Night time visit around the Langsett Res. area, I arrived at 7:30pm to see, Blackbird, Canada Goose flying thru, Curlew, Lapwings, Red Grouse, Snipe, Song Thrush, Stonechat, Willow Warbler, with a Cuckoo in the nearby tree, but I was here tonight for a special bird, the light was fading and as it was a Woodcock started ‘Roding’ it was now getting darker, I was about to give up, when I heard the ‘Churring’ right above my head and eventually two male Nightjars, started giving chase
Birds Seen : Blackbird, Canada Goose, Cuckoo, Curlew, Kestrel, Lapwing, Nightjar, Pheasant, Red Grouse, Snipe, Song Thrush, Stonechat, Willow Warbler, Woodcock (14) (176/200)88%
Well, here we are having a great run of sunny weather at the moment here in the UK, so I decided on having an insect day down at Old Moor.
I was there at opening time, 9:30am, I was hoping today for some Dragonflies, after the long hot spell Hairy Dragonflies were now on the wing and seen on a previous visit and also seen today, in good numbers, and in places not seen before, so a good year for the Hairy, unfortunately I didn’t seen any today or any other Dragonfly species. Damselflies were in good numbers with Azure, Common Blue and Large Red seen.
Since luck wasn’t in on the Dragonflies I moved onto the Butterflies and other things, first joy was an Ancistrocerus Wasp Sp, butterflies seen were Green veined White, Brimstone, Dingy Skippers in good numbers, aCommon Blue, and a Small Copper.
Come the afternoon things picked up on the Dragonfly front, with Four Spotted Chasers, and a Male Broad Bodied Chaser in pristine condition.
Butterfly Seen : Brimstone, Common Blue, Dingy Skipper, Green-veined White, Holly Blue, Orange Tip, Peacock, Small Copper, Speckled Wood (9)
Dragonflies Seen : Azure Damselfly, Blue-tailed Damselfly, Broad-bodied Chaser, Common Blue Damselfly, Four-spotted Chaser, Hairy Dragonfly, Large Red Damselfly, (7)
Early start today, target birds being Common Sandpiper, Pied Flycatcher, Spotted Flycatcher, Ring Ouzel and Redstart.
7:30am arrival at Langsett Barns Car Park (///bluff.track.neckline) to Blackbird, Song Thrush, Mistle Thrush, moving on to the dam, after getting the gear together, a single Oystercatcher was soon picked out amongst the Mallards, two Common Sandpipers flew in and landed on the dam wall, I eventually managed to grap some photos of them in passing, shortly after a third joined them.
Down in the wood Chiffchaff, Chaffinch, Curlew was heard, Nuthatch, Great Spotted Woodpecker were seen, Wrens’ were heard throughout the wood and then I picked up a Pied Flycatcher calling, but couldn’t pick it up, but further into the wood, I found another, but it was a wait of twenty minutes before it finally showed itself. After the Pied Flycatcher, I was put onto a location of Spotted Flycatcher, but I spent sometime with the Pied first, then I went to find Spotted Flycatcher. Once I was in the location, I had to use the Merlin app, due to the high pitch calling, it was here, now I had to find it, took a while but find it I did, high in the trees, I was really glad I found this one.
Back to the car and round to the other side of the reservoir where there were Swallows, Pied Wagtails, Sparrowhawk, Lapwing and Red Grouse.
I then went on to a place called Cut throat bridge for part two of the day, Willow Warblers were calling in the car park area, I made my way across to the other side of the road to the location. Took a while to find the next bird, Ring Ouzel, a single male bird and then eventually a couple of Whinchat, a single Snipe, Meadow Pipits, Red Grouse, nice end to the day.
Birds seen Langsett Area : Blackbird, Blackcap, Blue Tit, Buzzard, Canada Goose, Carrion Crow, Chaffinch, Chiffchaff, Collard Dove, Common Sandpiper, Curlew, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Great Tit, Kestrel, Lapwing, Long tailed Tit, Mallard, Mistle Thrush, Nuthatch, Oystercatcher, Pheasant, Pied Flycatcher, Pied Wagtail, Red Grouse, Robin, Song Thrush, Sparrowhawk, Spotted Flycatcher, Swallow, Willow Warbler, Woodpigeon, Wren (32)
Birds Seen Cut Throat Bridge : Lapwing, Linnet, Meadow Pipit, Red Grouse, Ring Ouzel, Snipe, Whinchat (7) 174/200
Choices were a big concern today, was it to be the Spotted Sandpiper, at Grafham Water, or the Temminck’s and Little Stint at Frampton, but the Wood Sandpiper at Wombwell was the winner.
