Saturday's Birds

Not too much doing in probably the hottest day so far this year.o
8 Swift similar Swallow.
2 Curlew which was a bit of a surprise.
3 LBBG only; this must be the latest date I've had for non returning BHG.

Woodland birds singing loudly. I visited the former Tree Pipit breeding site again  to find nothing doing except a Jay & WW.
Collared Dove with nest material.

Couple Whitethroat, m Stonechat, 2/3 Mipit, Raven being mobbed by Jackdaws & Crow. Carbohydrate Cormorant.

This past 4 days has seen House Martin out back and they are at it again this afternoon.

Usual Walking Route

The welcome summer weather with a fresh E/SE'ly breeze made for a very pleasant hike despite there being a lack of birds in some places. To counter this, there were a couple of occasions when groups of adult and recently fledged birds had me craning my neck at untoward angles.
No.1 was when a party of mainly Coal Tit along with a couple of LTT and a Warbler or three were whizzing around giving reasonable views.
No.2 was when in a confined coniferous area I had to really pull out the stops to catch glimpses of mainly WW flitting speedily through the tree tops.

Nothing out of the ordinary was seen, the exception being one area where there was a party of 4 Grey Heron at a hill bottom while at the top 4 Raven were having a helluva party.

I did notice a small influx of LBBG at two dry locations, totalling about 14 birds maximum and with the wind pattern I hoped for Michahellis but there were no gulls at all on any stretches of water.

Others, in subdued numbers: Blackcap, Chiffchaff, Whitethroat, Dunnock, Goldcrest, Goldfinch, Greenfinch. 1 each GS & Green Woodpecker.

Flutterbyes: 8 Painted Ladies, 2 Tortoiseshell, 1 Red Admiral, 4/5 Small Copper and 1 of them 5/6 spot lace wing thingies I've forgotten the name of.

Today's Lack of Birds

Monday afternoon.and after rain was payback day and Bleedin awful it was too. Hardly any birds to speak of and overbearing humidity to boot.
Oystercatcher, Dunnock, Swift & couple of Swallow ditto Whitethroat. Two each Blackcap, Chiffchaff, 3 WW & 1 GSW.

A pr Tufted Duck were on one reservoir briefly while the other had nowt, nada, nichts, zilch.
Roll on the arrival  of my new embroidery kit then I'll really be stitched up.

Shibden Buzzard

I managed to perform surgery on the Whats App msg quoted yesterday.

Click to enlarge

I just realised that the short wings lacking primary growth suggests this is a possible juvenile unless the primaries have been removed which I doubt.

Buzzard Killers

Today I received a What's App message and photo originated by a local lady. It showed a dead Buzzard found in Shibden Valley showing all the hallmarks of being shot. I can't replicate the photo on here and really there is no need. The lady goes on to say she has not seen the other bird which was half of a breeding pair. She states there has also been shooting of the deer and rabbit trapping - a bout of mixamatosis is prevalent among the rabbit population, I hope the bastards eat a fat portion.

Saturday's Birds

A slog  that certainly had it's moments even if I was cream crackered at the halfway stage.

5 Whitethroat, Greenfinch, 7 LTT, GSW, m Sparrowhawk.
I heard a loudly singing Sedge Warbler which was then seen twice as it flitted around from bush to bush.

A juvenile LEO was seen perched in a conifer and I'm positive it is the same bird or from the same brood hopefully as previously reported. After rattling off four photos, I quickly left the site as the bird remained  motionless.

Also 1 each Grey Heron, Lapwing, Reed Bunting & LBBG, 2 possibly 3 Grey Partridge.
2 Painted Lady flutterbyes and an annoyed barking Roe Deer.

Today's Birds

Not to be confused with the previous post of Today's Birds, this being a different day of course😁. Most of the birds were the same species but the flypastyers weren't seen on this suspicious occasion.

A juvenile LEO was hunger calling 7/8 times but kept out of view in conifers. This is great news as I thought the species had failed to show at the site this year.

Finally I got lucky with 3 juvenile Stonechat when they flew from the wall and perched in the bushes and shrubs, enabling me to rattle off a few shots.

Two Redshank were heard and seen while 1 Curlew called from a distance.
There were 4 GS & 1 Green Woodpeckers.
2 individual Kestrels were seen. No.2 was carrying Shrew sized prey and getting a reet rollicking from a Mistle Thrush.

Also 3 Swift, couple Swallow and a fair number of House Martin plus Bullfinch & Song Thrush.

Today's Birds

A good day with breeding evidence throughout including Pied Wagtail, Whitethroat, Meadow Pipit, Red-legged Partridge, Blackcap, Treecreeper, Stonechat & Spotted Flycatcher!

There were 4 Treecreeper together ditto Stonechat and a pr of Spotted Flycatcher flying around a nest sight in agitated manner. After taking some mediocre photos I pissed off out if it real quick like.

It was good to see a Tawny Owl flying through a woodland giving reasonable views..
Other: Singles of Reed Bunting, Grey Wagtail, Oystercatcher, Curlew, LBBG. 3 BHG, couple Swallow ditto Chiffchaff, 3 WW, few Linnet.

This session restored my faith in the British summer however I understand its back to crap tomorrow.

Queensbury South to Shibden Head

Approx 0940-1215 hrs a bit of a slog at times in some muddy areas but it got the cobwebs out of my joints. The fields in the High Cross/Jackson Hill Lanes region was noisy with singing Skylarks.
There was also a first breeding record in the man made pond at the top of Bare Head Lane; a Moorhen with two chicks. Although this is not an earth shaker it is definitely a rarity in this location.

