Adult Great Northern Diver still on Ladyfield Lake. Sands Lane, Mirfield in torrential rain but showing well (from my car!)

Christmas Day trip to family near Wetherby and had 3 separate sightings of red kites by the A1. These are the kites from the Harewood House breeding programme but it was great to see them away from the house itself. Great Christmas treat for me!

Look out for them if you're ever driving that way.

great northern diver showing very well on the larger fishing pool on sands lane, mirfield. it did not dive much while I was there so great prolonged views to get some decent pics in the sunshine
had a little walk around the area, other birds seen...
4 goosanders flying onto the river calder
2 grey herons
7 tufted ducks
2 great crested grebes
1 great spotted woodpecker
1 treecreeper with tit flock & did something I have not heard of or seen before, it actually went down the trunk of a tree I thought only nuthatches could do this !
1 nuthatch
2 kestrels

Good trip across the border this morning getting both target birds of Great Northern Diver at Mirfield which showed nearly as well as the Castleshaw bird in 2011 and the Two-barred Crossbill (1m 2f) at Broomhead Res.

Plenty of other good birds about including
2 Red Kites
1 Fieldfare
large mixed flock of Blue,Great, Coal, Long Tailed Tits Lesser Redpoll, Siskin
20 plus Common Crossbill
2 Great Spotted Woodpecker.

-- Edited by Jon Bowen on Saturday 14th of December 2013 03:43:15 PM

Belated report of visit to East Riding (Flamborough Head, Scaborough, Bridlington, Filey areas)
8th Nov-15th Nov; Not ideal weather with westerlies mainly.

Black Redstart
Black-Headed Gull
Blackbird
Blue Tit
Brambling
Brent Goose
Bullfinch
Buzzard
Carrion Crow
Chaffinch
Common Gull
Common Scoter
Cormorant
Curlew
Dunnock
Eider
Fieldfare
Gannet
Goldcrest
Goldfinch
Great Black-backed Gull
Great Northern Diver
Great Spotted Woodpecker
Great Tit
Greenfinch
Guillemot
Herring Gull
House Sparrow
Jackdaw
Kestrel
Lesser Black-baked Gull
Magpie
Mallard
Meadow Pipit
Merlin
Moorhen
Oystercatcher
Peregrine
Pheasant
Pied Wagtail
Pink-footed Goose
Purple Sandpiper
Red Kite
Red-throated Diver
Redshank
Redwing
Reed Bunting
Robin
Rock Dove (Feral Pigeon) - Apparently purported to be Rock Doves but I doubt they're genuine
Rock Pipit
Rook
Sanderling
Serin
Shag
Short-eared Owl
Skylark
Snow Bunting
Sparrowhawk
Starling
Teal
Tree Sparrow
Treecreeper
Turnstone
Twite
Whooper Swan
Woodpigeon
Wren
Yellowhammer

Good views for Mike Ausberger and I of the 1st winter male Siberian Stonechat at Scalby Mills this afternoon, fly-catching from bramble bushes along the stream.

Walked Whernside and Ingleborough yesterday - wasn't expecting to see much as its so busy but was pleased with several flocks of up to ten Meadow Pipits, lots of juvenile Pied Wagtails and two Grey Wagtails, a Spotted Flycatcher exactly where I saw them last May, a pair of Raven, six Red Grouse seen and more heard and an owl pellet. The pellet looked fresh and was the only one round a post right where the path to Whernside leave the Dent path so a very busy area. Given the area - open moorland no trees for a few miles I'm guessing Short Eared or maybe passage Long Eared Owl - if anyone's an expert on pellets let me know and I'll send photos/dissect it!

Bird reported again at 10am today on the main fishing lake. Someone's taking the ****

I now know how indigestible hats are ! Another fruitless visit to the Mirfield suburbs for me and Dave Hughston unfortunately.

On arrival at the weir our hopes were briefly raised by a bird in the air, chasing other gulls before it disappeared. We thought it could have been the target bird for a moment, but an almost certain black eye eventually ruled it out.

