Spent the afternoon down Elland filming Swifts........or at least trying to........which reminded me that Calderdale Bird Conservation Group are collating information on Swift Breeding colonies.
We need your records.....and now is a good time to go out looking for nest sites in the evening.
In Manchester, I lived in the middle of a colony and the birds would fly round the houses almost at head height just before the sun went down. They would get lower and lower and the noise would get louder and louder until, one by one, they disappeared into their nest holes.
These were old red brick Victorian merchants buildings, and the birds would find missing bricks or small crevices behind fascia boards, or would use ledges behind the soffits on the gable ends. Quite a spectacle on a warm summers evening.
I had at least 100 Swifts over the ski lake this afternoon. They're going to be nesting somewhere nearby.
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Friday, May 13, 2011
Missing Blogs
Several blog sites have been affected by technical problems, the nature of which is summed up in the message below from Blogger.Com
"During scheduled maintenance work Wednesday night, we experienced some data corruption that impacted Blogger’s behavior. Since then, bloggers and readers may have experienced a variety of anomalies including intermittent outages, disappearing posts, and arriving at unintended blogs or error pages. ..... We rolled back to a version of Blogger as of Wednesday May 11th, so your posts since then were temporarily removed. Those are the posts that we’re in the progress of restoring."
"During scheduled maintenance work Wednesday night, we experienced some data corruption that impacted Blogger’s behavior. Since then, bloggers and readers may have experienced a variety of anomalies including intermittent outages, disappearing posts, and arriving at unintended blogs or error pages. ..... We rolled back to a version of Blogger as of Wednesday May 11th, so your posts since then were temporarily removed. Those are the posts that we’re in the progress of restoring."
How the other half live ( bird)!
Just returned from three days with friends and former Calderdale birders Rita and David Crawshaw now living in Suffolk.
Imagine -no hills to climb,warm sunny weather, fantastic habitat thanks to the work of RSPB and National Trust producing 115 species in such a short time!
Highlights were golden oriole, Dartford Warbler, wood lark, common crane, grey plover, wood sandpiper,little and Temminck's stint, spoonbill cetti's warbler and nightingale not to mention the common stuff like greenshank and bearded tit as well as the view of three bitterns flying over a huge reed bed for several minutes together with marsh harriers and hobbies with a red kite and buzzard thrown in!
Oh well it's back to slogging up and down the old patch this next week- haven't seen a red grouse for a while!
It's good to have friends in the right( if not high) places!
Imagine -no hills to climb,warm sunny weather, fantastic habitat thanks to the work of RSPB and National Trust producing 115 species in such a short time!
Highlights were golden oriole, Dartford Warbler, wood lark, common crane, grey plover, wood sandpiper,little and Temminck's stint, spoonbill cetti's warbler and nightingale not to mention the common stuff like greenshank and bearded tit as well as the view of three bitterns flying over a huge reed bed for several minutes together with marsh harriers and hobbies with a red kite and buzzard thrown in!
Oh well it's back to slogging up and down the old patch this next week- haven't seen a red grouse for a while!
It's good to have friends in the right( if not high) places!
Hobby over Elland.
Being used to watching the Swifts blogging around from my bedroom window, this afternoon I saw a distinctly larger more steady flying one heading towards Elland. The contrasting head pattern was clearly seen against the dark rain clouds – my second Hobby in the last 2 or 3 years from my bedroom window in Skircoat – amazing stuff.
When I saw the first one I was sure at the time what is was but since then my mind has been playing tricks and convinced me I was wrong but this sighting today has made me more sure than ever.
Thursday, May 12, 2011
Church yard warblers
Went to Pellon Churchyard today to look for a reported Redstart but no luck. Did however have good views of Whitethroat, Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler and a brief Blackcap. Lots of Swifts screaming around at Sand Beds Lane.Grasshopper Warbler Video
Here's some video of one of the Cold Edge Grasshopper Warblers. On the day I filmed this, I had to wait 7 hours for it to pop its head above the parapet......and that was my second visit. This has been the best view of Grasshopper Warbler that I've ever had as it was reeling in really good lighting conditions. Every other view I've had has always been in poor light around dusk and at long range. This guy was only about 4 - 5 metres away. Enjoy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZ9EIBKWyLA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZ9EIBKWyLA
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
11th May
Whinchat and 1 Grasshopper Warbler reeling at Cold Edge this evening, 2 Dunlin 4 Redshank at Fly Flats.
High Royd
A brief visit at 9:30am
Sedge warbler singing, though at times difficult to hear above all the chiffchaffs. Heard from the canal side, and appeared to be mobile around the site, although there could possibly have been two.
Other birds included coot, blackcap, goldcrest and mallard with 4 young
Sedge warbler singing, though at times difficult to hear above all the chiffchaffs. Heard from the canal side, and appeared to be mobile around the site, although there could possibly have been two.
Other birds included coot, blackcap, goldcrest and mallard with 4 young
Monday, May 09, 2011
Ghost bird?
Nothing scary about this image though - a Feral Pigeon bird strike on the bedroom window left an almost perfect imprint:
Blake Dean and Gorple
I had a few hours in Blake Dean and the Gorple area with highlights being
Spotted Flycatcher (my earliest ever) in Blake Dean with another (or the same) in nearby Gorple Clough later on. Tree Pipit in Blake Dean and good numbers of Lapwing in the area with three pairs with chicks and two on nests, they seem to be doing well.
Ring Ouzel nest found with young approx 1 week old with a female carrying food in another location.
Pair of Little Ringed Plover on Gorple with a Sanderling there, also 5 Tufted Duck and two pairs of Greylag Goose with young (1 & 5) , 5 Oystercathers in the area plus all the usual species
no Whinchat or Cuckoos around yet though
Spotted Flycatcher (my earliest ever) in Blake Dean with another (or the same) in nearby Gorple Clough later on. Tree Pipit in Blake Dean and good numbers of Lapwing in the area with three pairs with chicks and two on nests, they seem to be doing well.
