Horton Bank CP

Only had time for a short session this morning. 2 pr Goosander, 1 Reed Bunting ditto Chiffchaff WW. A nesting Coot & pr Mute Swan.

A dog and his nugget who laughed as he told me his dog likes to spook the birds. Shame I’m not allowed to carry a kukri - lucky you, nugget.

A lot of large gulls mainly Herrings in all age groups but an adult LBBG here and there. A single Grey Heron, 3 Blackbird & several Woodpigeon.

Cold Edge Dams To Mixenden

A dry cold session wirh a N'ly blow 💨. Despite a blank 30 minutes from the Withens down to Mixenden both the start and end provided some decent sightings 😊.

Cold Edge Dams: my first brief distant view of a Wheatear for the year. 4 Tufted Duck, pr Little Grebe, few Curlews.

1 mebbe 2 Redshank. Canadas, few Goldfinch & a Greenfinch. 1 Oystercatcher.

Mixenden Res: nothing on the water. An Oystercatcher calling in flight. A Buzzard soaring low overhead. 1 Jay ditto WW.

Soil Hill To Mixenden Res

A moggy and fisty morning in the main clearing up somewhat around mid day. Had a gander at Raggalds Flood which was clear of birds. Two adult LBBG on the nearby sports field.

Soil Hill: 1 WW 3 Meadow Pipit many Woodpigeon. Curlews heard 4 Goldfinch couple Pheasant.

Ogden Water: pr Tufted Duck ditto Canadas. A pr LBBG were probably the birds seen earlier. c13 WW 2 Chiffchaff. A male Stonechat was at Hebble Brook. More calling Curlew at Hunter Hill where the regular Green Woodpecker was calling again.

A pr RLP near the entrance to Mixenden Res which was barren until the last couple of minutes when a Common Sandpiper flew from the W shore across the water.

Others: singing Song Thrush Blackbirds and a Barn Owl.

Bad Move

 

This Boat Stank. The trip was Crap 💩 and his Wife was a Cow 🐮

Heirapolis Pamukkale

A long rip off coach trip to a historical gem rapidly getting eroded by modern traits of tourism - capitalism at its finest 🥸.

2 Magpie! 2 Little Owl 🦉😋. Scores of Crested Lark and hundreds of hirundines. A few Serin and Goldfinch. A drumming woodpecker sounded GSW ish but I’ll have to check out its 3/4 congeners 😏.

I trespassed on a Pied Wheatears territory and the male give me some reet earache and a fine display of a war dance. 5 Pieds in total ticked. A pr and probably a distant male Black-eared Wheatear also encountered 😜.

Two isolated sightings of Buzzard hovering and flying over the motorways.

Oh how delicious - from the coach about 30 minutes away from return to hotel a White Stork😋🤣.

An Alpine Avalanche

All taken into consideration another poor session this morning 😪. Usual hirundines e.g House Martins. Swallows & Red Rumped dittos flying around then dropping down into Muddy Waters (there’s a blues song in the making here) for nesting foundations.

I decided to go round the mountainous section of coastline and all hell let loose. The air was thick with Alpine Swift so many whizzing about it was impossible to get close to an accurate count. Taking into consideration repeated same bird sightings I’m gonna say over a hundred as a conservative guess.

A Raven a Blackbird 🐦‍⬛ a Chaffinch and a couple of unid types subwarbling and grunting. Oh how could I forget the YLGs House Sparrows and Great Tit. I ain’t even gonna mention Colla…oops nearly did😑.

Turkey Trot Trip Update

I’ll try match the paucity of birds with a minimum of words (yeah right).

Never known it as bad, I visited areas that used to be filthy with feathery friends but now it’s all over.

On Wednesday I roamed locally and got the same species as Tuesday 9th with a psychological lifeline thrown in. About 5 Common Swift shot past accompanied by a pr Alpine Swift 😍. They were gone in a minute.

Today I went to the massive lake at Dalyan - Ogden times 1873 on a poor day. It was grim but with a life saver in the final hour.

The same hirundines  as previous days. 2 Little Egret and a few Hooded Crows. One brief large winged raptor at distance. 1 each White Wagtail & Crested Lark. 7 Pygmy Cormorant 2 Cettis Warbler.

Then again at last gasp I got the jackpot. 4 luverly adorable 🥰 Spur-Winged Lapwing on the edge of a rough pasture field bordering the lake 😁.