Egretta Garzetta

Four Little Egret today at Castle Lake, three gave great views on the small pond in the south-west corner.

Others of interest included 3 Buzzard up together over Mainsforth, 1 Peregrine, 2 Golden Plover, 8 Ruff, 8 Lesser Black-backed Gull (5 adults), 1 Little Owl (only my 2nd this year), 2 Goldcrest and a flyover Siskin.

The Fishburn Lake area produced 10 Grey Partridge, 1 Little Grebe, 1 Green Sandpiper, a female Blackcap, 2 Siskin and a Lesser Redpoll over.

Still plenty of Chiffchaff around including some giving short bursts of song.

John Olley reported the following from Farnless Farm;
36 Grey Partridge, 8 Corn Bunting, 110 Tree Sparrow, 40 Yellowhammer, 90 Mallard, 70 Linnet, 50 Meadow Pipit, 60 Skylark, 3 Curlew, Kestrel and Sparrowhawk.

Sunday Best

Sightings today from Joe Hughes, John Olley and myself.

Castle Lake
Bittern seen again from 5.20pm exactly a month since it was first found, 19 Wigeon, 2 Little Egret, 1 Ringed Plover, 40 Golden Plover dropped-in mid-morning but didn't settle and soon departed, 7 Ruff, 5 Dunlin, 2 Snipe, 15 Curlew, 1 Redshank, 6 Lesser Black-backed Gull (4 adults 2 juveniles), 1 Swift, 20 House Martin, 1 Yellow Wagtail in the field behind the hide, 3 Chiffchaff with one singing near the old sluice gate on the River Stell, 1 Goldcrest, 1 Willow Tit, juvenile Bullfinch and 4 Reed Bunting.

Mute Swan family on Alan's Pool this morning.

Wigeon numbers gradually increasing adding some welcome colour and noise.

Adult Lesser Black-backed Gull watches on as two of its offspring fight over some inedible object.

One of the four Reed Bunting that appeared below the hide.

Hardwick Hall CP
8 Crossbill, 4 Lesser Redpoll, 3 Willow Tit, 4 Nuthatch, 3 Treecreeper, 6 Song Thrush, Jay, 150 Coot.

YLG Update

Further to my sighting on 13th September of a possible Yellow-legged Gull on Castle Lake, Stephen Buckle has kindly sent me an e-mail concerning an interesting bird he saw there on 30th August. (Apologies to Stephen for not posting this earlier).

<> 

<> 

Stephen describes the bird as follows; Bird is a Herring Gull type which I aged as (moulting into?) 3rd winter as it had some pale faded brown on the upper row of coverts (not clearly visible in the photos).  My attention was drawn to it because it had much darker shade of grey to the back than argenteus Herring Gull, in fact side-by-side with adult Common Gulls you could see it had a slightly darker shade than them.  It was however (in my view) nowhere near dark enough to be an LBBG.  The bird also seemed to have a lot of red on the distal part of the bill. These features got me excited about the possibility of Yellow-legged Gull but when we (myself and a friend I was with) got a clear view of the legs they were pale pinkish i.e. looked like those of a Herring Gull.  I said to my friend that it could not be a YLG, but could be a Scandinavian Herring Gull. On the standing bird, the wing tips looked completely back with no white tips to the primaries.  I didn't get a good view of the spread wing, partly because I wasn't sure how helpful this would be on an immature / moulting bird, but probably also due to lack of confidence that I'd be sure of what I was seeing during brief flaps.  In hindsight I probably should have tried to get a photo or at least a good view of the spread wing. It certainly appears that this Gull is a strong candidate for Scandinavian Herring Gull despite the early date and inland location. Many thanks again to Stephen for the photo's and description.

Friday 23rd September 2011

Another evening visit to Castle Lake with the following highlights;

10 Wigeon, 1 Great Crested Grebe (the first sighting since the last of the resident birds departed in August), 1 Ringed Plover, 4 Ruff, 2 Dunlin, 1 Spotted Redshank, 1 Greenshank and an incredible 55+ Pied Wagtail.
Couple of poor record shots of the SpotShank & Greenshank.

Yesterday (22nd)  John Olley reported the excellent sighting of 2 Long-eared Owl and a late Swift.

Monday 19th September 2011

Birds seen this evening on Castle Lake;

10 Wigeon, 70 Teal, female Goosander, 3 Ringed Plover, 13 Ruff, 2 Dunlin, 2 Snipe, 9 Curlew, 1 Redshank, 1 Green Sandpiper, 300 mixed Gull's mostly Black-headed but also 4 adult Lesser Black-backed Gull (two pictured below).

On the A1 Flashes were 2 Grey Heron, 2 Green Sandpiper and 6 of the Ruff from Castle Lake.

Bar-headed Goose

Following the Chiloe Wigeon earlier in the year another escaped or feral species not on the British List visited Castle Lake this morning when this Bar-headed Goose flew in and joined up with the Canada Geese flock.

Others seen this morning included 8 Wigeon, a female Goosander (pictured below), 1 Little Egret, 3 Ringed Plover, 13 Ruff (the biggest count so far), 4 Snipe, 22 Curlew, 1 Redshank and an adult Lesser Black-backed Gull.

Back In The Village...

...is the name of an Iron Maiden song that I find myself singing as I drive into Bishop Middleham but by the time I've reached the hide the tablets have kicked in.

Back down this evening, now that I'm starting to get into Gull's (it won't last), I thought I'd grill each and every one but its a bit daunting when they are all over the place. Tonights totals went something like this;
Black-headed Gull 170
Lesser Black-backed Gull 1 adult
Common Gull 30
Herring Gull 50 flew in together from the south, apart from 2 adults and a 2nd winter the others were all 1st-winter birds.

Other movers and shakers included 52 Teal, 2 Kestrel, 3 Ringed Plover, 6 Ruff (4 of which later relocated to the A1 Flashes), 1 Dunlin, 1 Snipe and 6 Curlew.

A tractor ploughing the field next to Stoneybeck Lake resulted in only 5 Moorhen of note.