Yorkshire Birding (70 Viewers)

[aythya_hybrid]

Hi Jonathan,

Good to meet you today.
Did you go for the LEO?

Hi Clare, yes, nice to meet you too Still can't believe the brambling didn't co-operate, but it was an excellent day anyway.

I stood in the rain for about 20mins looking for LEOs but no luck. Still, never mind, I'm sure I'll get another chance before the winder is out.....

Great willow tit photo. I tell you, after having been birding in London and East Anglia for ten years and not seeing a single one, to see six in a day was pretty special, although I fear I'll get blase about them pretty quickly!

 

[aythya_hybrid]

Hey Jonathan,

the Coues i had nearly two weeks ago now at Fairburn was in the same area, btw the two hides, and with mealies as well. Shouldn't worry too much about the report with lessers, they seem to switch small groups a lot, and it may have been miscommunicated anyway.

Anyway, the bird I had had pretty strong flank streaking, but was otherwise very pale, fem/1w type with no pink flush at all. Any chance it's the same bird? Just wondering, would be good if others had seen a similar bird.

Cheers Ollie

Hi Ollie. Could be the same bird, definitely no pink flush, flank streaking didn't jump out at me but my views were petty brief, and it had moved on before I was able to get others onto it. Really nice flock though, I hope it sticks around and I'll get a chance to go through them in more detail and in better light....

 

[BeadsbyClareScott]

Hi Clare, yes, nice to meet you too Still can't believe the brambling didn't co-operate, but it was an excellent day anyway.

I stood in the rain for about 20mins looking for LEOs but no luck. Still, never mind, I'm sure I'll get another chance before the winder is out.....

Great willow tit photo. I tell you, after having been birding in London and East Anglia for ten years and not seeing a single one, to see six in a day was pretty special, although I fear I'll get blase about them pretty quickly!

Shame, maybe another day =) Don`t think they`ve been showing that well recently, probably because people try to get too close...

Can you PM me your email address, i`ve got that photo of the paler Redpoll you pointed out.

=)

 

[zing]

a great day

Welcome Jonathan!
Don't mention redpolls on this site...I am close to formal psychiatric order over the blighters!!

Paul

Good and bad news had a great day today at wheldrake ings and allerthorpe woods GSW X2 , Cormorants x5 on Wheldrake ings stacks of widgeon mutes Teal ,Treecreepers x 2, long tailed tits x 10 and then as i was leaving Allerthorpe woods i took pity on an over friendly robin and threw it some bread!!!!! within 2 seconds over 30 Tits decended on the bread Marsh,Willow, Blue and Great never seen anything like it they must be really hungry!!

sorry Doc now the bad news also spotted 10+ Redpolls in the birch trees a fellow birder with much more knowledge than me confirmed that Arctics were in there.
and to cap it all a wonderful dual barn owl fly past.

 

[zing]

naff pics

Good and bad news had a great day today at wheldrake ings and allerthorpe woods GSW X2 , Cormorants x5 on Wheldrake ings stacks of widgeon mutes Teal ,Treecreepers x 2, long tailed tits x 10 and then as i was leaving Allerthorpe woods i took pity on an over friendly robin and threw it some bread!!!!! within 2 seconds over 30 Tits decended on the bread Marsh,Willow, Blue and Great never seen anything like it they must be really hungry!!

sorry Doc now the bad news also spotted 10+ Redpolls in the birch trees a fellow birder with much more knowledge than me confirmed that Arctics were in there.
and to cap it all a wonderful dual barn owl fly past.

attached pictures are grim! light distance etc etc (thats my excuse!)

 

[schiffornis]

attached pictures are grim! light distance etc etc (thats my excuse!)

