Yellow Wagtail - Elton Common

 My first 'patch' Yellow Wagtail of the year this morning with a male singing at Elton Common. A scarce passage migrant migrant on Beeley and the Eastern Moors the Yellow Wagtail is a rare breeding bird in the White Peak. It's difficult to know how rare as I only tend to visit a small part and I would be interested to hear of any other records locally.

Yellow Wagtail - male

Another unexpected sighting today was of a Little Egret on the River Wye at Rowsley. It was disturbed briefly by grass cutting for Haddon's fishing access but soon settled again. The driver of the grass cutter was as surprised to see it as I was when I spoke to him later. It could be the bird that wintered at Youlgrave and it will be interesting to see if it lingers.

Little Egret

Yesterday I was fortunate to see a young (second calendar year) Goshawk displaying. Although females do sometimes breed in the second calendar year I can only assume that this bird is unpaired. 

The slight gap between the secondary and primary feathers is due to the loss of a juvenile primary feather as she starts the moult in to a more adult like plumage which will be completed by the autumn.

Northern Goshawk - female 2cy