Bradshaw & Oats Royd

14:00 – 17:45

(I came second this evening in a massive fight with windows 10!
I had no Google Chrome connection then no internet connection so after 5 re-boots, 4 modem resets guess what? Windows 10 starts as if nothing has happened - is it me?)

After our St. Anne’s holiday it was back to a local jaunt this afternoon.
I took a walk down to Oats Royd this afternoon and the walk began well with a Spotted Flycatcher seen near the pond, after leaving Bradshaw Park.

The usual birds were in the fields on the way to O.R.
Black Headed Gull, Common Gull, Woodpigeon, Swallow, Rook, and Jackdaw.
At Oats Royd it was a real pleasure to bump into another Queensbury birder, Michael, and we had a good snoop about and a chat.
Oats Royd revealed a Heron, 3 Jay, 3 adult and 1 juv. Moorhen.
A trip into the woods brought with it a second Spotted Flycatcher and 4+ Bullfinch. The Bullfinch were keeping well hidden with just a flyover of 2 seen.

There were many small birds in the plantation; all were high in the trees and flitting about making them hard to pick out and making pictures impossible.
The birds included Long Tailed Tit, Coal Tit, Blue Tit and the odd Goldcrest although listening to the calls, there were many (invisible) Goldcrest here.
Michael spotted a circling Sparrowhawk and on my arrival at Bradshaw Park there were c20 noisy Swallows and soon a second Sparrowhawk broke cover to be pestered by the Swallow before disappearing into trees.

It’s strange to see a bird of prey being scared off by small Swallows.

It was a good afternoon out today.

First Spotted Flycatcher

Sparrowhawk

Cropped & Lightened a bit

2nd Spotted Flycatcher

There is a second Sparrowhawk somewhere in this photo - but I can't find it!!!

Swallows on a Turbine