Elland Gravel Pits

Around 20 Siskin feeding on alder cones today



Yesterday an adult Herring Gull was on the water just about visible through the mist



Decent numbers of gulls were feeding in the fields to the north of the lake.

Unexpected waxwing - Colden

I was doing the school run this morning, and a single waxwing was at the top of a larch next to Colden school, calling loudly before flying off in the direction of the Crags.
A pleasant surprise.

Withens Head/Fly Flats

Above and below with a Stonechat

Withens Head

With apologies for the poor quality of these shots in the bright sunshine, of a late Wheatear this afternoon at Withens Head Farm - opposite the wind farm car park - but such a late bird needs to be checked with care (thanks to Nick D's prompt to put the photo's on the blog for further scrutiny) in case of a rare Wheatear - some of which have a habit of turning up in Britain very late in the year.

I think it is our routine Northern Wheatear, albeit very late on it's way to Africa but please check it out ! It was still there at 15:30 in the fields just above the farm.

Little Owl

1 Kestrel

1 Stonechat

Fly Flatts

1 Raven

1 Stonechat

No Twite

Lee Mount

3 Tree Sparrows on garden feeder again this morning around 09:30 but not seen later today.

Shroggs Park - immediately behind the lodge by St George's Road at 10:00 in the tree tops
12 Waxwings
1 Brambling

More Waxwings

Found 2 Waxwings at Silverwood Avenue Pellon this PM, 57 Lapwings now at High Road Well Moor.

NERF Conference

Still some places left for anyone not booked, now over 130 delegates, promises to be a very interesting day at Rishworth school next Saturday.
More details from midgleybirder@yahoo.co.uk

Lee Mount surprise!

Above - 3 Tree Sparrows in the feeders and a Chaffinch in the middle

Tree Sparrow

Jen spotted these 3 special birds which turned up on the garden feeders just before we started lunch. They were totally unexpected, and turned up again later in the afternoon, firsts for our garden since we came to live here in 1974 ! They were feeding on various seed, including some millet.

Tree Sparrows are a Calderdale rarity at the present time with only one known small colony that we are aware of. In past years they were locally common at a small number of sites and their scarcity is in line with a national decline which is hopefully showing small signs of a recovery. Lets hope we get some more reports - so keep a close eye on your garden feeders.

Anyone not familiar with Tree Sparrows especially need to look out for the distinguishing features of a rusty brown cap and the black cheek spot - to avoid confusion with the House Sparrow.

snow bunting

soil hill yesterday, went up after the text and found it strait away but it was so windy so could not get a very good photo

Lee Mount

Terrible picture I know, but taken in haste through our kitchen window at 7.30 this morning ! -It was a real surprise to see a male Blackcap in our garden and just a few minutes later seen feeding off Cotoneaster horizontalis berries. Not seen again later in the day.

Jumble Hole

22 pink feet flew west at 9:00am
Green woodpecker gave good views in the garden, followed later by a treecreeper.
A single fieldfare was eating the last of the apples on the tree. A heron has been in the garden pond on two occassions this week.

Waxwings

70 - 100 at bottom of Warley Road King Cross at lunchtime (Andy Crystal)

Ogden/Mixenden/Cold Edge

I did a quick round this morning in the blustery wind to see if anything had been blow in following yesterdays and overnight gales - nothing.
1 Goosander at Mixenden !

Lesser Redpolls are back

I had the first Lesser Redpoll for 2 months on the garden feeder this morning. The last record I have was on 11 September then they disappeared and I haven't seen any until today. The same thing happened last year and in 2008, with the birds disappearing for around 2 months after the breeding season.

Perhaps the birds that breed here leave in Late August/early September and are eventually replaced in November by birds coming in from Europe? All the birds are cabaret ssp by the way. Or maybe they just move elsewhere in the country for a while/keep their heads down to moult?

