Birds in Cumbria (2 Viewers)

[Peter Truelove]

Hodbarrow

Two pics from Hodbarrow on the 17th March.
Peter.

 

[christineredgate]

Thanks Peter.May I add,that if anyone is in this area,Hodbarrow RSPB is a good place to visit.Many waders,migrants arriving,inc the Terns,Eiders,Shovellers,Shelducks etc,but you need a fine day!!!

 

[oncebittern]

Small group of Whoopers and Mutes in field beside B5301 just south of Silloth yesterday.

 

[solwaybirder]

Wansfell Avenue Carlisle

16 Waxwing at 0820 this morning at Wansfell Avenue off Woodend Drive off Dalston Road.
Ian Carswell

 

[oncebittern]

Flock of around 200 Redpolls off Stagstones Road, Penrith, opposite Stagstones Farm. A few Goldfinches and Chaffinches amongst them too. Still looking through the photos, and will update if I spot anything else.

 

[NickPatel92]

Flock of around 200 Redpolls off Stagstones Road, Penrith, opposite Stagstones Farm. A few Goldfinches and Chaffinches amongst them too. Still looking through the photos, and will update if I spot anything else.

200 :eek!:

 

[oncebittern]

200 :eek!:

Yep; I was surprised too, but unless I've made some error with ID, Redpolls is what they were.

They never really came close enough for anything but record shots, but for what its worth, here are some of them:

 

[NickPatel92]

WOW....that's amazing - never seen anything like it, great work!

I've only ever seen max 30ish Redpoll at a time.

I saw that (30ish) near River Eden in Carlisle, so i wonder if there is a good population round these areas?

 

[christineredgate]

A BF member,Peter Truelove,posted a shot of a Redpoll taken in his garden last week(Windermere area),so these birds are to be seen around this area of Cumbria.
This county,does show a huge diversity of species,due to the habitat of the countryside.Mountains,fir/pine woods,general woodlands,farms(old barns etc for Owls),marshes,lots of farmers fields,lakes,streams and of course the coastline from the Solway Firth down to Morecambe Bay.The only drawback for finding an exact location for a certain species,is the fact that there are huge open spaces across the mountains etc,so can be difficult for birders to pinpoint an exact location.But Cumbria is an amazing county for a huge variety of species.

 

[eagle33]

Male Osprey returned to Bass lake today and landed on the nest Dodd wood side. Also a Lesser pecker seen form the A66 layby side. Apparently seen last night too.

 

[christineredgate]

Great to hear that the Ospreys are returning.Thanks,Craig.

 

[eagle33]

Great to hear that the Ospreys are returning.Thanks,Craig.

Female returned a few hours later too. Both back on the nest!

 

[oncebittern]

Female returned a few hours later too. Both back on the nest!

Both birds are indeed back on the Dodds Wood nest today.

However, when I arrived at about 10.00 this morning, there was a single bird perched in the trees to the right of the OLD nest site, soaking up the bright morning sunshine. It flew off to the SE about 20 minutes later.

Now I can't say for sure whether this bird was one of the pair or not; it may well have been, and simply circled back to the nest. On the other hand, maybe it wasn't. I didn't get another sighting, but it may be worth keeping an eye on the area...just in case

 

[oncebittern]

Took a walk down to Brougham Castle yesterday, and amongst the usual, also saw:

Buzzard sitting on a fence post, Swallows, House Martins, Goldfinches, Grey Wag, GSW, pair of Goosander on the Eamont, and a Dipper.

 

[thorin]

My first skuas of the year yesterday 22/4. On a day of completely the wrong wind 2 adult Pom skuas flew low against the water with slow steady flight past Bowness viaduct at 9.40am. Also seen in the next 1.5 hours 1 ad Little gull, 49 Kittiwakes, 11 RT divers, 3 GC Grebes, 4 Scoter, 3 Sandwich Terns, 3 Commic Terns , 9 RB Mergansers and 2 Lesser Whitethroats were singing and a Grasshopper Warbler reeling in the gorse.

cheers nick

 

[christineredgate]

Gannets and Skuas seen off the Silecroft shore,flying far out to sea.Report from our local fishermen.

 

[oncebittern]

Spent a few hours in Longsleddale today, hoping to catch sight of a Ring Ouzel. Conditions were poor, being very overcast, cold and damp, with cloud swirling quite low down the fell sides.

Amongst others, I saw Ravens, Buzzard, Peregrine, Wheatears, Meadow Pipits, Pied Wags, Heron, and heard a Green Woodpecker.

Heard a Ring Ouzel singing away quite happily in the midst of a boulder field, probably 200yds away, but despite about 2 hours of watching, joined for a while by another couple of birders, never made eye contact with it...another day maybe. :-C

Light was too poor for any decent pics, but these are the best of a bad lot:

 

[christineredgate]

Large influx of Swallows arrived overnight,but still no House Martins.

 

[Pitvar]

Spent an hour at St Bees walked along the cliffs to the shingle beach - my first visit - three peregrines over - down to 20m above the path, loads of linnet, stone chats, cormorants all over the cliffs, ravens, grey rock pipit drinking from streams on the beach, herring gulls and oystercatchers but no kittiwakes or black guillemots - guess I was a couple of weeks early for the later? Anyway cracking place and a nice walk...

 

[eagle33]

Spent an hour at St Bees walked along the cliffs to the shingle beach - my first visit - three peregrines over - down to 20m above the path, loads of linnet, stone chats, cormorants all over the cliffs, ravens, grey rock pipit drinking from streams on the beach, herring gulls and oystercatchers but no kittiwakes or black guillemots - guess I was a couple of weeks early for the later? Anyway cracking place and a nice walk...

I had 2 Whinchat there todat too, saw Load of kittiwakes, but didnt look for black guillemots, had 6 there a few weeks ago!!