Eight birders were around the area today. Some, like us, on their third visit to try and see this bird. Stake outs of the Biffa compound and the fishing lake again proved negative. Lots of Black-headed and a few Commons and that was about it. Even my ace card the chicken carcass - failed to produce a result.

I have to say, I think a few of the birders had become increasingly sceptical about the accuracy of all those recent reports no one we spoke to, even those on second and third visits had seen the bird or knew anyone else who had seen it recently. So quite where all the reports were coming from, Im not quite sure.

Anyway, Ill wait for a bird closer to home now. Three visits to Mirfield is enough for anyone !

Buy a loaf of cheap white bread on your way :)

Hmmm ! I've said I would 'eat my hat ' if I didn't see this bird tomorrow. After your experience today Doc, I think I'd better take something to make a large sandwich !

A sighting (not me) at 7.45am & then from 8am constant observation by lots of birders at the lake, the weir & the Biffa site without any confirmed sighting by about 2.45pm when we all left. One guy did arrive & within 5 mins had a flyover at the weir when he was the only person there, which he put on the pager, but no-one present could verify this report, but of course that's not to say that it was not 100% kosher. Good luck tomorrow John & wrap up very very warm

John Barber wrote:

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Doc Brewster wrote:

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John Barber wrote:

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Two trips over from Cheshire in the last few days have failed to locate this long staying bird. Two other Manchester birders last Saturday ( sorry, didn't get your names ) had the same luck as we did. So a third trip is planned for later this week to try and get this life tick - lets hope it's third time lucky !

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Today saw the Ring-billed Gull being reported out three times over q.a lengthy period. First at 10.17am on the spit on Sands Lane GPs, then next at 11.43am at the pits on the Biffa Waste Unit and again at the same place at 2.25pm. Having seen this bird in 2011 & 2012 I may venture over again tomorrow as it seems to maybe have found a food source at this waste unit - fingers crossed. In both previous visits it has shown well for me for photos, so hope that is the case again

-- Edited by Doc Brewster on Tuesday 12th of March 2013 09:34:16 PM

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Yes, saw those reports on RBA. I think we've just been unlucky so far. We covered all it's favourite spots several times but it managed to elude us by 15 minutes on one occasion. We are planning to go on Thursday morning for our third attempt. Hope you manage to see it if you go tomorrow Doc .

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Thanks John, I will report back on here if I do make the journey over, combining it with a visit to my sister in York, otherwise prob wouldn't go, given the price of petrol & me travelling alone. So all dependant on my sister being free!!

Hello John - must be two years since I saw that gull but when I did it was on the river near the weir and then flew to the pond a few 100m away - just in case you hadn't been told about both spots? Peter

Two trips over from Cheshire in the last few days have failed to locate this long staying bird. Two other Manchester birders last Saturday ( sorry, didn't get your names ) had the same luck as we did. So a third trip is planned for later this week to try and get this life tick - lets hope it's third time lucky !

Sunday 10/6

Decided I couldn't miss out on this stonking bird, and having been kind enough to wait around a whole week so that I could twitch it, I thought I'd better not let the poor bird down.

Arrived with Phil Owen at 9am and the bird was immediately visible in the field at Aldbrough. after a few short flights it perched up on its favourite pole and gave us and the dozen or so gathered birders excellent views of its gorgeous plumage. Even the local constabulary pulled up at one point to see what all the fuss was about.

We then moved on to Spurn for reported Bee-eater and Rosefinch. (See Spurn thread).

Cheers,

Steve.

Roller still present at lunch time. Absolute stonking bird!

Even little Riggers was impressed and hogged the scope

After a rather wet start in GM, Iain Johnson and myself decided to make a trip to see the Roller. It looked thoroughly fed up in the rain, perched on its favourite post, but eventually it decided to shake the rain off and flew into the field to feed, when we were able to see the spectacular mixture of colours.

