Huddsbirder

Happy New Year and first day out to Potteric Carr but not for the birds (few and far between) but on the list today  for the 1st of Jan was Bev’s Big Breakfast and what a breakfast it was, full vegetarian Emm!

Ya! we did do a little birding and a large walk too after that breakfast, the best place at this time of year seems to be Willow Pool Hide, not far to walk from cafe as well. Here we saw the usual Finch/Tit species Greenfinch, Goldfinch, Chaffinch, Bullfinch, Blue Tit, Great Tit and Coal Tit, also seen Jay, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Dunnock, Pheasant, Moorhen, Coot, Mallard, Mute Swan, and Wren.

Calling in at the Kingfisher Hide to see Coot, Moorhen, Gadwall and Teal. Around Huxter Wells Gadwall, Shoveler, Shelduck, Tufted Duck, Shoveler, Teal, Mallard, Greylag Goose, Wigeon, Pochard, Great blacked Backed Gull, Common Gull, Black headed Gull and I think birds of the day a nice flock of Lesser Redpoll (takes the PC list to 99)

Chaffinch

Last day of the year. the weather cleared, and that’s all we needed, so we were off for a couple of hours down to Old Moor on arrival our first port of call was the bird garden to catch sight of Blue Tits, Great Tit, Long Tailed Tits, and Pheasant. We called in next to the Tree Sparrow farm to find Collard Doves, Brambling ♂♀, Chaffinch, Greenfinch, Reed Bunting, Bullfinch and Robin along with more Pheasants. Dropping in at the Family Hide next to catch up with plenty of wildfowl, Tufted Duck, Goldeneye ♂, Gadwall, Teal, Mallard, Coot, Moorhen, Cormorant, Black headed Gulls, Canada Geese, Lapwings and Starlings with a few Linnets thrown in.

After Dinner onto the Bittern Hide to see Shovelers on the way, Tufted Ducks, Coots and the bird of the day one Barn Owl

Collard Doves

Huddsbider now has a New Blog site to cover Nature/Wildlife seen at work during his lunch Break, the site can be found here

http://huddsbirder1.wordpress.com/

Here we are again, arriving at dinner time so our first port of call was the cafe then it would be the reserve.

After dinner we settled in to the bird garden hide [feeders now back up] and bird present, Blue, Great, Long Tailed and Willow Tits all present, Dunnock, Robin, Chaffinch and Blackbird as support. Round at the bird farm was much off the same along with Tree Sparrow and Reed Bunting.

We called in at the Field Pool hide to see Mute Swan, Coot, Mallard, Canada Geese, Shoveler, with Lapwings and Golden Plovers seen flying overhead with Black Headed Gulls. Wader scrape hide gave us Wigeon, Common Gull, Cormorant and Grey Heron.

Finally we ended up at Wath Ings we could see the gathering of few hundred Golden Plover [Video] with Lapwings. In and amongst the Plovers we could see a couple of Redshank and Green Sandpipers and a single Common Snipe

Day off work today so I decided on visiting a site in the Huddersfield Area, something I haven’t done for a while, so I found myself at Langsett Res for a couple of hours.

First impressions were on how quiet it was there didn’t seem to be any birds around at all, no contact call or flight calls going on. The first bird I did find was a Green Woodpecker, not that it was noisy but because it was on the side of a dead tree, well it was a start. Then it was the familiar calls of geese going over head 2 large skeins of Pink Footed Geese calling as they made their way South Easterly. After these the call of a Great Spotted Woodpecker then a flight of Siskins followed by Red Grouse calling on the moors, quiet on the stream no Wagtails or Dipper about.

On the way back to the car park I was accompanied by Blue and Long Tailed Tits. Not an impressive day out but the walk was good.

Hope you enjoy the views I did.

Well it seems when we go out we cannot seem to find our way passed Old Moor, but there again why should we great team, great cafe, and great wildlife/nature on site.

Todays adventure started at the bird garden were we instantly noticed an abence of feeders and birds, later found out it is due the finch desease “Trichomonosis” so food is on the floor and not in feeders.

So we ventured up to the Tree Sparrow farm where we saw  Greenfinch, Reed Bunting, Tree Sparrow, Collard Dove, Redwing (2), Bullfinch, Robin, Chaffinch.

A visit into the Family Hide here we saw Gadwall, Black Headed Gull, Common Gull (2), Cormorant, Lapwings, Starlings, Mute Swans, Linnet.

