Yellowhammer at Collingham Pits

 

Wild Goose Chase

Managed to see 5 species of Geese today. Tundra Bean at Blackmoorfoot, 2 Eurasian White fronted geese at Ingbirchworth  plus Pink foot at both sites and Greylag and Canada at the latter. Also a large flock of Brambling at Ingbirchworth and plenty of Fieldfare in the field with a few Tree Sparrow and Yellowhammer

                                                   

                                                  

Woodlark

Several displaying Woodlark seen at Budby Common. Great to listen to the amazing song. Plenty of Yellowhammer and a 4 Mandarin Ducks too. Then onto Long Eaton GP to see a Black necked Grebe. We also saw several Sand Martin and 2 Swallow. It was also nice to see and here several Chiffchaff. We finished off at Carr vale NR for a drake Garganey

Snow Goose

Managed to connect with a Lesser Snow Goose blue morph feeding with Pink footed geese in fields at Eagland Hill Lancashire. Distant scope views though. We moved the car to another point but failed in the next 2 hours to relocate the bird among several hundred Pink foots. Also had excellent views of a Barn Owl hunting and saw large flocks of Skylark and some Yellowhammer.

Roller and Woodchat Shrike!

Wow! What a bird the Roller was up on the East coast at Aldbrough. Well worth the diesel on Friday afternoon. Me and Dave headed to Norfolk on Saturday in search of raptors. Sadly it was negative for honey buzzard and montagus harrier. We did get great views of a Barn owl hunting though. In the afternoon we headed to Winterton and finally caught up with the rather smart looking Woodchat Shrike. Highlight of the weekend though was that incredible looking Roller. It has to be one of my bieding career highlights.

Grasshopper Warbler and more

Managed to get some birding done this lunch. Went to Altrincham sewage works and got great views of a reeling grasshopper warbler. I'd left the camera in the car so quickly went back to get it and spent an hour seeing or hearing no more sign of it. Typical! Also present were willow warbler, chiffchaff, and blackcap, a whitethroat and a nice sparrowhawk over.
Then went to Astley Green where there were lots of yellowhammer, and a lovely willow tit. A single whimbrel was in a field sadly no sign of cuckoo, crane or hobby.

I finished off in Rochdale at Kingsway business park where incredibly there are 4 ruffs in summer plumage. I hope they hang around as a couple of the males are starting to develop some neck/breast feathers. Also present were 2 wheatears and several ring and little ringed plover

Yorkshire Trip

Myself and Dave Evans had a day in Yorkshire yesterday Saturday 3rd. March. We headed first to Fairburn Ings where it was very quiet. We went onto Wintersett and Anglers C.P. where we got good views of the long staying American Wigeon on Anglers followed by decent but distant views of the Drake Smew on Wintersett. The Black necked Grebe took a bit more work But we eventually got onto it with good views through the scope. We also found a very nice Willow tit in the trees calling loudly. It was then onto Old Moor where we failed to see or hear the cettis warbler but were rewarded with a Peregrine and good views of the Willow Tit and finches on the feeders. We also saw a pair of Long tailed tits building a nest.

Spurn visit 13/1/11

Myself and Dave Evans had a great day's birding at Spurn on Sunday 13th. November with great weather and some cracking views of Woodlark and Great Grey Shrike. We just missed out on a Dusky Warbler that was seen at the point earlier that day. It was trapped the following day. In total we saw 60 species.