Roundhay Ramblings (1 Viewer)

[FONT=&quot]On Sunday 8 Jan I set out to put my New Year resolution into practise. I’ve decided to make the Northern part of Roundhay Park, along with the Gorge area, my patch for the next year. This thread will be a log of my efforts.

As can be seen from the Google map page, there are a couple of golf courses bordering the area so I possibly may get lucky finding open ground species like larks etc. [/FONT] [FONT=&quot] I know that historically the area hosted all 3 woodpeckers so I’m going to see if I can find the commoner two species, I don’t hold out much hope of lesser ‘pecker but you never know. [/FONT] [FONT=&quot]By skirting the very Northern tip of Waterloo Lake I should avoid most of the crowds without missing too many birds. The Southern end of the Lake is generally so busy with people that the only birds seen are the water birds by the café.[/FONT] [FONT=&quot]

So around 1.30 I set off on the short walk from my home to the start of the route I plan to follow. A red kite effortlessly gliding over the treetops was a great way to start the day’s tally. As I approached the park I saw a dozen fieldfares flying away from the area, hoping this wasn’t a bad sign I entered Ram Wood. Several wood pigeon were up in the trees, as well as a fair number of jackdaws. Their constant moving made any attempt at counting the flock nigh on impossible but I’d hazard a guess at there being at least 20 birds. Although I could hear a couple of robins they were keeping well hidden, much easier were the blue tits feeding in the branches.

As the wood gave way to the footpath around the Upper Lake I could see that the bulk of the lake was still frozen over, even given the fact that most of the last week the temperature had been above freezing and the stream feeding the lake was still running freely. A small area around the fountains was still ice free and there I found half dozen tufted duck, a couple of mute swans and the best part of a hundred black-headed gulls. The latter took off whilst I was there and departed to the roost at Eccup, judging by their direction of flight. There were one or two moorhen present but no coot which was unusual as the latter do nest on the lake. All the mallards were taking advantage of the unfrozen feeder stream and could be heard and occasionally seen by the small island.[/FONT] [FONT=&quot]

From the lakeside I took the path downhill to Waterloo Lake, this area has several non-native trees as well as some rhododendrons so not great for the birds, this was borne out by the fact that I couldn’t find any birds here. The same went for Waterloo Lake, which was still almost completely iced up. There were no gulls on the various posts in the lake, and not even any moorhens by the small ice free area at the feeder stream. This wasn’t looking very good for a birding report.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]From the here I then turned to take the footpath into the Gorge, the main feeder stream for Waterloo Lake flows through this area and the banks on both sides are wooded but are not really very Gorge-like. The outfall stream from the Upper Lake enters this stream in the Gorge. Once I was well inside the Gorge I started to find the birds, I caught up with a mixed feeding party of long-tailed tits, with accompanying coal tits, blue tits and chaffinches all busy searching the branches for any food. I grilled the flock as well as I could but couldn’t find any treecreepers or nuthatches. After moving out of the Braim wood area to the more lightly wooded aspect on the eastern side I found another feeding flock, again largely long-tailed tits but this time there were goldcrests with them, as well as the blue tits and great tits. There were several robins in this area as well, which judging by the song is probably at the junction of maybe 3 separate territories, this could be good a good area to linger later in the year.[/FONT] [FONT=&quot]

At the top end of the Gorge I caught up with a third flock of long-tailed tits, without any accompanying species this time, but it was much the largest of the flocks as there were at least 15 birds. [/FONT] [FONT=&quot]Leaving the Gorge, I entered a wooded area that is sandwiched between the Ring Road and the houses along West Park Drive. Here I found several blackbirds, including at least 3 pairs of birds, there were also several redwings feeding on the ground which flew off in alarm as I approached. Couldn’t get an accurate count due to the undergrowth but I’d guesstimate at least 6 birds but probably more. I also logged a couple of pairs of collared doves here as well as a possible rookery; there were nests but no birds in attendance.

By the time I’d reached the end of this area I’d been out for a good couple of hours and seen a small number of species but good numbers of each. As a first trip I was happy with the result, however I think I’ll try to make my subsequent visits either early morning (if Sunday) or on my mid-week rest day. The dog-walkers in the park are a flamin’ nuisance, not so much the dogs but the owners shouting for them, you sometimes had no chance of hearing any subsong etc due to their vocalisations.[/FONT]

A nice report Keith. It sounds an interesting area. It really seems to hold a wide variety of birds.

