-
Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.
Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
Holmfirth Birding (4 Viewers)
- Thread starter halftwo
- Start date
halftwo
Wird Batcher
I've not had much time of late for birding, and the weather has gone through changes in these weeks.
My neighbour tells me that at the weekend there were birders watching something up on the valley's edge on both Saturday & Sunday - yet I see no reference either here or on the Huddersfield forum.
Today clear skies in more ways than one - after a few foggy days the sun is shining and the hirundines have gone. Just a few Swallows heading south and the hundred local House Martins nowhere to be seen.
And with the visibility the vis mig and local movements. Along with the Black-headed gulls a few Common gulls were the first for my garden list, as was the flock of four Greylag geese heading north.
Plenty of finches moving, including Siskins, as well as Nuthatches and Jays.
Pied wagtails pass and Rooks harry Kestrel and Buzzards. An inevitable Sparrowhawk buzzes up the valley.
It's the kind of day something unusual might turn up. Here's hoping.
My neighbour tells me that at the weekend there were birders watching something up on the valley's edge on both Saturday & Sunday - yet I see no reference either here or on the Huddersfield forum.
Today clear skies in more ways than one - after a few foggy days the sun is shining and the hirundines have gone. Just a few Swallows heading south and the hundred local House Martins nowhere to be seen.
And with the visibility the vis mig and local movements. Along with the Black-headed gulls a few Common gulls were the first for my garden list, as was the flock of four Greylag geese heading north.
Plenty of finches moving, including Siskins, as well as Nuthatches and Jays.
Pied wagtails pass and Rooks harry Kestrel and Buzzards. An inevitable Sparrowhawk buzzes up the valley.
It's the kind of day something unusual might turn up. Here's hoping.
northernloon
swimming in a virtual sea
Sorry mate but that is possibly the most stupid comment I've ever read
halftwo
Wird Batcher
northernloon
swimming in a virtual sea
Some birders were looking at some birds. If it had been 'something interesting' you would have heard about it.
northernloon
swimming in a virtual sea
Fair point. Still hoping for a Grey Wag on my patch
Hi there, sounds good re the local birding...we're at Penistone and head out that way, via Langsett and Winscar as our local patch...good variety with a bit of luck and patience. we had distant views of that dotterel. Loads of kestrels hunting around at present and some very confiding Little Owls too.
if the group were near Winscar, I'm guessing they were vis-migging from Harden Quarry, as is a popular spot for that...
if the group were near Winscar, I'm guessing they were vis-migging from Harden Quarry, as is a popular spot for that...
Ye, I'd say it was them vis migging this time of the year on a weekend they do post up sightings on the forums. I think one of the members lives in the houses just across the road from harden res or just up the road.
^ I'm from Denby Dale area and I've seen very few Kestrel, they may have been displaced by a family of Buzzard though.
^ I'm from Denby Dale area and I've seen very few Kestrel, they may have been displaced by a family of Buzzard though.
halftwo
Wird Batcher
Plenty of viz mig again today after the rain finally cleared. Redwings continue to come in from the South, and today a few Fieldfares were with them.
Plenty of gulls passing too.
Less expected was a lingering House Martin - a late bird always welcome.
Then, right outside the window, a Sparrowhawk snatched something - a finch, maybe, but dropped it immediately as she continued on her way.
In the garden itself the tit flocks were busy and finches are moving locally.
Plenty of gulls passing too.
Less expected was a lingering House Martin - a late bird always welcome.
Then, right outside the window, a Sparrowhawk snatched something - a finch, maybe, but dropped it immediately as she continued on her way.
In the garden itself the tit flocks were busy and finches are moving locally.
Last edited:
halftwo
Wird Batcher
Down on the river Ribble where the narrow stone arched footbridge takes the footpath across the little rushing brook, not two hundred yards from my house which overlooks this valley, I paused between the parapets to watch the water, white from the recent rains.
There perched the Dipper, blinking and bobbing. Then another zigzagged downstream, "zik zik" sounding above the falls, down to another on mossy rock where both perched by the rapids.
Now the first began to feed: plunge-diving into the running rush, disappearing into the shallow deep. And up again, swimming against the current, then submerged once more into the brown boil.
Back up to rocks, clasping slippery surfaces with spindly pale-fronted legs. Now slipping into shallows, spreading it's wings under the flow, pressing the rock bottom with water over wing. Up it bobs with a silvery morsel, blinking and ingesting, bobbing and blinking.
