Burnsall Bridge

 You know how this goes, and tis post is being written 3 months late, so any details will be thin on the ground. Burnsall bridge, overcast walk up the river. It took a while for things to get going, but we got smashing views of female goosander flying right past us

-Female Goosander
Futher up the river and we got smashing views of a wren under a rock. It was very difficult to see because it was doing what wrens do and seemingly teleporting around, but when we caught up with it.

-Wren
Again upstream we encountered more female goosanders which conisitently flew past us quite close

-Goosander
We got to the stepping stones and there I got a shot of a dipper on the stepping stones, something I had always wanted to try and get a photo of

-Dipper
We carried on futher than usual today, past the bridge where there are few rocks in the river, and so the birds tend to be a bit different. However, where there were rocks I was able to get close a very bold dipper

-Dipper

I mentioned that the birds were different, and the buzzard overhead shows it, as we moved into more open fields where buzards would be more at home

-Buzzard

On the far bank of the river I spotted this oystercatcher which could well be a first for me on this river, though it may not be.

-Oystercatcher

It was only when we were nearly back at the car that we caught up with another regular on this river, grey wagtail, and it was a pretty poor view at that

-Grey wagtail

Just before we got back we spotted our first male goosander of the day, together with another female, possibly one we had already seen

-Goosander

Soil Hill again

Well, this is awkward because as I am writing about this trip to soil hill a whole three months after the actual trip due to card reader problems. I am racking my brains and am struggling to remember what really happened, and where it all fits in with regard to the photos. There were plenty of skylarks, obviously, and I remember trying to stalk one on the top near to the ruined outhouse. I also remember descending the slope and that the only thing at the bottom was a kestrel on the wire. I can also remember that as I was leaving there was a skylark on the wall, which descended into the field, allowing me to sneak up on it, getting some reasonable photos. Besides that, I can't remember anything exciting happening, so you can make that bit up to make it more exciting if you like, here's a run down of all the photos in apparent chronological order... 

-Skylark on the top

-Kestrel

-Various skylarks

Soil hill

Its been a while, but today was so nice outside it would have been crazy not to go up t' hill. Clear, cloudless Sky's, no wind, what more could you want. To be honest there was not much going on up on the hill, but what there was, was pretty special. There were about three skylarks singing, and two more not singing, as well as a couple of linnets and a kestrel perched on the mast. I got quite close to the kestrel, but it saw me the same moment I saw it, so my great view was very brief.

-Skylark

-Kestrel

The Big Garden Birdwatch

Its that time of year again, and this year was a good year for the big garden birdwatch. Chilling from 10.07 to 11.07 with Andy Murry unfortunatly getting beat in the background, I was able to enjoy our birds. The only major downside was the weather; Cloudy, Too sunny, Rainy, Sleety, Dry, Calm, Windy, you name it we had it.

The Birds:
Blackbird: 3-we had four different individuals, two males, two females, one with a white patch on her wing, but sadly we only had three at a time in the garden
Blue Tit: 1
Coal Tit: 2-Something of a novalty, we don't get them often, and this week has been the first time ever we have had two at once
Dunnock: 2
Great Tit: 1
House Sparrow: 20
Robin: 1
Starling: 3
Woodpigeon: 2-This was unexpected to say the least, as we havent had one of these for some time, so to have two randomly pop in on the BGB day was a surprise, obviously after the limelight.

So we had a good representation of our garden birds, with the exception of collard doves, missing out on their chance of fame for the second year running. Our local sparrowhawk male flew overhead as well, but sadly your not allowed to count it.

Coal tit and other snow birds

So the snow has arrived. In my desperation for good photos, I built a snow hide, but no birds came, so that turned out to be a big fat waste of time. However, there were many birds around when I was inside. As usual when its snowy we were besiged by lovely spotty starlings, and this year they took to the birdbath in force.

-Starlings

And to that end we also had not one but two coal tits in the garden, which is a first for us. Sadly they were very camera shy, and so there is a distinct lack of photos that I have...







-Coal tit

Sparrowhawk

A casual glance out of my bedroom window today and I spotted our local sparrowhawk loitering about...

Pinkies

As usual, when I finished at Ogden I had the pleasure (!) of walking home over soil hill. While I have been revising, I had receive plenty of texts telling me about the numbers of pink footed geese, but I had been unable to try and see any due to my unfortunate revision commitments. However, walking home over soil hill, I looked up to spot a skein of 50+ geese flying north overhead. I then had the honour of sending them down the grapevine, which is always an honour. So there we have it, my first pinkies of the year, another nice revision break.

Ogden Watch Group

The first watch group of 2013, which means that we were chopping and moving Christmas trees that people have dumped. Its always good fun, but does mean that you will not see many birds. Having said that, you can see the birds of the reservoir, and luckily there were some birds there. The cormorant was sat on the buoy, as it seems to be so often when I come down. And there was, however, a male goldeneye on the reservoir, loitering around the duck feeding area, quite close to us on the bank. Its a nice bird to see, and another good bird at the start of the year.

Kestrel

Four posts in four days! that only happens during holidays, and certainly not during peak revision time. But it would seem not, as when I glance out of the window there always seems to be something going on. From my bedroom window I have been watching a local juvenile kestrel for a few days now, but today I managed to get the best view yet. At first it was on a telegraph pole in a field some way away, and I was unable to tell if it was the kestrel or the sparrowhawk. It started hunting, dropping down and then flying back up. the second time it did this it flew back up the wall directly opposite our house, and then dropped down onto the road. It was much closer now and I was able to get a pretty good view. It then cleared off, but it was nice to see it again; a productive break from work...

Sparrowhawk

I headed out of the house for the first time this year, to go into town for a few things, but it paid off in birds too, as at the bus stop in illingworth I spotted a sparrowhawk flying lazily about causing chaos with the starlings, I doubt it was hunting them, because if it was, it was doing a poor effort. It might be the same one that we have had around home, but who knows! Either way, it was nice to see another.