When I entered the Wombwell Reserve, I was immediately onto the Wood Sandpiper, bit of a change for me, it did give great views, along side a Common Redshank, and Avocet’s, were in the same location. I watched the antics for a while, putting other birders onto the bird, one guy told me of a Lesser Whitethroat at Adwick, that was an idea after here. I stayed on a while watching Pied Wagtails, Skylark, Sand Martin, plus new for the year House Martin, and Swifts. The male Garganey was in front of the hide, for a change, instead of the other side of the pool, Grey Heron, Shelduck, Shovelers, Mallard, Oystercatchers, Linnets, Gadwall and Cormorants.
On then to the Adwick site, after a good start at Wombwell, on arrival I went straight down to the Lesser Whitethroat location, but alas it wasn’t around but a Common Whitethroat was seen. I moved further into the reserve to view, Avocets, Redshanks, Lapwings, Greylag Goose, and Pied Wagtails. On the walk back to the car, I picked up on a Blackcap and heard Reed and Garden Warbler.
A few good days of sun had me heading down to Old Moor, for some insect action and hopefully the start of the Dragonfly season, but the news of a Temminck’s Stint on the Wader Scrape, had me heading down there first, alas on arrival, the news was that it hadn’t been since early morning, after a good look around seeing the usual stuff, Redshank, Oystercatcher, Lesser Black backed Gull,Herring Gull and Black headed Gull, Mallard, Gadwall, Cormorant, I moved onto Wath Ings Hide, here I saw, Spoonbill, Little Ringed Plover, and Common Sandpiper were the highlights.
I then went down Green Lane, seeing very little for my efforts, however a male a female Common Blue Butterfly were nice to see.
After dinner, I went around the Dragonfly Ponds, first stop was the visitor centre one, plenty of action here with Azure, Large Red, Blue tailed and Common Blue Damselfly. I then went down to the larger ponds, near the bridges, the last one held Hairy Dragonfly ♂♀, very hard to photograph, the male in flight all the time, the female was photographed, when she stopped to egg lay, also of note here, was a Grass Snake.
Birds Seen :- Bittern, Black headed Gull, Blackcap, Canada Goose, Cetti’s Warbler, Chiffchaff, Common Sandpiper, Coot, Cormorant, Gadwall, Garden Warbler, Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Greylag Goose, Herring Gull, Lapwing, Lesser Black backed Gull, Little Grebe, Little Ringed Plover, Magpie, Mallard, Moorhen, Mute Swan, Oystercatcher, Pochard, Redshank, Reed Bunting, Reed Warbler, Sedge Warbler, Shelduck, Shoveler, Tufted Duck, Whitethroat, Willow Warbler (34) 169/200
Butterflies Seen :- Brimstone, Comma, Common Blue, Green veined White, Small Tortoiseshell (5)
Dragonflies Seen :- Azure Damselfly, Blue tailed Damselfly, Common Blue Damselfly, Hairy Dragonfly, Large Red Damselfly (5)
A quick visit, today I was meeting family at Pugneys CP, so I had limited time, did see Orange tips, Peacock, Red Admiral, Small White and some lovely Green Longhorn Moths, dancing with the sunlight. Birds were mainly Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff, Blackcap, Blackbird, Robin, and a Garden Warbler which was only a glimpse
A call into North Cave Wetlands on the way back home from Bempton, always a good place to be, with of course a great Butty Van to boot.
Started off walking down Dryham Lane and to East Holm hide for the reported Black Tern, I found out later, when I couldn’t find it, that it was only a fly through. On the walk down were, Orange tip Butterflies, Peacock Butterflies, and a couple of Dark edged Bee Flies. At East Holm, the Little Owl was in its favourite tree, loads of Black headed Gulls, Wigeon, Teal, Great Crested Grebe, Shelduck, down here also I got talking to a fellow You Tuber, Stuart Abbott of Derbyshire Bird Tours, who put me onto the Mediterranean Gulls and I put him on to his first Common Tern of the year.
From the hide, itself, I managed to find a couple of Little Ringed Plovers, as well as closer views of the Common Terns, dinner was now calling, so I made a stop at the Butty Van, well eventually, I made a stop off first, on a footpath, one I hadn’t been on before, on here I found a Sedge Warbler, Linnets, Common Whitethroat, Willow Warblers, Chiffchaff, Blackcap, and a heard Garden Warbler.