Ring Ouzel nest found with young approx 1 week old with a female carrying food in another location.
Pair of Little Ringed Plover on Gorple with a Sanderling there, also 5 Tufted Duck and two pairs of Greylag Goose with young (1 & 5) , 5 Oystercathers in the area plus all the usual species
no Whinchat or Cuckoos around yet though
Sunday, May 08, 2011
Luddenden Dean
Cuckoo in the dean this afternoon - but at a distance, singing near the graveyard in the upper dean.
View looking up the dean towards Castle Carr
I went down to check - hopefully for Redstart this afternoon without success unfortunately. Just a few Willow Warblers, 1 Chiff-chaff and 1 Blackcap. 4 Swifts and 2 House Martins >S and several blogging Swallows. The highlight being a Cuckoo (present for over a week now) and singing in the valley most of the afternoon.
3 small Lapwing chicks in nearby fields along with 1 Wheatear
Fly Flatts
Saturday 7th evening visit
9 Redshank
11 Common Sandpipers
4 Oystercatchers
1 Sanderling
4 Dunlin
3 Curlew
1Golden Plover
3 Turnstone which tried to land but were put up by Oystercatchers so continued on >N
Sunday 8th 0700-0930hrs
Much quieter with several waders moved on.
9 Common Sandpipers
2 Dunlin
5 Redshank
1 Golden Plover
2 Snipe
2 Wheatear
1 Sand Martin >S
+ usual sp.
BS
9 Redshank
11 Common Sandpipers
4 Oystercatchers
1 Sanderling
4 Dunlin
3 Curlew
1Golden Plover
3 Turnstone which tried to land but were put up by Oystercatchers so continued on >N
Sunday 8th 0700-0930hrs
Much quieter with several waders moved on.
9 Common Sandpipers
2 Dunlin
5 Redshank
1 Golden Plover
2 Snipe
2 Wheatear
1 Sand Martin >S
+ usual sp.
BS
Saturday, May 07, 2011
Hardcastle Crags
I had a trip to Hardcastle Crags this morning. Crimsworth Dean had plenty of willow warblers but no sign of the wood warbler.
By this time the heavy rain had started. 2 grey heron and 2 family groups of mallard chicks on the way back to the car park.
Cuckoo calling in the main valley but not seen.
Only 1 grey wagtail by the mill but no dippers at all even at the usual spots.
Headed up the railway trail to a spot that had redstart, spotted flycatcher and wood warbler last year and had really close views of a wood warbler.
By this time the heavy rain had started. 2 grey heron and 2 family groups of mallard chicks on the way back to the car park.
Swifts
The sound and then sight of a couple of swifts over the house (near Gordon Riggs) just now - great, they're back!!
Friday, May 06, 2011
High Royd/Sowerby Bridge
BTO Atlas survey this morning in a tetrad covering the above area, 34 species in totals.
Nothing out of the ordinary in the 2 hr survey but there were 4 Garden Warblers, 1 Whitethroat, 7 Blackcap, 2 Willow Warblers and 5 Chiff-chaffs, all singing.
1 Nuthatch, 2 Grey Wagtails and 8 Swifts including a probable new small colony located.
Nothing out of the ordinary in the 2 hr survey but there were 4 Garden Warblers, 1 Whitethroat, 7 Blackcap, 2 Willow Warblers and 5 Chiff-chaffs, all singing.
1 Nuthatch, 2 Grey Wagtails and 8 Swifts including a probable new small colony located.
Thursday, May 05, 2011
An Afternoon at Fly.... 05-05-2011
Dunlin, one of six present
Bar tailed Godwit present all afternoon (montage)
Bar tailed Godwit ditto (montage)
Rook.... very rare up here!
Rook
Sanderling with Redshank comparison
Sanderling (montage)
A brilliant afternoon with good birds and good company. A barwit was noted in full summer plumage at the Oxenhope end shortly after I arrived.... I was contemplating ringing DS when I noted three obvious birders at the Wainstalls end... Nick, Dave and Jen. After we had been watching the barwit for a while, Nick scanned on a bit and the next bird on was a Sanderling! and then a Rook came over..... almost as rare as either of these waders up here. During the first part of the afternoon Dunlin were prominent and fantastic to hear and see them display..... Common Sands and lots of Redshank.... will be visiting again soon as its just too good to miss up here!
Dave
Goosander with young
Goosander on the Calder this morning with 1 newly fledged chick(DJS) has location.Very early compared to 2009 first seen 09/06/09 ,2010 seen 15/05/2010,a good start for Goosanders.Pair of Buzzards 02/03 and 04 May in same location again DJS has details.Looking bad for Kingfishers ,only 2 single birds seen this year between Brighouse and Cromwell Tip.Up to 15 Swifts ,8 Sand Martins ,6 Swallows ,3 Garden Warblers ,2 Reed Warblers.
Fly Flats and Cold Edge
Grasshopper Warbler singing at Cold Edge this afternoon, as usual for this species playing more hide than seek!
Sanderling at Fly Flatts 
Bar-tailed Godwit in full summer plumage at Fly FlattsWell done to Nick for getting a good photo of the barwit this afternoon - what a bird that was. It was good to see DCB up there too and look forward to seeing some of Dave's photo's later.
As well as the waders, a real surprise was a solitary Rook passing over - a very rare sight at this location.
Around the windfarm there was still plenty of activity around the moor after the devastating fire and lots of work was being done to deter further outbreaks. Lets hope no further damage occurs as looking at the damage this will now take years to recover the wonderful heather moor.