Also here was a female Dullard with one young 'un along with one each Swift & Swallow.

The top part of Shibden Valley to Shibden Head was reasonably lively considering the cold dull weather. 4 WW ditto House Martin, 5 each Whitethroat, Chiffchaff & Blackcap.

Habitat destruction continues apace below the entrance to the valley from SwalesMoor Road but it would appear that a pond is being constructed where an old barn is being replaced by a new build house, allegedly.
Here were Song Thrush, GSW, Green Woodpecker & Jay - all singular.

The stretch returning to Deanstones Lane bottom produced a couple or three House Martin and a fair number of Swallow. I saw one of the latter fly into an old barn, which is great news.
There were 3 Whitethroat in this region and breeding was evident given the display and song by one bird plus the caterwauling of 2 different males in proximity.

Here Are Some I Didn't Take Earlier

nikonrumors.com: Birding with the Nikon Z6 and the Nikkor 500 f/4 (fast birds in flight with AF tracking). https://nikonrumors.com/2019/06/15/birding-with-the-nikon-z6-and-the-nikkor-500-f-4-fast-birds-in-flight-with-af-tracking.aspx/

Raggalds to Mixenden

Raggalds Flood is back on the Menu as a Venue. 2 LBBG & numerous Starling.
Soil Hill was quiet: 1 LBBG ditto Lapwing.
Sylarks, 1 each Swallow, WW & Blackbird.

Ogden Res was pretty rancid although Goldcrests were singing in numbers.  Couple Blackcap, Chiffchaff & WW.
2 LBBG on the drink and one was certainly not a previous RF bird

It got interesting in the rough above Brookhouse; a f Whitethroat was carrying food and alarm calling simultaneously.
She led me up the garden path (they all do) which happily ended at the stile.

Hunter Hill was narcolepsy enshrined while Mixenden Res still held the 4 Tufted Duck in addition to a few Canada, 1 each BHG, LBBG, Grey Wagtail & Swift.

Ogden to Mixenden

Afternoon visit for a change but nothing much changed as it was subdued once again.
Curlew or two, 1 LBBG, 3 Swift, Goldfinches, Linnets. 4 Mistle Thrush, 1 Chiffchaff, 3 WW, 2 Whitethroat, 1 Reed Bunting.

Mixenden Res still got 4 Tufted Duck, 1 each Moorhen, BHG & Grey Wagtail. Pr Swift ditto House Martin & a Swallow.

Harden Moor

Courtesy of DP under the threat of rains that didn't amount to much when they came. A lively start with a prolonged bare batch before returning to the birds again.

Pr Cuckoo, Oystercatcher, Curlew, Skylark, Mipits.
Few Sand Martin, Swallow, 1 Swift. Bullfinch, Jay, Whitethroat.
A pr Buzzard seen well in flight and then on the ground. 1 Kestrel.
WWs, Chiffchaff, Blackcap, Mistle Thrush pr.

Hummingbird For Queensbury

Not strictly true I hasten to add.
In the last couple of evenings DP and I have noticed a large number of  Bees in our gardens. Yesterday (6/6/19) Dave noticed a stranger on the Lavender bush in his front garden. He rushed to get his camera and took 5 photographs of what he knew was a Hummingbird Hawk Moth.

The photographs weren't suitable for publication so he downloaded the above photo from the internet and compared them with his own. He is in no doubt as to what he had observed and although my knowledge of lepidoptera is still in the basic range, I do recall one or two previous records coming from the broader based area in the last few years.

PS Here are a couple of  photos I've performed surgery on that Dave sent to me this afternoon.

Click to enlarge both photos

Soil Hill to Mixenden

Less SW'ly wind today so my teeth are still in situ.
1 mebbe 2 Whitethroat singing from the scrubland top of Albert Road.

The hill was quiet, just the usual residents plus 1 each Swallow, Curlew & Whitethroat.
Ogden coughed up 1 Grey Wagtail ditto Grey Heron. 3 Treecreeper, 1 Swift & the expected.

The golf course had singing Whitethroat & WW plus a few Linnet. A most welcome sighting was that of 5 Stonechat working there way up towards Mixenden stile. It appeared there was a female with 4 juveniles and quite noisy they were too.

Mixenden Res had a Chiffchaff, 4 Tufted Duck, 1 each BHG, House Martin and a party of House Sparrow.

Soil Hill to Mixenden

This morning's was one of the least productive walks I have ever undertaken since moving up to this hell hole, mainly due to the  strong gales blowing from variable W'ly directions. A prime example being both stretches of water, i.e Ogden and Mixenden reservoirs didn't have any gulls or wildfowl on them other than dullards. The latter did manage to cough up 1 House Martin and a pr Swift whizzing around.

Soil Hell had a Pheasant family scurrying through the grass thanks to my plates of meat and I made sure I didn't flatten any. The flash created at the very bottom by the recent excavations and vegetation destruction may prove to be interesting. Today it had a Curlew feeding by it and in the previous 2/3 visits it has had Lapwing and Oystercatcher there.
Others: pr Swift, Swallow, Goldfinches, Skylarks, Mipits.

Ogden was quiet, nothing to smile about, usual woodland types and very subdued they were.
The golf course was a grind, the only notable birds were 5 Swift in zooming mode . A Reed Bunting and a GSW were at Hunter Hill bottom.