Patch update 15/05/08

I went for a walk last night on the Loxley Valley, highlights including:

• Pair of lapwing at Old Wheel Farm, the male displaying.
• Sparrowhawk over Old Wheel Dam area.
• Singing bullfinches heard at Old Wheel Dam.
• Male blackcap on the path between the bowling green and Rowell Bridge.
• Singing garden warbler (a year tick), blackcap, chiffchaff and willow warbler on path south of river, plus an agitated great spotted woodpecker.

No signs of any spotted flycatcher though!

Peregrines

Last night I went out to a site in Derbyshire where some friends of mine believe peregrines to be nesting. Due to the persecution of these birds, and the fact this place doesn’t seem openly known, I’m afraid I’m not going to divulge the site on an open blog, sorry!

Although it took us a while, we eventually got good views of a brilliant male speeding past, although there were no signs of a female or any nesting. We were also circled by a curious buzzard, and saw a kestrel, plenty of house martins, a few bullfinches, and a great spotted woodpecker.

One the way back we had a quick stop to look for roding woodcocks at Redmires, though we were possibly slightly early to see them. I’ll have to have pop back up there soon to have a look.

Northumberland

I’ve spent the last few days in glorious sunshine in Northumberland, staying in Beadnell and having trips to Seahouses, the Farne Islands, Bamburgh and Low-Newton-by-the-Sea. Lots of birds were seen! As I visited most sites more than once, the visits merge into one a bit, so I’ll do this blog post site-by-site rather than chronologically.

Beadnell

 

We stayed in a B&B a fifteen minute walk from the centre of Beadnell. The B&B itself was a haven for birds, with the grounds and vicinty full of chaffinches, greenfinches, goldfinches, robins, whitethroats, swallows, house and tree sparrows, yellowhammers, rooks, robins and skylarks among others. We also got two visits from a weasel. The B&B’s dining room had a TV in the corner showing live footage from a nestbox camera, where a tree sparrow was sat on her eggs.

Beadnell itself is great, with half being glorious sandy beaches, and the other rocks that were great for picking out waders. Over a few visits I saw a mix of birds including eiders, shelducks, turnstones, oystercatchers, ringed plovers, curlews, cormorants, arctic terns, a little gull, nesting sand martins, wheatears, rock pipits, meadow pipits, skylarks, linnets and stonechats. Most exciting of all, further up the beach is a fenced-off arctic tern colony (pictured above), which also houses a smaller number of little terns. These are quite easy to pick out, as the arctic terns (not themselves the largest birds in the world) absolutely dwarf them!

A grey seal could also be seen bobbing about in the water one morning.

Seahouses

Seahouses is the busying place on the part of the coast we were one, as it’s the gateway to the Farne Islands and attract a lot of tourists. However good stuff can still be found, with eiders, oystercatchers and cormorants among the birds around as we waited for the boat to the Farnes. Whilst waiting I had a go at digiscoping some very obliging eiders.

The Farne Islands

The main desitination of the trip! On the boat out we saw guillemots, gannets, puffins, eiders, cormorants, arctic terns and shags all around us, and as we got to the islands we were met by the breathtaking sight of thousands of guillemots, shags and kittiwakes nesting on the cliffs, and hundreds of grey seals basking on the rocks.

We landed on the islands, and all the above species (with the exception of gannets) could be found nesting, plus a few razorbills and a colony of sandwich terns (common terns also nest in small numbers, but I hadn’t got the time or skill to pick them out of the crowds of arctics!). It was thinner on the ground of puffins than last time we went, as they’re all in their burrows at the moment, but a good few were out and posing well.

Bamburgh

Bamburgh has yet another beautiful sandy beach, plus a ridiculously picturesque castle that make it look absolutely amazing. Birdy highlights here included lots of wheatears, linnets, meadow pipits, arctic terns, eiders, oystercatchers, and a large raft of common scoters out to sea.

