Cheers for the posts about sites in norfolk, know its off topic but need to plan ahead. Lakenheath will keep the missus happy with the hobbies, ill be looking for cranes. birds of prey are my main targets anything else is a bonus. i know there may be some black kites knocking about as well.

mark.

Paxton has around 28 singers this year (and most others). But they usually stop singing right around...............................now. You could maybe get 1-2 though, but they wont be putting on a show.

Aberdeen Info
 

Hi Chris,

I've birded that area a bit, as that's where my missus is from, and I know a few birders up there. The places you want to check out (without travelling far) are:

Girdleness (Girdle Ness) - the south side of where the river Dee leaves Aberdeen

Ythan Estuary (pronounced "i-than"/"i-then") - 13 miles north of Aberdeen around a village called Newburgh

Loads of info about the birds at these sites and others nearby can be found at the following links:

• Birdwatching around the Ythan Estuary
• Ken Hall photography (actually a lot more info than just photos!)
• Mark Lewis's birding blog

The diary/blog on Ken's site has fairly recent details of Golden Eagle and Osprey, if that's what you're after.

Good luck, and be sure to blog your trip (I read it!) |=)|

Thanks Ben! really appreciate the information and will check out those links!

Thanks again

chris

www.chavtwitchers.blogspot.com

5 red kite cruising above the field behind my surgery in Bramhope today - the hay was being cut and the birds were obviously looking for casualties. good office tick.
rob

Rob, my brother lives in Bramhope - they are a daily tick for him over his garden

i've seen them before over the village but never that many -brilliant bird to have over the garden steve! a patient of mine (who also lives in the village) blasts the local rabbits with his 2-2 and waits for the kites to clean them up off his lawn.

Could someone please tell me if there are black guillemots and shags at Bempton or flanborough please and also what else I might expect to see there. Was thinking of a trip there next week. Thanks.

You won't get Black Guillemot anywhere on the east coast - a real rarity. You should see Shag, but Bempton isn't great to actually see them on the cliffs. You will probably score better at Flamborough from the cliff path by the golf course near the old lighthouse.

Bempton has Gannet breeding on the cliffs which you won't get at Flamborough, but you'll see Gannet off-shore easily enough anywhere in the area.

Both Bempton and Flambourough have Guillemot, Razorbill, Puffin, Kittiwake, Fulmar, wildish looking Rock Doves. Tree Sparrow around the visitor centre at Bempton, and possibly Corn Bunting at either site.

Good luck.

Thanks very much Lawts,appreciated.

Kites over Bramhope
 

So glad to hear of the kites drifting over to Bramhope from the Harewood House Project. They used to like Eccup Reservoir, but, as you say, anything happening on farms is an immediate attraction.
Our Red Kites never cease to amaze us here in the Derwent Valley - at lambing time, they will all line up on the posts alongside the field where the ewes are, waiting for them to drop their lambs, and then swoop down on the placentas!!

If you are ever in the north - further north, I mean - do come and explore our Red Kite Trail, an 18 k walk, launched a fortnight ago. We have a good number of nesting sites this year. We had 11 chicks last year, and hope for at least double that number this year!

Our web site gives all the details www.northernkites.org.uk
I used to visit Bramhope frequently, when we worked at the City of Leeds Training College. Do you know/have you heard of Raymond Gillibrand, who lived in the village? We were both in the P.E. Department; he had an Enterprise 16, and I crewed for him in the National championships off Anglesey! We used to teach the students sailing on Yeadon Tarn - great fun!

Anybody know about the bluethroat in west yorks?

http://bradbirds.blogspot.com/2008/05/bluethroat.html

Bransholme TTV
 

Did my second Atlas TTV at Bransholme Fishing Ponds (Hull) today. No osprey this time, and the highlight was a pair of Roe Deer with a young fawn. Birdwise, good numbers of breeding Linnets, Reed Bunts, Reed/Sedge/Willow Warbs, and a pair of Grey Partridge showing that they're just clinging on (counts of 20 plus were not unusual in the 1990s, but they're very rarely seen now).

I also saw something I've never seen before - an apparently normal-looking common Whitethroat giving repeated bursts of Lesser Whitethroat rattle mixed in with its song.

Little Owl showing near Loshpotts this afternoon. For those that know the area it was just next to the roundabout as you come out of Wetherby at the turning to Walshford.

I can make a very good guess as to where the site is, but as it's Member's Only and I ain't one, it's not a good idea for me to post the name on an open forum.
Reading the report though, the bird was only about for the one day so mark it down as one that got away.
With your change of address Marcus, you now should be eligible to join the Bradford Group.

