Soil Hill & Whiteholme; Week 8th May - 15th May

Soil Hill

The week has seen the weather improve somewhat and consequently, there have been more birds arriving, with both Willow Warblers and Whitethroats now up to what I would consider a typical number from the last three years. Notable others remain thin on the ground, with a small number of Wheatear (peaking at 8 on the 14th) present during the week, a couple of House Martins have been seen and a new Grasshopper Warbler reeling in the sedge below Taylor Lane for a few days. The bird can just be heard from my morning route, but it is really quite noticeable from my backyard. Otherwise, a group of five Black-headed Gulls that flew north on the 14th was probably the only exception to the norm this week.

-Goldfinch

-Oystercatcher

Whiteholme Reservoir

Just two visits this week, with there being little noticeable movement nationally to encourage me to make the journey up to the reservoir. That said BS reported a number of Dunlin arriving at Fly Flatts, and there was some movement of that type at Whiteholme when on the 10th May a flock of 7 flew low across the reservoir and then over the moor. On my other visit of the week, on the 13th, there were two Dunlin present. Otherwise it was all very much the same, with a few Swifts and House Martins passing through, as well as a dapper male Stonechat on the 13th.

-Stonechat

Species List:
Soil Hill: Canada Goose, Mallard, Common Pheasant, Red-legged Partridge, Feral Pigeon, Stock Dove, Common Wood Pigeon, Common Swift, Common Moorhen, Eurasian Oystercatcher, Northern Lapwing, Eurasian Curlew, Common Snipe, Black-headed Gull, European Herring Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Great Cormorant, Grey Heron, Eurasian Sparrowhawk, Common Kestrel, Eurasian Magpie, Western Jackdaw, Rook, Carrion Crow, Eurasian Blue Tit, Great Tit, Eurasian Skylark, Common Grasshopper Warbler, Barn Swallow, Common House Martin, Willow Warbler, Common Whitethroat, Eurasian Wren, Common Starling, Mistle Thrush, Song Thrush, Common Blackbird, European Robin, Northern Wheatear, Dunnock, House Sparrow, Pied Wagtail, Meadow Pipit, Common Chaffinch, European Greenfinch, Common Linnet, European Goldfinch, Common Reed Bunting,
Whiteholme Reservoir: Canada Goose, Mallard, Red Grouse, European Golden Plover, Eurasian Curlew, Dunlin, Common Sandpiper, European Herring Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Carrion Crow, Eurasian Skylark, Common House Martin, Eurasian Wren, Northern Wheatear, European Stonechat, Pied Wagtail, Meadow Pipit, Common Reed Bunting,

Bolton Abbey

-Goldcrest

-Nuthatch

-Goldfinch

Nice weather for a change meant that today we were going to Bolton Abbey for a walk. It was a lovely day too as it turned out with some great birds seen to get this years list off and rolling.
Initially we started slowly but by the end of the first section of the walk I had managed:
Blue Tit
Coal Tit
Great Tit
Robin
Blackbird
Woodpigeon
Feral Pigeon
Grey Heron
Mallard
Carrion Crow
Jackdaw
Rook
Magpie
Goosander
Goldfinch
Goldcrest
Nuthatch
Treecreeper
And the 2 finest specimens: Bullfinch and Mistle thrush
On the way back there was much less birdlife than on the way there, but still some great stuff to be had. Adding to the above list I managed
Common Buzzard
Pied Wagtail
Grey Wagtail
Kestrel
So overall a very good and productive day.

Soil Hill

-Goldfinches

There was a continued lack of birds on the hill today, surprise surprise. And because of the clouds and wind there was also a lack of insects, only one small tortoiseshell butterfly. On the bird front I flushed one meadow pipit and about 6 skylarks. On the way up I flush a flock of around 20 goldfinches, which was the undoubted highlight.

Yorkshire Dales Holiday Day 3

Grange-Over sands Holiday day 5

The last day of the holiday. we were sad to leave, but at least it was nice for the last day. Even so, it was still cold, so my hands went numb taking down the orning, and moving the caravan.
We decided to go to Sizergh castle national trust, which seemed like a nice place when we pulled in. What we hadn't realised is that this place has a reasonable population of hawfinches that are, apparently, reliable, but that we were a bit too late for us to have a reasonable chance of seeing them. It did however have a bird feeding station where they had occurred before, so that's the first place I went. Mainly they were supposed to live in the hornbeams at the back of the car park, but only really in the morning, so when we arrived at 11, chances are that we were not going to see one.
At the bird feeding station there were plenty of nice birds. Besides the average garden birds there were a pair of bullfinches and a nuthatch that regularly came down from the trees.

-Female Bullfinch

-Male Bullfinch

-Bullfinch and Nuthatch

-Nuthatch

Other birds nearby included a chiffchaff, that was singing whilst catching insects in a holly tree and the tops of other trees.

-Chiffchaff

Besides the car park, the hawfinches apparently live behind the visitor center, and there were less people there, so that's where I went next. It was difficult looking up into the tall trees with the sun in my eyes, meaning everything was just a black silhouette. However there were other birds more interesting than some potential hawfinches

First on the agenda were a pair of goldfinches that landed around 5 meters from me and started killing each other. They diddnt even seem to notice me as I stood there taking photos, and one eventually won the fighjt by flipping the other oto its back and then pecking its breast until it surrended. They then began to play cat and mouse in the tree tops where I couldnt really see with the camera.

-Goldfinch
I made my way down to the main lake to see if there were any bird down there. There was a coot and a moorhen that i spotted, but on the stairs down I spotted this long-tailed tit carrying nest material. Once again, it was quite bold and diddnt seem to mind that I was just stood there, until it flew into a hedge and then off.

-Long-Tailed Tit

I couldnt find anything in trhe hedge that could possibly be a nest, however, the hedge was blooming so there were a few early insects around, inlcuding this rather handsome tawney coloured bee, of which I have no idea of its I.D

-Bee

I made my way back up to the feeding station to see if anything was there hawfinch wise. It wasnt, but there were some other garden birds that i decided to take photos of, just incase photos of that species were missing from my library should I ever need to use them.

-Greenfinch

-Chaffinch
After there I headed up a nearby lane lined with hornbeams to see if there were any hawfinches up there, but it was not to be.

After lunch I headed back down to the lake to see what was going on down there. It turns out that there were actually too coots, and that they had a nest, and the reason I hadn't seenm the other originally is because it was sat on the nest. The one "on patrol" at the time I was there the second time clearly disliked mallards. This mallard had a torrid time, sleeping peacefully before being chased and violently awoken. It then slept under a low tree, before swimming out again, before being attacked by the other coot and then making a runner.

-Coot Vs Mallard
However, there was a bird species that I missed completely on my original visit, a dabchick. And to rub salt in the wound, there were too. I clearly needed to leave hawfinch world and focus on the other lovely birds around. The dabchicks were really shy and stayed under some plants for most of the time, but at one point were out in the open, so I could het some photos. The coots diddnt seem to mind these as much as the mallard.

-Dab/Little Grebe
And to make sure they dont feel left out, I included a photo of the coot, in one of its calmer moments.

-Coot

And so ends the grnage holiday, which was been really nice, and I have seen lots of really nice things, and it was a perfect way to end it, even though i dipped on hawfinch.