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Yorkshire Birding (16 Viewers)

How did the apple stake-out go Steve?

Came past Harewood shortly before, loads of geese in the field across the road. Assume these are from Harewood?
 
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some numbers back at Redhouse.Nce to meet secret twitcher! I think 2 definite meallys! 1 and 5) but what do yuo think of third bird,pics2 ,3 and 4 5.Very white bird!Probably extreme meally but any thoughts?No discernable UTC streaking.

All mealy for me. You can see the bird in pic 3 has rump streaking as well as the small streaks on the utc's.
 
How did the apple stake-out go Steve?

Came past Harewood shortly before, loads of geese in the field across the road. Assume these are from Harewood?

Bird garden at Harewood has several exotic species of geese, some of which are full winged. There's also a large flock of feral greylag and Canada's on the lake there.
 
How did the apple stake-out go Steve?

Came past Harewood shortly before, loads of geese in the field across the road. Assume these are from Harewood?

There's around 300 feral geese which range over the Harewood, Eccup, and Weardley area, seemingly mostly roosting on Eccup. Most are Greylags with a few showing signs of farmyard origin, but also plenty of Canadas. I have found small parties of Pinkfeet with them on a couple of occasions in Autumn.

Not sure how they became established originally but they've been in Leeds as long as I have, although perhaps not in such numbers. Not sure, either, whether they are all there all year or whether they undertake a moult migration to Scotland as many feral or re-established Greylags now do. I guess a proper local birder notes these things!

Graham
 
How did the apple stake-out go Steve?

Came past Harewood shortly before, loads of geese in the field across the road. Assume these are from Harewood?

Nearly froze! I got in situ far too early - was waiting nearly an hour just for the sun to come up. My legs were sticking out and that was all any passing motorist would have seen. I think if spotted I'd have been reported as a dead body. The glass in my scope was freezing over like a car windscreen - seriously! When I left my teeth were chattering uncontrolably - but would have stayed longer if I hadn't had to go delivering pressies with my wife. I was surprised Wetherby in full sun, and Birkenshaw grey with a load of snow.

Got a couple of nice Fieldfare shots though - still not what I'm exactly after but a start - was determined to get a decent Fieldfare and Redwing this winter - got Redwing already, (not the attached).
 

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Norfolk

Does anyone fancy a day trip for the Northern Harrier over the holidays at some point? I'm more than happy to drive. Also wouldn't mind trying for Golden Pheasant whilst down there. Please PM me if you are interested and we can sort a date out.
 
Came past Harewood shortly before, loads of geese in the field across the road. Assume these are from Harewood?[/QUOTE]

The Lake at Harewood was over 95% ice for the WeBS count on Sunday. One unfortunate Mute Swan had been frozen into the ice and stripped bare by scavengers. Nine more were in the small area of open water, too small to take off from I suspect. There were few geese around the lake (though Snow, Ross's and Egyptian still there), usually at this time of year around 800 Canadas could be expected, whilst Greylags favour the fields nearer to Eccup Res. and have peaked at over 1700 birds recently.
Oddest sight of the WeBS count was two Pheasants scurrying across the frozen lake.
 
oh, and I made friends with a little old lady who let us into her garden to get a closer shot. Bless.

Clare, some stunning shots I'm green with envy. We went to Swillington but not the correct location so I'm afraid it was a miss for us but reading some of the posts when we got home we were sooo near..:cat:
 
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I thought the news that there were 3 Barn Owls found dead in the Sunk Island area, and another hit by a car in the Burton Pidsea area were bad enough, but one was also found outside a box at the Tophill Low reserve, but there is even worse news. This is second-hand information, but I've also been told that 23 have been found dead or dying in the Lower Derwent Valley in the last 3 weeks!

I've been sent some info on how landowner's can help Barn Owls survive, so if you want this sending as a word attachment, please PM me!

One found dead by a farmer in a barn in Kelk last week :-C
 
Had a walk round our fields after work today, flushed 15 separate woodcocks from the hedgerow bottoms

8 Woodcock were flushed by beaters at Harpham on Saturday - 1 shot down. This was from about 1/3 of the wood so there will likely have been double figures in the whole wood. At least half dozen Teal also shot.

The shot success on Pheasants was about 1 in 10 - mostly cos lots of them flying too low to shoot or crashing through the trees instead of high and clear.
 
8 Woodcock were flushed by beaters at Harpham on Saturday - 1 shot down. This was from about 1/3 of the wood so there will likely have been double figures in the whole wood. At least half dozen Teal also shot.

The shot success on Pheasants was about 1 in 10 - mostly cos lots of them flying too low to shoot or crashing through the trees instead of high and clear.

Worth keeping an eye here at the moment re shooting arrangements. Though my locals don't seem to care.

http://www.basc.org.uk/en/media/key_issues.cfm/cid/0E4129DD-791D-4722-A256194278DFDB1F
 
Clare, some stunning shots I'm green with envy. We went to Swillington but not the correct location so I'm afraid it was a miss for us but reading some of the posts when we got home we were sooo near..:cat:

What a shame... I know what that feels like.

I went over this morning, only saw a few though, there was a hard frost, most of the berries had gone, but there were still some left...so the most of the birds were over near the industrial estate (Markoh showed me where to go - big thanks)

If you want to head over again, just let me know, I`ll show you where they are... or where they might be =)
 
Saw a Barn Owl hunting over a snow covered field this lunch time in the company of a dozen angry corvids. I observed a similar thing last week at another location.

Really glad I'm not a Barn Owl at the moment!
 
Great morning over at Primrose Hill Close with the Waxwings. Superb light and good fortune with some stunning views in brilliant light. Nice to meet you Clare...great photos! A couple of mine on my Blog...:t:
 
Was hoping to find waxwings, but could hardly complain with the flock of redwings I came across in the car park at Asda in Shipley today! Has anyone seen waxwings here before? They're proving to be a real bogey bird for me at the moment - I've never even seen one before, let alone photograph one! Any help would be much appreciated.
Cheers.
Tom
 

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