Soil Hill etc - A bit of a better outing

 This morning's outing was the usual Soil Hill pilgrimage.

Frequent drizzle blown along by a stiff breeze made walking along the west side of Soil Hill unpleasant, but, other than that not too bad.

A couple of this year firsts for me today with a Skylark flushed from the West Side of Soil Hill. 

After lunch a garden watch was helped by a very loud call from a Green Woodpecker from the trees opposite our house - not seen.

Birds:-

Bradshaw Lane:

Heron

Taylor Lane:

Little Owl.

Soil Hill:

Heron

2 Meadow Pipit

1 Skylark

2 Raven - one displaying

3 Greylag Geese > NNW

Usual Gulls passing through.

Nothing on the lower shay fields / pond.

Bradshaw Fields:

2 Meadow Pipit

An unidentified small bird high > NNW calling.

I got a few photos but the bird was very distant.

Garden;

Green Woodpecker.

Raven displaying

Below 3 photos of the unidentified small bird:-

Bradshaw - Soil Hill circular - Green Pecker

An afternoon birding walk in the hottest part of the day this afternoon, after a busy morning, was a humid affair.

Little Owls:

A Little Owl was seen from Taylor Lane, then a second Little Owl flew over Taylor Lane towards it. The first Little Owl quickly disappeared into a wall cavity.

6 or so Swallows on Taylor Lane and a few seen on Soil Hill

Also on the Hill a few Swifts were flying about, coming quite low at times.

Pr, Stock Doves overhead and Linnets, 2 Willow Warbler, Meadow Pipits and Skylarks were up singing as usual.

A nice, unusual, very distant, sighting from Ned Hill Track was that of a Green Woodpecker.

I have seen one here before but it was yonks ago.

Greenfinch were calling as I headed home along Percy Road.

Half a dozen or so Lesser Black-backed Gulls seen throughout.

A warm do.

I've included a photo of a possible Raptor from yesterday evening in the garden. The wing tips turn upwards - I don't know if this is significant or not.

2 pics of last nights raptor?

1st Little Owl

2nd Little Owl

Ogden this Afternoon - a damp do

13:45 - 16:30 (ish)

I had a run out in the car to Ogden this afternoon hoping the rain would keep the crowds at bay. 

It rained for most of the outing and although the car park was busy the circuit was not too congested.

Half way around I decided to go through the woodland.

I got bored with my normal gait and after treading on some wet roots on the track tried a backflip, Stepover leglock - Jackie Pallo style.

It did not work too well with Cap, Bins, Camera and Rucksack all wanting to leave me at the scene, embarrassed.

Back near the water and on may way to the car, I glimpsed what looked like a 'large' Wader flying off, rapidly criss crossing the water from East to West.

Having been here a good while already I did an ET and phoned home requesting permission to play out a bit longer.

30 or so minutes later I eyeballed the bird, about as far away as possible, a Redshank.

It immediately flew back to the east side of the water - typical.

It was kind enough to remain on the east side and I did get some decent photos of a real cracking looking bird.

Birds:-

Redshank in good condition.

Pr. Tufted Duck.

c20 Lesser Black-backed Gull.

Herring Gull.

17 Canada Geese.

Cormorant.

Heron.

A good selection of woodland birds, with young, was a pleasant surprise.

3 Treecreeper together.

Long Tailed Tit

Willow Warbler.

Chiffchaff.

Chaffinch.

M and F Blackcap - always good to see the female.

Wren, Robin and Blackbird.

Curlew (heard).

3 Song Thrush.

Blue, Great and Coal Tit.

A really enjoyable outing.

Out and about lately

More walking than birding over the past few days.

Good to see D.Br. as we went up the Bonnet this morning and also good to see RH on Ned Hill Track one evening,

Tough going of late - the ground is bone dry in most areas of my saunter now.

I am going to have to visit a reservoir or three, on my exercise walks soon, to augment this years birding list. Not sure about access though - I know Ogden remains closed.

(Still no House Martin seen).

A Buzzard over Bradshaw, Sunday, was being mobbed by a 'Corvid' (with an 'r').

I scoped another Buzzard  from my garden, over Roper Lane area.

This one was being mobbed by a very light coloured smaller Raptor.

c40 Starlings, a day or so ago, descended en-masse onto next doors' 'field/garden' seeming to find loads of worms without much effort.

Starlings are zooming about feeding young now.

Today was sunny and very warm (in places) the stiff westerly was very noticeable throughout though,keeping bird song at bay I would imagine.

I had a walk through the fields to Ned Hill Lane, a grunt up Ned Hill Lane to Ned Hill Track.

A double grunt up to the top of Soil Hill.

I came back along Soil Hill track, Percy Rd and Taylor Lane.

A skulking bird remained hidden in the small bushes along Ned Hill Track (a lifer no doubt).

Birds:

Bradshaw Fields: 2 Swift. Swallow, Loads of Jackdaw.

Ned Hill Track: Swallow , Greenfinch, Chaffinch, Dunnock, Whitethroat, Linnet.

Soil Hill: 4 Swift, Meadow Pipit, Skylark, Linnet. 

No singing birds in the north side bushes here today.

Taylor Lane: Whitethroat, Pied Wagtail.

√Pugney's Park - Wakefield

This weekend, with family to entertain, did not include much birding.

We did have some time at Pugney's Park with Abigail and her dad this afternoon (Sunday).
She enjoyed cycling around the big lake and I got to see a few birds and take some pictures.

There's a cafe as well!!

The weather was cold and very dull for the most part.
The wet stuff, however, stayed away until we got to Tesco's at Queensbury late afternoon.

Birds:

A Buzzard was perched in a tree, seen from the M1!

Moorhen, Coot, Tufted Duck, Mute Swan, Goosander, Great Crested Grebe, Wigeon, Pochard, Cormorant.
Black Headed Gull, Common Gull, Lesser Black Backed Gull, Great Black Backed Gull, Herring Gull.
Lapwing.

A large flock of Lapwing and Starlings were 'one field after' the trailer field as we approached Queensbury.