Goodness gracious grebe

family stroll round lake

Spotted Flycatcher at 3 locations, male Yellow Wagtail, family parties of GSW & Nuthatch, prs of Little & Great Crested Grebe, pr Mute Swan with 7 cygnet, Heron, Kestrel, Pied Wagtail, Bullfinch, Garden Warbler, Whitethroat, Mistle Thrush, Swift, Swallow, Martins etc













Spot Fly


ex-Spot Fly
found amongst butress roots of huge Beech, appeared to have a broken wing



short clip of Great Crested Grebe nesting

Couple of jars

We went West towards the end of the day.



Barnie I

Chanced upon this Barn Owl just outside his large Ash cavity.
Timed it perfectly, as we scoped from range, he wing stretched, gradually becoming more alert, taking in the movement & sounds around him, before treating us to a fly past as he went out to hunt.


Barnie II
Easy pickings at present.
Tractors & trailers rushed through fields taking the first cut of silage off as the dark sky loomed & a rumble of thunder echoed down from further up the dale.



Didnt see a car on this quiet road, unfortunately this Pheasant poult had.

We had a brief drive round, with a fine female Merlin dashing across in front of us, landing on a rock.
Other bits & bobs included Tree Pipit, Grey Partridge, Curlew, Garden Warbler, Snipe, Redstart, Woodcock.
A distant Cuckoo on top of a plantation could be heard clearly over a great distance in the calm quiet moorland evening & a juvvy Stonechat zipped into its roost.
A few heavy spots of rain never came to much,
so it was on to the main course . . .

Last visit had drawn a complete blank,
not a sniff from a Nightjar

We were up the forest in good time for the 20 min walk up the hill to the Goatsucker site
a couple of Woodcock had set out on their strange roding flights high over the canopy heading out across the open rushy ground.
3 good size leverets raced along in front of us showing us the way.

As the evening grew quieter, we moved Heel & toe along the stoney forest road.
Woodcock were all around
As we approached the largest forest clearing at @ 21:45, expecting a 10-15 min wait,
we were simply gob-smacked to see a stunning male Nightjar fly up from feet away from the edge of the roadway, floating away, only to veer round a Spruce, relanding on a log yards away !

Amazing !

We had a Nighjar within our sights & it was on the deck in good light ! (another of this years challenges safely out of the way !)

( before any eyebrows raise at what appears to be a "flushed" Schedule 1 breeder - we we had our feet firmly on the hard track when the bird sprang up ;-) )

Words dont seem to be enough to describe the next hour or so

Lots of close range fly-bys, including a good look at the female too
male churring openly at least 6 times


Male Nightjar churring
Very animated as he sang, realy chucking his head about & flicking his tail open as he momentarily paused between bursts.

Excellent watching his flutter into position whilst landing
( hand held digi-scoped doesnt do it justice - it was still decent light )

Certainly my best Nightjar encounter & The Herons "best ever UK views".

Backside Pond

Called to check on a few boxes, pleasing to see Tree Spugs using some of them.

Quite a selection of species with young on a warm afternoon including :-
Lapwing, Wren, Treecreeper, Nuthatch, Oystercatcher, Linnet, Great tit, Long tailed Tit, Coot, Moorhen, GCGrebe, Swan, Canada goose, Common Whitethroat, fledged Sand Martin. Others seen inc Jay, GSW, Dabchick, Pied Wagtail, Sedge Warbler, Garden Warbler etc,

There was a time when i had to be dragged away from here


Often my dog would simply lie down & refuse to walk any further - resulting in having to nip to the phone box & ring for it "to be collected".

Nevermind your 3 laps of Sludgeletch or a circuit of all the Bish Midd waterbodies,

Those were the days of a 5 mile walk before the birding began !!

Yes, the rose-tinted specs work wonders, everythings better looking back . .

In the case of Backside or Brasside Pond as it used to be known - Everything certainly WAS better . . .

Based on todays brief visit, & being in a generous mood, im gonna give it a 3 out of 10

1 point for the Damsels
there were 200+ of them in SE corner of main pond.






1 point for the GCGr's

under wraps


free ride


1st come first served





& a final point for the nesting Nuthatch

An old Green Woodpecker hole at the pathside.


