Old Moor summary

Little Egret 3, Peregrine, Golden Plover 800+, Spot Red 4, Ruff 12, Black-wit 20, Curlew Sand, Little Stint.

Living on The Edge?

Just spoken to 'The Edge' and was pleased to hear he sounded pretty perky. For those unaware, Alan was involved in a rather nasty car crash last week and suffered a fractured sternum which causes a great deal of pain when he laughs. However, when I spoke to him 'Seev' had just arrived so he should be okay for quite a while! It goes without saying we all wish him a speedy recovery and in the meantime the rest of us birders will have struggle on without him in the Monday night quiz. We shall also miss those occasional spectacular wader counts from Broomhill for a while!

Old Moor (Jeff Wragg et al): Little Egret 2, Peregrine, Ringed Plover 2, LRP, Black t Godwit 21, Ruff 18, Spot Red 4, Curlew Sand, Little Stint, Dunlin 21, Green Sand. No sign of the 'Yank Goldie' today.

And finally a cracking action shot of the Bittern and a Lapwing taken recently by Keith Pickering.

Langsett

Langsett Reservoir - 9 Canada Geese, 23 Teal, 83 Mallards, 2 Tufted Ducks and 2 Grey Herons.
Gull roost - 1040 Black-headed Gulls, 5 Common Gulls, 624 Lesser Black-backed Gulls, 5 adult Yellow-legged Gulls and 1 adult Great Black-backed Gull.

Not a Wath COOT! Young Carlos

Seen at Broomhill Flash on 6th September. Too much Bling for a Wath Coot.

Worsbrough colour ringed Coot

Below are the details of a colour ringed Coot at Worsbrough res. that I first noticed on 27th August.
Surprised to see that Santa and his wife are ringers!

Ringing Scheme: London         Ring Number: GR25107         Species of bird: Coot

This bird was ringed by Christmas & Christmas as age at least 1 year , sex unknown on 02-Dec-2010 at Marine Lake, Southport, Merseyside. OS Map reference SD3318, co-ordinates 53deg 39min N 3deg 1min W.

Colour marks left below knee: Y,Y, right below knee: C,M

It was found on 27-Aug-2013 at Worsbrough Reservoir, South Yorkshire OS Map reference SE3403, co-ordinates 53deg 31min N 1deg 29min W.

The bird was Sight record by non-ringer    Identified by Colour Ring(s)

It was found 999 days after it was ringed, 103 km from the ringing site, direction E.

Ewden Vis Mig

Ewden Height
Time: 07:40 - 09:15
Observers: David Woodriff.
Cormorant - 1 SW, Lesser Black-backed Gull - 1 S, Stock Dove - 5 S/SW, Meadow Pipit - 32 S, Grey Wagtail - S, alba Wagtails - 48 S + 1 NE, Redwing - 49 S + 27 WNW, Mistle Thrush - 15 S, Jackdaw - 67 SW, Starling - 1 S, Chaffinch - 53 S + 2 N, Brambling - 1 S, finch sp c100 S, Greenfinch - 53 S, Goldfinch - 58 S, Siskin - 16 S, Linnet - 33 S + 6 N and Lesser Redpoll - 4 S.
per David Woodriff.

Ingbirchworth & Broadstones

Ingbirchworth Reservoir - 125 Mallards, 5 Tufted Ducks, 3 Little Grebes, 1 juvenile Great Crested Grebe, 6 Moorhens, 4 Coots, 220+ Black-headed Gulls, 1 Common Gull, 120+ Jackdaws, 1 Barn Swallow and 10+ Pied Wagtails.
Annat Royd Lane - c200 Lapwings, c100 Black-headed Gulls, 8 Lesser Black-backed Gulls, 12 Stock Doves, c200 Starlings, c30 Linnets and c60 Linnets.
Broadstones Reservoir - 44 Canada Geese, 11 Wigeon, 6 Mallards, 5 Red-legged Partridge and c50 Lesser Black-backed Gull.
Langsett Reservoir - 40+ Pied Wagtails on the dam wall.
Midhope Reservoir - 8 Mallards and 10 Crossbills.

Broomhill Flash & Wombwell Ings

Broomhill Flash sightings till late morning.

Snipe 12+,
Grey Heron 1,
Lapwing 18.

Cormorant 13,
Shoveler 13,
Tufted Duck 11,
Teal 7,
Mallard 15,
Gadwall 36,
Mute Swan 2,
Common Gull 1.

Pied Wagtail 7,
Linnet 20+,
Goldfinch 20+.

Peregrine Falcon 1,
Sparrowhawk 1,
Little Owl 1.
Barn Owl (Showing late last evening.)