Don't forget some piccies occasionally, please

D

Yes, very interesting Keith and infectious, makes me want to blog my own patch. Looking forward to the next episode already....?
As an aside, I especially liked the larger font; better for those of my age and myopic levels..Cheers Joe

It would be interesting to hear what you do find. In my old fishing days I remember a heron that used to hang around waiting to steal fish that were being landed. A mute/whooper swan pairing that had cygnets, whether the whooper was a parent or step parent I never found out but even Michael Clegg mentioned it in the YEP.

Delia - photos will been taken, just waiting for the light. Remember I've only got a point'n'click camera, I'm not a big lens boy!

Joespy - the font was whatever Word set as standard as I did a cut and paste job from Word to Bird Forum.

Chris - I've only occasionally seen heron at the Park and they have been in flight over rather than anywhere near the water. However up to now I've not been down there early morning. I can remember the whooper swan as I was an avid reader of Michael's work in the YEP.

It's a long time since my fishing days Keith and I stopped fishing at Roundhay in the late Eighties as I preferred rivers to lakes, so maybe things are a bit different now. Probably stopped altogether in the mid Nineties.
Glad someone else remembers the whooper, reassures me that I didn't imagine it all.

I can remember as a kid Redstarts nesting in the old wall between the gorge and the golf course. Wood Warblers bred in the gorge until sometime in the 1990s. Large flocks of Bramblings used to winter on the golf course side of the main lake and around the church near the old swimming pool. Lesser Spotted Woodpecker was not uncommon in the same area. Again back in the 1990 there was a 'wreck' of about 60 Shags which mostly drowned as the lake iced over, with both Red-necked and Slavonian Grebe around the same time. The first Caspian Tern and Mediterranean Gull for the Leeds area were recorded there, other decent birds have been Kittiwake, Sandwich Term, Arctic Skua, Little Auk and Goshawk. Nowadays, apart from a Marsh Tit occasionally near the 'Castle' ruins, it's just the usual woodland species.
I have a list of birds recorded in the Park, with a brief summary of their status, from an old Leeds Birdwatchers' Club report if you'd be interested.

My second visit to the Park today, and earlier than the last visit. It’s much better weather than last time too, still cold but bright and sunny, if I kept moving it was very nice indeed but stand for too long and it did become rather nippy. An auspicious start to the walk, I found 3 waxwings after hearing a mistle thrush’s alarm call. Obviously the berries they were stripping from a neighbour’s tree were part of the thrush’s territory. No time to go back for the scope to digiscope them so I just grabbed a couple of record shots with my point’n’click camera, think I’ll have to start saving for a decent bridge camera to take with me on these walks. After the departure of the waxwings, along the wrong side of the road so no chance of claiming another garden tick, the walk to the park was uneventful. A few jackdaws further down the road were about all I could muster.

I’d set myself a target of finding at least 1 woodpecker of any species so I was very pleased to find a female greater spotted woodpecker within 5 minutes of entering Ram Wood. She must have realised I was watching her as she flew from tree to tree and always carefully kept a branch between us. A passing jay was also noted here, the numbers of singing/calling birds had increased since last time. I was hearing both blue and great tits on both sides and I reckon there was at least a couple of dozen birds around me. I found 5 blue tits and a couple of great tits feeding in the branches of a single oak tree. There were at least 2 robin singing here as well, so this is another area to concentrate on if I can get down here at dawn, try and map the territories.

Coming out of the wood, I found the Upper Lake to be completely ice free today and the number of waterfowl to have increased since the 9th. I could see 15 mallard but the noises from the island would indicate that there were a lot more birds there. I also found close to 20 tufted ducks here, along with the usual flotilla of black-headed gulls, in the region of a hundred birds. A pair of mute swan, 4 coot and possibly more than 5 moorhens completed the avifauna on the lake. I’m unsure on the number of moorhens as they were quite mobile and kept disappearing into the undergrowth.

The walk down from the Upper Lake to Waterloo Lake was relatively bird-free, heard many blue tits with an occasional chaffinch but I was unable to see them, partly due to the path being on the wrong side hill. The birds were in the trees across the stream but as this was directly into the sun I’d no chance of seeing them. It was here that I heard what may have been a lesser spotted woodpecker calling, it sounded squeakier than the great spot’s tchick call, on my side of the stream and above me. I got my bins onto the tree it was calling from, only to have very brief glimpse of a small bird flying from the tree across the stream to the other side of the trees beyond. Size was way too small for great spot, but my glimpse was too brief for me to really see anything other than a silhouette. So it will go down as a possible, no way can I claim it, but even more reason to get down there more often.