Then away with a "zik" on whirring rapid wings now defeating air where once it defied water.
There perched the Dipper, blinking and bobbing. Then another zigzagged downstream, "zik zik" sounding above the falls, down to another on mossy rock where both perched by the rapids.
Now the first began to feed: plunge-diving into the running rush, disappearing into the shallow deep. And up again, swimming against the current, then submerged once more into the brown boil.
Back up to rocks, clasping slippery surfaces with spindly pale-fronted legs. Now slipping into shallows, spreading it's wings under the flow, pressing the rock bottom with water over wing. Up it bobs with a silvery morsel, blinking and ingesting, bobbing and blinking.
Then away with a "zik" on whirring rapid wings now defeating air where once it defied water.
super-silly-um
Well-known member
halftwo
Wird Batcher
Thanks Super-s.
A beautiful morning today. Dawn's Tawny owl starting the roll call.
Unlike the other, frosty, morning of a few days ago the numbers of passing Wood pigeons only in the hundreds rather than thousands.
The juvenile male Sparrowhawk's sudden dive brought an adult male up to spar, both showing their prowess in the air.
But the adult's colours in the morning sun really shone, and he fluffed out his under tail coverts and displayed in slow butterfly fashion as the youngster circled and jinked.
Both took turns to half-heartedly attack each other as they dived and climbed and swerved, all the time the adult's fluffed up tail coverts shining in the light and the sun catching his orange underparts.
Too soon they disappeared up the valley, still battling as they went.
A beautiful morning today. Dawn's Tawny owl starting the roll call.
Unlike the other, frosty, morning of a few days ago the numbers of passing Wood pigeons only in the hundreds rather than thousands.
The juvenile male Sparrowhawk's sudden dive brought an adult male up to spar, both showing their prowess in the air.
But the adult's colours in the morning sun really shone, and he fluffed out his under tail coverts and displayed in slow butterfly fashion as the youngster circled and jinked.
Both took turns to half-heartedly attack each other as they dived and climbed and swerved, all the time the adult's fluffed up tail coverts shining in the light and the sun catching his orange underparts.
Too soon they disappeared up the valley, still battling as they went.
Last edited:
halftwo
Wird Batcher
A gap in the gales, a lull in the hills: a search for owls.
High stepping the knee-high bilberry and brushing waist deep heather amongst the pines of the plantation, the wind blown snapped snags catching, the heft of leg, the buffet of breezes rising across the moors, washing through the trees, falling in the leas like spent tide.
Animal tracks criss-crossing, the woods silent but for the blowing, feet lifting above the brush. A thousand hiding places: shadow and shelter. Three Ravens scud overhead in the skidding wind, wings angled and bowed in the bend of the gale, arching above the hill top, cronking as they went, one rolling, then re-righting, throat bulging as it called. Two sped North, one turned for the South against the force of the weather.
Deep in mossy hollows amongst lichen-strewn boughs, the cease of wind in the shelter. Minuscule ringing from the tiniest throats: Goldcrests picking from needles and down to shrubs.
A movement underfoot and a Mountain Hare bounds away deer large amongst the elfin growth, loping in loops as it zig-zags away and slips into shadow.
On & on to the moor where the gale gathers at slope top and whistles and pushes at the stone wall, crashing into the creaking woods. Red grouse crouch and whirr away.
Back amongst the pines, though the search continued, owls remained unfound.
High stepping the knee-high bilberry and brushing waist deep heather amongst the pines of the plantation, the wind blown snapped snags catching, the heft of leg, the buffet of breezes rising across the moors, washing through the trees, falling in the leas like spent tide.
Animal tracks criss-crossing, the woods silent but for the blowing, feet lifting above the brush. A thousand hiding places: shadow and shelter. Three Ravens scud overhead in the skidding wind, wings angled and bowed in the bend of the gale, arching above the hill top, cronking as they went, one rolling, then re-righting, throat bulging as it called. Two sped North, one turned for the South against the force of the weather.
Deep in mossy hollows amongst lichen-strewn boughs, the cease of wind in the shelter. Minuscule ringing from the tiniest throats: Goldcrests picking from needles and down to shrubs.
A movement underfoot and a Mountain Hare bounds away deer large amongst the elfin growth, loping in loops as it zig-zags away and slips into shadow.
On & on to the moor where the gale gathers at slope top and whistles and pushes at the stone wall, crashing into the creaking woods. Red grouse crouch and whirr away.
Back amongst the pines, though the search continued, owls remained unfound.