Wombwell Ings.

Spotted Redshank 2,
Curlew Sandpiper 1,
Little Ringed Plover 1,
Ringed Plover 3,
Golden Plover c84,
Black-tailed Godwit 4,
Dunlin 11,
Ruff 19,
Snipe 6+.

Wigeon 35,
Teal 47,
Shoveler 12,
Gadwall 9,
Mallard 6,
Cormorant 1.

Linnet 5+,

Kestrel 1,
Buzzard 1.

Broomhead

Spent all morning up here (07.00 to 13.00) looking for crossbills. Far fewer birds than a month or so ago and NO sight nor sound of any Two-barreds. Common Crossbill 30, Siskin 40, Redwing 35, Nuthatch 2, loads of Coal Tits, etc.

Harden Vis Mig

Harden Quarries
Time: 07:15 - 11:30
Observers: Mick Cunningham and Dave Pennington
Pink-footed Goose - 80 W + c450 E, Golden Plover - 1 SW, Common Snipe - 3 SW, Stock Dove - 2 SW, Skylark - 7 S/SW, Barn Swallow - 7 S/SW, Meadow Pipit - 1325 S/SW, Grey Wagtail - 1 SW, alba Wagtail - 12 S/SW, Blackbird - 1 SW, Raven - 2 SW, Starling - 11 SW, Chaffinch - 91 S/SE, Brambling - 1 SE, finch sp - 14 S/SE, Greenfinch - 19 S/SE, Siskin - 7 S/SE, Linnet - 65 - S/SE, Lesser Redpoll - 2 SE, Crossbill - 23 SW and Reed Bunting - 2 SW.

Bolton Ings et al - 6th October

A glorious day weather wise and a glorious day birding. Started cool, only 7c at 07.30 when I set out this morning but clear blue skies and very little wind. Highlight today on the Bolton was 7 Buzzards, Coot up to 300+ just, good counts for Gadwall and Little Grebe and Skylarks and Meadow Pipits going over. Full list:- Grey Heron 4, Mute Swan 10 adults + 10 juvs, Canada Goose 165, Grey Lag Goose 26, Cormorant 12, Great Crested Grebe 6, Little Grebe 30, Mallard 18, Teal 21, Gadwall 142, Shoveler 8, Wigeon 11, Tufted Duck 21, Pochard 14, Coot 305, Moorhen 23, Lapwing 135, Snipe 7, Dunlin 3, Green Sandpiper 1, Black Tailed Godwit 1, Black Headed Gull 40, LBB Gull 15, Common Gull 3, Buzzard 7 (birds in the air nearly all morning then 4 flew west and 3 remained over Bolton tip), Kestrel 2, Sparrowhawk 1, Green Woodpecker 1, Jay 4, Grey Wagtail 1, Kingfisher 2, Chiffchaff 2 singing males, Skylark 30 south, Meadow Pipit 15 south.

Whilst on Bolton I received a text that the American Golden Plover was on the Main Marsh, after a couple of phone calls and failing to see it from the old railway line I made my way to the Wath Ings hide where I finally had good views after a nervous wait. Thanks to Paul White for finding it today and to John Hewitt for the text. The bird gave good views for about an hour but never looked settled as did all the other Goldies. At 13.35 they all got up and the AGP hadn't returned when I left. Shortly after all the waders had flown an adult male Peregrine gave a good display in front of the hide. I tried counting the Goldies but never got past 500 before they flew but we estimated about 800 today. The other waders took a back seat today but included 4 Spotted Redshank, 1 Curlew Sandpiper, 25 Dunlin, 16 Black Tailed Godwits and 13 Ruff.

Received a text later from Jeff Wragg, day total for Buzzard up to 9+, also birds present on Wombwell Ings included 2 Little Egrets, Greenshank, Little Ringed Plover, 3 Dunlin and 5 Black Tailed Godwits.

A great day and good to see lots of visiting birders seeing the American Goldie and all the other birds from a packed hide overlooking the glorious Wath Ings mud. There is no better place.

Carlton Marsh

Another extraordinary beautiful day with a maximum of 20.8c (still well below my record of 25.5c on 1st October 1985)

This morning began with a Wheatear, 50 Skylarks, 10 Meadow Pipits, 20 Grey Partridge and c50 Pied Wagtails on nearby arable land. 3 Redwings flew west. (Jim Plant) Although Wintersett recorded high numbers of Pink Feet surprisingly none went through here.  

Afternoon - 5 Buzzards were up 2 drifting south. Little Owl was present, as was a roosting Tawny Owl. 