Nuthatch nest.
Close up of the old w'pkr hole, filled with mud by the Nuthatches - surprised at how perfect a circle the hole seems to be - especially at this late stage of breeding.


eldest chick just visible

Holiday afternoon

Went up Charlaw, to visit the farm for the first time

A nice little place with Tree Spugs zipping around the car park, while the adventure trail area wood, with its zip slides / ropes etc produced singing male Redstart, which was a pleasing surprise given that it was 95+% Scots Pine.
Others included Siskin, Treecreeper, GSW, Coal Tit etc

Moved off to have a look at the Tawny stick nest

It wasnt looking good, evenyually trailed the family through nettles, bracken & brambles to find an empty nest . . .

No sooner had i said we need to look out for some fluffy white balls up the trees, when Jack shouted (from ontop of my shoulders) "i can see an owl"

& there it was :-









The smile says it all, Yes no doubting he found it !

& no doubt one of many more to come . . .



pretending it didnt exist




Junior Foto Ninja
(the school camera is filling up with owl images quite nicely)



Interesting tree right over top of footpath on the adventure trail - remind us not to go back on a windy day




a pleasant afternoon



bugs on declining Scots Pine - cockchafers ?

Rape Warbler / Lowls

6AM - The Heron texted from an Oil seed Rape field at the edge of the houses

a reed/marsh . . . but not close enough to get a good look at it

popped down with scope & we came to conclusion that it was a Reed Warbler
It doing a bit mimickry, especially of Sedgie & a bright orange gape when singing.
Suppose it was the Habo throwing us the most . . .



Thought i heard one, a Reed that is, in Rape nr S.Pond a fortnight back.




After breakfast, we joined JWa to inspect Little Owl boxes,


Its been Three weeks since the last checks & we were expecting chicks



But the 2 we looked at both still had incubating birds.

Continued on to re-erect another LO box ( a Pat Martin production ) which had been damaged & which Jimmy had repaired.
Nice to see lots of Tree Spugs buzzing about & into boxes - 5 year ago there was only a single pair - the boxes were an instant success.

Called it a morning there, as we had one of our youngest helpers with us.



No young, but Jack was happy, laughing after getting a photo of the "monkeys bot" on his school camera.



An interesting tree


This fault showing just how strong a wood Oak is - its been holding on like this for a good few year now.

Bambi video

just tried to edit previous post to add this link, but it stripped out all the other images . . .


hope this works




We're guessing at only a couple of days old ?





back down into the grass, the doe lying flat on her side to keep hidden, the fawn disappearing alltogether, presumably suckling.
The Does ears like radar constantly attentive, twitching in all directions.

must get a real camera instead of hand-holding this little £50 jobby against the telescope eyepiece.


Black tailed Godwit returned:-





The Spug-wit returns

Along Long Edge

Long Edge area


fem greenland Wheatear,
2Tree Sparrow,
1Buzzard,
Cuckoo,
mRedstart singing from fence at small plantation
sev Goldcrest & Coal Tit - unaffected by the winter snow under the shelter of the 60-70' Spruces.
mLong-eared Owl in reg loc - trees 60' plus - No chance of an image under dark canopy

Pleasing to find min of 4m2f Tree Pipit,

not much song or display, the males all busy collecting food, seemed to be mostly caterpillars

male with food

100m further on had to cut across to avoid a boggy area, another male showed



& chanced upon a nest, as i paused by a large stump to scan for Nightjar (again)









Back into cover of the woods as rain & hail came . . .

Tawny Owl - 2 juvs at stick nest in Scots Pine.


Chick in nest - at first glance through bins, i thought the feathers sticking up belonged to the head of a female Long-eard....



Tawny in stick nest in Scots Pine
NB: Looks like the bottom of the nest is gonna fall through at any moment !




out & about

This is the best chance ive had to see Tawny using a stick nest, as more often than not theyre tucked out of sight.
Not sure, but i think its a "multiple" pigeon nests, rather than a corvids ?

As i retreated the young both began to beg for food - this was 2:30 in the afternoon.
Im pretty sure many Tawnies can hunt at any time - would have stayed to see if an adult came in, but it tipped it down with hail stones, so i headed back.



signs close to the male Long-eared Owl's roost



Another babe in the woods . . . the things you find if you go down to the woods . . .