Yorkshire Birding (1 Viewer)

[James Thomas]

A mighty 4 days just out of county, no waterbirds (waders, ducks, terns or gulls) but about 105 species including about 18 lifers. Need to sort the proper list but the within 30minutes of leavinf the irport we'd had Golden Eagle, Blue Rock Thrush, Great Reed Warbler and Imperial Eagle. Details to follow.

 

[AndyK]

A new tick for me this weekend with a Great Crested Grebe at Roundhay Park. Impressive bird, submerged for about a minute before reappearing. Saw lots of juvenile coot & moorhens with their parents along with the usual canadian geese, black headed gulls etc. We paid a visit to tropical world whilst we were there which we really enjoyed. Loads of java sparrows, blue & yellow parrot (who said hello to me!) and the baby meerkats were just too cute!

 

[knocker7800]

one mighty weekend - peregrine, red kite, LEO, barn owl, tawny owl, cuckoo, 4 black grouse, golden eagle and two very obliging red squirrels (just outside county)

also one distressed car and one friends punished petrol account

Was it an english Golden Eagle?

 

[WACCOE]

Just spent an hour walking round Pontefract park with the wife , few Whitethroats,Sedge Warblers a singing Chiffchaff and excellent views of a Jay also a couple of Hares knocking about.
On a sadder note was appalled by the amount of litter in the park today lots of discarded beer bottles and cans lots of empty takeaway bags and containers mainly from the local MacDonald’s , didn’t envy the two council workmen tasked with cleaning up the rubbish.:C

 

[trappeddownsouth]

Was it an english Golden Eagle?

that it was, had to wait till the afternoon b4 the mist lifted, and there he was...

 

[Simmo1111]

A nice Yorks/Life tick for me today as I went to see the Red-Backed Shrike at Broomhill. Had decent views for 15 minutes or so before it scarpered behind a low bush. It was still hanging around at 7:30 tonight though according to the pager reports ...

 

[Kevin Groocock]

Just spent a super week in the Filey area :t:, exception being unable to locate Filey Old Tip for the Woodchat Shrike :-C :-C :-C .

I have just placed a number of images on my Blog and Website (links below).

 

[Pete Mella]

I,m still struggling to add a 'Pied Fly' to my Yorkshire list and have seen today on the SBSG website that there were some seen at Agden Rocher. Can anyone give me directions to this area or alternatively offer any alternative locations where I might get lucky. I did try Wyming Brook a couple of weeks ago but failed miserably.

PM,s if necessary of course.

Thanks in advance.

Had a quick look up Agden Rocher this evening with no luck - it was a bit of a drab evening and I didn't scour everywhere so I wouldn't be too discouraged from having a look. Did get a hobby and redstart though, so not all bad.

I also had a look down Wyming last Wednesday... a couple of wood warbler made up for the lack of flycatchers.

I'd be interested if there's a dead cert site within striking distance of S6... time's getting on before the pied flies disappear into the canopy never to be seen again...!

A nice Yorks/Life tick for me today as I went to see the Red-Backed Shrike at Broomhill. Had decent views for 15 minutes or so before it scarpered behind a low bush. It was still hanging around at 7:30 tonight though according to the pager reports ...

I'm hoping for the impossible that this lingers on until Saturday! I had a RBS at Spurn a couple of years ago, but it was a rather tatty juvenile. I'd love to see an adult!

 

[AndyK]

Just spent an hour walking round Pontefract park with the wife , few Whitethroats,Sedge Warblers a singing Chiffchaff and excellent views of a Jay also a couple of Hares knocking about.
On a sadder note was appalled by the amount of litter in the park today lots of discarded beer bottles and cans lots of empty takeaway bags and containers mainly from the local MacDonald’s , didn’t envy the two council workmen tasked with cleaning up the rubbish.:C

It was like that at Roundhay too students! So many beer cans & bottles strewn along the lake, makes me worried for the wildlife.

