Soil Hill; Isolation week 17

This week was much slower than its predecessor with cloudy and windy weather dominating making it difficult to enjoy large numbers of birds on the hill and instead being restricted to occasional good birds. Having acquired work again, I stayed local and did not venture any further than Soil Hill.

The week started on the 19^th when I had a nice flock of 12 Cormorants fly over the Hill heading north. On the same day there was a peculiar hybrid Greylag x Canada Goose but with white outer primaries, throwing some leucism in the mix. Monday the 20^th was the day of the standout bird of the week when I spotted a Little Egret drifting over Bradshaw. It dropped down briefly on the pond behind Bradshaw Park but then quickly took off again and after drifting around for a few minutes headed south strongly. This small heron is still rare in Calderdale so I was pretty thrilled with that. A single Crossbill flew over on the 21^st, calling loudly as usual and on the same day a very vocal Grasshopper Warbler was singing from the top of the summit.

Aside from that the species setup remained largely the same. A pair of Blackcap was in the North Slope Treeline, as was a pair of Bullfinch. The Sedge Warblers continued to linger but were far more elusive and were seen only infrequently. Good numbers of juvenile Reed Buntings have built up and there were a couple of Wheatears during the week as well. On the 24^th the fields along Taylor Lane were cut and so there were good numbers of gulls and corvids to look at, although nothing particularly different of note. 

-Little Egret

-Canada x Greylag Goose hybrid

-Reed Buntings

Species List:
Soil Hill: Canada Goose, Mallard, Red-legged Partridge, Common Pheasant, Feral Pigeon, Stock Dove, Common Wood Pigeon, Common Swift, Common Moorhen, Eurasian Oystercatcher, Northern Lapwing, Eurasian Curlew, Black-headed Gull, Common Gull, European Herring Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Great Cormorant, Little Egret, Eurasian Sparrowhawk, Little Owl, Long-eared Owl, Common Kestrel, Peregrine, Eurasian Magpie, Western Jackdaw, Rook, Carrion Crow, Coal Tit, Eurasian Skylark, Sedge Warbler, Common Grasshopper Warbler, Barn Swallow, Willow Warbler, Eurasian Blackcap, Common Whitethroat, Eurasian Wren, Common Starling, Mistle Thrush, Song Thrush, Common Blackbird, European Robin, Northern Wheatear, Dunnock, House Sparrow, Grey Wagtail, Pied Wagtail, Meadow Pipit, Common Chaffinch, Eurasian Bullfinch, European Greenfinch, Common Linnet, Red Crossbill, European Goldfinch, Common Reed Bunting,