Huddsbirder

The place to be for me at the moment is Old Moor with camera in hand I enjoyed another day here. There are now Chiffchaff on site but that’s the only summer migrant at the moment, so once again I had a play time with the camera , I did see at the feeder hide, lots of activity here, Chaffinch, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Pheasant, Stock Dove, Blackbird, Bullfinch, Wren, Reed Buntings and the Mallards. Plenty to see on site as well with loads of Black headed Gull, Canada Geese, Redshank, Oystercatcher, Great Crested Grebes along with Little Grebes, Jackdaws, Crows, Magpies lost sheep (ya you read right see below). So plenty going on and lots off noise and activity with nest-building pair bonding etc a great time of year

The Day List (in no Particular Order) :-

Greenfinch, Chaffinch, Robin, Blackbird, Dunnock, Pheasant, Collard Dove, Woodpigeon, Great Tit, Blue Tit, Long Tailed Tit, Lapwing, Reed Bunting, Pheasant, Black -headed Gull, Mallard, Gadwall, Wigeon, Coot, Mute Swan, Canada Goose, Sparrowhawk, Redshank, Shoveler, Yellowhammer, Tufted Duck, Teal, Jackdaw, Little Grebe, Great Crested Grebe, Oystercatcher, Stock Dove

Great Crested Grebe

Black-headed Gull

Well I have definitely spoilt myself this week with another trip out to Old Moor, on arrival the visit took on basically the same format as yesterday with my first port of call being the new photographers hide. From here I watched  another territorial fight this time between Robins (another first) this one didn’t last as long as the Pheasants from yesterday but again was still great to watch on and see this behaviour. Moving on I made my way around the reserve taking a different route than yesterday and headed out towards the Reedbed/Bittern hides where I found Tufted Duck, Pochard and Great Crested Grebes.  I then ended up back at the Family hide were most of the action was with plenty of wildfowl Mallard, Teal, Gadwall and a few Wigeon, there’s now plenty of Black-headed Gulls about which has made the reserve a little bit noisy, no Mediterranean Gulls about today. At the wader scrape hide there was still plenty of Redshank and Oystercatcher to watch.

That was very much my couple of days at Old Moor I spent a great time watching the wildlife on site (no dogs!!!) and taking photos, no summer migrants as yet for me although Sand Martin have passed thru along with Chiffchaff being heard on warbler way

Todays list (in no particular order) :-

Bullfinch, Chaffinch, Greenfinch, Goldfinch, Robin, Blackbird, Black-headed Gull, Little Grebe, Great Crested Grebe, Canada Goose, Woodpigeon, Grey Heron, Gadwall, Pochard, Mallard, Mute Swan, Wigeon, Lapwing, Redshank, Coot, Moorhen, Pheasant, Magpie, Cormorant,Teal, Oystercatcher, Green Woodpecker, Jackdaw, Crow, Starling, Reed Bunting, Great Tit, Blue Tit, Dunnock

With the safe arrival of a new family member over this last week it was time for play time, so with camera and binoculars in hand Old Moor was my destination. On arrival I soon settled into the first hide near the visitor centre watching Great Tits, Blue Tits, Chaffinch, Bullfinch, Robins, Woodpigeon, and Blackbirds coming and going to the feeders. Whilst I was here I watched a sight I had never seen before with two male Pheasants battling it out over territory, this lasted about 20 mins in all, it had me tired watching them never mind about how tired they must have been after such a battle.

I did move on to more of the reserve stopping off at the Family hide to see Redshank,Gadwall, Pochard, Lapwing, Black-headed Gulls, to name but a few. On at the Field Poll Hide I found Little Grebe, Wigeon, Little Egret and a fly thru Kingfisher. My last stop was at the wader scrape hide were I saw more Redshank, Oystercatcher, Lapwing and Black-headed Gulls, it was here that I heard a Green Woodpecker and was told it was in the cuckoo tree which the Kestrel was sitting (Kestrel I saw)

The Day List (In no particular order) :-

Black-headed Gull, Tufted Duck, Coot, Magpie, Greenfinch, Chaffinch, Cormorant, Tree Sparrow, Yellowhammer, Dunnock, Pheasant, Mallard, Wren, Robin, Blackbird, Redshank, Gadwall, Canada Goose, Stock Dove, Oystercatcher, Jackdaw, Little Grebe, Great Crested Grebe, Kingfisher, Little Egret, Wigeon, Mute Swan, Lapwing, Moorhen, Pochard

I decided on visiting some friends locally today so rather than take the car I used my legs and hoped for some local bird species I wasn’t dissapointed.The walk took me about 3 hours with the bird highlights being Bullfinch, Green Woodpecker, Mistle Thrush, Coal Tit, Long Tailed Tits, Chaffinch, Dunnock, Pheasant, Greenfinch, Jay and Nuthatch (2).

