Sunday, 7 February 2010

Holmfirth Mandarins

A couple of these beguiling little ducks can presently be found in Holmfirth. Best viewed from the Co-op supermarket car park, the two drake Mandarins are never far from the regular gang of Mallard and are easily approached.


Also on this stretch of river is a Dipper though obviously it's a little more difficult to catch up with. A better bet is the stream at Eastergate Bridge near Marsden where a little patience should be rewarded. A single bird was ranging quite widely there this morning.


Saturday, 6 February 2010

Bretton Update

Not a lot to report this week. Goosander numbers are down a little on Lower Lake and with Upper Lake still largely iced over it's just a handful of Teal & Mallard that make up the rest of the fowl.


Best bird this morning was a female Lesser Spotted Woodpecker again, this time at Cascade Bridge. It was way beyond camera range in the tree tops but showed well for around five minutes before disappearing into Menagerie Wood. A mixed flock of finches containing good numbers of Siskin & Redpoll along the riverside was another notable find.


The herons are refinding their tree-legs as they start to get territorial whilst at the feeding station I got some filthy looks from the usual freeloaders for forgetting to bring any treats.



Roll Call: Grey Heron (30+), Mute Swan (3), Canada Goose (50+), Mallard, Teal (8), Goosander (21), Kestrel, Black-headed Gull (150+), Wood Pigeon, Stock Dove, Lesser Spotted Woodpecker (1 fem), Blackbird, Robin, Dunnock, Wren, Great Tit, Blue Tit, Coal Tit, Long-tailed Tit, Nuthatch, Magpie, Rook, Carrion Crow, Jackdaw, Jay, Starling, Siskin, Lesser Redpoll, Goldfinch (Year List 43)

Wednesday, 3 February 2010

Late Waxwing Invasion?

As has been reported on the UK400 Club blog, many thousands of Bohemian Waxwings have been pouring into towns and cities in southern Sweden this week. There's nothing too unusual about this as the birds are well known for their irruptive migrations when food becomes scarce, but should supplies of berries and fruit in their native countries become exhausted, then they could be in trouble.

Any deciding to risk the North Sea crossing to the normally milder UK may well end up making a one way trip. With the enormous wintering flocks of Scandinavian thrushes being forced off the fields by the snow, there's precious little left in the way of rowan and hedgerow berries - the Waxwing's preferred diet.

Having recently witnessed hundreds of frenzied Fieldfare in the centre of Dewsbury stripping all the berry-bearing trees in next to no time (a bizarre sight that turned many a head), and noted evidence of similar behaviour in Huddersfield, any Waxwing making it to this part of the world in the next few weeks could seriously struggle.

The West Riding conurbation has hosted spectacular numbers of this beautiful species during my time birding - but let's hope they decide against gracing us on this occasion for their own sake.

Sunday, 31 January 2010

Good Geese - Dumb Decision

Flamborough was cold this morning....boy was it cold! And we hadn't accounted for heavy overnight snow either so hopes of seeking out the three scarce-ish goose species on the headland were soon fading. Then literally out of the blue, having been spooked by the local police chopper, two Eurasian White-fronts and a Tundra Bean Goose accompanied by a couple of Greylags (just the five of them), over-flew us at very close range.

Quite unforgivably I had chosen to leave the camera in the car, so unfortunately no prize-winning pictures of this spectacular grouping (if you like geese!) exist. The Pale-bellied Brent didn't show at all for us but a fly-by Merlin was some compensation. Your goose related picture compensation, dear reader, is Barney here, who continues to delight all-comers at Bretton Lakes - well me anyway!

Saturday, 30 January 2010

Bretton Update

Only my second visit this year due to weather and other excuses but then the place isn't much fun when the lakes are frozen.

A handful of Mallard on the Dearne were the only wildfowl at the beginning of the month so it was good to see that useful numbers of Goosander had returned after the thaw.


At least forty were noted on Lower Lake this morning along with a similar number of Grey Herons - many of which were already reclaiming nest sites for the fast approaching breeding season.


Roll call: Great Crested Grebe, Mute Swan, Canada Goose, Barnacle Goose (usual single with Canadas), Mallard, Teal, Goosander (40+), Grey Heron, Pheasant, Moorhen, Black-headed Gull, Wood Pigeon, Collared Dove, Kingfisher, Green Woodpecker, Wren, Robin, Blackbird, Mistle Thrush, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Nuthatch, Jay, Magpie, Jackdaw, Rook, Carrion Crow, House Sparrow, Chaffinch, Bullfinch (Year List 40)

Wednesday, 27 January 2010

More Coastal Attractions

Better weather is on the way this coming weekend and with it a return to the coast will top the agenda. Two weeks ago the Black-throated Thrush (still present incidentally) was the star turn but since then a decent selection of fowl has assembled at some of Yorkshire's top resorts, including Tundra Bean, European White-fronted & Pale-bellied Brent Geese plus Long-tailed Duck & Velvet Scoter - all a little less pedestrian than this bunch from my last visit, bless 'em!


From the top: Common Eider, Common Fulmar, Common House Sparrow & Common Snipe