Hobbies up on t’moors

I hate being vague about locations on this blog, as I like to give as much gen as possible to others who may want a look, but when writing about raptors on the edge of the Peak District (even non-breeders) I’m going to be a little circumspect…

This morning I had a quick look at a particular site up on the NW moors, and was greeted by the fantastic sight of three hobbies (probably 1st summers), two of which were having a bit of a mid-air scrap, and one of which was catching insect prey and eating it on the wing. Also nearby were a buzzard, several kestrels, and a couple of ravens. All good stuff!

I also had a walk past Agden Reservoir, and found a couple of spotted flycatchers, one of which is below in a rather ropey shot…

EDIT – There’s some cracking photos of one of the hobbies by Andy Deighton on the SBSG site. Look under the 4th July sightings here – http://www.sbsg.org/sightings/recentsightings.asp

Nightjars, Blacktoft, Hatfield, Denaby…

I’ve had a very busy 24 hours! Last night I went on the SBSG nightjar walk at Wharncliffe Heath. It was a beautiful evening and should have been perfect for spotting the nightjars, but sadly the assembled group had to make do with an eventual brief flyby by a male who did a quick, half-arsed churr and promptly buggered off. They really are laws unto themselves, are nightjars… Luckily the croaking, squeaking woodcocks were putting on a decent display to keep the waiting crowd entertained, and there were some good close-up views of newts and frogs in the ponds on the way back.

This morning my dad and I had a trip to Blacktoft Sands, where very quickly we picked up the main targets – spotted redshank, greenshank, green sandpiper, ruff, barn owl, bearded tit, black-tailed godwit, avocet and of course the obligatory but no less impressive antics of the site’s marsh harriers. The only notable bird we missed was the bittern, which gave us one of those “you should have been here 10 minutes ago…” moments.

Greenshank

As we’d seen the best Blacktoft has to offer in such a short period of time, we decided to try our hand again at Ten Acre Lake at Hatfield Moors, which we, um, failed to find last time we were there. Annoyingly the car park was a couple of hundred yards after the point we’d decided we must be on the wrong road last time…

The target bird was red-necked grebe, and I wasn’t even sure it was still present, but after a yomp round the lake (surrounded by a wonderful sight of hundred of damselfies, and the less wonderful sight of thousands of horseflies…) we found it, and it gave good views near the bank. A brilliant bird, and July’s first lifer!

Red-necked Grebe

Common Blue (I think) Damselfly

Still not quite satiated, we swung by Denaby Ings in the Dearne Valley, and added a few extra birds to the day’s list including kingfisher, shoveler, gadwall, buzzard and sparrowhawk. A good day’s birding in all!

A full list for today…

The weekend…

On Friday, after work, I had a walk up to a site near High Bradfield to see if I could find a grasshopper warbler that had been reported there on the SBSG site. Sadly no signs of it, but I did get a pair of stonechats, several curlews including a particularly agitated pair, some juvenile goldfinches, a linnet feeding young, 8 stock dove, and a large flock of around 110 lapwings. Not a bad little walk at all.

The rest of the weekend has been taken up with a return trip to Anglesey – we were offered a free room in a cottage on Saturday night and decided it would be rude and foolish to turn it down! On the way I persuaded Laura to take a rather windy detour to a place called Fedw Fawr to look for black guillemots, which once the practical problem of squeezing into the tiny car park was solved were quickly found. Five were seen at once at one point, and it’s a great location to see a bird that’s annoyingly scarce in England and Wales. Despite the photo below they were actually showing very well, it’s just they were moving too fast or diving before a decent photo could be taken!

Fedr Fawr itself is quite a nice spot, but it was marred slightly by campers taking up the main vantage spot and having a rowdy barbeque. Surely this can’t really be allowed on National Trust coastland? (Sorry going all “Angry from Tumbridge-Wells there!).

In the evening we had a walk round the town of Moefre, which turned up good numbers of sandwich terns, and overlooked a kittiwake colony out to sea.

Today I got up early and had a walk from the cottage, which was located near Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, would you believe. A number of lesser whitethroat could be heard around the area of the cottage, and I was about to put this down as a “heard only” year tick, when I finally tracked down the little bandit below peering through the leaves. Great to actually get a good look at one!

The cottage was fantastically close to the Menai Strait, which housed the usual things you’d expect such as oystercatchers and shelduck.

Most of the afternoon was taken up with a walk around the vicinity of Breakwater Country Park near Holyhead, where we ended up looking out over the stunning view of North Stack. Birds seen in the area included several noisy ravens (below), a flyover peregrine falcon, a single chough, and several razorbills and guillemots out to sea. Laura also won the small £1 wager to be the first person to see a seal (probably a common).

A great weekend, and I’m knackered now! Time for bed…

BNGs

I had a trip to Potteric today, and finally picked up one the black-necked grebes, which was proudly showing off one of its youngsters. A great bird I’ve never seen in summer plumage.

Elsewhere there were two little egrets on Loversall Pool…

…plus shelduck with young, kingfisher and all the usual stuff.

Deer on the patch

Sorry it’s taken me so long to post this, I just wanted to post these online a bit to check my ID…

I had a bit of a yomp round the patch on Sunday, and extended the usual walk through Beacon Wood. The recent downpours had left the paths very muddy, despite the fact it was a sunny day, and I came across these prints which I’m going to ID (unless someone tells me otherwise) as roe deer. A new mammal for the patch!
 

(I’m not actually sure how I managed such ropey pictures of things that weren’t moving!)

Elsewhere a gorgeous kingfisher was reflecting the sunshine at Old Wheel Dam, grey wagtails and dippers were near both Olive Dam and the Fisheries, and several garden warblers were singing.