Insects included 7 Red Admirals, 6 Peacocks, 28 Commas and 16 Silver Y Moths.  (Chris Parkin Ralph Hibbert Dave Standish & CG)

Edderthorpe, Sunday morning

The morning started well with, Curlew Sandpiper 1, Dunlin 20, Ruff 5, Golden Plover 150, Lapwing 550, but the Peregrine soon put in a showing scattering everything and with the nice weather the dog walkers were out disturbing everything that returned and pretty quickly the Flash looked empty. (John Clarkson).

Wintersett, Sunday

Main migrants today were Pink-footed Geese;- from 08.20 for the next hour 1155 went eastwards in 6 skeins including a super-skein with 700 birds in it, probably the largest skein ever seen over Wintersett, a pretty awesome sight. Other migrant counts are;- Common Buzzard 1 south west (+11 local birds), Crossbill 3 south, Brambling 3 west, Skylark 175 south, Meadow Pipit 497 south, Swallow 73 and House Martin 3 south, Redwing 10 west, Pied Wagtail 63 south, Linnet 102 south and Redpoll 3. Two Rock Pipits were on the Country Park water edges in the afternoon and a Reed Warbler was in the Top Res reedbeds.

Ewden Valley 6/10/13

A report from Mr Tyke told of 7 common buzzards, a merlin, a sparrowhawk, 3 kestrels, 6 ravens, 35 siskins and a stock dove ...

I had a change of scenery and did a few hours at Cundy Cross ...

Results were .. 2 pied wags, 1 yellowhammer, 2 sprawks, c13 common buzzards, 3 kestrels, a cormorant, a grey heron, a jay and 2 mistle thrushes ...

Broomhead

The juvenile Grey Plover was still at Broomhead Reservoir; also 90+ Pink-footed Geese W. and 2 Chiffchaffs.
per Alan Hill.

American golden plover

American golden plover present again at Old moor today. On the main marsh from wath ings hide. Flew off with goldies at 13.35 after an adult male peregrine appeared. Goldies coming back just as l left. More to follow later.

Harden Vis Mig

Harden Quarries
Time: 07:14 - 12:45
Observers - Mick Cunningham, Russ Boland and Dave Pennington.
Cormorant - 2 SW + 1 NE, Grey Heron - 4 S/SW, Pink-footed Goose - 40 + 85 E, Common Buzzard - 3 SW, Kestrel - 1 SW, Merlin - 1 SW, Lapwing - 35 SW, Common Snipe - 1 SW, Black-headed Gull - 48 SW, Lesser Black-backed Gull - 12 SW, Skylark - 26 S/SW, Barn Swallow - 41 S/SW, House Martin - 33 S/SW, Meadow Pipit - 381 S, Grey Wagtail - 5 SW, alba Wagtails - 22 SW, Blackbird - 1 SW, Song Thrush - 1 SW, Redwing - 1724 S/WNW, Mistle Thrush 11 NE, Magpie - 1 SW, Raven  - 2 NE, Starling - 51 W, Chaffinch - 297 S/SE, Brambling - 2 SE, finch sp - 276 S/SE, Greenfinch - 44 S/SE, Goldfinch - 46 S/SE, Siskin - 2 SE, Linnet - 142 S/SE, Lesser Redpoll - 1 SE and Reed Bunting - 2 SW.
Also present - Sparrowhawk - 3, Common Buzzard - 5, Kestrel - 4, Blackbird -5, Mistle Thrush - 1, Goldcrest - 3 and Jay - 4.

Bits & Bobs

Broomhead Reservoir - 1 Grey Plover..
per SBSG website.

Whitley Common - 1 first-winter Yellow-legged Gull and c60 Lesser Black-backed Gull.
Ingbirchworth Reservoir -1 Wigeon and 8 Teal
per Mick Cunningham.

Carlton Marsh

This morning - Canada Geese 110, Cormorant, Chiffchaff  2, Great Spot W. Pecker 1, Linnet 30 and Yellow Wagtail 1 south. (Jim Plant)

This afternoon - Kingfisher 1 and Tufted Duck 1. Also Red Admiral 1, Peacock 1, Comma 1, Speckled Wood 4 and Migrant Hawker 4. (Ralph Hibbert)

This evening - me and Dave Standish

Shoveler 2, Kingfisher, Little Owl, Pink Feet Geese c250 SE 18.42hrs and Tawny Owl 2 calling at dusk. Also Duabenton's Bat 1, Pipistrelle 1  & Dog Fox barking.

Last nights moths (at home)

11 species included Red Green Carpet, Blair's Shoulder Knot 2, Fused Burnished Brass and Red Line Quaker 2.