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

Soil Hill Tuesday Morning - Garden P.M.

My exercise walk took in a misty,murky Soil Hill this morning.

Good to chat to AT up here and Dan Br. later on Taylor Lane.

Walking in the very wet grass was a bit of a pain but there were a few birds about as the mist very slowly lifted.

Ned Hill Track:

Willow Warbler, Whitethroat, Meadow Pipit, Curlew flying out of the mist, Dunnock, Blackbird, Wren, Chaffinch -  Oystercatcher overhead.

Soil Hill Area:

Whitethroat, Linnet.

Meadow Pipit, Starlings, Skylark, 5 Lesser Black-backed Gull, Swallow, Swift.

Possible Reed Bunting on the ruin walls - miles off.

Percy Road - Taylor Lane etc:

2 Greenfinch, Whitethroat, Blackbird, Juv. Starling, Little Owl.

… and a few other sp.

More than 10 Magpies seen - which I don't suppose is good news.

Garden:

A relaxing afternoon in the garden sunshine with some sky gazing.

10 (distant) Stock Doves or Woodpigeons > WSW in a great big hurry.

My money is on Stock Doves?

Gulls:

A very large Gull sp. was mega high in the wispy clouds drifted west.

Later a second Gull high then later still a third Gull were seen.

The latter 2 Gulls seemed smaller than the 1st one, however when the birds as so high, size is difficult to judge.

Possibly 2 Lesser Black-backed Gull and a Herring Gull?

Unless the 3rd Gull is a Yellow Legged Gull of course.

Chances are they are all Lesser Black-backed Gulls.

A Little Owl called from South of me, somewhere in the fields towards Holdsworth.

This new version of Blogger seems to load the photos in a different order to the old version? - confusing my small brain.

Curlew out of the mist.

Mega distant - possible Reed Bunting?

Taylor Lane

Ned Hill Track

Garden Sky Watch:

1st Gull

2nd Gull.

3rd Gull.

Looks a bit Ravenesque but I think its a Carrion Crow.

Foreside Lane – Ogden - Bradshaw

I enjoyed another cracking late afternoon/evening walk with lots of bright, warm weather late this afternoon.

The bird life was nothing to write home about, but it’s nice to be able to leave the waterproofs out of the rucksack for a change.

The walk late afternoon, was from Foreside Lane with a detour to Black Edge Lane (Sandy Gallops) then over a real boggy area to Ogden and home via the path at the back of Moorlands Pub to Ingham Lane.

The usual birds again this aft (minus a few):

Linnet, Skylark, Meadow Pipit, at least 4 very vociferous Curlew, 4 Pheasants and c10 large Gulls over in ones and two that looked like Lesser Black-backed Gulls to me.

Ogden 17:20:

3 Small Gulls on the water, Canadas and Mallards – no sign of the Drake Tufted Duck or the Drake Goosander.

3 then 5 then SEVEN Oystercatcher appeared, calling and flying along the waters edge, landing for a few mins, before repeating the process.

I think seven Oystercatcher at Ogden is a record for me.

A butty break, down by the bridge, on the way to Union Lane failed to reveal a Tree Pipit.

It revealed sod all if the truth be told – oh except a Jay.

A pint of Guinness was very welcome when I called in at the Moorlands.

I had an interesting chat with Adam at the bar, who mentioned another ‘pond’ in Bradshaw – one that I didn’t know of.

I am unsure if there is an official path to it and I will have to check it out sometime.

Looks like it's shopping for birthday presents tomorrow - great.

Soil Hill

Demise of a birding area.

Hopefully when the quarrying ends the habitat will return.

Spot the Jay

Not much better

Oh - brilliant

Shiben Park / Priestley Green

We had a couple of hours at Shibden Park this morning with Emma and Abigail and I took the camera just in case.

Later me and Abigail (5 ½)  played ‘Power Rangers’ in the garden and I had to sit down a while as my ‘emmer gen’ had run low or so she said – I hadn’t  a clue what she was on about.

After she had confused me with “emmer gen” I had to get my own back:-

I told her I was to be called “Vosene – Mr Magic” and I was also known as “uncle Dan Druff” – anti-dandruff’s husband ….. that confused her no  end.

It was fun listing to her shout "Vosene - kill the monsters"

Shibden Park:

A Great Spotted Woodpecker was calling from trees as we parked the car.

Later, another? GSW was calling from the Children’s Play area – neither GSW was seen.

A Heron sat proudly high in a tree, preening itself.

Later, another? Heron, sat by the waters edge near the duck feeding area and later still a Heron was flying high around the park.

A pr. Mute Swan had 8 cygnets in tow (my bird book tells me that they lay between 5 – 7 eggs so these have been ultra productive).

A pr. Grey Wagtail was feeding on the side of the boating lake and there were the usual Coot and Moorhen as well as the best fed Mallard population in the UK.

On the way home from Heckmondwike, late evening, I decided to give the Priestley Green (poss. Lesser Pecker) area a look for a few minutes.

Priestley Green:

I took my usual path, the bridleway down towards the A58. 

As I walked down the path, I could hear a gig at the Old Brodylans at Hippeholme.
A rock band was belting out:-

 “Doctor, Doctor give me the news, I got a bad case of loving you – Oh Yeah” 

– the band sounded pretty “hip baby” to me.

I bet you’ll be singing those lines all evening.

Not a lot about in the short time I was there.

I did hear a Woodpecker call, close by, near the top of the track but yet again it failed to show itself and the foliage is pretty thick here.

A Roe Deer was in the ground of the large white house, doing a spot of ad-lib gardening.

Other than a Great Tit or two , that was it.

Spot the Heron - high in the tree tops

Magic Swallow Photo

Just before this snap - The Heron must have overheard one of my best jokes.

I wonder if this Grey wagtail has a damaged leg

Different bird

Damaged Leg maybe