Ogden - 5th July

Tried this morning in the drizzle for yesterdays Black-tailed Godwit that was there at some point  yesterday. Gone now, just too late for it !

8 Grey Heron on the res'r shoreline along with 1 Cormorant and a single drake Tufted Duck. 

2 adult Herring Gulls and 25+ L B B Gulls to and fro along with 17 Black-headed Gulls.

Chiffchaff and a Willow Warbler also present along with at least 5 singing Blackcap and a Treecreeper.

3 Oystercatchers, 1 Curlew and then 14 Swallows, mostly juveniles passed through >W.

Cold Edge

Short-eared Owl

Tufted Duck female with 3 young

Bar Lane, Rishworth, 4 July

Its avian name is my feeble excuse for putting this wonderful Hummingbird Hawk-moth onto a bird blog.

Fly Flatts

Tried hard this morning till noon for the summer plumage Black-tailed Godwit found by BS earlier in the day. In a strengthening wind up there I failed to relocate it and just about managed 1 Oystercatcher and 2 Common Sandpipers scoping from the top road watch-points. I suspected the bird had moved on.

I gather that NK relocated what was presumably the same bird later in the day at Ogden Water and a Little Egret turned up there too.

Whiteholme

Well camouflaged LRP

Whiteholme

Little Ringed Plover. This is a different bird from yesterday: the breast band is narrower, suggesting it is a female. The breast band of the (presumed) male yesterday was broader either side of the midline, giving a 'dickey bow' effect.

Common Sandpiper: adult and juvenile. The upperparts of the adult (lower bird) are plainer than those of the juvenile. The juvenile's upperparts have dark and light markings, and are lighter brown overall.

Whiteholme

Teal

Little Ringed Plover

2 Ravens

Cold Edge / Ovenden Moor

Still a few waders about but nothing too exciting in the heat yesterday afternoon.

A single Wheatear on the walls at Withens Head was about the best.

Also from NK - a Common Redstart at Carrs Beck - adjacent Ogden golf course. This seems to be a favoured spot.

Blackstone Edge

Little Ringed Plover

2 female Ringed Plovers

BIRD A

BIRD B

Yesterday's Ringed Plover was a male: jet black head and breast markings, - including a thick black band between forehead and crown - and quite bright orange legs and bill base.

Today's birds show how females differ. The head and breast markings are dark brown, not jet black (only really apparent when photographed in sunlight - Bird B, top), with a thinner band between forehead and crown. And the bill base and legs are duller, especially on Bird A.

Whiteholme

Teal

Blackstone Edge

Ringed Plover

Blackstone Edge

Trip up there this afternoon to see if any further waders were present as viewed from Turvin Road . Nothing new but still 1 Sanderling, 4 Dunlin, 2 Ringed Plover, 2 Common Sandpipers, 1 Curlew and 2 drake Teal.

Kestrel nearby and 2 Lesser Black-backed Gulls dropped in briefly to bathe and preen.

Elsewhere 2 Common Terns around at Ringstone for a while until they left around 15:15 (JB et al).

2 Quail also heard nearby - not sure when the last ones were recorded in Calderdale !

Whiteholme

Great Crested Grebe. My first here. (Because of the rain, I had only my 30x pocket Lumix with me).

I now have a Local Patch life list of 117. But mine is not a typical patch: it is a Split Patch comprising Whiteholme + Shibden Valley (north of A58, east of Easting 10). Ticks from both these sites go onto a single life list. 

If I: (1) lived by the coast,

(2) had an inland patch with both an expanse of water and surrounding vegetation and fields - like Ringstone Edge, or (3) was able to be in a patch soon after dawn to catch flyovers, I could see at a single site a reasonable number of species of the main families that occur locally.  

But since none of these applies to me, the only way I can build a lengthy local patch list (as opposed to a Calderdale list) is by lumping two very different habitats together as a single split patch.

Blackstone Edge

Sanderling

Ringed Plover (1 of 2)