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 

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 

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 

mytholmroyd bank holiday weekend

 highlights 

hobby over sunday evening grasshopper warbler daisy bank oh house martins lots of 

work work and the royd

 after a 60 hour week working on project for a fancy office in london village is was knackered but by 4pm id concreted in 12 posts for the new decking job done with good views of buzzard and sparrowhawk over along with lots of house martins, mytholmroyd must have calderdales largest colony of them,so great to see

but so tired we just sat in the garden watching the birds 

sunday time to walk jessie 

heron was very tame on the riverbank 

an oystercatcher flew over towards brearley fields 2 buzzards over enjoying the warming air, then down throught the old railway sidings, stopped dead in my tracks when a wood warbler sang such a great song 

how to miss birds in sussex

 so off we headed from mytholmroyd to brighton (29th april) down the M6 heading for a site below coventry......lovely site next to the river 

it felt quite different just being a bit further from home yellow wagtails whitethroats and a lesser whitethroat singing not a bird im used to seeing now, as the day drew on a little egret flew over yellow wags calling good veiws of kingfisher on the riverbank 

sunday we headed to seaford for the white-crowned sparrow but news felt bad and by the time we stopped at warwick services to dry off gear it was negative, so my hopes of seeing another white-crowned sparrow were put to bed 

newhaven west beach 

stopped here last year it has a strange atmosphere with people just driving up then going, fishermen just heading for the pier, but a nice evening fire on the beach 

fulmar 8 

rock pipit 2

monday 

after breakfast in seaford we chilled out at newhaven tide mills

i liked this place even though its a wasteland  had a feel of spurn point just scrub land but great birding 3 wheatears popped up on the bushes along with stonechat lesser whitethroat ( i love the little sub-song) cetties warbler a few very showy song thrushes and not forgetting ringed plover and little egret. 

walked towards seaford  past the reedbeds sedge and reed warblers singing 

yes tide mills was lovely 

brighton campsite 

at the foot of the sheepcote valley its a great place to stay but its a vast area and on my walk it seemed to go on forever  just bushes fields but a great walk over the 4 days here i saw 

lesser whitethroat 1

whitethroat nc

cetties warbler 2 

sedge warbler 2 

blackcap 4 

green woodpecker 2 

great spotted woodpecker 1

kestrel 2 

sparrowhawk 2

buzzard 3

peregrine 2

swift 8

house martin 2

swallow 10 

thursday 

cuckmere haven 

nice walk to the beach on the eastern side 

little egret 8

whimbrel 3 in off the sea

lesser whitethroat 

ringed plover 2

fulmar 4

friday

the 4 days in sussex was drawing to an end, as we packed up to head home 8 swifts spent the morning feeding over the west side of sheepcote valley and headed to hove to say goodbye to the boy and girl 

as we got to the M25 news broke of the Iberian Chiffchaff..........oh well 

the evening was spent overnight in bedfordshire in the delightful kingfisher pub a great riverside location so watching common terns with a pint was good 

llyn peninsula

 nice weekend on the llyn peninsula 

choughs were very common 

and jackdaws 

a ring ouzel at the small valley at whistling sands was a good find as was a greenshank at pwllheli marina also on the marina were 5 bar tailed godwits 2 sandwich terns 3 little egrets 2 more little egrets by the cob at porthmadog 2 ospreys nearby tried twice for the surf scoter at llandulas but failed 

home

 

bluethroat fairburn ings

 driving dow the m62 approaching the haribo factory on the way to see mum for her birthday a message from swillington whatsapp about a bluethroat at fairburn ings so off i go im literally a few miles away, not my favourite place but its a bluethroat, on the short drive imagined a bluethroat singing and showing well! what i got was a group of birdwatchers wont call them birders as they just stood around talking not looking just chatting away though 2 guys actullay were looking fair credit to them as the scene was looking through a hedge into some beige stuff reeds or shit i dunno 

 gave up after 10 minutes still nice walk 

st aidens

a nice early start here.........bittern heard from the dragline  with a few more calling on my walk, really warm morning for march cetties warblers were a great numbers with 2 seen briefly.

imm marsh harrier over the eastern reedbed put all the gulls up, water rail calling near astley, 2 buzzards over the hillside usual stock doves dragline and white fronted goose flew over reedbed towards hillside

 

headed to selby to see parents so drove past fairburn, now if ive visited st aidens first fairburns not worth stopping at apart from to slow down to see the spoonbills on the moat (2 this morning) but if i go to fairburn first it make st aidens a better visit, not the biggest fairburn fan 

a good mornings birding