Waxwings

I know that it is nothing to do with the Calderdale area but thought you might like to have a look at this blog that I was led to yesterday
http://fair-isle.blogspot.com/2010/11/waxwings-oct-25th-2010-day-well-always.html
Im sure you will like it

Mixenden and Ogden Res'rs

Mixenden Res'r
No sign of the Little Gull from yesterday unfortunately. Just a few Black-headed and Common Gulls
2 Goldeneye dropped in but did not stay
Good to see 'Martynbirder' there and to have a chat.

The 'big hedge' looked good with c30 Blackbirds, c20 Chaffinch and 80 Fieldfare split between the 'big hedge' and the nearby fields.

Ogden
1 Dipper below the embankment
1 Sparrowhawk - in flight looked to have a damaged leg as it trailed below!

Just outside Calderdale

Me and Dave slipped over the border to Hollingworth Lake this PM for the Pied Billed Grebe. At first it stuck to the bank and was hard to photograph but eventually it gave good views. Later back in Calderdale we had 3 Woodcocks come out of Walshaw Dean plantation.

Little Gull at Mixenden

Dropped everything and rushed up to Mixenden Res this pm to see Dave's latest find an adult Little Gull. Well done Dave, more pics to follow on heavybirder.

Mixenden

Little Gull with ad Common Gull to the right

Little Gull

I had an hour to spare this afternoon so thought (Ogden or Mixenden)??? Chose the right spot I think, with an adult Little Gull feeding over the res'r at 13:15. What a bonus as think it could be 30 years since my last one in Calderdale - must look it up.

I still wonder what might have been at Ogden ?!- never know after this bad weather - anything can turn up!

How hard is it to digi-scope a Little Gull feeding - tricky. I guess Nick D will have got some better pictures. bring em on Nick!

Pied-billed Grebe

Hollingworth Lake !!!!! now thats a twitch have to catch ferry

Pellon Lane

c60 Waxwings late afternoon around Crossley Gardens/Miall Street/Raglan Street but mobile!

Soil Hill/Mixenden/Ogden

Soil Hill
Sparrowhawk
2 Kestrel
8 Grey Partridge
18 Lapwing
1 Golden Plover

Mixenden Res'r
4 Goosander (2 males)

Ogden
20+ Waxwings (possibly a lot more unseen ?) came over towards Back Lane plantation near dusk with 7 birds landing in the top of a Sycamore along Ogden Lane - not sure if they are roosting at Back Lane or whether they went into the main plantations (?)

Elland Gravel Pits

Went up to Ringstone yet again to check on the Whooper and yes, it is still there, also present were 250 Lapwing, 1000 Black-headed Gull & 100 Common Gull mainly feeding in the fields which have been 'heavily manured' very recently!

I was just on my way down to Elland Gravel Pits from Ringstone when I received a text from Dave Sutcliffe that Mike Henshaw had seen a pair of Pintail first thing down there, however no sign of them during my visit from 09:00hrs until 09:30hrs.

9 Tufted Duck, 1 Goldeneye, at least 2 Great Crested Grebe, 6 Cormorant, 2 Grey Heron and c20 Siskin were present at 09:00hrs and later on 328 Pink-footed Geese flew south-east at 09:30hrs in one skein which was a great sight.

Just for a change.....Waxwings!

After the news broke on the grapevine this morning, I thought I'd give Warley Road a look for some Waxwings.
As usual there were none around, having dispersed already, so a quick detour around Hanson and Raglan before cutting through Kings Cross en rote to St Albans and Skircoat Green. I had a quick peek behind the fire station before moving on. and this time, made contact. There were about 70 (around 100 later) in a tall dark green tree, that took to the air almost immediately due to the attention of a passing Sparrowhawk.
Luckily they alighted in some tall deciduous trees by some nearby garages, and in between bouts of fly catching, sent raiding parties into the nearby Rowans.
Excellent close views, and excellent lighting conditions.
Iit was not long before I was joined by several other birders, and we soon attracted the attention of a few curious locals......"What are they?.....are they rare?......where they from, then?......."
Fantastic!
At one point they flew off when a Sparrowhawk went over, but around a dozen hung around long enough to get some reasonable footage. The flock appears to break up into smaller groups during the middle of the day, as groups of 12 or so go foraging in various directions. It would not suprise me if they all re-assemble around 3.30-ish and roost, either at Kings Cross or perhaps over Ogden way, with Kings Cross being their first port of call after sunrise.
Mid afternoon, however, was time for my regular Harrier watch. Sadly, there was no sign of either, Ringtail or male, but then there is a massive area to cover....
Tomorrow?.......who knows.