A cracking bird!

Myself and the Manx birder also went over to Aldbrough today to look for the European Roller and as both Phil and Henry said, a really nice bird. Pity that Mr Barber couldn't have joined us.

I lived and worked in Oman in the middle east for many years and although not deeply into birding at the time could not help but be impressed with the Indain Rollers that visited our garden on a regular basis so it was nice to be reminded of these far off cousins by this colourful character in the UK. Interesting to see it coughing up the pellets as Henry mentioned.

We were lucky to see the bird at all this morning as in conversation with the farmers wife she mentioned that they were intending to put their pea crop into the field today but the ground was too wet. The lady and her young daughter were really happy to have a look through my scope at the "their" bird and she said she would let the local birding group know when the pea planting was going to take place so that details could be published.

Other birds present of interest: Corn Bunting, Yellow Wagtail and a Meadow Pipit that appeared to have taken exception to the Roller sitting on the white post.

Called in briefly to Blacktoft Sands in the afternoon on the way home but there was no sign of the Marsh Warbler as might be expected at that time of day but 4 Marsh Harriers were on view, one adult male and three females two of which appeared to be feeding young.

01/06/2012 - An adult Roller put on quite a show just to the north of Aldbrough, East Yorks (presumably the bird from Spurn a few days ago). Spending much of it's time on a favoured white post, it eventually coughed up two pellets and resumed feeding across the ploughed fields for beetles and grubs. Vivid turquoise underparts gave way to a tan coloured back but in flight the bird shone with shades of royal blue on the flight feathers and rump, what a beauty. Also present were:

1 Grey Partridge
1 Lapwing
4 Skylarks
2 House Martins
10+ Swallows
3 Corn Buntings
2 Yellowhammers
4 Linnets

BOLTON ABBEY


Late post for sunday, pm.

Afternoon visit to Strid Woods, Bolton Abbey.

Pied Flycatcher's
Spotted Flycatcher
Wood Warbler 2
Siskin
Nuthatch
Great Spotted Woodpecker
Greylag Geese 4

On the river

Grey Wagtail lots
Dipper 2
Goosander
Swallows
Sand Martins

Great place as always when you get away from the crowds.

I walked the Yorkshire Three Peaks yesterday and despite it being very windy there were some excellent birds along the way to keep me going - highlights around Whernside were Dipper, Spotted Flycatcher [fly catching from a tree appropriately], Redstart, Willow Warblers all along the railway line. Around the route were plenty of Meadow Pipit, Wheatear, Curlew, Swallows, House Martins and some Lapwing.

A Kestrel was the only raptor of the day but I was surprised by the numbers of roving Herring Gulls. Had a quick look for Dotterel on the peaks but it was very windy on the top so if there were any I guess they'd have been on the lee of the hills. Almost makes me wish I'd carried bins or a camera!

Late report from yesterday (29/01)

Spent an enjoyable morning at Wintersett Reservoir near Wakefield, tracking down the long-staying American Wigeon.
Typically it spent most of it's time skulking around the only part of the reservoir that is off-limits and gave only fleeting views. Thankfully, after a couple of hours it moved onot open water with the rest of the Wigeon flock, where we were able to get a much better look at it .

We also had cracking views of a drake Smew (apparently there were 2 on the reserve) and a Black-Necked Grebe.
Huge numbers of wildfowl on the water-
Gossander
Goldeneye
Pochard
Wigeon
Teal
Shoveler
Tufted Duck
Pink-Footed, Greylag and Canada Geese

Also had good numbers of smaller birds, with-
Siskin
Redpoll
Linnet
Goldfinch
Redwing & Fieldfare

We then pushed on to try and find Bean Geese, White Stork and Snow Buntings at various sites around Flamborough, but drew a blank on each occassion.

Large numbers of Sanderling on the beach at Fraisthorpe were a nice sight at the end of a very pleasant, but cold day.

You must have been looking at the other one