Hi Zing, glad you had a good day, these 'tits' look like Coal Tits. Where was the flock of Redpoll? Was this at Allerthorpe?
Cheers, Andy

 

[zing]

great day

Hi Zing, glad you had a good day, these 'tits' look like Coal Tits. Where was the flock of Redpoll? Was this at Allerthorpe?
Cheers, Andy

I started at East cottingwith (on the trail of an otter) then went to Allertorpe woods then Wheldrake ings,(Cormorants) The Allertorpe woods is the one no where near Allerthorpe its well past woodhouse grange cricket club,Redpolls were in abundence in these woods plus all the tits.treecreepers etc GSW was at East cottingwith.let me know if you need more info.

some pics

http://www.flickr.com/photos/zing0414/

 

[DOC REED]

Good and bad news had a great day today at wheldrake ings and allerthorpe woods GSW X2 , Cormorants x5 on Wheldrake ings stacks of widgeon mutes Teal ,Treecreepers x 2, long tailed tits x 10 and then as i was leaving Allerthorpe woods i took pity on an over friendly robin and threw it some bread!!!!! within 2 seconds over 30 Tits decended on the bread Marsh,Willow, Blue and Great never seen anything like it they must be really hungry!!

sorry Doc now the bad news also spotted 10+ Redpolls in the birch trees a fellow birder with much more knowledge than me confirmed that Arctics were in there.
and to cap it all a wonderful dual barn owl fly past.

The birder will need to provide photo evidence....i HOPE there is arctic there..gods sake have had my suspicions....

Did u get Barn owl at redhouse..would be nice to know my 'pair' survived??

Paul

 

[zing]

Redpoll

The birder will need to provide photo evidence....i HOPE there is arctic there..gods sake have had my suspicions....

Did u get Barn owl at redhouse..would be nice to know my 'pair' survived??

Paul

Barn Owls were at Thorganby Nr Wheldrake Redpoll spotter i had no reason to doubt very experienced birder.

 

[DOC REED]

Barn Owls were at Thorganby Nr Wheldrake Redpoll spotter i had no reason to doubt very experienced birder.

But are you saying arctic redpoll at redhouse??Or some other site??

Don't care if they at Allerthorpe..well do, but don't if know what i mean. Any birder finfing arctic should be reporting it...allerthorpe or wherever...


Paul

 

[zing]

Arctics

But are you saying arctic redpoll at redhouse??Or some other site??
Paul

Redpolls at Allerthorpe woods nr pocklington East Yorks

i suspect the high winds have blown them eastwards

if you need more info let me know.

 

[Lawts]

Greetings everyone, I'm a newcomer to this neck of the woods, having moved to Leeds late last year.

Today I managed to fit in my first birding trip in West Yorks, at Fairnburn Ings. Couldn't get over the numbers of tree sparrows and willow tits. Tremendous.

Anyway, late morning I was one of small group of birders scrutinising a sizeable flock of redpolls (I reckoned maybe 60-70) outside the village bay hide. There were quite a few really smart pale mealies, in fact I got the impression the flock seemed to be mostly mealy, but obviously hard to work out ratios. I very briefly got on one bird which I thought looked pretty good for arctic - markedly paler than the others and head and bill shape looked good - but it scarpered within seconds, and eventually the whole flock disappeared.

Slightly confused to read on birdguides that the earlier report of an artic from Fairnburn was with a flock of lessers, and the flock I and others were dealing with definitely had a sizeable number of mealies in with them. In any case, a really nice flock, just a pity the light was so bad. And Fairnburn is superb, will no doubt be heading down there regularly from now on....

Jonathan

Jonathan don't read the Wetherby News birding round-up - you'll be even more confused. According to this, there are "scores of Arctic" at Fairburn.:-O

Re Zing's post and the birder he met, I think we do need to regain some perspective re Arctic Redpoll. It was only a few years ago it was a BB rarity. He shouldn't be making throw away comments like that - I wonder if he meant Common? There are too many reports of Arctics being called across Britain. I'd still prefer it to be a BB rarity with the redpolls being such a tricky family. I wouldn't pay too much attention to anyone who glances up at a tree and claims Arctic moments later. If he's a regular at the site and has been studying them, and will be submitting them to the county recorder then fair enough. We'll see what transpires.

