Yorkshire Birding
 

Seeing as every other county/ area seems to have a thread, i thought i would start one for Gods own county. Went out for my first visit to Tophill Low a couple days ago. Not a huge amount going on, Pochard with young, Shoveller with young and several Water Rails making a racket in the reeds by the lagoons. No sightings mind. Also got some ball breaking views of kingfishers on the lagoons just like a TV documentary. Wonderful. Not a lot on the reservoirs as there were workmen everywhere. Nevermind. Will definitely give it a return visit. Plus my parents just moved in 8 miles north. All the excuse i need.
As for this thread anything to do with birding Yorkshire seems good to me, current hotspots, rares, inbfo sharing etc. Hopefully have a few contributers.

quite into these county threads myself, keep it coming..

See my thread: Peregrines at Malham Cove.
Well worth a visit. The youngsters should be in the air within 7-10 days.
Also Redstart, Housemartin, Green woodpecker, Spotted flycatcher, Kestrel, Grey wagtail, Yellow wagtail, Wheatear, Little owl, Tawny owl, etc. can be seen.

Ah great - a Yorkshire thread! Lived in Queensbury (up the hill from Bradford) for 12 years until a couple of years ago and did a lot of birding around there. Some fantastic habitat and great diversity of birds. Look forward to hearing about what's about in some of my old haunts. Hope someone's checking out the wader breeding up in the Dales!

Edit: Hang on a mo! are you intending to cover all four Ridings in one thread? Jeez - that's going to get big and busy. Must be hundreds of BF'ers up there with postings to make. Everything from coastlines (cliffs, estuaries and beaches), loads of reservoirs, moorland, rivers, woods and mountains! Blimey, I though 'Backwater Birding' was busy (and gripping) and that's just Seaton! Can't wait!

Nice to have another area thread , and Yorkshire has plenty to offer. Look forward to reading this on a regular basis.


mossy.

FOUR Ridings??? - not in my day ;)

Darrell

Going to pickering today so might have a look in on Dalby Forest drive see if i can find anyhting interesting. Probably not but hey....

Couldn't be bothered to trawl out to Pickering so i went round a few local patches in the lower derwent valley. Bank Island was reasonably productive in that there were loads of birds. Shame they were all lapwings and redshanks, eh! Seriously, nice to see a successful season for them both. Also 3 teal were present which is early/late for them and a lonely female wigeon. Haven't seen one on sight for a couple of months. Also dodging amongst the bushes at the back of the small pond/scrape was a wader that i had very fleeting glimpses of but i could have sworn was a sanderling. Like a wind up toy! Maybe wader passage has started. After this i had a wander down to North Duffield Carrs. Not a huge amount doing here due to people collecting hay. But hold on.... two of those shelducks have stood up and have very long legs and a pointy beak. Lo and behold its the pair of Little Egrets that have been kicking around for a month or so. First multiple record for me of little egrets in the LDV and first time ive seen em at North Duffield. Added bonus was a patch tick in the form of a large female Marsh Harrier scaring the crap outta the lapwings and crows. Surprised i hadn't seen one before but a wonderful sight none the less. Had a look in at Fulford Ings on the way back but not a lot doing, a few whitethroats and a well coloured juv. Willow Warbler. Happy with that for an afternoons work.

Had walk around Roundhay Park in Leeds today. Not really a birding trip more a bit of exercise but I was pleased to note that there were at least 3 broods of coot on the lakes there. Also a couple of pair of great crested grebe with at least one pair having young. No sightings of the kingfisher today.
Due to the strongly gusting wind there wasn't the normal count of passerines, only a lone blue tit by the waterfall.
For anyone wanting to visit, go early for the best sightings. The gorge area, north of Waterloo Lake is very good for woodpeckers, green and gs, along with warblers and at least 3 species of tit. (Yet to log coal tit for the area.)
Other places in the Leeds area are
Eccup reservoir north of the city, best reached from the Harrogate road. Good gull roost.
Rodley Nature Reserve, in where else..Rodley but this has restricted opening times...Wed, Sat and Sun only.
Golden Acre Park, which is good for brambling in the winter, but also gets a good number of warblers in the summer.
Adel Dam which is at the side of Golden Acre Park but is owned by the YWT.

I see the cranes in east Yorkshire seem to have got into a routine. Wonder if they are from Norfolk. Appear to have a juv w/ 2 Adults. Would love to see a new colony in Yorkshire! Seems like a perfect area though, east Riding.

Called in at Blacktoft Sands Friday afternoon while visiting parents in Taddy. Eight superb full summer Spotted Redshanks, plus one presumably first-summer, all from Marshland Hide. At least five Marsh Harriers.

Steve

As far as I know, Colin, there are only three Ridings. 'Ridings' means a third if I remember my teachings at school.

:t:

Sandra

which one do you miss out then north,south,east or west!!!!!!