Spent a nice afternoon with some peregrines, species count of ten, three by call. Also got a bargain this weekend of Samples bird calls of Britain and Northern Europe for a fiver off Amazon! Also met a very tired Graham on his way back from Wales, a good time appears to have been had.

In case anyone is interested I've written a brief report on my reptile huntin' trip to Dorset here

That's a great trip you had Mike, found a common lizard the other day - the third site I've found them at in calderdale. Only ever seen a grass snake in Spain but it was about 6' long so fairly spectacular, missed out on an adder on a school trip to Hayburnwike in the seventies when (apparently) a classmate picked one up by the tail and threw it!!!

Finally... BLOG UPDATED!!!

Well that was a more enjoyable weekend than it really should have been. Great weather for summer birding! Three year ticks for my patch [various places broadly across the north end of hull valley]; Spotted Flycatcher, Hobby and Marsh Harrier.

Had no luck initially with flycatchers despite making it a target and so lots of searching of sites I'd seen them before but finally had one give amazing views fly catching from the top of a hawthorn bush as the sun was coming out following a fierce shower. It went about its business with me standing a few yards away for several minutes.

Hobby was a superb bonus. A small odd looking raptor was heading toward me, against the light... intriguing but too difficult to tell. Fortunately it carried on toward me and after getting relatively close it suddenly turned and dropped down low against the hedgeline - equally suddenly obvious what it was. Typically for me it was gone just as quick... it'd be great to know where to!

Plenty of other stuff to keep me entertained; Little Owl, Kingfisher, Cuckoo, Yellow Wags, Marsh Harrier (a local farmer told me the pair have been back again about a month so hoping to see more of them in autumn), Coal Tit (very elusive last couple of years), young Great Spotted Woodpeckers calling from inside a tree hole, ducklings of both Tufted Duck and Gadwall, the latter a first locally for me, and families of Goldcrest, Long-tailed Tit among others... lovely.

The most intimate experience was when walking a path along a field edge and two Grey Partridges flushed from right under my feet and dropped 20 yards away - I stopped dead and could hear faint cheeping sounds nearby but couldn't see any movement. Until I realised there were lots of tiny furry brown blobs rolling around by my feet - a minor miracle that I hadn't squashed some of them... they were so small they can't have been out of the eggs for long :eek!: Shifted off quick to let the parents back so no idea how many but guessing a dozen. A wonderful moment :t:


Cheers,
Bob.

Sounds like you had a great weekend back in God's Own. I've seen Spotted Flycatcher along Wansford Canal a couple of times while watching Water Voles.

Shooting on Ilkley moor
 

Could everyone please help. I live very near to Ilkley moor. I walk with my dogs and see many birds including Whimbrel, Little owl, Kestrel, wheatear, and many others too many to mention. Bradford council is about to put up for tender the licences to re issue them, to allow shooting on the moor. This will obviously disrupt all the wildlife and endanger the birds that breed there. I have started an online petition to try to prevent this.
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/IlkleyMoorNoKill/

Please sign the petition, it was approved today and time is running out. I know that if shooting is allowed this will have devastating consequences on the birds that live and breed there as the land management will then be geared to protecting the gamebirds and trapping and poisoning of potential threats to the gamebirds will result.
Thank you to anyone who takes time to do this, it will only take a minute or so,
Eviepoohs

Do you mean Grouse shooting? The Grouse shooting season starts on Aug 12th, so it will affect no breeding birds. Pheasant shooting starts in September.

Management of moors for grouse does in fact have a beneficial impact on breeding wading birds - what's good for grouse is good for waders and other ground-nesting species. Overgrazing by sheep and lack of management is what's knackering all the moors for breeding birds. Heather moors are actually a managed man-made landscape, and do not occur in nature. Grouse shooting provides the economic incentive to manage moors for birds - otherwise they get managed for sheep, which means less heather and more grass. Or not managed at all, which means a birch wood.

What "devastating consequences" do you "know" will rain down on the birds?

I suspect your whimbrels may be curlews, by the way. They breed on Ilkley, whereas Whimbrels are passage birds.

A hat-trick of Little Owls tonight - two between Knareborough and Ripon within about a mile of each other, and my Loshpotts bird from yesterday found again in the same place. The latter has got me sussed. As soon as I try and get anywhere near for a shot he's off before I'm within about 100 yards.

Actually it WAS a Whimbrel with chick, I got a cracking photo of it sitting on a fencepost. I have seen two more this year just last week, one with a chick. There have also been sightings of a red Kite, there are little owls and Kestrels and Merlin. I suppose your going to tell me they won't be persecuted for eating game bird chicks next? (before the dates when they should all take cover) also the wading birds you mentioned are on a different part of the moor, away from where the shooting would be. I take it they are going to come along and shoot all the sheep too, that is before they start shooting birds?