It's starting to feel a bit more autumnal, the local Swifts have departed in the last few days and there are signs of other birds moving with Wheatears starting to appear on the moor. It's always nice to see birds with a background of flowering heather like this bird by the Triangle today.
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| Northern Wheatear - juvenile |
i also had distant views of a female Merlin, shimmering slightly in the heat haze!
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| Merlin - adult female |
Another interesting day, I started off in the conifers along Flash Lane and was both surprised and pleased to hear the Turtle Dove purring. It's a month since I last heard it and this is the latest I've ever recorded it. Seems unlikely it will return next year, but that's what I thought last year, fingers crossed!
Whilst on the edge of the wood I heard a Common Greenshank calling, it called for perhaps 30 seconds and I thought it may have been circling the flooded field by the sharp corner but there was no sign of it when I checked.
This afternoon I went to the Elton Common area to look at the gulls which are starting to increase in number. I saw several hundred Lesser Black-backed but wasn't able to get anywhere near them so will have to wait until they favour a field closer to the road.
Whilst cycling the lanes I saw several Redstart, a Stonechat and a single Whinchat. It looks like a moulting adult female and it's the first time I've seen one at Elton Common and my first of the autumn.
Whinchat - female
After yesterday's downpour my expectations were not high for today but I got off to a good start with a Merlin which flew from the Rough Track towards Flash Lane, my first of the 'autumn', followed by two reeling Grasshopper Warblers at the Triangle.Then a group of at least 5 Common Crossbill at 40 Acre Plantation which were my first for a couple of weeks.
But the best was yet to come, Pam fancied a walk in Bakewell so I suggested a walk up to Ashford Lake, which I hadn't visited for a week or so. Looking down on the lake I saw a Little Grebe and several Mandarin and what I first took to be a Coot but it looked very black. It was a drake Common Scoter, my first on the patch.
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| Common Scoter - male They are recorded with increasing frequency on Carsington and Ogston and even up on Middleton Moor but I wasn't expecting one locally. They are nocturnal migrants and cross the country from Morecambe Bay to the North Sea, usually in the spring but can turn up anytime. |
A couple of interesting records today, the first a Pied Flycatcher in a mixed tit and warbler flock on the edge of Alport. This is the latest date I've recorded Pied Flycatcher locally, my previously latest date was mid-June so this is significantly later! Pied Flycatchers leave the woodlands where they have bred in early June and I've often wondered where they go. Departing migrants are not normally encountered on the coast before early August and it may be that the post breeding birds are dispersed around our river valley before they depart which is supported by todays record but I would have thought they would be more frequently reported in July if that were the case?
The second record is of an adult Dunlin at Harthill Pond, Youlgrave, it was very distant and I thought it was going to be a Snipe on my initial view so was very pleased to see that it was an adult Dunlin still retaining its black belly. Although they breed in small numbers on the moors of north Derbyshire and regularly occur at Carsington and Ogston on passage its a very scarce bird locally.
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| Dunlin - adult |
Scanning the drystone walls on the edge of the moor one stone looked very oval and proved to be a Little Owl which are very easy to overlook given the number of dry stone walls!
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| Little Owl - second rock from the left! |