Pink and Gold

A large skein of Pink Footed Geese flew over the house at about 9:00 this morning going East.

Lee Dam had just a single Moorhen on the water but a flock of about 8 Long Tailed Tits had a couple of Goldcrest tagging along.

I also had a Red Admiral on the wall basking in the sun this afternoon. I've never seen a butterfly this late in the year before.

Pigs on the wing(Part 1)

A classic Woodpig morning at Northowram with clear blue skies and excellent visability.

Woodpigeons
7.00 - 8.00 3850 s/w
8.00 - 9.00 1375 s/w
9.00 - 9.30 350 s/w
total ............... 5575 all s/w
Pink footed Goose
8.00 - 8.45
130
175
180
50
total 535 all east
Other birds of note apart from a Skua species which eluded id .. I was going with juv dark phase Pom and I see no reason on refering to books that it was'nt this species.but the view was all too brief (drat)??
2 Goosander west
10 Greenfinch west
30+ Chaffinch west
22 Siskin west
50 + Common Gull west
1 Pied wagtail west
1 Mistle Thrush north
5 Mallard west

Various sites

Reports from GS earlier today to say the Waxwing flock of around 50 birds was around King Cross/bottom of Warley Road. Later this afternoon the flock had increased to c100 (SB)

GS also confirmed that a small flock of around 30 Redpolls was in trees along the canal tow path near Elland gravel pits - with a few Siskin in among them.

Various

Little owl this morning near Hunter Hill

Colour ringed Twite taken on 25th Oct at Fly Flatts

5th November

Out with DJS this PM. 1 Raven over Crimsworth, 30+Red Grouse, 30+ Pheasants, 1 Sparrowhawk, 3 Kestrels and 2 Grey Herons.

Hunter Hill (watchpoint) and Cold Edge

Vis Mig from 08:15 till 10:15.
Westerly F4. 10c - overcast with reasonably good visibility (and it had stopped raining!)

Chaffinch 52 >NW (the promising early movement of chaff's soon fizzled out)
Woodpigeon 8 >SW
Redwing 2 >NW
Starling 14 >NW
Grey Heron 1 >SW
Great-spotted Woodpecker 1 >NW
Lapwing 2 >N

Lots of B H Gulls and corvids in the very wet fields after yesterdays continuous rain
1 Little Owl nearby
1 Green Woodpecker
Also previously at 07:44 I received a call via BS from HC at the Oxenhope watchpoint of 2 Whooper Swans heading our way (towards Rinby/Swales Moor) but unfortunately I could not locate them from Lee Mount.

Cold Edge
1 f Goosander
1 Tufted Duck
16 Canada Geese
1 Snipe
1 Little Owl
4 Meadow Pipits
3 Kestrels

NERF Conference

Bookings now well in excess of 100 but still places left, contact midgleybirder@yahoo.co.uk for further details.

Swans over Pellon

9 Swans either Whooper or Bewicks flew south then turned west over Pellon at 12.30pm today. 1 Waxwing south over Moor End Road, Redwings and Fieldfares over in small flocks and also found an injurred Robin at Broadley which had trouble flying.

ID on this Goose

Only seen this on 2 early morning visits to Brookfoot and it flies away with the Canadas just after first light.

Waxwings at Brookfoot

Located a small flock feeding on the rowan berries alongside Avocet Works. Very poor light and they all took of towards Elland at 0815 and there were 14 in number.

