Chiffchaff
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Chiffchaff
felt like I was delt a full house today.
lapwings, a Woodcock, buzzards x2, golden plover, pereguin, curlew, grouse, some smaller birds(pipets I think) I realy need to up my game on the smaller birds there were lots about. We saw a dipper last week in the same area. 30 or so hares. and just 1 human
Nice to see the birds about again, the hills have been a bit quiet of late.
26 minutes ago ยท Like
Bit confused wether some of the Yellow Hammers I see are Cirl Buntings or something!!:o Saw a fair few today, along with Fieldfares and bunch of the usual stuff...Wrens, Robins, Buzzards etc.
Checked on RSPB site. Cirl Buntings are too rare and too far south, Serins are smaller and also too far south. Must all be Yellow Hammers I guess. :rolleyes:
Where are you at the moment? If it's Carlisle I can't see it being cirl buntings. Siskins are likely though - we had one in the garden today. Yellowhammers tend to hang out in/on hedges, & are pretty local, i.e. once you find them, that's where you'll always see them. Siskins wander around.Quote:
Originally Posted by that_fjell_guy
Splatcher! Cheers!
They're almost 100% all Yellow Hammers, it was the marking around the face confusing me. Also some are pure, almost lemon headed and others more streaky. Possible male / female differences? We do get Siskin around here, but mainly seen them on feeders, not so much out in the country.
The yellower ones are the males, the females aren't as yellow or striped on the head, have darker backs & are more streaked underneath. Our local buntings are mostly reed buntings, but there's a load of yellowhammers in the hedges by a farm a mile or so away - one of those farms where they never clean anything up & let their cows roam free (up the roads & anywhere). My guess is that the yellowhammers are there because the way they farm encourages the weeds.Quote:
Originally Posted by that_fjell_guy
My first warbler of the year: a male blackcap on the bird table.
A bumbarrel in my Siver Birch tree. Never seen one in my garden before.
Saw quite a few Sandmartins on the way home from work this evening, swallows won't be to far behind.
Three roe deer tonight. Two (as usual :) ) in Cleatops Wood and another further on jumping the wall into Black's Plantation near Peart Crags
Three deer last night on the Chevin about 5pm, not seen them being quite so open up there before. All three just pottering about eating whilst I watched. Shame I didn't have a camera on me
You got me there for a while Alf! Seems that 'bumbarrel' is an old term for a Long Tailed Tit.Quote:
Originally Posted by Alf
A new one on me too wharfee. Always seems odd this time of year seeing single or paired up LTT when they're such a social species for much of the yearQuote:
Originally Posted by wharfeego
My 1st swallow of the spring seen this afternoon near Pool Bank
Knew you'd see the first Swallow! Next up..Willow Warbler.Quote:
Originally Posted by Derby Tup
Just had a walk around site and saw Wheatear, Meadow Pipit and discovered we have a colony of Bank Voles, which I'd not spotted before!
A good day so far today.
Curlew, Lapwing and 3 Roe Deer on Clougha this morning, my first swallow of the year on the way home, then a rather splendid male Siskin on the nyjer seed in the garden.
Common Sandpiper, House Martin on my morning run but still no Swallow for me.
Peacock butterfly fluttered by as I was cycling home from work yesterday.
Best start looking out for swallows in the Peak.
Swallows & house martins in the valley this weekend. Mrs Splatcher saw the swallows yesterday whilst I was otherwise engaged in Calderdale. Semi-comatose on the sofa an hour ago I scanned the valley with my binoculars looking for them, & saw the martins - easier to see at a distance as they fly higher so there's sky behind them rather than trees. Then a peregrine flew into the garden, perched on the top of the willow for a couple of seconds & flew off, leaving a very worried looking woodpigeon in the willow...
Just back from a week on the Isle of Seil, near Oban, Scotland.
Deer - probably roe
Eagles - golden (I think) and white-tailed sea
Razorbills, gannets, eiders
Porpoise (not sure what type)
Seals - common and grey
And...
Sperm whale!!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22019068
Apparently it's gone back to deeper water now.
2 Bumbarrels in the garden today and they seemed to be interested in each other.
I first discovered the name 'bumbarrel' in a John Clare poem.
Emmonsail's Heath in Winter
I love to see the old heath's withered brake
Mingle its crimpled leaves with furze and ling,
While the old heron from the lonely lake
Starts slow and flaps its melancholy wing,
An oddling crow in idle motion swing
On the half-rotten ash-tree's topmost twig,
Beside whose trunk the gypsy makes his bed.
Up flies the bouncing woodcock from the brig
Where a black quagmire quakes beneath the tread;
The fieldfares chatter in the whistling thorn
And for the haw round fields and closen rove,
And coy bumbarrels, twenty in a drove,
Flit down the hedgerows in the frozen plain
And hang on little twigs and start again.
John Clare
Nice one Alf :)
Sand martins on the Ure today! Am jealous of everyone's swallow sightings, come on Masham swallows, hurry home.
Sounds exciting week!! I love getting up north to see whats there!!Quote:
Originally Posted by noel
Just saw a Fox while trying to Id a bird singing in a copse!
Arrived back from hols in the early hours of this morning. Drew the curtains this morning and the Goshawk sitting on top of my bird feeder branch, 5m from the back door.
Oh you lucky b****r! I've never even set eyes on a goshawk.Quote:
Originally Posted by molehill
I'm pretty sure I got attacked then stalked by a Goshawk coming off the Calf in the Howgills!! Very scary that was!!
Swallows yesterday tea time - must have passed over Masham on their way here!Quote:
Originally Posted by Hes
Male Stonechat on White Brow, above Kinder Resr. yesterday as we were heading up to marshal in the Downfall Race.
Swifts and Swallows 2 days ago - in Morocco - does that count?Quote:
Originally Posted by Old Whippet
hmm...got a feeling the Masham ones are being a bit laid back about their return, probably left packing until the last minute, Masham folk can be like that!;)
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Originally Posted by Old Whippet
No!:p
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Originally Posted by molehill
How about a Hoopoe? :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Hes
ha ha. Would like to see one of those too. sounds like a good trip. :)
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Originally Posted by molehill
Just heading out for a run and two tired looking swallows flying over the house:thumbup:
Just seen the first 2 over my sisters house, quite high up and they may have been martins - a sign that spring is here anyway :rolleyes:
First warbler in the reeds, on the Trent & Mersey. I couldn't get a glimpse of it, so I'm not sure whether it was sedge or reed, but I think the sedge warblers arrive first don't they? None to be heard on the Weaver yet, & I know they're nearly all reed warblers round here.
These two unashamed lovers at Red Ratcher on the way down to Ladow Rocks.Attachment 6912
...a big fat woodpigeon as it bounced off the centre of my windscreen this morning. Flew a long way without the use of its wings!! :confused: