Saturday 31 August Birds

Defied the laws of logic yet again and ended up on high moorland with another decent wind albeit more NW'ly this afternoon.

Finally a Whinchat in flight giving the briefest of views, but beggars can't be choosers.
Swallows were all over the place at one stage giving the impression of mass migration yet not a single House Martin.

A Roe Deer showed more curiosity for a strange figure stumbling along in tussock grass, than fear before it finally came to it's senses.

Also Sparrowhawk, Kestrel, Reed Bunting, WW, BHG in small quantity.

Killer SW'ly Does An Admirable Job

I thought about dropping down a good 100 metres plus in altitude to Low Moor Dams but I had a senior moment and went over the moors again; what an idiot!
The forecast wind this am was 15 kph, it turned out more like 40 kph and completely destroyed any chance of half decent birding.

I tried to familiarise myself with the pile of shit I just recently bought but I seem to be taking 3 steps forward and two steps back.

Onto what few birds that didn't get smashed against a wall by the wind:
Swallows, Mipits, Goldfinches. A regiment of Canada & a solitary Barnacle Goose.
4 LBBG, 3 Common Gull, c30 BHG, 3 Cormorant, 1 Kestrel.
A smattering of woodland types.

Belated Cuckoo Photos

Finally after no patience whatsoever but an incredible amount of technical knowledge coupled with an equal amount of good fortune, I managed to edit these 3 Cuckoo photos taken at Cold Edge on 23 Aug 2019.

Still got a lot of effort to put in to bottom the camera out, obviously.

Today's Birds

Not too forthcoming unlike the rain which eventually found me out. However I am happy to record overhead Tree Pipit calling a couple or three times. Moving Meadow Pipits were plentiful with Swallow not too far behind.

1 Red Grouse flushed from a track which had c16 Goldfinch doing the rounds.
Also 2 Tufted Duck ditto Robin, 1 Raven ditto WW and a few small gull sp.

Somewhere then Somewhere Else

Somewhere 0920-1135 hrs 8 WW, 3 Chiffchaff ditto  Bullfinch, 1 Blackcap 3 Blackbird. Blue/Great Tit everywhere.

3 Cormorant, 1 each Grey Heron & GSW, 4 Jay, 1 Pied Wagtail, 13 Canada. Nothing moving skywards. 10/11 small gulls on the deck.

Somewhere Else 1230-1320 hrs. 2 Kestrel, 1 Sparrowhawk, couple Swallow, few Goldfinch, House Sparrows. 1 Stock Dove, several Woodpigeon.
The only airborne action was when something unseen spooked a load of gulls feeding in a freshly mown Meadow.  There was a mix of several LBBG & BHG plus whatever else was lurking.

I was 2 seconds away from stomping a female Pheasant in thick vegetation. I apologised as she flew briefly then landed uttering a squawk that translated as "Anchor" or similar.

Nearer home c11 Linnet, 1 Swallow and a House Martin. A few of the latter were above the back field with a Grey Wagtail doing the rounds as I come to an end. Talking of which the new camera has got one last chance left.

Who's A Naughty Boy Then?

Daily Mail: Woman is left terrified as her home is besieged by magpies who steal her dog's food. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7389641/Woman-left-terrified-home-besieged-magpies-steal-dogs-food.html

Moorland Joy Finally

Another example of a quiet start and finish but the middle part delivered a goody. My new camera was baptised with a Cuckoo! I watched the bird perched for about 7 minutes then it flew across the moor heading roughly W.
I'm very wary of uploading the photos today in fact I'm paranoid in case I balls it up so the weekend is more realistic.

A Buzzard & Kestrel showed well and there was movement of sizeable parties of Meadow Pipit & Linnet.
Also Grey Heron,  Stock Dove, 1 Reed Bunting, 3 WW, several Swallow, 1 House Martin ditto Tufted. Duck.
3 LBBG & several small Gulls.

Moorhen, Collared Dove, Canadas, GSW, LTT.

Butterflies incl c20 Peacock, 3 Painted Laides, 4 Small Tortoiseshell.

TBC...

Thursday In The Rain

I took my new camera for a walk and found out it completely overwhelmed me thanks to the inherent technology  Never mind I should bottom it in a couple of years.

Once again the rain also overwhelmed; pity I forgot to bring the litre bottle of whisky I recently purchased.

3 Cormorant, 1 GCG, 12 LBBG & usual small gulls. Around 8 Swallow blew in and spent time flitting over the water.
1 WW and a curious Jay that flew in to have a look at me! I can only conclude this was an immature bird.

I met a  lady who is a regular at this location and she told me in the past few weeks she witnessed 4 Jay having an altercation with an Owl species and also a Red Kite flying over on a separate occasion.

Old Moor RSPB

Courtesy DW along with DM on a warm sunny day.
1 Oystercatcher, 4 Dunlin, numerous Lapwing.
2 Grey Heron, 3 Little Egret & a pr Great White Egret.

Teal, Gadwall, Tufted, Shoveler, GCG, Little Grebe, Mute Swan, Cormorant, Coot & Moorhen in various numbers.

Other: Chaffinch, Greenfinch, Goldfinch, Pied Wagtail, Blackcap & WW.

Red Kite seen overhead on way back home.

Local Patchy Patch

A Boring quiet first half which picked up fairly well then descended into narcolepsy once again.

8 Blackbird, pr Dunnock, 1 LBBG overhead, many small gulls. The woodland produced zilch, not even figments of a rancid imagination.

After a drop of rain Hirundines came out to feed, often close up around ones noggin. Many House Martin with Swallow numbers being slightly less.
I saw my first Linnets in quite a while, a flock of c30 birds.
Goldfinch clocked in at c20 strong and 4 Mipits were seen.

A GSW called several times nearby, a Raven and a distant Curlew were heard just once.
Numerous Jackdaw and c26 small gulls were in the fields.

My new camera has been ordered and I feel this will be the key to getting some really acceptable birds especially as I'm thinking of relocating to Baffin Island.

Larus Michahellis Saves The Day

Or to be more specific the afternoon in a shortened local walk.

The only stretch of water I visited held c20 LBBG with a gleaming adult Yellow-legged Gull in amongst. This bird was also seen briefly in flight.
Others: 2 Cormorant, 1 GCG and a  load of small gulls. 3 Blackbird, 1 Mipit  few Swallow.

No photos as my camera finally succumbed to being water boarded last Saturday.

Swillington Ings

Courtesy DM & DW.
A dank morning with grey skies; despite this the birds performed very well.

Pr Spoonbill, 1 Little Egret, 2 Grey Heron.
Pr Shelduck, 3 Pochard, 2 Shoveler, 1 Shelduck ditto Wigeon, several Gadwall, many Tufted Duck.
One Heron in plain view was observed killing and eventually eating what appeared to be a well grown juvenile Coot.

Bottom photo DW

1 Spotted Redshank, numerous Lapwing.
1 Kingfisher ditto Little Grebe, several GCG.
6 Common Tern, 3 Cormorant, 1 LBBG, few BHG.

A few Linnet, Reed Bunting & Goldfinch plus 1 Kestrel also seen.

We had an amazing experience with 100s of Swift flying all around us for the duration of the walk. Individuals would frequently fly just a few feet above our head's in their search for airborne insects.
Numerous Sand Martin less so House Martin were also active along with a few Swallow.

Warbler sp. were present in good numbers including brown jobs but the viewing conditions and the speed of movement in the reeds and bushes prevented accurate identification.

Moorland Malediction

A repeat of the previous route done last week and once more finding birds was hellish.

1 Stonechat ditto Swallow & Tufted Duck.

Several Mipit, 1 Reed Bunting, 4 LBBG, 1 Kestrel, 2 Wheatear & 2 Pied Wagtail.

7 LTT, Obligatory Goldfinches.

Also 11 Painted Lady, 3 Peacock & others seen fleetingly.

Saturation Point

I got caught this afternoon in a torrential downpour that for a period of 25 minutes exceeded anything I have experienced in the tropics be they East or West.

There was a pulse raising 15 minutes in this downpour when I saw 4 diving birds on the water in close proximity, one of them showing various white patches. Got to be a Diver sp. I thought after determining the other 3 were Cormorant.
Eventually visibility was restored which enabled me to get the bins on a...
Great Crested Grebe!

The only other mentionable birds were 6 LBBG, 2 Common Gull, a party of approximately 11 Swallow and 3 Blackbird.

A Song For Those Who Couldn't Get Out To Miss Birds That Don't Exist

North Cave Wetlands

Courtesy DW along with DM. A great day out:

1 Common Tern. 9 Little Egret, 4 Grey Heron, 6 Pochard, 3 Shoveler, 4/5 Shelduck, 1 Garganey in eclipse.
6 Cormorant, not forgetting myriads of Coot, Tufted Duck plus several Mute Swan & Moorhen.

Waders were kind to us: 5 Wood Sandpiper, 2 Common Sandpiper, 1 Little Ringed Plover, 2 Curlew, 3 Snipe & Loadsa Lapwing.

1 each Buzzard & Kestrel.

2 Yellowhammer, pr Blackcap. Fleeting glimpses of possible Lesser Whitethroat.
1 Pied Wagtail, 2 Swift ditto Sand Martin, 1 House Martin, 6 Swallow.

Bottom two photos DW

Moorland Yomp

In the wider wilderness incorporating five stretches of water and once again birds were at a premium. One day I will give this foolish pastime up and get back to the good old days of smuggling contraband and gun running.

5 BHG (I nearly put GBH = Grevious Bodily Harm Gulls) f Tufted Duck with 4 recently hatched young. 4 Swift > SW & 2 Swallow, 5 Linnet, 2 Pied Wagtail.

I heard a WW Singing the full song or as close as it gets. Inevitably Goldfinches.

2 Barnacle Geese ditto juvenile large Gull at distance. 3 Wheatear, more Swallows, numerous Starling, couple Meadow Pipit. Canadas in most locations, 1 Grey Wagtail ditto Green Woodpecker.

Saturday's Slog

Yet another long walk in pleasant conditions but at the expense of birds especially the final stretch which was unbelievable void. In fact I did a lot better with insects both on the interest and the photography front.

9 Grey Partridge which was good as 8 of them were recently fledged juveniles. 1 Skylark ditto Mipit. Juv LEO call heard. 1 Stock Dove 22 LBBG, c65 BHG, 3 Blackbird 2 WW 1 Chaffinch,

9 Painted Lady 4 Peacock ditto small Tortoiseshell and others. I must get my act together with Meadow Brown and Ringlet confusion.

Local Struggle

Back to crap; I walked nearly 3 times further today than yesterday and got about a quarter of the species.

6 Mipit, pr Pied Wagtail, Swallow.
1 Whitethroat, 2 WW, ditto Blackbird, LBBG, c63 BHG.

I count myself very lucky to come across a migrating female Pochard.

The final leg produced just 1 Green Woodpecker and numerous Jackdaw.

Also 3 small Tortoiseshell and a Painted Lady seen.