringed Plover

Common Scoter pair

Great Crested Grebe 5

Blackstone Edge

Ringed Plover 2

Whiteholme

Merlin juvenile. Dick Forsman (1999, Raptors of E and ME) has a photo of a juvenile Merlin, and notes that there are dark streaks on the breast "turning to bars towards the flanks". This bird shows this feature. And I do not think an adult would have let me get as near as I did to this bird.

Also: Wheatear 1

Blackstone Edge

Ringed Plover juvenile

Also: Wheatear 1

Whiteholme

Meadow Pipit with 2 or 3 prey items

Common sandpiper

Blackstone Edge

Ringed Plover juvenile. Body more 'dumpy' than LRP, and rear not attenuated. Thicker bill. No yellow or pale buff orbital ring. Pale forehead visible in second photo.

Common sandpiper

Baitings

Chiffchaff

Grey Heron on shoreline exposed by falling water level

Whiteholme

Little Ringed Plover, (with Pied Wagtail juvenile). The narrow breast band indicates female

Solitary Black-headed Gull

Also:  1 Redshank, and 2 Swifts SW

Ringstone Edge, 22 July

Great Crested Grebe 2

Cormorant 5

Common Gull 1

Stock Dove 2

Ringstone Edge

Tufted Duck male

Teal 4

British Cormorant, P c carbo, immature. The rear edge of the yellow gular patch slopes forwards below the gape

Pheasant female

Kestrel male

Pied wagtail 2 juveniles

Magpie juvenile

Shibden Valley, 12 July

Juvenile House Martins

Whiteholme

Tufted Duck

Soil Hill

  I had completed my route around Soil Hill and was just on my way back home at around 07:20. As I passed the Entrance Copse my attention was caught by a high-pitched call. Over the past couple of weeks there have been many high-pitched calls which made me think of Treecreeper, but they always turned out to be fledgling birds of one species or another, normally tits. Consequently, I did not expect this to be any different, but tried to spot the culprit regardless. It was quite the shock when I tracked down the source of this call to find that it was indeed a Treecreeper! And more than that, the bird showed very well perching in the open for excellent views and nice photos.

  This is a species I had often considered for a Soil Hill tick, and summer often seemed like the best time as juveniles disperse from nearby breeding woodlands. Hence my increased interest in the various high-pitched calls I had encountered over the last week or so. However, it still caught me off guard this morning, being my 135th species for the Soil Hill!

-Treecreeper

  Continuing on the theme of woodland birds recently on Soil Hill, on the 14^th June I encountered just my fourth Soil Hill Nuthatch on Taylor Lane before it flew strongly north. Of my four records of Nuthatch on Soil Hill, three have come in June with the other in April.

-Nuthatch

In total managed 42 species this morniong, the full list here; https://ebird.org/checklist/S362468677

Beacon Hill

2 singing Whitethroats