Under the old Ridings system there were only North, East and West.

South Yorkshire came into being during the boundary shuffles in the 70's. As far as I am aware the Ridings as a political unit no longer have any meaning.

But who gives a c**p...as for record keeping purposes the older Watsonian county boundaries are used which means that we have bits of Gt Manchester, Cleveland and Lincolnshire still classed as Yorkshire.

I believe North Humberside is officially The East Riding of Yorkshire these days. Except Hull weirdly.

East Yorkshire
 

Hi,
There is no such place as North Humberside it is East Yorkshire even Kingston upon Hull is in East Yorkshire.

No, i can promise my in-laws are administered by Kingston Council while my parents are in the East Riding of Yorkshire a mere 10 miles away. Same as York isnt a part of North Yorkshire any more but its own entity. Now am stopping my pedantry and i apologise profusely :D

Only been to this venue once (for a very rare bird indeed!) but anywhere hosting summ. plum. Spotshanks deserves plenty visits!! Cracking birds.

Think some jealous Lancastrians have been on this thread, giving it mighty harsh star ratings. Wait till they start a thread - hammer 'em!! ;)

Blacktoft is cracking in winter for the hen harriers...also merlin and the occassional peregrine.

Last time i went to Blacktoft about a month ago 3 Spotshanks were doing their best impressions of Godwits wading upto their necks in it. Unfortunately all winter plumage still but a great sight non the less.

stopped off a fairburn ings then realised why i dont like it here and went to wykeham 1 honey buzzard,also red kite and buzzard at south cave.
re.blacktoft if you go across the river to faxfleet you can see most of the birds specially raptors and beared tits.

Went out yesterday to Scalby mills. Watched for about an hour as the gulls came in to bath on the brook "estuary". Scrutinised them but i couldn't turn any of the Herring Gulls or Lesser Black-backed Gulls into Yellow-legged Gulls. No terns unfortuanately but a few Black-headed Gulls and Kittiwakes. Got some really close views of the Kittiwakes and could really tell how small they are. Slightly odd sight of a Grey Heron putting all the gulls up (must have been 300 gulls) and proceding to chase fry round the rocks. Also a Great Cormorant with an eel wrapped round its head. Went for a walk through the scrub on the cliff top with a few finches and bits. Was a Song Thrush doing some of the best mimicry ive heard, Swallows, Curlew and Redshank in the same breathe plus imitations of the Blackbird sat next to it in the gorse. Decided to try Wykeham raptor watcpoint and scored my first raptor there. It was a female Kestrel. I have seen a total of 3 birds from that watchpoint ever. Woodpigeon, Swift and Kestrel. Doh! probably just haven't the patience. Then i went to Thornton Dale to play cricket and got a PB of 78*.

Whats wrong with fairburn? Not been there myslef, always thought about a trip..

Recently at Rodley NR

Reed warbler, singing outside hide three and kingfisher back on the reserve. Also the common sands keeps popping over from the river, interestingly Pete Colley thought he had a spotted 'common sand', but didn't have his scope that day - the one that got away.

There's also a dodgey looking ringed teal, that almost had me jumping when I first saw it skulking in the swamp. Common terns now also confimred to be breeding

Pretty quiet down there though, fingers crossed for green sand this weekend!

Whats wrong with fairburn? Not been there myslef, always thought about a trip.

whats good about it!, everything is miles away,the roadside flashes have no parking or places to view from,no footpath from the car park,and cars drive too fast along the road.
rant over! its not that bad seen and found some good birds over the years at fairburn, great place as a kid going by train and bike,i think getting a car made me want to explore yorkshire more and find my favourite places, like north cave(great place,friendly birders a good views)paull holme strays is also a favourite,the new site near welwick should be good soon.
where else i think birding most of the time on the pennines has given me an aversion to hides and proper reserves,take paull holme 70+ avocets on sunday no hides birds less than 100yds away.brilliant

Did an hour at Bank Island today for some birdtrack counts. Reasonably quiet but a high count of 106 Lapwing. Also of note was a female Teal which was a surprise due to lack of water. A single Redshank and also my first Bullfinch since the spring. For a couple of years i have been gripped off by my where to watch birds in Yorkshire book. It mentions categorically that Kingfisher are present on the Derwent between Bank Island and Wheldrake Ings so EVERY time i get to a likely spot out the back of the Cheesecake hide i always take a few minutes to watch for one zooming by. I had never seen anything remotely Kingfisher shaped zoom by and after 2 years i had pretty much given up. Today was watching a tit flock on the far bank and through my bins a blue whoosh. Not a great view but an overwhelming sense of relief. I did have the right spot afterall! :D So patch tick, not county though because i had a pair at tophill low 2 weeks ago. Happy man. Might go to Blacktoft tomorrow for the Spoonbills seeing as i dipped one at Filey a month ago when i decided to drive past the dams to the brigg.