Huddsbirder

Started the day at Broadstones Reservoir finding plenty of Linnets and Goldfinch with the odd Willow Warbler and Whitethroat before moving on to Ingbirchworth Reservoir finidng a good group of gulls blooging along the shoreline these included Black Headed Gulls mainly with Lesser Black Backed Gulls mixed in and alone Herring Gull which was a 3rd summer bird, I tried getting a photo of it, I was  nicely lined up then off it went due to a very noisy 75 year pensioner making his presence known telling the whole world of the injustice he had had at the hands of the bin men, time to move on to Old Moor.

Blue Tailed damselfly

The Butterfly, Dragonfly theme thats been running a couple of week carried on with Blue Tailed Damselfly above and Common Blue Damselfly below

Common Blue Damselfly

I didn’t find many Butterfly species this week only Gatekeeper and Green Viened White. The birds about were Common and Green Sandpipers, Little Egret, Grey Heron, Gadwall and Sand Martins of any note, I had once again missed the Male Marsh Harrier and Greenshank

Carrying the theme on from last week we start the post with the odd butterfly because there are plenty to see at the moment and these two species are common in my garden at the momemt Tortoiseshell (above) and Gatekeeper (below)

Theres also day flying moths about at the moment like this 6 Spotted Burnet Moth (above) and this beautiful Southern Hawker dragonfly (below)

 That was about it it’s just great at the moment a wonderful time of  year wildlife everywhere you don’t need to wonder off to a reserve take a  look in your back garden, Oh! lets not forget the birds at Old Moor Common Tern, Common Sandpipers, Green Sandpipers, Little Egrets, Hobby, Kestrel, Mute Swan, Coots, Moorhens, Black Headed Gulls, Mediterranean Gulls, Sedge Warblers, Reed warblers, Sand Mariin, Swifts, Swallows, Stock Dove, Woodpigeon loads of young birds about as well mainly at the feeders Blue Tit, Great Tit, Bullfinch, Chaffinch, Robin and Goldfinch has that lot wet your appetite ?  it should have, so get yourselves before you miss  out, male Pied Wagtail to finish off

Early start at Broadstones reservoir early being 7am to view Canada Goose and Mallard on the reservoir plenty of Linnet and  Goldfinch on the approach path to the resrevoir with a few Warblers about mostly Whitethroat with Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler and Blackcap. This is were the good ended and the bad started now if I said “Dog not undercontrol” you will know what I mean but with tripod out and legs splained I kept it at bay till the irresponsible dog owner showed up and when challenged couldn’t give a hoot, see thread now on Huddersfield Birdwatchers Site.

Anyway moving on to Ingbirchworth Reservoir to still find a few Swallows, Swifts and House Martins and one juvenile Little Ringed Plover still hanging on from last weeks six.

Local stuff over and on to Blacktoft Sands to find a few Waders going thru Little Ringed Plovers seem to be for me at the moment the bird of the month and a couple could be found at Blacktoft along with Spotted Redshank (4) mostly in summer plumage, Black Tailed Godwit in good numbers, Ruff, Redshank, Bearded Tit flitting around the base of the reeds, Barn Owl in its nest box being just visible, a few Marsh Harrier, Sedge Warblers, and a juvenile Yellow Wagtail were all note worthy.

The Days List Click Here

I thought on a lazy day today just chilling around a few of the Patch Reservoirs with camera in hand and find what was out there the first call being Ingbirchworth. It wasn’t long before getting out of the car that I could hear all the ususal species for this time of year Willow Wadarbler, Chiffchaff, Blackcap, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Robin, Yellowhammer, Lapwing and Curlew then I found some Little Ringed Plover six in all four Juveniles with two Adults in attendance, with one here giving off some wing flicking behaviour for some reason or other I don’t know what

Moved on then thru Whiteley Common bagging a couple of extras like Pied wagtail and Skylark finally ending up with Tree Pipit for the year/patch list at a known Pipit site rounding the patch list off to a nice 100 for the year. It was now dinner time and a stop at the Lansett cafe was in order for bacon butties and coffeee before moving on to Langsett reservoir adding a few common species to the day list like Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Mistle Thrush and the Great Spotted Woodpecker is always nice to see. Final stop was Winscar Res but Collard Dove was the Dove I saw and not Turtle this time Cuckoo in flight had me hoping it was aHobby at first but alas a few Oystercatchers to round the day off

I found myself at the other side of Huddersfield today and had a couple of hours to spare so I had a walk around Deer Hill in what turned out to be a warm but windy day. Birds seen were nothing out of the ordinary but there was a good number of Swallows about skimming the newly cut fields with Swifts taking the higher air currents. Higher up the lane Willow Warblers calling from the small wood and then the “chipping” sound of Common Snipe (year bird) sat boldly on the fence post, plenty of Meadow Pipits about with Linnets and a Kestrel hunting the fields Lapwings in good numbers not a day for the numbers game but a good couple of hours walk.