Emerging from the wood by the ‘Castle’ I could see that Waterloo Lake was also ice free, would there be any birds up this end though. Half dozen mallard and a couple of coots were the sum total, although I could make out a pair of mute swans and loads of gulls further down the lake. It would seem the great crested grebes which I’d expected to be here haven’t returned from wherever they fled to when the lake iced over. More jackdaws and a couple of magpies were busy feeding on the grass below the castle, couldn't make out what they were feeding on though.

Leaving the Lake and entering the Gorge I met a walking group coming towards me, a couple of dozen nice people but their chatter had obviously disturbed the birds. I’d almost reached the other end of the gorge before I again started to find birds again; much of the gorge was silent. I did hear another great spotted woodpecker but wasn’t able to find this one, all I can really be sure was that it was on the ridge across the stream. As can be seen from the photo the stream in the gorge meanders quite freely and there are several bridges to carry you across the water when path and stream meet. There are also numerous springs in the sides of the gorge and thankfully most of these have been culverted so the path stays somewhat dry. I found the largest feeding flock of long-tailed tits here at the end of the gorge, at least 10 birds, no idea if there were anymore as I found something I hadn’t expected. Whilst totting up the long-tails, I glimpsed movement close to the trunk of a tree about 40- 50 feet from me, training my bins on the tree I was thrilled to see a nuthatch emerging from the stump of a broken branch. Over the next few minutes I watched the bird enter and leave the hole, each time removing beakfuls of debris. I duly noted the location of the tree, the shape of the stump and triangulated with a couple of other features so I was sure I could return to this spot again. I’m going to have a shot at getting some pictures as I’d be able to set-up the scope here without too much fuss as it was slightly beyond the path most people use. Just after this I also found not one but 4 goldcrests busy feeding in the branches, 2 seemed to be a pair as they kept quite close together but the other 2 were alone, what I couldn’t hear was their contact calls, seems I’ve lost enough top-end to be unable to appreciate these anymore. Damn those headphones and heavy metal music in my youth!

Coming out of the gorge and crossing the road to enter the wooded area by the Ring Road I was treated to a nice fly by from a red kite, another nice bird and the only raptor seen today. As this wooded area is flanked on one side by gardens it was a lot busier than the gorge. There was a robin for every garden almost, certainly easy to work out territories here. More blue and great tits as well as the first blackbird of the day were also seen. Unfortunately the path here isn’t that well made and the mountain-bikers have churned it up a hell of a lot so for a lot of the time I was doing more slipping than birding. However I did find a single rook on one of the nests in the ‘rookery’, along with more long-tailed tits and a few feral pigeons. By now I’d been out for over 2 hours and had logged only 2 wrens, 1 in this area and 1 at the top of the gorge. From previous walks through the gorge over the years I knew that I should have been hearing dozens as they were the most numerous birds down there. I hope this isn’t an indication of the loss of the wrens due to the weather.

So the end of my second trip and I’m starting to get a feel for where I need to concentrate my efforts. As the weather improves I hope to get down there most Wednesdays and I’ll certainly have a shot at a couple of dawn trips in the spring.

I remember the poor shags, that was a couple of years after I moved to the area. Wish that I'd been visiting when wood warbler were here that would have been good.

If your list is in electronic form I'd love a copy loiner, it would give me some good background to the area.:t:

loiner said:

I can remember as a kid Redstarts nesting in the old wall between the gorge and the golf course. Wood Warblers bred in the gorge until sometime in the 1990s. Large flocks of Bramblings used to winter on the golf course side of the main lake and around the church near the old swimming pool. Lesser Spotted Woodpecker was not uncommon in the same area. Again back in the 1990 there was a 'wreck' of about 60 Shags which mostly drowned as the lake iced over, with both Red-necked and Slavonian Grebe around the same time. The first Caspian Tern and Mediterranean Gull for the Leeds area were recorded there, other decent birds have been Kittiwake, Sandwich Term, Arctic Skua, Little Auk and Goshawk. Nowadays, apart from a Marsh Tit occasionally near the 'Castle' ruins, it's just the usual woodland species.
I have a list of birds recorded in the Park, with a brief summary of their status, from an old Leeds Birdwatchers' Club report if you'd be interested.

Click to expand...

Keith Dickinson said:

If your list is in electronic form I'd love a copy loiner, it would give me some good background to the area.:t:

Click to expand...