During that big influx of Commons - over ten years ago, I've an in-hand photo of an Arctic that was trapped at Wintersett Res. late in the afternoon and was roosted overnight. It was a first winter bird. I won't show it to the Doc as he may need one afterwards. You'd have never suspected Arctic in the field - I'll have to dig out the photo and try and post it. From memory its back tones were more like a Lesser. Neat bill though.

However, sometimes the redpolls can play ball - see next post......

 

[Lawts]

Redhouse

I went up to see the Doc's "patients" yesterday. There must be at least fifty birds still in the flock. They don't settle for long as the Doc says, so it's hard to grill them. Based on my views yesterday I wouldn't be surprised if the mix was fifty/fifty, perhaps slightly more Lessers. It's hard to grill them to check for an Arctic.

I got them coming down to the ground for the first time during my visits. It's just a theory, but given Friday's winds, more seed may now be on the floor, so hopefully we'll see more of this behaviour. The light was hopeless and I was needed at home, so I was only there very briefly.

However, I just wanted to emphasise from these poor shots, (light - camera going back to shop so everyone else gets sun) how easy Common and Lesser can be to tell when seen together on the ground without sky behind. I've not cropped the shot where they are by the tree to give an "in the field" appreciation.

 

[Trystan]

bumping the hawfinch post....

Hi Clare,

Belated (and now probably useless reply), it was around 10am when I arrived at clumber, the Hawfinch were on their way out, the lesser spotted woodpecker was around about 30 minutes after that.

Still toying with heading to welwick today, via south ferriby but I think this weather might keep all the raptors down . Thanks for the info on parking Andrew.

 

[Hotspur]

Going down to Patrington Haven/Welwick Saltmarsh on Weds so for work so will report back then. My boss had 200ish Pale-bellied Brent down there last week as well as 4 SEOs roosting in the plantation behind the floodbank at Pat Haven, Merlin, male Hen Harrier and 2 Peregrines.

 

[James Thomas]

During that big influx of Commons - over ten years ago, I've an in-hand photo of an Arctic that was trapped at Wintersett Res. late in the afternoon and was roosted overnight. It was a first winter bird. I won't show it to the Doc as he may need one afterwards. You'd have never suspected Arctic in the field - I'll have to dig out the photo and try and post it. From memory its back tones were more like a Lesser. Neat bill though.

http://birdingfrontiers.com/2011/01/20/couess-arctic-redpoll-no-3/

 

[BeadsbyClareScott]

Hi Clare,

Belated (and now probably useless reply), it was around 10am when I arrived at clumber, the Hawfinch were on their way out, the lesser spotted woodpecker was around about 30 minutes after that.

Still toying with heading to welwick today, via south ferriby but I think this weather might keep all the raptors down . Thanks for the info on parking Andrew.

Hi Trystan,

Thanks so much... I appreciate it. We`re hopefully going Tuesday.
re the RLB - My friends tell me the weather is still yucky in that part of the world... I`d probably go another day, its a long drive... I was over at South Ferriby on Thurs, it was pretty windy, the RLB was flying/hovering, but at a distance... managed a record shot, in the loosest sense of the term.

=)

 

[David Adamson]

Hi Clare,
Sorry about the delay, didn't log on yesterday. The Hawfinches at Clumber are definitely early birds. I have never seen one after 11-o clock even though I have stood about three or four hours after that.

 

[aythya_hybrid]

Thanks for everyone's responses, all very interesting, especially the claim that there were "scores" of Arctic Redpolls at Fairburn! Lawts, lovely photos of Mealy, really smart birds...

 

[BeadsbyClareScott]

Hi Clare,
Sorry about the delay, didn't log on yesterday. The Hawfinches at Clumber are definitely early birds. I have never seen one after 11-o clock even though I have stood about three or four hours after that.

Thanks David, i`ll get everyone to go early... I`m going to be popular =)