the scillies go into meltdown

the shetland birders thought they were doing well this autumn with loads of rare birds being found,but in the last few days the isles of scilly have gone into complete meltdown!

eleonora's falcon

not flying over porthellick bay

sharp shinned hawk

not flying over the garrison

far eastern curlew

not on porthcressa beach

the uk400 club has already accepted the birds,president evans was overheard saying 'we need to get the scillies back on track so tick em'

birding on the web

as i sit here with a beer and a ciggy trying to sort out my yorkshire list which is actually rather hard to do as cant recall seeing a Bewicks Swan in yorkshire,but i must of!!

inbetween trying to sort the list out i found the following great birding websites/blogs

first is Kenn Kaufmans having read Kingbird Highway i was not surprised by how he looks!

second is Manchester Birding which despite being the wrong side of the pennines is a great site,loads of info and very interesting articles.well worth a look.

and last but not least is HeavyBirder well the title photo speaks for itself...............Rickenbakers,Leeds UTD,Yorkshire Birding .

not much posted yet but i expect great things.

walk to sainsburys

nice walk this evening to get some food and beer!

a jay in stoney royd cem showed well flying and squalking very smart birds indeed,the stretch of the River Hebble,i say river its more of a brook? had 1 chiffchaff,1 grey wagtail and 1 dipper,not a bad 100yards!!!

even better i discovered that sainsburys sells its own cider!!! never been a great cider lover but for 2 liters at just over a quid its not bad!!!!! hic

10 mile walk tuesday

a bit late posting! please forgive me!

set out from the house at midday,up coal pit lane towards southowram--bank top-- marsh delves--beacon hill--shibden park--shibden fold--horley green--ploughcroft--swalesmoor-ploughcroft--boothtown--old lane mill- town--shaw hill--home.

bird of the day was the stonechat a very nice 1st winter male at horley green,which was a 'green' tick.grey wagtails totalled 3 including 1 going sw over high sunderland lane,given the numbers of grey wagtails in halifax its hard to know if this was a migrant or not?.

siskin at shibden fold was nice to see away from the gravel pits.

apart from that very quiet maybe i should get up earlier!!!!

coal pit lane

fields

powerlines

moth

(HELP)

its tasty!

very quite today just a chiffchaff calling at the back of cinderhills brickworks.the highlight was the fantastic bacon butty from the place at the end of union street south.

on the net i found this website from holland,well worth spending a few moments looking at it,just because it has some fantastic rare birds on it????.

including some mega firsts for europe,the list is mouthwatering.....................

Lawrence's Goldfinch

Japanese Buzzard

African Goshawk

Rock Sandpiper

Nordmann's Greenshank

Latham's Snipe

Malabar Lark

Chihuahuan Raven

Olive Sparrow

the list is endless.

the 'punkbirders' have nothing on this guy

LAPLAND BUNTING,southowram

what a day!

picked up on call flying over barrowclough lane at the back of beacon hill.

heard it call once and thought 'whats that?' given the number of power lines up here i thought it may be a sound in the wires, but it called again,heading south west.my first in calderdale and the first ive seen for a few years.

it should be noted this is a very early record for the autumn but large numbers of lapland buntings have been moving across england in the last few weeks.

i think one was seen over bradford earlier this week?

having looked here maybe this is calderdales first american passerine??

lapland bunting

barrowclough lane

southowram this morning

at last the strong winds and rain have eased!!!

a bright and breezy morning,after a quick breakfast i headed up the hill at the back of the house towards southowram.

wheatear 2

swallow 6

chiffchaff 1

goldfinch 126

linnet 24

starling 400 apx

meadow pipit 112

skylark 12

the wheatears were the best of the morning,1 in the ploughed field alongside coal pit lane,and the 2nd along barrowclough lane.

wheatear

barrowclough lane

bank top