Goshawk

Undisclosed site this afternoon at 17.36. Fantastic shots from Darrell as this bird passed overhead heading NE. This must be a first for Calderdale - (photo that is) of a wild Goshawk. Note the bulk of the bird and unmistakeable appearance, and a full crop - this is not one to mistake for a Sparrowhawk when you see the profile so clearly.

Baitings

Red Kite passed through there today and went over Great Manshead at 12.30pm

Cold Edge

1 fem Goosander
1 pair TuftedDuck
4 Redshank
2 P F Geese still with the Canadas and Greylags
1 Sparrowhawk
c25 Lapwings and 2 Snipe 'chipping'

Jumble Hole - 2:00pm

3 chiffchaff

Green woodpecker heard

3 bullfinch

Every bush seemed to have long tailed tits in! Lost count

1 oystercatcher over, calling.

1 roe deer

EGP 31/03/09

2 Teal on R Calder
5 Goosander on R Calder
2 Cormorant on ski lake
1 Grey Heron
1 female Sparrowhawk
1 LBB Gull
1 adult Herring Gull W up R Calder
2 Great Spotted Woodpecker drumming
11 Sand Martin
4 Swallow
2 singing Song Thrush
1 singing Blackcap
6 singing Chiffchaff
2 Siskin
25 Lesser Redpoll

2 Roe Deer near railway line south of Tag Loop

1 guy firing a shotgun by the fishing lake around 10:00hrs this morning scared me and other passers-by witless so I suspect the Cormorant number was less than 2 after I left.

Nice to meet another birder (Mike Henshaw) who happened to be tucking into a butty with relish at the time from the thriving mobile snack bar by the Avocet empire.

Ogden/Fly Flats/Cold Edge

Cormorant in full breeding plumage today ay Ogden - left towards Soil Hill about 1.30 pm (ish)
1 pair of Goldeneye there plus lots of Siskin about especially on the lodge feeders. Green and Great Spotted Woodpeckers.
1 ad LBBG, 6 Common Gulls and 2 B H Gulls

Fly Flats - no Twite but 2 Wheatears on the big rocky area near the overflow

Cold Edge - 3+ Redshanks and c25 Lapwings

EGP 30/03/09

2 Swallow over the water at 08:30 this morning along with 1 Sand Martin. Other birds on or around the ski lake were:

3 Tufted Duck
1 Little Grebe
4 Cormorant
1 Grey Heron
2 LBB Gull
1 Green Woodpecker (heard)
1 Siskin over
20 Lesser Redpoll

Ringstone (09:10)

2 Oystercatcher on W bank, incidentally 1 Common Redshank on W bank yesterday morning.

Deanhead Reservoir (09:30-10:00)

4 Goosander
2 Curlew
2 Herring Gull (1 adult & 1 1st winter) SW then W
2 GBB Gull (1 adult & 1 1st winter)) SW then W
1 male Northern Wheatear



2 Raven SW (second sighting this year at this location)

Undisclosed location yesterday:

1 1st winter male Ring Ouzel (garbage digiscoped picture due to incorrect settings on camera, haste to get a record shot, looking directly into the sun and lack of sleep!)

lesser black-backed gull

a lesser black backed gull on the school playing fields today
it flew off as i arrived and diddnt see where it went

Langfield Edge and Gaddings Dam

A walk along the skyline from Stoodley Pike via Langfield Edge, past Gaddings and down to Shepherd's Rest produced no Twite as yet, but at last there was a pair of Wheatears by Gaddings - my first of the season. Also a total of 12 singing Skylarks, 18 Meadow Pipits and 5 Pied Wagtails by the Shepherd's Rest.

Ogden

Back Lane - Brian Sumner had 2 Sand Martins and 6 House Martins over the plantation this morning.

Castle Carr Road/Luddenden Dean

1 pair of Wheatears by the old railway cabins on Castle Carr road this afternoon plus 1 Little Owl. Also a male Sparrowhawk behaving very oddly, it seemed to be hiding behind a wall in the long grass then moved along the wall several times doing the same thing - perhaps after voles?

1 Nuthatch calling near the Castle Carr lower lodge and a Green Woodpecker there also.

Arrivals & Departure's

A Walk up Widdop/Walshaw/Gorple today produced a pair of Wheatear in fields near the Ridge pub, my first migrant arrivals. The entire walk produced c120 Fieldfare in 4 seperate flocks the biggest c70 birds.

Elsewhere lots of Mipits and Curlew along with min 10 Oystercatcher (seen together) others were seen but could well have been part of this group. 3 pairs of Pied Wagtails, 2 calling Little Owl, 1 seen, 1 heard only - definately seperate birds.

2 pairs of Stonechat, a single Grey Heron, too many Canada Geese, numerous Mallard and a lone male Goldeneye on top Walshaw.

