Cold Edge

1 of 3 Buzzards (1 south, 2 perched)

Some of 56 Greylag Geese

Also:  Raven 1 south

Soil Hill and Cold Edge

 The summit of 'the hill' was pretty quiet this morning.

1 Skylark, 1 Stonechat, 6 Goldfinch, 8 Meadow Pipits.

Around 40 Fieldfare went over followed by a Redwing they all landed in trees at the bottom of the north slope. 

A number of gulls passed through though 28 Common Gulls were feeding in the freshly manured fields and a few corvids were around the site.

Cold Edge (28 sp) was reasonably quiet apart from c70 Jackdaws though 6 adult Whooper Swans were a pleasant surprise on the lower dam and looking very settled as the light was fading..

Also around the site 90 Canada Geese, 38 Greylag Geese, 30 Fieldfare, 1 Stonechat, 1 Reed Bunting, 4 Stock Doves, 3 Rooks, 38 Starling, 1 Kestrel and several Red Grouse making noise ! 

Cold Edge

Stonechat. Female Stonechat usually has a dark throat. But autumn females - like this one - sometimes have a pale throat, (like Whinchat, although they do not have the prominent supercilium of Whinchat).

Cold Edge

Buzzard

Common Gull - adult and 1cy

1 of 6 Rooks

Dunnock

Also:  Fieldfare 65 east

Cold Edge

 A couple of hours up there mid/late afternoon though not a lot to report.

114 Canada Geese and 48 Greylags seemed settled in the fields with 8 Stock Doves.

The dams were devoid of birds except for a single Canada Goose with 2 Red Grouse nearby and 

2 Stonechat were on the moor fence line just below the lower dam.

1 Kestrel, 1 Greenfinch, 1 Mistle Thrush, 1 Rook, 16 Blackbirds, 30+ Starlings.

B h Gulls, Common Gulls and 2 Herring Gulls gradually moving through on a roost flight.

Just seen Pete's photos of his recent Tree Sparrow - what a good bird for up there.

Cold Edge

Starling still in juvenile plumage

Pheasant: 2 females (with Canada Goose) - white crescent below eye; barred tail

Cold Edge

Fieldfare

Reed Bunting pair

Cold Edge

Tree Sparrow

Cold Edge

5 of 33 Greylag Geese, with Canadas

Tufted Duck male. The dark eye ages it as 1cy

There is no tuft at the nape, but the structure of head and bill exclude Scaup:

- forehead is rounded, leading to highest point of crown being at its centre, (Scaup has steep forehead, and highest point of crown in front of its centre);

- culmen of bill is smoothly concave, (culmen of Scaup is almost straight, and bill is deeper and wider);

- bill is shorter: 2/3 of bill to nape interval, (Scaup 3/4).

Scaup breed in Iceland and Scandinavia, and I think we get an early autumn passage of 1cy birds. My first young Scaup was shown to me at Ogden by Phil Cunningham in September over 30 years ago, and I have  seen (and blogged) a number in early autumn in recent years. Young 1cy Tufted and Scaup have identical plumage so it is likely some young Scaup are missed.

Ogden

This morning in search of BS and JJL's recent Brambling. Eventually managed two with a small number of maybe 12 Chaffinch all well hidden in the dense shrubs beside the path. They all eventually took flight with the Brambling showing there white rumps as they went.

Thrushes and Woodpigeons were on the move high over the plantation, all heading towards Thornton Moor. Difficult to count when they are on the move like that though I managed guesstimates ...Fieldfare 11 groups total c580. Redwings 6 groups est c230, Woodpigeons 8 groups est c320.

Green Woodpecker yaffle in the woodland with a noisy Nuthatch.

1 Kestrel, 2 Raven and 2 Jays elsewhere.

The previous day a Barn Owl was out and about mid afternoon, but distant.

Cold Edge

Herring Gull 2 adults

1 of 15 Blackbirds

Kestrel female. I cannot make out the right side of the bird's face. Has it lost an eye? Could it hunt without binocular vision?

Also:  Fieldfare 50

Blackstone Edge

Mipit in the fog!

Soil Hill

Not a site for the faint-hearted which had been excavated in fairly recent times. Lots of rough stoney ground with emergent weeds and shallow pools along with areas of rank vegetation. A site to be negotiated with care but I gave it a go on the summit yesterday. The drizzle was coming sideways from the west with a gusty wind so zig-zagged across from the west side with the wind behind me. I might as well not have bothered...1 Red-legged Partridge was the only bird i could find on the top.

Undeterred I gave it a go this morning with JJL of a same mind - two eyes and ears are better than one!  

We trawled the summit with several worthwhile rewards. See JJL's list on his blog.

bradshawbirds.blogspot.com

Never know what might turn up here though DJB has excelled on this site as others have done over the years.

Ogden Water

An interesting mid afternoon circuit of the reservoir favouring the west bank for starters in the shelter from the gusting wind. The water levels slightly up from our walk around there last week.

Around 25 B H Gulls were on a spit along with 2 Common Gulls when a 'white winged' gull dropped out of the sky landing alongside them. An adult Mediterranean Gull, always a pleasure to see. It stayed with the group for several minutes bathing and preening so we were afforded reasonably close views with not a sign of any black feathers on the wing tip, a black smudgy mask just above and behind the eye and blood red legs and bill. A classic winter adult. No camera !!! After a while it flew off towards another group of gulls on the east side but we failed to locate again.

Also present - 3 Lapwings, 3 Teal, 5 Tufted Duck and c60 Mallard along with 2 Herring Gulls and 2 L B -b Gulls. A limited number of passerines - 1 Goldcrest, 4 Blue Tits, 1 Great Tit, 2 Chaffinch and a small flock of Redwings dropped into the plantation.

Beacon Hill

Common Gull. The white-tipped primaries age it as adult. The outer primary, P10, and possibly also P9, have not yet fully regrown after moult. When moult is complete, 4 or 5 white tipped primaries are visible beyond the tertials.

1cy Carrion Crow. Very tame: photo was taken only about 7 metres from the bird.

Canada Goose 24 feeding

Beacon Hill

Continental Blackbird

Also:  Jay 1 west

Cold Edge

Stonechat pair

Herring Gull adult. The bird has 3 white-tipped primaries beyond the tertials: a fully grown wing has 4. The head and neck have moulted into winter plumage: there are dark streaks on the neck, and dark markings on the head - especially around the eye - making the eye stand out.

Cold Edge

Marsh Harrier immature

Common Gull 9. The top photo shows the streaked shawl of winter plumage. The middle one shows the plain greater coverts of a 1cy bird, contrasting with the dark centres and pale margins of the median and lesser coverts

Reed Buntings

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