Mystery Bird

Help wanted identifying a mystery bird ringed in Malta.....

http://thebaldibis.blogspot.com/

Heads Up for Pied Wagtail Roosts

Anybody in the City Centre as the sun goes down?
It's worth keeping an eye open for those Pied Wagtail roosts. Any tree that's still in leaf will do, preferably under a street light or near a hot air vent.
The last one I saw was in the tree on Market Street by the Woolshops, about 2 or 3 years ago.

Bradford Waxwings

Around 9.00 a.m. this morning I picked up another flock of Waxwings in Bradford as 50 or so went over Little Horton Lane.
After parking up, I relocated around 20 of them in tall trees by Mary Seacole Court on Park Road before they flew off in the direction of Manchester Road.
These birds appeared to be picking insects off the leaves of the trees that they were perched in.

Around and about

Weather conditions deteriorated this morning though conditions were not too bad up Swales Moor first thing apart from a strong westerly wind.
Swales Moor
3 Skylark
25 Linnet
6 Meadow Pipits
c35 Fieldfare
c6 Redwing
1 Kestrel

Ogden - just a few B H and Common Gulls
Mixenden Res'r - c80 B H Gulls and 25 Common Gulls, 1 Grey Wagtail
Cold Edge - 1 f Goldeneye
Fly Flats - 1 Canada Goose!

Oxenhope

Check out the Visible Migration link for some fantastic sightings at this site yesterday from the dedicated team up there. Well done for some fantastic birds. and so close to Calderdale.

Yesterday

70 Pink-footed Geese going west over Lee Mount at 08.30

6 Brambling in Shroggs Park just behind the park lodge opposite St George's Road

It was good to see Steve C along with the Waxwings at St Albans Road late morning

Fly Flats
No Twite today but plenty Red Grouse on the moor and becoming very vocal
2 Stonechats around the sailing club

Lee Mount 50-60 Waxwings went NW in a very tight flock, trilling away at 4.15 pm heading towards a roost site, probably towards Mixenden or Ogden (?)

Inspiring People

Loads of locals around St Albans have been inspired by our Scandinavian visitors.
I had folk queuing up to use my bins today, and I even had several offers of cups of tea, one of which I gratefully accepted.
On Saturday, one guy managed to get some photos using Nicks scope and a couple of local youth thought it was really "Cool!"
It's always a pleasure when locals get inspired from the wildlife that you can show them on their doorstep.

Todays Waxwings

Today's Waxwings started with a big zero at Hanson Lane and surrounding area. I managed to relocate 7 birds of the "Manor Heath" flock at St Alban's Rd. They were fly-catching from the tops of tall Lime Trees at first, occasionally taking long circuitous flights after their quarry - more like Swallows than Flycatchers!. DJS joined me for a while, and the birds moved to the bottom end of St Albans where they hung around a tall Rowan, before moving off again.
I relocated them, (now 12 in number), in Rowans and other taller trees by the A & E entrance of Calderdale Royal, now feeding on Rowan Berries.

Went up on th'moors later but had no sign of Saturdays male Hen Harrier. It's always worth braving the elements up there in late afternoon. There's always a chance of finding something nice.

50,000 hunters.

50,000 hunters are now busily engaged in decimating the wildlife of Cyprus.
That's 50,000 guns in less than 10,000 square kilometres
Oppose the slaughter in Cyprus. Read the article at -
http://bit.ly/cEocGN
and post a comment at the bottom of the article.

Documentary on twitchers.

BBC 4 tonight, 9.00pm  following the lives of dedicated twitchers. It's not often you get documentaries on fringe wildlife activities so should be worth a look.

