whilst waiting at the top of free school lane for my brother to pick me up for the trip to selby for mothers day heard whooper swans calling sounded to be heading west but given the fog not seen
Sunday 10 March 2024
cumbria
we always go away for colettes birthday, so this year we headed to allonby in cumbria
lovely airbnb across from the beach
Monday 8 January 2024
the wirral
Monday 18 December 2023
best self found birds
nationally
yellow breasted bunting fair isle august 1989
oriental pratincole blakney point 4th june 1993
broad billed sandpiper at hicksons flash fairburn ings 12th may 1996 (first for west yorkshire)
night heron thorne moors june 1996 (first for thorne moors)
raddes warbler beacon lane kilnsea october 2005
home calderdale
its where i spend most time birding so not a surprise ive found a few decent birds, with most being seen at elland gravel pits which i went nearly daily from 1987 to 2000, despite it now being called cromwell bottom it will always be EGP to me!! sadly the place is now too overgrown
anyway i think the rarest bird ive found is
grey headed wagtail june 1990 Elland Gravel Pits
i was watching the spotted sandpiper from near the banking that separates the 2 lagoons when i saw a wagtail flying towards me it looked to have some yellow so i thought grey wagtail, as it got closer it was an overall yellow/green colour with a dark head,it landed on the lagoon but was not seen again
i carried on my walk puzzled by the wagtail, i had seen yellow wagtail before in the uk but never with a dark head
that evening on returning home i phoned tony gough(bradford recorder and friend) to tell him of my find
he said it sounds like a blue headed wagtail, i was happy with that conformation and recorded it as such
the next day after work i cycled to EGP, i headed to the lagoons parked my bike by the canal lock and walked down the dip to the lagoon where i saw tony gough mick cunningham and tony cunningham, i asked 'spotted sand?' the reply was 'no' a bit bemused i asked what you looking at? tony said 'your wagtail....its grey headed wagtail'
for a 17 year old birder it was validation
now was it coincedence that the last time i saw tony gough was on tresco at the turks head we enjoyed a few pints before the boat back to st marys that would be 1998 and we talked about the wagtail 'a cracking find lad"
and mick cunningham the last time i saw him was on beacon lane kilnsea we had a good chat and we ended up finding a radde's wabler
Thursday 31 August 2023
migrants
spent alot of time walking recentley with the hope of finding some migrants its been hardwork but very rewarding few weeks
redstart 1 pinnicle lane
spotted flycatcher great jumps farm
lesser whitethroat 1 hawksclough
whitethroat withens clough res
balckcap withens clough res
wheatear 9 various sites
also
merlin 1 male
little owl 1
good numbers of finches around daisy bank
goldfinch 100+
linnet 20
siskin 40+
bullfinch 9 great jumps
yep a good few weeks
Sunday 18 June 2023
home for a few hours
last 2 weeks working in romford which is not a bad town
so last week van trip to holymm just a few miles up the road from spurn spent most of the day seawatching but nothing of interest but nice to just getaway