 

[Pete Mella]

Hi all,

I'm probably off to Hatfield and Thorne at the weekend - a PM with gen for woodlark, turtle dove and yellow wag (still not got one this year!) would be very gratefully received.

 

[Lawts]

Savi's Warbler - Old Moor

I'm just trying to piece together the availability of this bird to the masses during the four days there was news on the bird. Please let me know if you disagree, but I see two tickable sessions (in bold):

27/5 - Evening viewing - all bar the odd person in the crowd of 50-100 dipped. Bird was chiefly untickable.

28/5 - No morning viewing.
Untickable during evening viewing.

29/5 - Best day - tickable to all present in the morning, albeit a relatively small crowd - c.20.
No evening viewing

30/5 - Presume tickable in morning viewing.
Evening - bird had departed.

 

[bitterntwisted]

Steve,

The Savi's showed well on the evening of the 29th (Saturday) Despite an announcement late in the day that there would be no escorted viewing about thirty of us turned up and after a fustrating wait while it sang but wouldn't show all present eventually saw it pretty well in the half-light.

Graham

 

[Secret Twitcher]

Myself and a few others watched the Savi's singing briefly on the Friday evening - unquestionably tickable although there were only very few in the right place at the right time.

 

[Lawts]

Thanks Graham/Secret - the lack of a Birdguides message implied Friday had been a dip, which I assumed (wrongly) was due to the weather.

Similarly, the only message re. Saturday evening was no authorised viewing, which I assumed (wrongly) had been the case.

 

[schiffornis]

Hi Lawts, was there on 27/5th when it didn't show well to many/any (interestingly several of those who went away on the evening of the 27/5th after 'seeing it' were also noted back on the site on the morning of the 30/5th!). It did show well at times on the 30th, one of my friends managed to get it rather nicely in his scope! Definately tickable at times, though it was noted to have started ranging a bit further up and down the ditch it was favouring as the early morning progressed...

Cheers Andy

 

[[email protected]]

Hi all,

Can anyone help me with some directions please.
I'm going to York on business so was planning to pop into the Lower Derwent Valley for a look (yeah right!) for Quail.
PM me please with the best places to go.

Thanks in anticipation,


Q

 

[Tracy Irwin]

RSPB Saltholme

Had an interesting day today visiting RSPB Saltholme (yes I know its not Yorkshire!) saw quite a lot despite the poor weather; Common, Artic and Sandwich Tern and Yellow Wagtail were the star species for me - all firsts. There were plenty of other birds around; lots of Pochard, Tufted duck, greylags and canada geese. It was nice to sit in the lovely visitor centre cafe and watch the activities on the sand martin bank, quite a few had young in there. A well laid out reserve, all very "new " but it has potential. Well worth a visit, the staff were very friendly and there were a couple of very helpful volunteers on site to point out things of interest. Good hides and excellent facilities. Reminded me very much of Old Moor, perhaps it is because it is an ex. industrial site.

 

[Keith Dickinson]

I'm putting my Kowa 823 (angled) scope up for sale, along with 32x and 50x eyepieces and stay on case. Anyone want to make me an offer before I put it on fleabay?
Selling because the elbow I broke earlier this year is still crook and I can no longer hold the scope and tripod in my right hand, need to downsize so have got a GS 52 ED scope instead which is way easier for me to handle.

 

[knocker7800]

I'm putting my Kowa 823 (angled) scope up for sale, along with 32x and 50x eyepieces and stay on case. Anyone want to make me an offer before I put it on fleabay?
Selling because the elbow I broke earlier this year is still crook and I can no longer hold the scope and tripod in my right hand, need to downsize so have got a GS 52 ED scope instead which is way easier for me to handle.

Thats a shame keith, is it not worth waiting to see if the elbow improves?

 

[Keith Dickinson]

Mark, I almost dropped the scope and tripod again at the weekend, I figure my luck catching the scope is gonna run out before the elbow is back to normal once more. Better some one else uses it than me busting it.