Keith,
PM me your email address and I'll send you a copy.
Paul.

Keith

I live fairly local to Roundhay Park and occassionally watch the southern end (and check the lakes). Best birds this year so far have been drake pochard, drake Gadwall (coming to bread with the Mallards by the cafe) and 4 goosander.

I have previously seen Mandarin, Little Gull and Oystercatcher, and am sure there is scope for plenty more good birds.

The pre-roost of black-headed gulls was impressive last week with probably 600+ individuals across both the lakes along with small numbers of common gull (15+). There ought to be scope for Mediterranean gull in with these though. I'll be interested to hear what you see.

Tony

Tony, I'm glad I'm not the only one working the Park, trying to cover all of the area is just too much for one person really. I'd certainly be interested in sharing information.

Today's trip around the patch was somewhat disappointing as there were very few birds about. Ram wood was an almost bird free zone, only a small group of long tailed tits flying across the path stopped me drawing a blank. Most noticeable by their absence were the robins of last week.

The usual species were on the Upper Lake with the black-headed gulls hitting the 60 mark.

The Castle area gave me the best birds of the day in a small flock of lesser redpolls (8-10 birds) feeding in the trees behind the Castle itself. I'll not try and string a mealy as all the birds were quite dark flanked. The grass in front of the Castle had a dozen carrion crows feeding on something they were picking from the ground. Try as I might I was able to get a good enough view of whatever it was.

There was no sign of great crested grebe on Waterloo Lake, even though the water has been ice free for a while now. Saw 1 long-tailed tit fly over to the island here, first bird other than mallard and coot I've seen on the island.

The Gorge was silent and again almost bird free, just a couple of carrion crows and a single wren relieving the emptiness of the lower gorge. The upper area was somewhat better with a fair number of wood pigeons, at least 4 but possibly more than that. They were quite mobile and kept circling back on themselves. After leaving the Gorge and following the stream path up to Roundhay Park Lane I did manage to find a couple of chaffinches feeding in the leaf litter by the golf course. I also heard the plaintive whistle of a bullfinch but couldn't get a glimpse of the bird. I relocated the tree with the possible nuthatch nest but no joy as the bird failed to put in an appearance.

Crossing the road and entering the wooded block behind the houses I was at first expecting it to be the same as the gorge but thankfully there were more birds present here. A flock of around 20 redwing feeding on the ground were a very welcome addition to the list. There is a small pool in this woodland and I was amazed to find a grey heron fishing in it. My fieldcraft let me down as I tried to get a better view of the bird. It must have seen me as it lazily took off and flew across the Ring Road towards Shadwell. A large flock (12+) of long-tailed tits just before the end of the path were the last birds seen on today's ramble.

Keith - more than happy to post sightings and if you let me know your contact details I'll let you know if I find anything.

Quick look on main lake mid-pm today had 450+ black-headed gulls, c. 40 common gulls, 40 mallard and a couple of tufted ducks. Still hoping for that Mediterranean gull....

Tony

Tony - pm sent with mobile no

A quick trip down to the park today, saw a flock of pink-footed geese on the way down there, judging by their flight direction they must have passed over the park. Shame I'd not been out and about a little sooner I'd have had a nice site tick.
Anyway, the park was awash with dogwalkers, (why do they get annoyed when you tell them to keep their mutt under control, we don't all want muddy pawprints all over our clothing-rant over) thankfully the gorge was quieter today.
However I did manage to find a couple of jays near the Castle, obviously a pair as they were staying very close together, a good sized flock of siskins in the lower part of the gorge and a courting pair of nuthatches higher up the gorge. Star bird of the day though was a lone treecreeper found high up the trunk of a tree in the gorge. Spanking little chap who I first got onto by hearing that thin wheezy contact call of theirs.
The Upper Lake was partially frozen over, only the immediate area around the island and the area around the fountain being ice free, This made it easier to count the waterfowl as they were concentrated in the open areas, a good couple of dozen tufted duck along with probably more than that of mallard. It's difficult with the mallard as they go under the foliage on the island so making accurate counts tricky. I didn't bother going down to Waterloo Lake, too many dogs so I made my way to the gorge through the Great Head Wood, the usual blue, great and long-tailed tits were in evidence, but a nice extra was the coal tit that skimmed my head flying from one side of the path to the other. Saw a load of singleton long-tailed tits today, I guess they are last years offspring that the parent birds have now booted out of their territory.
Still only finding low numbers of robins and wrens, only 2 of the former and 3 of the latter noted in the whole walk, which is odd given that my initial walk had a couple of robins in Ram Wood as well as some along the gorge.