Pink-footed Geese

400+ flying NW in two skiens over Cornholme Sunday AM

Out of Town Waxwings

30+ Waxwings repoted from Ilkley Town Centre Car Park on Wednesday

Shroggs Park

6+ Brambling with c10 Chaffinch, 6 Redwing and c20 Goldfinch late afternoon. All in the very tops of trees immediately behind the park lodge by the start of St George's Road, probably a pre-roost gathering with the Bramblings calling a lot. They may have been on 'the lodge' feeders or feeding on the prolific holly berries nearby. Will do a further check in the morning!

Hanson Lane

30 Waxwings reported today around 11 am from JS near the Jubilee Childrens Centre.

Todays Waxwings

Digi Scoped pictures of Waxwings at Skircot Green today.

More on Heavy Birder blog.

Dances with Waxwings

Things looked a bit grim this morning after finding absolutely no Waxwings at any of the currently favoured locations, nor at any of the historic locations.
I spent ages driving round Winding Road, Wickes, Sainsbury's, Raglan St, Crossley Gardens, Hanson Lane, Gibbet Street, Violet Street, Kings Cross, Warley Rd, Tescos, Haugh Shaw Rd, Skircoat Moor Road, Skircoat Green, Dudwell Road before finally stumbling upon three birds high in a tree near Saville Parade, These birds became six but were in a poor location for filming. They were busy fly-catching high up in a tall leafless tree. I sent a text to DJS as I watched a Sparrowhawk pass overhead. As I assembled my camera the birds gave a trill and flew off east towards Manor heath. After driving around the block a few times all I could manage was a flight view of 6 birds over Manor Heath Park.
After another trip via Sainsbury's and Pellon Lane, I picked up NCD and tried Kings Cross, picking up supplies from Tescos en route. Still nothing. Then onwards to Saville Parade, Skircoat Green and Dudwell Road again. Nothing!
As the afternoon was slipping through our fingers we decided to go on a Hen Harrier hunt instead and drove back towards Kings Cross. Reaching Kings Cross, the message came over the grapevine...."Waxwings on St Alban's Rd, Skircoat Green......" What? We must have driven past there about three times already........A quick U-turn and we were back on track....meeting JW and SB at the location. They had had about 12 that had recently been bombed by Mistle Thrush. Luckily, five were still hanging around as we arrived and I managed to get some footage of them in Rowans and Birch. These eventually were seen to eat some of the berries, but from what I understand, many people are seeing birds fly-catching from taller (berry-less) trees rather than feeding on Berries.
Thanks to JW for getting the timely message out.
JW and SB went off to try to find alternative sights....(Any joy guys?) whilst NCD and myself found a male hen harrier at an undisclosed location

Hunter Hill (watchpoint)

Vis Mig this morning 7.50 till 10.50 (DJS and JU) difficult with the wind southerly, gusting F4/F5
It was dead!
2 Goosander >S
14 Woodpigeon >S
7 Starlings >W at 10.50

Other birds nearby were marginally better
27 Canada Geese over Cold Edge
c120 Fieldfare in the valley
6 Redwing
c80 B H Gulls
c20 Common Gulls
2 L B B Gulls
c90 Lapwings (Soil Hill) and another 80 (Queensbury/Shelf)
1 Grey Heron
50 Jackdaws
20 Carrion Crows

Even More Waxwings

41 Waxwings around the fire station/Warley Road this lunchtime. They were very flighty and never settled for more than a minute or two on any one tree so it was hard to get a decent photo.

This one was taken while they were on a tree near the bottom of Warley Road and I was trying to get over King Cross junction to get closer. They moved on before I could.

More Waxwings.

A rough count of around 100 birds  at 12.20 this afternoon which very briefly alighted in a large Sycamore tree on Dudwell Lane, Skircoat Green just east of the school.

There were a few left up to an hour later when a female Sparrowhawk drifted over - none seen since!

Bramblings anyone?

So where are all the Bramblings hiding? I don't believe that they were "just passing through".
Time to check out their previous winter sites methinks.
Those that I saw on the coast recently were all on grassland, but previous sightings in GM were all on paths in residential areas.
It would be interesting to hear other folks experience of these winter specials. For some reason I associate them with Beechmast, but have never seen them anywhere near a Beechwood.

