Monthly Archives: February 2011

Well week 8 at the work patch was rather quiet with the only bird of note being a Goldcrest along with the usual Blue, Great, and Long Tailed Tits and the odd Treecreeper thrown in.

The end of the week Saturday the 26th saw us at Clumber Park [S80 3AZ] we hit it just right arriving at 10:45am before the build up of people. We decided on going around by the lake first seeing Tufted Duck, Mallard, Mute Swan, Canada Geese, Black Headed Gulls, Moorhen, Coot and a pair of Goosander. The woodland walk had us seeing plenty of Blue, Great and Long Tailed Tits with the odd Marsh Tit thrown in, we also had the sound/call of a Great Spotted Woodpecker. We saw plenty of Chaffinch and Greenfinch along with Robins, Blackbirds and a bird we overdosed on was Nuthatch they were everywhere we went. A Buzzard took us by surprise has it called overhead and glided on by, then we foundthe gold a pair of Hawfinch these were seen not by the chapel area but down by the gate towards the other woodland area were we also saw a Jay.

The week started well with a Dipper on the brook at my work patch I haven’t seen one of these here for over six years now and since I scared it up no photos were taken, thats number two of the five seen but no Photo/Video to go along with any yet. Tuesday was good with a Tawny Owl heard calling first and then a flight shot as it flew overhead.

Early start Friday around my local village to catch Common and Black Headed Gulls on the playing fields I was hoping for that out of place Med Gull here as I have done for a few years now I’ll keep looking on then to Horbury Wyke for a couple of hours it turned out that there wasn’t much here today either but I did catch up with Goldcrest at close quarters I did manage a picture but you don’t need to see it, honest. Anyway the walk continued seeing Cormorant, Black Headed Gull, Canada Goose, Pied Wagtails numerous feeding on the filter pans, Moorhen, Mallards, Starling, Redwing, Chaffinch, and the only year bird of the day 27 Lapwings over. I then had a job to do which turned out worthwhile with 50+ Waxwings in the car park, a great ending to a dull day weather wise and bird wise

The excitment this week was a sighting of a Common Buzzard over my place of work  [see Patch Highlghts 2011 Link ] being plagued by a Crow has it flew thru. The end  of the week saw me at Sands Lane [Location]  looking down my scope once again at the adult Ring Billed Gull [Video Link], just to get familiar, the real reason however for a Sands Lane visit was to try and find a Mediterranean Gull but once again it wasn’t my day just as back home earlier the  other  gulls present were Black Headed and Common, with a single Lesser Black Backed. Whilst visiting I decided on a good wander round picking up other species has I went wildfowl were in good numbers especially Goosander [Video Link] with a double figure count, a pair of  Pochard, three pair of  Tufted Duck, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Blackbird, Mute Swan, Canada Geese, Cormorant [Video Link]  and Dunnock [Video Link] no surprises for me today but a bit of  Digi/Videoscoping was welcome even if it was in terrible light.

Dunnock

Cormorant

Siskin

Friday unfortunately was work day this week but news of Waxwing locally had me up early Saturday to find 7 birds still in Sainsbury’s car park at Brighouse, as what seems to be the norm for me this winter with Waxwing I had ony a couple of minutes to enjoy these birds before they were off  probably to another supermarket car park somewhere. The afternoon saw me enjoying a walk down Lin Dike taking in the wildfowl and Geese Teal [Video Link], Tufted Duck, Wigeon, Shelduck, Canada Geese and the geese we had come to see the 8-off Greenland White Fronted Geese. We had a surprise find with a Little Egret along with Mute Swan, Lapwing, Black Headed Gulls, Coot, Moorhen,Gadwall, Goldeneye, Shoveler, Mallard and Cormorant, made out to a useful hour the rain held off which was good but the wind hadn’t hence the lack of small birds we didn’t see