It was a cold,windy, drizzly start to today's outing, but I did get an hour or so of the bright stuff later on.
Bradshaw Park Area:
Pr. Mistle Thrush, 6 Pied Wagtail, 8 Meadow Pipit, 10 Canada Geese, Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Rooks.
The walk down to the small caravan site at Holdsworth and back was very quiet with the small wood there, unusually, bereft of anything of interest, that I could see.
Oats Royd 13:00
A Bullfinch was calling but not seen, Moorhen, c25 Woodpigeon landed in one tree.
Gulls passed high overhead - probably Common Gulls.
A raptor appeared, high over towards Roper Lane.
It was difficult to get my bridge camera to focus on it at such a distance.
It was constantly being mobbed by Carrion Crow.
The bird was a Buzzard and it seemed to take the attention of the Crows well in it's 'stride' , 'sidestepping' them with ease using the strong wind.
The bird , which, disappeared and reappeared 5 or 6 times over a period of 30 minutes - made an interesting spectacle.
Eventually the crows got fed up and let it be, and it 'hovered' in the strong breeze on the look-out for something.
I got the feeling that maybe it will hang around here for a bit (no pun intended).
During the Buzzards, coming and going, a second Raptor, probably a Kestrel, made a very fast, high fly by.
I say, probably a kestrel, because the bird seemed nimbler and possibly smaller than a Kestrel.
It showed very light plumage underneath and had just 2 or 3 short, fast wing beats.
On change of direction it was very fast and nimble.
No photo alas and no colours discernible with the poor light and distance - so a Kestrel it remains!!
Also hereabouts Long Tailed Tit, Wren, Goldcrest and Chaffinch - no Chiffchaff as yet.
A detour up past Bonnet Hall proved fruitful with a Little Owl spotted in the fields (after a 15 minutes scan about).
A poor start but an interesting finish to today's walk.
Some Buzzard pics - not great but I found watching the bird interesting:-
Peace at last - the crown have gone away.
Nice buzzard and owl shots John ,them crows can be a pest sometimes or most of the time.
ReplyDeleteThanks Dave - very distant shots I'm afraid.
ReplyDeleteNot as many crows here as on Swalesmoor I think?
I don't know what effect the corvids have on Buzzards in general.
John