mallard and canada goose on upper swineshaw - tufties appear to have departed.
one buzzard, four wheatear, two curlew seen but more heard, half a dozen red grouse seen and more heard, one skylark over hollingworth hall farm, four swallow over higher landsdown green farm, plenty of chaffinch, greenfinch, goldfinch and loads of meadow pipit plus nutchatch and mistle thrush.
2 Ring Ouzels (appeared to be m & f) present early afternoon.
Male was singing and showing very well on wall. Then he started scolding blackbird-style and flew off disappearing round the hill. Other bird (f) stayed, but had also left when I went back later.
4 Ring Ouzel 2M 2F Stonechat 1M 1F 3 Wheatear 2M 1F c20 Curlew 70+ Meadow Pipit plus all the usuals And a Guinea Fowl that made my heart flutter for a second.
-- Edited by Tony Mario on Friday 8th of April 2011 07:54:30 AM
-- Edited by Ian McKerchar on Friday 8th of April 2011 08:37:31 PM
Yes, four Ring Ouzel feeding in the fields along Lees Hill, approximately 1/2 mile further along from Hollingworth Hall Farm.
Also present were two Mistle Thrush, Culew, one Swallow and plenty of Meadow Pipits including a few small groups heading North with plenty of Chaffinch singing and c6 Goldfinch came through by the farms.
Two Brown Hares also.
Late news for Tuesday night: male and female Tufted Duck still on Upper Swineshaw plus a pipestrell bat on the walk back to the car.
Late am/early pm
100+ Mipits vis mig just before Lees Hill
1 Reed Bunting male
6-8 Lapwings displaying over fields
Several Curlews bubbling in background
3 Redwing
and then it poured down
A long trek today past the farm, across the moor round Lees Hill via Swineshaw and down to Brushes Road.
On Hobson Moor Road
1 Stock Dove, no escaping today! c30 Fieldfare
Unfortunately no sign of any Brambling today, this was probably due to there being around 10 shooters shooting the Pheasants. Some of them were stood within 10 feet of the public footpath and one of the birds was lying dead on the public footpath as we walked past. Surely this is illegal. Thankfully a friend was with me.
Male Peregrine near the stand of conifers, using the wind to effortlessly drift across, gaining speed, then did another fly past. Brilliant views of this stunning bird at eye level, hopefully the shooters didn't see it.
Numerous Red Grouse between Lees Hill and Swineshaw including two at Swineshaw having a stand off and one showing off on the wall.
A surprise in the area were two Meadow Pipits and a male Stonechat which I thought would have moved elsewhere by now.
Dropping down towards Brushes I found it quite amusing when I saw a male and a female Pheasant balancing on the end of a branch eating berries
Also in this area I saw another 100 Fieldfare and 6 Bullfinches (5 female and 1 male)
3 GS Woodpecker 2 Nutchatch 3 Pheasant (1 feeding at the bird table of the last house, 2 above swineshaw) wood pigeon carrion crow robin blackbird dunnock blue tit great tit LT tit chaffinch 12+ pied wagtail on swineshaw inc a couple of juvs numerous meadow pipits in a beautiful fresh autumn plumage 8 linnets 1 stonechat - looked like a juvenile 1 juvenile reed bunting 1 stonking willow warbler in a fresh autumn plumage 2+ wren
But the real highlight was still to come. Firstly, a single peregrine flew over and disappeared over Lees Hill. Minutes later a raven appeared with a second peregrine joingin it on the thermals only for a potential third peregrine (can't rule out the 1st bird not returning) to join them.
A buzzard then appeared, closely followed by two more so that at one stage i had three buzzard and two peregrine in my bins!
A walk this morning through the farm and round the hill, mainly for breeding records
Overall very quiet.
Blackbird feeding young by the stables Swallows going into the stables Family party of GS Woodpeckers in the wood, taking bark from trees Nuthatches calling everywhere Blackcap male and female seen Great Tit begging for food from parent
Little Owl glaring at me from a wall at Lees Hill 6 Rooks over Lapwing with large young
-- Edited by Karen Foulkes on Sunday 27th of June 2010 07:39:34 PM
Walked round Lees Hill and Middlebank and through Hollingworth Hall Farm, it was very hot and quite quiet bird wise.
Just outside the gate looking towards the woodland, there was a pair of Red Legged Partridge on the woodland edge, which disappeared back into the woodland, probably keeping cool!
ring ouzle thanks to both ladies who gave me directions :)
well we followed the directions given then got lost which meant we blundered into the area from the wrong direction unfortunately, which disturbed them. on the other hand as we approached from round a tight corner it also meant we saw lots more of them, there are more than 10 in the area. possibly up to 20 birds. we then backed off to a reasonable distance and got some good views through the scope for about 20 minutes of them moving back into their obviously preferred area.
on the walk down the lane to the site in both directions we saw a pair of coal tit
numerous blue and great tits 2 green finch 6 gold finch heard 3 different robins having a sing off 1 small warbler probably chifchaff but only a short view. 1 curlew calling very low 1 good view of a kestrel
-- Edited by jason fisher on Wednesday 14th of April 2010 04:47:13 PM
-- Edited by jason fisher on Wednesday 14th of April 2010 04:47:46 PM
any chance you could send a private message with a grid ref for the lees hill as ring ouzle would be a lifer for me so we went to the place where we know holingworth hall farm is and then walked roud the hills till our feet fell off probably on the wrong hill without seing any. it's local to us and we would love to find them :)
I went out to the area again this morning with Rachael Hill.
Small flock on feeding on ground disturbed by walker contained 1 Brambling, could have been more, although most of them passed through. 1 Nuthatch 10 Ring Ouzel, in the same area as yesterday, unable to ascertain how many males and females there were, they were disturbed by a raptor, probably a Peregrine, although I couldn't say for certain. Kestrel Sparrowhawk
-- Edited by Karen Foulkes on Sunday 11th of April 2010 11:13:38 PM