Low-Newton-by-the-Sea

Last but not least (but sadly somewhere I completely forgot to take any photos) is Low Newton, which essentially has a fantastic beach, a nature reserve and a good pub. What more could you ever need? The nature reserve had lots of singing sedge warblers, plus greylag geese, teal, little grebes, tufted ducks and reed buntings. There were, as everywere, lots of eiders on the sea, along with grey herons, cormorants, oystercatchers, wheatears, stonechats, skylarks and grey partridge also in the area.

So plenty seen and a great time had!

Flycatcher, spotted

Sometimes birding is being at the right place at the right time - today I was walking down the path that leads from Wragg’s Bowling Green to Rowell Bridge, and saw a dipper flying over the river. So I decided to loiter on the footbridge on the other side of the road, and see if I could get a better look.

I didn’t see the dipper again, but instead got great views of a spotted flycatcher perched above the river! I didn’t think I’d find that one quite so easily…

Elsewhere the first babies have hatched at Old Wheel Dam, with families of four mallard ducklings, and three moorhen chicks. There was also a drake teal  - possibly the same one that seemed to live there last year?

Elsewhere a pair of bullfinches south of the river; a nuthatch showing well at Rowell Bridge; a swallow collecting mud at Low Matlock Lane, nine swifts circling above and at least two flying above Old Wheel Dam.

Another good Saturday

I tried writing this yesterday, but everything crashed half way through so second time lucky!

Yesterday was another brilliant Saturday, and perfect weather to get started on the BTO Breeding Bird Survey I’m undertaking on a grid square up in the Damflask/Ughill area. This is my patch for this if you were wondering, with my square in the centre (Image produced from the Ordnance Survey Get-a-map service. Image reproduced with kind permission of Ordnance Survey and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland)

 

I recorded 27 species in total along my route. Nothing too exciting, except for an excellent tree pipit in song flight on the path towards Ughill Wood, and a great spotted woodpecker at Damflask.

This is what I recorded and in what numbers:

Chaffinch - 19
Blackbird - 18
Wren - 16
Robin - 16
Nuthatch - 5
Magpie - 2
Dunnock - 5
Pheasant - 13
Great Tit - 15
Jackdaw - 8
Woodpigeon - 14
Carrion Crow - 13
Chiffchaff - 3
Goldcrest - 1
Mallard - 10
Feral/Hybrid Mallard - 7
Goldfinch - 10
Great Spotted Woodpecker - 1
Song Thrush - 3
Blue Tit - 15
Swallow - 4
Willow Warbler - 5
Starling - 1
Pied Wagtail - 2
Tree Pipit - 1
Long-tailed Tit - 3
Curlew - 1

On the way back I walked down the Loxley Valley. I was greeted by the usual tree sparrows at the top of Stacey Lane, and at the bottom I got an unexpected year- and patch-tick in the form of a common sandpiper on the Damflask overflow pool at the bottom of the lane. Further on, a green woodpecker was yaffling somewhere nearby in the area of Old Wheel Dam, and there were swallows and a screaming swift over Old Wheel Farm.

I decided to take the path to the south of the river at Rowell Bride, which goes through shrubby grassland on the edge of the woods and is brilliant for finding warblers. Almost immediately I got great views of common whitethroat, and one of the birds that was on my Spring wish-list as two lesser whitethroats could be heard singing. Following the sound I even got a quick glimpse of one as it skulked through the shrubs. Goes to show it pays dividends to learn your birdsong properly!

In the afternoon we went to see Laura’s parents in Bollington in Cheshire, and we went for a walk. It’s a beautiful area, but, perhaps due to the time of day, there weren’t many birds to see. I did, however, see my first ducklings of the year - a trail of nine bundles of fluff following their mother.

Despite the drizzly end to the Bank Holiday Weekend, good weather is predicted next week, which will hopefully bode well for my trip to Northumberland and the Farne Islands at the weekend. Fingers crossed!