Surprisingly only 1 Skylark was heard all day.

7 Red grouse were also seen as were numerous male pheasants (females nowhere to be seen - sitting on eggs perhaps?)

A Pair of kestrels hunting together clearly indicating no egg laying there just yet, a lone male Sparrowhawk perhaps suggesting the opposite to be true with this species.

Rookery Survey 2009

There seems to be some difficulty in identifying 'active' nests and this might help?
Peoples Park colony - 12 nests there over the last 2 weeks with 2 appearing 'empty' however this evening I checked about an hour before dusk and all nests had birds sitting around them so presumably the occupants had returned to roost at the nest site.
Not always practical to visit before dusk - and there aren't always calm evenings!
Lets hope too that the strong winds recently ease up a bit to give the birds a chance to breed succesfully this spring.

Redpolls & Siskins

At least three of each on in the garden today. Feeding on my Niger & the neighbours thistle seed.

Ringstone earthworks complete

The contractors work at Ringstone is now complete but this is really just the beginning, we now have to ensure that the resultant habitat becomes what we want as the year progresses. With this in mind we are planning a work party next Saturday meeting on site at 9 am. The plan is to remove some of the Willow saplings from the reservoir shore and replant them in the north west corner to create migrant cover and a shelter belt. We also intend to create a flat area in the north west corner in front of the hide to be used as a location to spread seed for a feeding station.

As before thanks are expresed to John Beaumont and Sean Johnston who have regularly attended the site to ensure the ongoing contractors work progressed as we wanted. Anyone interested in helping with the work party please get in touch.

Plumage & Buzzard question

Just a quick post from the Llyn Peninsular. I remember asking Andy C last year how to separate M&F Nuthatches and he mentioned that the male bird had a much more rich colour to it and this would be obvious when seen as M&F together. Having now got a pair regularly feeding from the nut feeder right outside my office window. The difference is glaringly obvious with the male having a much richer orangish/brown colour to his flanks and being generally much richer in colour overall. Once one has seen the differences its glaringly obvious, but not so easy just by looking at ID guides....thanks to the Tall Man. One other aspect of Nuthatch behaviour that has changed in the last couple of weeks is that they no longer spend most of the day near the feeders grabbing as much food as possible and then stashing it all around the area in tree bark and ground. The behaviour has now changed to feeding maybe four or five times a day with food eaten from the feeders direct and no longer stored. Both birds feed together but always on adjacent feeders. Despite being a pair they obviously still keep some of the typical Nuthatch behaviour and will not tolerate any other bird on the feeder, even their mate.

As I sit working at the computer I can watch the coming and goings at the feeding station and have noticed that the more "advanced" the breeding plumage of the males of various Greenfinches and Chaffinches that the more dominant or more aggressive they are towards other males. I assume these are not just the older birds but the more dominant in the flock pecking order who tend to come into breeding plumage earlier. Many of the males who have not yet reached full colour are less likely to be aggressive towards other whilst feeding but the more advanced males will not tolerate any other males anywhere near them and spend more time chasing off other males than feeding ! By far the most aggressive species on the feeders (after the Nuthatches) is Goldfinch. Whenever I hear a squabble start up outside I know at once the Goldfinches have arrived to feed.

A final question; I have noticed in recent weeks that Buzzards are around again in groups of anything of up to 7 birds at a time. Most of the winter the birds have been seen as singletons but have now obviously grouped back up again. I would have thought I would have seen pairs together now readying for breeding but its seems they have mixed in larger groups which do not seem to be in conflict/competition. Are these groups likely to be family groups from last years breeding or do Buzzards display in groups before pairing ?

Gale force ringstone

31 golden plover,9 lapwing,2 oystercatcher,1 hunting Female peregrine,1 GCGrebe,1Reed Bunt,10 Goldfinch and 1 Pheasant.

Wagtail id

Two of these birds were amongst 50+ very obvious pied wagtails at Callis Bridge sewage works today.
White wagtail, or pied wagtail. Discuss:
(apologies for the photos by the way! Click on each one for a larger image)

Walsden/Todmorden

I watched a dipper flying under the bridges of the Calder in front of Morrisons mid-day.

2 tawny owls calling from two adjacent copses of trees in Walsden - dusk and dawn. But both with the same sound - the 'trembly' call rather than the screech. So both same sex? Heard this call for the past 4 weeks or so.

Ogden

This morning
1 pair Goldeneye
1 Barnacle Goose and 4 Canadas
1 Kingfisher
1 Treecreeper
6+ Siskin on the lodge feeder

Apologies Pete - forgot to put on the blog that 2 Pink-footed Geese were still at Cold Edge - in the nearby fields on the 24th