It all started Friday night the 17th when I found myself standing next to a bush for 2 hours at Edderthrope Flash for a bird I hadn’t seen since 1993 and see we did, the bird was a Marsh Warbler which kept popping out now and again just to keep the attended crowd interested. Along with the warbler more warblers like Garden, Blackcap, Whitethroat, Reed, Willow and Chiffchaff. None warblers Cuckoo, Litte Ringed Plover, Redshank . On our way out and whilst in the car we were joined by a Barn Owl crossing the road in front of the car it had us scrambling for our binoculars again we watched for a good 10minutes has it hunted the grass verges and at one point was taken out by a Kestrel.

 The fun didn’t stop there I was back Saturday morning the 18th to find a splendid male Garganey, this duck is a summer visitor which spends the winter in Africa. I was on then to Old Moor for more Warblers to add to the list namely Sedge and lesser Whitethroat so I ended up with 9 species of warbler for the day which I didn’t think was to bad but I was hoping to catch some on video/pictures but ended up with a Dunnock which took over the Whitethroat perch that I was hoping for. 60 species for the day List Here

Leisure day today out with people from Church so birding takes a back seat and chatting seems to take over but birds we saw and some good ones in and amongst the banter, I did manage to pick out a few warblers around Old Moor Sedge Warbler, Willow Warbler,Reed Warbler (good views of this shy bird at Wath Ings Hide) along with Whitethroat here. Also at Wath Ings hide Little Ringed and Ringed Plovers and Redshank on the wader side. All the usual common ducks etc Mallard, Gadwall, Shoveler and Tufted. A good morning beautiful weather once again, no photos, and didnt get down to the new Bolton Ings hide that I think will have to be a day for me

Day List :-

Little Grebe, Great Crested Grebe, Grey Heron, Mute Swan, Canada Goose, Gadwall, Mallard, Tufted Duck, Kestrel, Pheasant, Moorhen, Coot, Oystercatcher, Little Ringed Plover, Ringed Plover, Lapwing, Redshank, Black Headed Gull, Common gull, Woodpigeon, Green Woodpecker, Sand Martin, Wren, Dunnock, Robin, Blackbird, Sedge Warbler, Reed Warbler, Whitethroat, Blackcap, Willow Warbler, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Magpie, Jackdaw, Crow, Starling, Tree Sparrow, Chaffinch, Greenfinch, Goldfinch, linnet,Bullfinch, Reed Bunting

Today was to be Pipits and Flycatchers and trying to find the ever elusive Tree Pipit which for me is fast becoming a bogey bird. Pipits I did find but it was to be Meadow Pipit in what is a reliable HBW area site for Tree Pipit, along with Meadow Pipit there was Swallow, Swift, Curlew and Reed Bunting.

It was on then to the Langsett Area for Flycatchers and for the hoped for two species we get in the British Isles. Spotted Flycatcher I did find but Pied Flycatcher I didnt along with the Spotted Flycatcher there were Willow Warblers, Garden Warbler, Siskin, Blue Tit, Swallows and Swits. Not a very successful day in the hoped for species I set off to find hope tomorrow and Old Moor are better

Meadow Pipit

Bank Holiday usually brings jobs to do at home and bad weather but with the prospect of a reasonable weekend weather wise I managed to get some jobs done to get some brownie points then it was off to the coast for the day.

We ended up at Bempton which for me always seems to be windy and today was no exception but the birds were about which gave me a chance to practice my in flight shots. All the usual species were about Gannets, Razorbills, Guillemots, Puffins (you can tell were the Puffins are they always draw a crowd), Kittiwakes, Herring Gulls, Tree Sparrows, and we also chanced on Corn Bunting, Whitethroat and Willow Warbler no unusual birds for us today

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