Wader Scarpe hide was our next visit where we added a solitary Green Sandpiper to the list, Redshank, Shoveler and Teal

Lastly we called at the Wath Ings Hide where we saw good numbers of Golden Plover, Lapwing, Wigeon, and Teal along with Moorhen, Coot, Grey Heron and Mallards

Passing by the Tree Sparrow farm we called back in to find Dunnock, Great Tit and Pheasants

ROBIN

GOLDEN PLOVERS

Here we are again a few days later but Old Moor is such a diverse site I just can’t seem to keep away, plenty of wildlife to seek out and I don’t have to worry about dogs springing on me or looking out for dog poo in case the foot goes in it.  Another wader day down at the Wath Ings hide with plenty of Golden Plover and Lapwings with the small waders in and amongst,  Ringed Plover, Green Sandpiper, Curlew Sandpiper, Little Stint, Dunlin and Ruff were all present. A Kingfisher made a brief appearance on the fence near the hide but was soon off, to quick for a photo. Wildfowl seems to be building up slowly at Old Moor with good numbers of Gadwall and Wigeon, also present were Mallard, Shoveler, and Teal.

There were a few Swallows zipping thru and good numbers of Grey Herons, Little Grebe, Great Crested Grebe, Cormorants, Mute Swans, Canada Geese, Linnets, Black headed Gulls, Starlings, Greenfinch, Long Tailed Tits plenty to see.

After dinner we had a walk on to Gypsy Marsh, along the cycle track, this is where we saw plenty of Common Darters, Migrant Hawkers and Green Shield Bugs and big Garden Spiders, Red Admiral, and Comma to finish the day off.

The Day List in no order :-

Lapwing, Golden Plover, Dunlin, Little Stint, Curlew Sandpiper, Green Sandpiper, Ruff, Ringed Plover, Pied Wagtail, Kingfisher, Wigeon, Mallard, Teal, Gadwall, Shoveler, Little Grebe, Great Crested Grebe, Grey Heron, Cormorant, Mute Swan, Canada Goose, Swallow, Starling, Blue Tit, Long Tailed Tit, Linnet, Black headed Gull, Greenfinch, Kestrel, Woodpigeon, Magpie, Crow, Common Darter, Migrant Hawker, Green Shield Bugs

We decided on a few hours out at Old Moor since the weather was good for a spot a birding, on arrival we walked straight dow to Wath Ings hide where all the reported waders were being seen, on our walk we picked up a Buzzard but my wife shouted Osprey this side, no it was a Buzzard I said and on that most of the people from the hide were running out saying “did you see the Osprey” “No Buzzard” “there was an Osprey too” looks like it wasn’t going to be my day. Settling in we soon picked out a handful of Green Sandpipers to the left of the hide, most of the action was to the right  side of the hide with plenty of Lapwing and Golden Plovers about, you could pick smaller waders in and amongst Dunlin, Ringed Plover, Curlew Sandpiper and Little Stint. 

A few duck species still about namely Shoveler, Mallard, Teal, and Gadwall, smaller birds Blue Tit, Greenfinch, and Linnet with a Sparrowhawk and a “yaffling” Green Woodpecker to finish the bird side off. There was still a lot of Common Daters still about in the sun trap areas

Here is a view from Wath Ings hide

Well its been a long time since I’ve been here, sorry about that but things went a bit over the top at home, so getting out was put to the back burner for a while. So hopefully we are back and my first outing in a while was back to Old Moor in glorious sunshine the bugs were everywhere. The very friendly Common Darters were numerous and even landing on the hand, Ruddy Darters were plentiful. Brown Hawker seen feasting on a Common Darter, Migrant Hawkers and even Black Darter were seen. Hoverflies were plentiful with a couple of new ones seen

On the bird front waders are now starting to wonder back thro, we saw Greenshank, Ruff, Common Sandpiper, Green Sandpiper. The winter flock of  Lapwing and Golden Plover has started.

Norfolk week from 28th June until 5th July 2012 for full story and species lists press Trips tab Norfolk June 2012 and some pictures can be seen at my flickr.

Highlights being Grass Snake at Lakenheath Fen, Variable Damselfly and Scrace Chaser at Wicken Fen, Small Red Damselfly at Fermyn Woods, Clouded Buff Moth at Two Mile Bottom Thetford Forest, and Stone Curlews at Weeting Heath