Another trip today and this time in the company of fellow BF member Frank Barrington, cheers for the lift Frank.

We started from the car park close to Upper Lake, and followed the path by the Castle, along the top side of the gorge through Great Head Wood then returned via the lower path through the Gorge to Waterloo Lake then up the hill to finish up back by the Upper Lake.
The weather today was threatening rain all the time but not delivering ... yet!

Upper Lake was ice free again, with around 60 black-headed gulls, maybe 40 mallards and a couple of dozen tufted ducks. We found 3 moorhen but only a handful of coot. There were plenty of blue tits calling from Ram Wood but when we descended to the Castle area the bird numbers dropped off somewhat.

We did hear a very distant drumming great spotted woodpecker, however I couldn't be sure the bird was in the park, it sounded far enough away to be in a tree on one of the two golf courses that fringe the park. A calling nuthatch here was elusive enough to stop either Frank or I getting a glimpse, as the average size of a pair's territory covers about 1-2 ha I reckon that there are probably 2 pair of birds in the park.

There were only blue tits and great tits seen/heard through the majority of Great Head Wood but just before we reached the end of the path we did find a nice male great spotted woodpecker, the first we'd seen although we had heard at least a couple of birds earlier in the walk. Once again it was the alarm call that alerted us to it's presence but this time we managed to find the bird high in an oak tree, he moved through the branches before deciding to fly off across the gorge.

On the return journey through the bottom of the gorge we again heard many robins, finally managing to see one of them as it poured out its song at the top of a scrubby bush. What we failed to hear/see on the entire walk were wrens, not even an alarm call. We did hear at least one more nuthatch in the area where I'd seen the pair the other day. We also found several small groups of long tailed tits, never more than 4 in a group but no single birds this time.

Down at the end of the gorge we stopped to scan Waterloo Lake and Frank managed to pick out a great crested grebe, so at least one bird has returned. Fingers crossed a mate turns up for the bird, there were 2 pairs of birds on the lake last year Frank was telling me.

The walk up the hill back to the Upper Lake and the car park was largely uneventful apart from a couple of things, the second was a fitting end to the walk, just before the car park we again heard a calling nuthatch but this time managed to find the pair of birds in a tree quite close to the Mansion. They didn't hang about for long but at least we did get a look this time.

The first thing was quite funny in a way, along most of the walk through the gorge I'd been bemoaning the fact that there were no grey wagtails as the habitat seemed perfect for them, as we reached the feeder stream for the Upper Lake, what was picking food from stones in the stream but a grey wagtail - result!||

22 goosander on Roundhay Park main lake today (14.00) including 4 drakes.

Tony

Anyone know anything about colour-ringed black-headed gulls at Roundhay Park Lake ?

I had 2 birds by the cafe with a 'standard' metal ring on left leg and 1/2 plastic white rings on right leg. As I didn't have my 'scope I couldn't read them but if anyone is headed up that way might be worth taking a scope.

Tony

Grey Wagtails are at least occasionally present in the Gorge, and have bred there in the past. They do seem to have suffered in the recent cold weather, I'm struggling to find any anywhere this year.

Roundhay Park - pm Wednesday 9th February

Keith, Steve, Graham, Loiner and anyone else interested.

I spent an hour or so in the Park area this pm. The highlight was 3 Buzzards together over the north end west of the main lake which drifted south and then back north.

Soldiers Fields (opp. Roundhay school): mixed gull flock (300 birds) came readily to bread kindly provided by an Indian lady - c. 40 commons and 260 black-heads....more like Yarmouth sea front. Apparently she brings bread to feed to the gulls several times a wek.

Cafe: 1 treecreeper, 20 redwings, 44 Canada geese, 60 black-headed gulls, 65 mallard, 3 mute swan, 1 tufted duck, 1 greylag, 3 moorhen

Bank: 24 coot, 1 moorhen, 6 mallard

Wildfowl on main lake largely disturbed by rowers. Additional gull flock of 165 black-headed and 30 common gull avoiding oarsmen.

Main lake (northern end - beyond posts) - c. 50 black-headed gulls, 1 great crested grebe, 6 coot, 6 mallard

This is where buzzards were seen, along with displaying sparrowhawk.

Small lake: 195 black-headed gulls, 1 mute swan, 35 tufted duck, 31 mallard, 10 coot and 2 moorhen with a jay over.

Tony