More migrants

I finished work early today to go for a walk, despite the weather forecast threatening heavy showers this afternoon (which, apart from a few drizzly moments, never materialised).

The first thing I spotted was before I even started - my second batch of swifts of the year out of the tram window, with at least twenty wheeling above between Shalesmoor and Langsett Primrose Hill tram stops. There were also three swallows flitting around.

I caught a bus out to Oughtibridge and walked through Wharncliffe Woods and onwards to Deepcar. There wasn’t too much to see, to be honest, but I fear I meandered down the less interesting footpaths and will have another wander round there at an earlier time of day before the end of the breeding season. I did, however, hear by first whitethroats of the year, and the unmistakable song of a cuckoo near Wharncliffe Heath. I’ll definitely be back there to try and catch a glimpse!

Farne Islands puffin count

There’s a nice video on the BBC News site about this year’s Farne Islands puffin count. Weather permitting I should be having a trip up there next week, so hopefully there’ll be plenty to see!

First swifts

I’ve just seen my first swifts of the year - three flying over Rowell Lane. Good to see them back!

Birding goals for the Spring

Last year I set myself some birding goals for the year (Raven, Red Kite, Avocet, Short-eared Owl, Little Auk, Smew, Goshawk, Crossbill, Bittern, Kingfisher), of birds I’d never seen, not seen for ages, or wanted better views of. In a tiny bit over a year, I actually managed eight out of ten of them (except Short-eared Owl and Little Auk), which I don’t consider bad going.

This Spring and Summer I thought I’d do a similar thing, but not be quite that amitious, and not put any birds on the list that won’t be easily found within a walk or bus journey from my house. The following birds are all ones that, despite being reasonably common, have managed not to end up on my lists for the last two years through some kind of ornithological imcompetence on my part. So over the next couple of months I’m going after:

Redstart
Whinchat
Woodcock
Spotted Flycatcher
Cuckoo
Grasshopper Warbler
Barn Owl
Lesser Whitethroat
Yellow Wagtail

I have very good ideas where to find most of these, but if anyone has any good tips for particularly reliable spots feel free to get in touch!

Speaking of barn owls, Laura thinks she saw one flying across the road as she was driving up the bottom of Rivelin Valley Road (Malin Bridge end) on Saturday. Although a built up area, there’s a lot of fields nearby around the abandoned Loxley College, so I can imagine there being suitable habitat. Has anyone heard of any sighted in this area?

One of our buzzards is missing

Today’s been a good day. The weather’s been great and spring really seems to have arrived. Swallows are everywhere, willow warblers are singing all over the place, and butterflies are flitting around.

This morning I had a trip up to Rocher Head - after a couple of trips up to find wheatears recently, I finally got a tip where to find them (the fields near Cowell Flats) and got good views of two of them (cheers, Richard!). Wandering back down Agden Side, I heard two singing tree pipits. Believe it or not this is a life tick for me, despite them being fairly common in western Sheffield - it really pays to learn your bird songs! Other highlights included loads of curlews, lapwings, a singing blackcap and two linnets.

This afternoon I decided to have another short walk, and took the wooded footpath to the south of the River Loxley. I stopped suddenly when I saw a large buzzard perched in a tree a matter of feet away from me. A brilliant patch tick! But then it dawned on me this easily approached buzzard was a bit suspicious. I inched a bit further forward and it flew off, and I noticed there was something hanging from its foot. It didn’t move far, and I caught up with it before long, and my suspicions were correct - the thing hanging from its foot was a leather strap. Obviously some falconer’s lost their buzzard! I’ll be keeping my eyes open for this bird on future trips.

Other patch highlights included a male blackcap, a few swallows, six linnets, two curlews and the little owls at Old Wheel Farm again (if you want to see a little owl this is the place to go!). I also got a non-bird patch tick with a common toad at Old Wheel Dam.