Another Whooper

One adult at Ringstone this morning, not on the water surprisingly but initially found dozing, then occasionally grazing in a large field to the west of the reservoir. It is the first time I have seen one grazing in the Calderdale area, all my sightings previously have been either in flight or on the water, so it was nice to see one looking reasonably relaxed in a moorland setting.



Great bird in a superb setting, beats supermarket car parks any day!

No sign of Waxwings

Walked around all the Waxwings favorite haunts, Pellon Lane, Raglan Street, Crossley Gardens, Gibbet Street, Tescos, the Fire Station and King Cross this PM with no luck. A quick walk over Roils Head produced 1 Redpoll, 2 Bullfinch and a couple of Redwings.

Ogden and Mixenden Res'r

3 Little Grebe still at Ogden this afternoon

2 f Goldeneye on Mixenden Res'r plus 80 Fieldfares behind the plantation feeding in hawthorn bushes.

There here

16+ Waxwings found this PM with DJS behind the Fire Station at King Cross. The birds were not bothered about the millions of berries available but were fly catching from the tops of trees instead. DJP joined us and after we left he found 26 birds further towards town opposite Tescos.
(more on heavybirder blog).

Ducking for apples

The following was put on the Calderale Wildlife Network Noticeboard by Philip Marshall of Todmorden.

I was watching a couple of Mallard ducks by the river at Barley near
Pendle Hill yesterday. They were busy swallowing small apples which had
dropped from a crabtree; I didn't know they ate fruit and the effort in
swallowing some of the larger apples looked very painful!

Philip

Ogden and Mixenden Res'rs

Mixenden Res'r
1 f Goldeneye
c20 L T Tit flock with a few other tits and 1 Treecreeper

Ogden
3 Little Grebes together (thanks to NK for the tip-off)
1 Siskin
18 Starlings N/W

Fly Flats yesterday

4 Twite including one colour ringed bird - which I will send details to Nick Wilkinson
c10 Red Grouse
1 Peregrine had a go at a Woodpigeon
1 drake Goldeneye and 1 Canada Goose on the res'r
35 Fieldfares N/W late afternoon



Also the highlights from yesterdays 3 hr vis mig at Hunter Hill (see Visible Migration link for full details)
Going south or south west -1,405 Woodpigeons, 63 Chaffinch, 38 Linnet
15 Pink-footed Geese going S/E
1 Brambling N/W
487 Fieldfare N/W
20 Redwing N/W
146 Starling N/W

Colour ringed Twite sighting

Nick Wilkinson (RSPB) has informed me of a locally ringed twite being seen at Selsey in West Sussex last week, it was ringed as a nestling in the Rishworth area and subsequently seen locally on 22nd June and 17th August. This is an interesting record given its location on the south coast whereas the majority of birds winter on the east coast between Lincolnshire and Kent.

Waxwings.

12 birds on a couple of chimneys on Green Park road, Skircoat Green at 12.15pm today. I walked straight past them until I heard those distinctive calls.

It's been 19 years since I last saw any on the estate so it might be a good sign of things to come.

Charlie.

Ringstone 25/10/10

Eclipse male Goldeneye yesterday afternoon on the water and Golden Plover numbers continuing to increase in the west fields, around 220 now present.

Hunter Hill (watchpoint)

Fieldfares and Redwings still moving NW through our area today including 126 Fieldfare and 23 Redwing in 2 hrs this afternoon at the watchpoint.
2 f Goldeneye on Mixenden Res'r
1 Green Woodpecker
3 Grey Partridge
c50 Meadow Pipits around

Waxwings reported arriving on the east coast today between Kent and Scotland and several sightings in West Yorkshire this afternoon so keep a look-out around our area !

