ringed black headed gulls redcar tarn

 last weekend i photographed a 1st winter black headed gull with a metal ring and was able to read the number 

black headed gull 

thius 1st winter was rung in Lithuania 

got the report today 

on saturday i got some photos of an adult black headed gull 2t44

ringed at grange over sands 

snow so kept local

 woke up yesterday to snow, so decieded stay near home

redcar tarn 

mallard

yep -7 as i set off 

redcar tarn frozen over, but the light was perfect

mallard

rook

common gull 

lapwing on ice 

well whilst watching the gulls i noticed this one stood on the ice

caspian gull 2nd winter

tuesday work,food and birds

 just work today fitting 3 windows i made last month, this was in Idle Bradford on the very steep High St, we had all 3 windows in before midday when the amazing smell of a chippy frying, now on a cold november that smell is as good as it gets, young bubbles the apprentice was sent off to investigate, and yes they take cards which many dont up here 

fish butty ate on the street in the cold.......is there anything better??? not really when its as good as this really top quality and a spotless place, price you cannot put price on a good honest fish butty 

so Towngate Fisheries Idle is one of the best ive had in recent years apart from the Codfather in Wakefield 

as i headed back up the scaffold fred dibnah stlye a lovely group of long tailed tits made there way over the road 

heading back to halifax via the long way to avoid the traffic

lots of gulls in the fields by Coldspring Mills and Flappits, deffo going back 

back home checking local blogs i found this on west yorkshire birding 

https://birderbri.blogspot.com/2021/11/the-jinx-of-redcar-tarn-strikes-again.html

and as usual brian never fails to dissapoint with his very informative blog 

he posted a few photos of a colour ringed black headed gull at Redcar Tarn yesterday, im quite on tracing any colour ringed birds i see so out of curiostiy i noted the number J1K4 on green and googled yep Norway logged on to the Norway colour ringing group put the details in and looked in amazement that this bird a male had beed rung as an adult in Oslo in the summer of 2016 and has spent each winter since at Redcar Tarn and Oslo to breed 

so 6 years of going back and forth from Bradford to Oslo not bad going 

J1K4

in Oslo 

well spotted brian enjoy the pics 

gulls a nightmare

 deleted yesterdays post as it was full of mistakes 

redcar tarn

usual ducks

maybe 1 caspian gull 

very entertaining morning 

fairburn sunday 

a few hours at swillington

 early start workwise this morning at the vet refferals in wakefield for 730 got to beat the traffic lol

next 2 jobs were at 2 vets practices in wetherby but only after 12 

swilly beckoned its on the way 

as i walked round this amazing reserve i came to me why i cannot be bothered with calderdale birding anymore........its too much hard work for little return, it can take an hour to get to walshaw dean or 30 minutes to st aidens no brainer, still always keep my eyes open when in calderdale 

with only a few hours i walked from the rspb carpark to the eastern reedbed then down to the main lake then on the rear of western reedbed and up to the res and back to the carpark 

reed bunting 20+

cettis warbler 8

little egret 2

marsh harrier 1 imm female

bearded tit 3

ruff 3 

dunlin 8 

curlew 30+

stonechat 3 

ruff

meadow pipit

stonechat

so on to wetherby a few red kites on the way 

fitted a operating theatre light that was easy julien the yorkshire vet asked how i was and we chatted for a good 5 five minutes, and he told me im on telly next week..........eek 

birding, music , leeds

 with work done at the vets, i had a few hours to kill, having loved music since in my teens i headed to HMV at xscape near Castleford ( i know better places are avialble) 

i went with the intention of getting some Fall lps but they had none so mooched about and found something that id not heard for years 

The Wedding Present

Bizarro

now i got this album when it came out in 1989 on cassette so i could put it the walkman, at 17 when i got this from Woolworths in Brighouse it blew my mind the lyrics the noise, for me there is no bad track, it wa one of my favourites, then 15 years ago the tape bust!!

this was what i used to listen to when i used British Rail to go birding.......cycle from Lightcliffe to Halifax get the train to Leeds then change to Castleford then bike to Fairburn Ings which was as good it got for me back then but saw my first Ringed Necked Duck, Green Winged Teal, Water Pipit and Black Necked Grebe 

used to get on the canal towpath just after the shell garage check Hicksons Flash then dodge the coal wagons going over the bridge, yep back then you good bird an opencast mine good days 

Hicksons Flash was great back then pete g and myself had grey plover, curlew sandpiper and little stint back in the great wader autumn of 88, then 8 years later nick d and me stopped off from dipping a common crane in northumberland found a Broad Billed Sandpiper feeding with Dunlin 

cannot be everywhere

 so breakfast at the parents very nice then headed to redcar tarn 

,the usual back the van up and wait! id been sat for 30 minutes when news of the belted kingfisher has been seen again! having double dipped the last one at eastrington and aberdeen, i had a choice go or stay here i stayed  put.wise move as its not been since 

thorpe marsh

 just recentley i bought "best birdwatching sites yorkshire" to find new places to visit when out and about......thrope marsh north of doncaster got my interest being between slightly on the way to north cave 

so on the road early, not the easiest of places to find in the middle of nowhere but it turns out to be next to the power station thorpe which years ago you could see from southowram, found where you park but it didnt feel right! a car parked up with a broken window and loads of fly tipping stopped had a look and thought no give it a miss it just looked dodgy 

so on to faiburn not a place i really like but using my pass so free it was quite nice walking around the center boardwalks 

lots off bullfinch, a couple of redpoll, coal tit nothing special but the birds show well 

a 10 minute drive to swillington, parked at the rspb car park cos i can for nowt ! when i got to western reedbed my heart sank the mad but very enthusiastic geordie woman was there, i tried to ignore her but she kept saying kingfisher kingfisher then proceeded to tell me everything she has seen, her poor husband was just rolling a ciggie poor bloke 

working out which way she was going i headed the other way much better 

red kite quartering the ings 

a few cettis warblers singing 

lots of wigeon and 6 pintails on the main lake very nice 

western reedbed was far better 

6 dunlin

2 golden plover 

1 redshank

2 curlew

4 little egrets

1 peregrine 

a nice stonechat by the eastern reedbed, as i was heading towards the hillside i could hear a pipit calling quite distinctive just one syllabel "zweep" is how id describe it then i could see a nice large pipit in flight water pipet