Same schedule as yesterday, footie in the park late morning, birding walk this aft. The footie came to a premature halt when the leading goal scorer suffered a tumble on the tarmac, and some blood was seen - ugh - good job it wasn't mine!
Good to chat with Dave, Pat and Dora (The Dog), early on, their garden is full of feeders and nest boxes.
I set off when it was quite cold with a sharp n/ne wind, dressed for winter. When I got in the shelter along the farm track I realised I'd dropped a clanger and perspiration was the name of the game after that.
Quite a longish stint on Soil Hill brought nothing new.
2 small birds, that dropped into the bushes, along the lower reaches of the north side tree line, refused to show again.
A grey /black bird was perched on a post obscured by trees at the bottom of the slope - a Feral Pigeon as luck would have it!
Birds:-
Bradshaw Fields:
Little Owl, c30 Jackdaw, lots of Magpies.
A Sparrowhawk low behind East Croft Farm.
2 Partridge flushed with little wing noise, did not show a lot of red as they left but I cannot honestly say if they were Grey or Red Legged.
Pheasant and Stock Dove also.
Soil Hill Area:
Linnet singing from a wire near Ned Hill Track.
2 Partridge flushed and flew from the NW end, then ran along the lower farm track - Red Legged Partridge.
2 Pheasant, Meadow Pipit, Skylark, Woodpigeon.
7 Curlew airborne at one point over the Shay fields.
Pied Wagtail, Lapwing in good numbers lower down in the rough fields.
2 Oystercatcher, airborne with the Curlew.
A further 2 Partridge flushed from the good field adjacent to the north slope and landed near the lower NK pond.
A Moorhen was the only bird on the pond there.
A Kestrel made a feeble attempt at hunting before zooming off.
Taylor Lane Area:
3 Stock Dove overhead.
1 Little Owl.
Lots of Gulls 'miles off' on Oxenhope Reservoir, seen from Soil Hill Top.
A tough outing today, the old knee has stopped talking to me.
I think it's a knee-jerk reaction though, and all will be well before bedtime.
Evening:
A short evening (19:00 ish) sky watch was a cold affair.
A large possible Raptor? was very high over Wainhouse Tower in and out of the mist/cloud. It was not in any hurry to go anywhere and moved slowly too and fro, showing a very black back and a contrasting very white underbelly (best description I could come up with).
I was hoping it would come nearer but after watching it for 3 /4 mins I eventually lost it in the misty stuff.
Could well have been a Gull I suppose.
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