Rather a good week at work as well with Coal Tit, Treecreeper and Goldcrest seen

Yet another visit to Potteric Carr today we arrived at about 12:30pm just in time for dinner after a morning’s shopping. As we made our way towards the cafe we had great views of Goldfinch, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Long Tailed Tits and especially great views of two Treecreepers as we strolled down for dinner. After dinner we tried getting in the Willow Pool hide but couldn’t do so so we made our way down to the Hawthorn Bank Hide from here we saw lots of wildfowl including, Mute Swan, Greylag Geese, Shoveler, Pochard, Tufted Duck, Gadwall, Mallard, Wigeon, Moorhen and Coot and finally the bird I was hoping for the female Ring-necked Duck my first female Ring-necked giving excellent views, similar to Tufted Duck, no tuft at the back of the head, white spectacles around the eyes, faint white flash down the flank and the white around base of bill. We made our way back to Decoy hide in the vain hope of seeing a Bittern as we were making our way to Decoy we had great views of a male Kingfisher along the Mother Drain part of the reserve and a skien of Pink-footed Geese flying thru. The Decoy hide wasn’t fruitful on the Bittern side but there was a lone Common Snipe giving good views in front of the hide. Well worth coming to Potteric today had a little boost with its species list with 3 new birds taking it upto 98 now [Potteric List] these were Pink-footed Goose, Treecreeper and Ring-necked Duck

The Day List (in no particular order) :-

Treecreeper, Goldfinch, Chaffinch, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Long-tailed Tit, Blackbird, Robin, Willow Tit, Reed Bunting, Common Snipe, Shoveler, Gadwall, Teal, Wigeon. Mallard, Coot, Moorhen, Mute Swan, Tufted Duck, Ring-necked Duck (female), Greylag Goose, Pink-footed Goose, Pochard, Magpie, Crow, Kingfisher, Wren, Coal Tit, Lapwing

Off to a New Start with the first port of call being Fairburn Ings RSPB near Castleford taking in firstly the Lin Dike area. Down here I found Redwings and Teal on the nearby field pools, scanning the nearby fields Canada and Greylag Geese then a Fieldfare flew over nearby where I was standing, on further towards the hide and Spoonbill flash Goldeneye, Mute Swan, Little Egret (2), Grey Heron, Cormorants, Black-headed Gulls, Wigeon and more Teal. I moved on then to the visitor centre area but not before finding two Lesser Redpolls on my return journey along Lin Dike. At the centre the feeding area is always a good place to catch up with some common birds at close quarters namely Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Robin, Dunnock, Blackbirds, House Sparrows and Tree Sparrows but the surprise today was a Red-legged Partridge feeding quiet happily around the feeders.

Red-legged Partridge

My visit to Fairburn was over so I came back via Pugneys Country Park to pick up the two Great Northern Divers still on the main lake and hearing news of a Drake Smew over at Calder Wetlands I couldn’t resist going over to have a look. The Smew (white nun) was easily found on the left hand pond near the footpath which bisects both ponds and was in full view giving great views to see him in all his splendor. Other birds about with him were Teal, Goldeneye, Tufted Duck, Wigeon and Mallard, the same guy who put me on to this Smew also told me about another bird, one of the butcher birds, on my local patch area so I wasn’t spending as much time with the Smew as I would have liked I was soon off heading towards the Bretton Park area. The bird was in an area of farmland along Jebb Lane near to High Hoyland than Haigh by the directions I had been given and it took some finding as there wasn’t any other birders about at the time I arrived but I found it eventually, Great Grey Shrike (last seen in 2004) was the bird and a bird hard to see in the Huddersfield Area and now was safely on my Patch List taking it now to 157. I enjoyed the bird for quiet a while and by now a few more were too, the first day out birding in 2012 had got the year off to a great start (Last Great Grey was seen 31st December 2004 at Carsington Water)

The Day List :-

Great Northern Diver, Cormorant, Little Egret, Grey Heron, Mute Swan, Greylag Goose, Canada Goose, Shelduck, Wigeon, Gadwall, Teal, Mallard, Pochard, Tufted Duck, Goldeneye, Smew, Goosander, Kestrel, Red-legged Partridge, Pheasant, Moorhen, Coot, Lapwing, Curlew, Redshank, Black-headed Gull, Common Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Woodpigeon, Collard Dove, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Dunnock, Robin, Blackbird, Fieldfare, Redwing, Mistle Thrush, Coal Tit, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Great Grey Shrike, Magpie, Jackdaw, Rook, Crow, Starling, House Sparrow, Tree Sparrow, Chaffinch, Greenfinch, Goldfinch, Lesser Redpoll, Bullfinch, Reed Bunting

So that was 2011 looking forward to 2012 and the new wildlife and photos it will bring, I would like to wish everybody a Happy New Year and I hope 2012 is full of fantastic wildlife days out for you all.

If you would like to view my summary for 2011 and all lists please view HERE and don’t forget the 2011 highlights Page HERE

Thanks

Huddsbirder