A weekend in Northumberland

This weekend we’ve been up to Northumberland. A fantastic time was had and for once I’ll let the pictures do the talking.

(unfortunately the best view we got!)

Thorne and Potteric

Today me and my old man had a trip out to a couple of sites in the Doncaster area. First off we had a bit of a disaster as we planned on popping in to Hatfield to see if the red-necked grebe is still on Ten Acre Lake. Somehow we managed to fail miserably to locate the site – the instructions I downloaded off the internet are either out of date and the road now closed, or we were being super-thick. Either way we didn’t get to see the grebe and wasted time in the process…

More successful was the next stop of Thorne Moors. This is a National Nature Reserve amd fantastic area of peatlands that yields some cracking species. It is, for example, the nightingale’s most northern breeding site. We didn’t see any of this elusive species, but some of the great birds seen included marsh harrier, hobby (two in the air at once), cuckoo, reed warbler, sedge warbler and stonechat. One of the targets of the trip was turtle dove, which sadly was never seen but we got a tantalising purr from dense branches on the way out of the site. A frustrating, heard-only lifer (now joining grasshopper warbler on this particularly annoying list…).

A couple of pics, which for once are both inverts…

Large Red Damselfly (I think)

The now ubiquitous Painted Lady…

After this it was a trip to Potteric for a whistle-stop tour, with targets of black-necked grebe and lesser whitethroat, which were sadly both dipped. Highlights included ringed and little ringed plovers, redshank, oystercatcher, nesting sand martins, juvenile long-tailed tits, and a particularly showy jay at the feeding station.

I will get the black-necked grebes before the end of the summer, but they’ve eluded me again! A whopping 73 species seen on our travels today, with a full list at the end of this post.

I won’t be posting for a few days, but will hopefully have some good pics and tales to tell when I get back…

An unexpected lifer!

Today Laura and I had a brief trip to Old Moor, and asking my usual “anything about?” on the front desk I was happy to learn that two black terns had recently arrived near the Wader Scrape hide. On arriving at the hide it didn’t take too long to find them, feeding over the opposite shore and performing some nice aerial manouvres. A very good bird indeed that I’ve never seen before!

Elsewhere there were the usual such as ringed plover (one with chicks), redshank, cormorant, whitethroat, bullfinch etc.

A couple of pics…

Tufties

Don’t tell DEFRA…

Wharncliffe

What a scorcher! I’ve spent the day so far sweltering under the blazing sun in the Wharncliffe area, in the hope of mopping up a couple of birds that have escaped me so far this Spring… spotted flycatcher and wood warbler.

Not long after I entered the woods, the cuckoos could be heard in fine song, and it wasn’t long until I managed to find the source of the noise and get fantastic views of a bird as it moved between perches in a clearing, staying around long enough and at close enough range for a semi-decent photo.

Sadly my targets remained elusive, but there were plenty of garden warblers, blackcaps and a couple of tree pipits to keep me amused, as well as a smattering of butterflies including a good few painted ladies.

I walked up to Wharncliffe Chase, in the hopes of a spotted fly along the edges, again with no joy,  but did get good views of a handsome redstart near Wharncliffe Lodge, which you can just about make out in the photo below (if you squint a bit…).

Other birds around included more tree pipits, and a singing yellowhammer. A walk through the Heath wasn’t very productive (bar the usual green tiger beetles), but walking back to the woods on the path beneath the crags finally yielded a singing wood warbler, which was tracked down and gave some brief views as it moved through the branches. Nearby I also saw a great spotted woodpecker feeding some noisy chicks in a nest hole.

Sadly the spotted flycatcher remained elusive – hopefully I’ll get one soon!

Chough me!

Before I get on with today’s excitement, a quick update about what I got up to yesterday – a walk from Meadowhall to Blackburn Meadows brought up a year tick in the shape of several garden warblers, and other warblers around included whitethroats, blackcaps and sedge warblers. A walk on patch later in the day didn’t yield too much of interest, except for another garden warbler singing in a clearing near Little Matlock Wood, and a grey wagtail near the Fisheries.

Right now that’s out of the way… today Laura and I had a crazy day trip all the way to Anglesey, a beautiful part of the British coastline I’m ashamed to say I’ve never been to until today. The first stop was South Stack RSPB, an absolutely picturesque place which very quickly yielded a much-wanted lifer in the form of choughs. After a few close fly-pasts, we eventually saw eight performing in the air at once, and one was obliging enough to pose for a photo.

Elsewhere ravens swooped over the cliffs sending panic among the assembled gulls, fulmars glided over the sea, and squinting among the guillemots and razorbills finally revealed a couple of puffins (sadly providing a photo too terrible even for this blog – hopefully a trip to the Farnes in a couple of weeks will get some better shots!). Other year ticks were rock pipit, kittiwake and shag. Some more pics…

 
South Stack

Just one ot two guillemots…

Spot the choughs…

Raven (dodgy shot, sorry…)

During a quick detour to Holyhead I had a scan round the harbour for black guillemots, with no joy, but leaving the Holy Island area an overhead sandwich tern was another year tick. On a whim we took a road to Cemlyn Bay, which turned out to be a fantastic National Trust reserve, with a colony of terns that included both sandwich and arctic terns, and other birds around included oystercatcher, ringed plover, dunlin, red-breasted merganser, shelduck and, um, some particularly manky Muscovy ducks!

Terns and stuff

Red-breasted Merganser

Oystercatcher

Uuuuurggghhh!

A long drive (thanks Laura!) but a great day in the best weather of the year… I’m stupidly sunburt now though!