Saturday 26 March 2011

11 miles and 18 chiffchaffs

a perfect day for a long walk

set off at 10

chiffchaff's were singing as soon as we got on to the hebble trail and they continued to sing all along our walk,i counted a total of 18 singing birds(pinky spots on map),god only knows how many i missed.spring has truly arrived.
we walked nearly the whole of the southowram parish boundary (we excluded the shibden park bit)


a nice way to spend 3 hours on a saturday

totals were

chiffchaff 18
green woodpecker 1
grey heron 3
cormorant 2
nuthatch 3

chiffchaff


Monday 21 March 2011

Osprey the 'with' get in

mallard and canada goose have only been the highlights over the last few days,so today i finished work early as it was the first spring like day of the year
a few meadow pipits singing along with a kestrel were seen along the walk to the res, the conversion of the boathouse into a scouting boaty place seems to nearing completion and looks quite secure so the pissheads hopefully wont get in and wreck it!!
i was at the far side of the res when i clocked a large bird heading towards me from the direction of the radio mast,i realised it was a raptor and having seen a few buzzards up here over the years i thought it may be one,but theirs alway but! i noticed the 'droopy' wings 'OSPREY' i shouted to no one! even the sheep looked uninterested! i hoped it would come over the res but carried on its north-easterly flight taking it more towards oxygrains bridge. i texted dave sutcliffe who was at cold edge dams

so at last after 26 years of birding in Halifax i finally got osprey on the list (about time) will enjoy a few beers tonight!!!!!

osprey
the 'with'

also have a look at THE GREEN WITHENS list which has photos of nearly every birds i ever seen here