After dinner, I came back to the footpath and took some photos, rather a few, really, Sedge Warbler, Whitethroat, and Linnets, the Whitethroat and Sedge Warbler were a bit skulky, but I had a good time
Birds Seen : Avocet, Black headed Gull, Blackcap, Buzzard, Carrion Crow, Cetti’s Warbler, Chaffinch, Chiffchaff, Common Tern, Coot, Cormorant, Gadwall, Garden Warbler, Goldfinch, Great Crested Grebe, Great Tit, Great White Egret, Green Woodpecker, Grey Heron, Greylag Goose, Jackdaw, Lapwing, Lesser Black backed Gull, Little Egret, Little Grebe, Little Owl, Little Ringed Plover, Mallard, Mediterranean Gull, Moorhen, Mute Swan, Oystercatcher, Pied wagtail, Pochard, Red Kite, Reed Bunting, Reed Warbler, Ringed Plover, Rock Dove/Feral Pigeon, Sand Martin, Sedge Warbler, Teal, Tufted Duck, Whitethroat, Wigeon, Willow Warbler, Woodpigeon (47) 167/200
Arriving at the car park in sunshine and a low wind, it seemed a good start to the day. After getting the gear together, I headed on down to the cliffs, picking up Tree Sparrow on making my way around the visitor Centre, a Common Whitethroat gave off a quick call, but not seen, a Sedge Warbler called further down the pathway and gave a quick fly display, before hiding again in the scrub.
Down at the cliffs, the usual subjects were hanging out Gannets, Fulmars, Kittiwakes, Razorbills, Guillemot’s inc. a few bridled form, Puffin’s however were harder to find, with only a couple seen in flight and not seen on the cliffs.
During the morning the sea fret rolled in, so I moved away from the cliffs and moved up towards the visitor centre, seeing Blackbirds, Linnets, Willow Warbler, Woodpigeon, Collard Dove, Stock Dove, Robin, Dunnock, Chaffinch, Jackdaw, and a Common Whitethroat, this time was briefly seen, before disappearing once again, into the scrub.
The sea fret finally lifted, giving way to grey skies and cold wind, it felt like winter again to the point I had to get the winter woolies out of the car, but the day ended well with a couple of Short eared Owls.
Another early start today, today we were inheading into Shropshire for the reported Black Kite. We arrived at Wood Lane NR a small members site, the hides have combination locks on. On the walk in, we heard Chiffchaff, Great Tit, and a fly over Oystercatcher, on of the lads picked up on a kite, we could see it was the Black Kite due to being in the air with a few Red Kites, we could clearly see the difference. We walked in further to the area that overlooks the landfill, where the Kites could be seen better, various Kites were still in the air, mostly Red Kites but the Black Kite was still amongst them, it was good to still be able to compare these Kite species together. The Black Kite appeared smaller than the Red in size overall, shorter wing length and tail showing a shallower, one of the lads managed to get a photo, Cleary showing the six fingers the Black has compared to the Red having five.
Other birds around the hide area were Black headed Gull, Greylag Geese, Canada Geese, Oystercatcher, Blackcap, Reed Warbler, Garden Warbler (H) and Buzzard. Dinner at another hide, after we had our fill of Kites, birds we saw here were Robin, Blackbird, Sand Martins, Moorhen, Kingfisher, Raven and Blue Tit.
Whixall Moss was our next stop, plenty of Brimstone Butterflies were about, there were also a few Click Beetles and a Green Tiger Beetle, birds were Kestrels and Buzzards.
Our last stop of the day was in the Strines at a place called Cut Throat Bridge, where we saw Red Grouse, Wheatear, Meadow Pipit, Skylark, Stonechat a few Curlew, and finally after failing on the Ring Ouzels a lovely male Whinchat which was sat up singing away. Finally Woodcock on the way over towards home
A brief visit out to Pugneys CP again, this time for Common Scoter, that has been here for a few days now , on the main lake. On arrival Chiffchaff, Blackcap and Robin, were singing around the car park area, around the lake edge were the usual Mute Swans, Black headed Gulls, and Mallards, on the jetties more Black headed Gulls along with Lesser Black backed Gulls and Herring Gulls. The Scoters, I could see from here, they were sat out in the middle of the lake, the sun was in my face, so I made my way around to the other side side so it was at my back, and situated myself in the main lake hide.
From the hide I could Great Crested Grebe, a female Goldeneye, Tufted Duck, Pochard, a calling Reed Warbler near the hide, and of course the Common Scoters, Male and Female
Birds Seen : Black headed Gull, Blackcap, Blue Tit, Carrion Crow, Chiffchaff, Common Scoter, Cormorant, Goldeneye, Goldfinch, Great Crested Grebe, Great Tit, Herring Gull, Lesser Black backed Gull, Magpie, Mallard, Moorhen, Mute Swan, Pochard, Reed Warbler, Tufted Duck, Willow Warbler, Wren (22) 155/200
Huddsbirder 