Lee Dam, Warland res and Lapland Bunting

A fantastic day for a walk so went up to Warland res. There were lots of people in Mankinholes and on the moors as East Pennine Orienteering Club had an event with 400 people heading off onto the hills between Mankinholes and Withens Clough res. I've never seen as many folk wandering about off the paths - good job they don't run these events during the breeding season!

3 Teal, a Goosander and a Little Grebe at Lee Dam. The 3 Goldeneye that were here Friday and Saturday must have moved on.

All quiet until I got near Warland Drain when I saw the Bunting.

All I usually see up here are Meadow Pipits and Skylarks so assumed it was a Mipit at first until I got the bins on it and saw it was a Lapland Bunting, a Calderdale first for me.

I followed it for several minutes as it crept and ran along through the grass, then it hopped down into the drain for a drink and came back back up again - only to be scared off by a cyclist splashing through the mud on the Pennine Way. Best views I've had of a Lapland Bunting.

97 Fieldfare (maybe more but that's how many I captured in one photo) in the fields at Knoll Hill, Warland.

3 Lapwing, a Tufted Duck, 5 BHGull and numerous Canada Geese at Longfield Pond.

Ogden Garden

A male brambling was feeding amongst the tits on the bird feeder this morning

22nd October

1 of 40 Common Gulls at Heath Hill Road this PM.

These Black-headed Gulls were behaving strangly, almost landing in the tree tops and apparently picking things off the leaves (insects ?)

Not much else except a couple of Redwings over Tower Hill.

Hunter Hill/Ogden

2 hrs Vis Mig this morning from Hunter Hill in a strong westerly F4/5 wind produced:
Fieldfare 334, Redwing 211, Chaffinch 56, Brambling 3, Starling 16 - all >NW

Southerly movers were Meadow Pipit 10, Sparrowhawk 1, Woodpigeon 3

Also present nearby were Green Woodpecker 1, and Stock Dove 6

Ogden
3 Snipe over Back lane
1 Great-spotted Woodpecker
3 Meadow Pipits

NK reported c10 Crossbills in the plantation late morning and a late Wheatear still at Soil Hill

Lee Dam

3 Goldeneye, 3 Teal and a Little Grebe at Lee Dam this morning. 
5 Mistle Thrush flew off as I arrived and landed on holly bushes in Lumbutts churchyard.

Later (about 17:30) 29 Fieldfare landed in the field behind the house. Good to see a decent sized flock after reading that they had been arriving in numbers over the previous week.

Insect or spider?

I took some photos of Long Tailed Tits by the Rochdale Canal yesterday in the hope of getting a good one. I failed, but as I was viewing the photos I noticed an insect in the centre of a spider's web in this one:





















but in this one, taken 2 seconds later, it has disappeared. I didn't see the bird take it although it did move towards the web. However, that isn't the reason for posting - I've looked at the insect and it doesn't look like a spider as the shape looks wrong. Any ideas what it could be?

Whooper Swan 21/10/10

One lone adult braving the elements in gale force winds at Ringstone this afternoon.



Interesting that the head and neck are still stained brown at this time of the year, is this to do with the terrain on their breeding grounds?

Black-winged Stilt report

The observer (John Ross) said he saw a large black and white wader going north west over Shaw Lodge Mills, not very far up above the building. He described a loud piping call and VERY LONG trailing legs. So long were they at first glance he thought it was emptying its bowels! This was at 5.30 to 6pm on Tues. 19th Oct.

Of course I quizzed him on heron, white stork. He is very confident it was neither of these. I didn't think of oystercatcher, but they don't trail very long legs. He is as incredulous as me, but he seems sure. I'm sure he will be familiar with oystercatcher from locally and from British coasts.

He is an artist with a keen interest in wildlife, goes birding with someone from Huddersfield, where he lives. He can talk about all European birds, runs Artworks, Shaw Lodge Mills. He has a holiday home on the Cabo de Gato ( Cape of Cats ) near Almeria east of Malaga, where there are salt flats with all the med's waders - B W Stilts, Flamingoes, Avocets, etc. I know, I was there in 2000.