Hen Harrier - Beeley Moor

 It's always a treat to see a Hen Harrier hunting over the moor but to watch an adult male is extra special. I picked it up over Beeley this morning heading towards Harewood Moor, it was quickly lost to sight but as I walked towards the moor I could see it in the distance sat in the grass. 

After about 5 mins it took flight, following the moor down towards Holymoorside where I finally lost it. As usual the views were fairly brief but still a real treat.

The last male I saw on Beeley was November 2020 so they are a very scarce bird locally.

Hen Harrier - adult male

Encounters with Northern Goshawk

 With the sunny weather in recent days I've spent some time looking for Goshawk which are now starting to display. I've had some luck with superb views of two young males, which I managed to photograph. 

The display period continues through March so there's still plenty of time to see them although their appearance above the tree canopy is rather unpredictable so you have to be prepared to spend quite a bit of time looking.

Northern Goshawk - 3rd calendar year males

New Year - highlights so far

I got off to a reasonable start on the 1st with the Little Egret still present at Harthill Pond, Youlgrave, where there were also 3 Goosander, and a Water Rail giving its squealing call by the River Wye just south of Bakewell. It was very windy on the moors and I struggled to find either Stonechat or Reed Bunting but a flock of 339 Lapwing on Screetham Lane was a record count and I had 18 Yellowhammer in the same area.

A group of 18 Herring Gulls at the stables on Longside Road above Holymoorside was another record count and included a first winter bird that looked like a Herring Gull x Caspian Gull hybrid with pale head and rather long bill, sloping forehead, barring on the scapulars and clean white base to the tail.

First winter Herring Gull left and presumed hybrid Herring x Caspian Gull (right)

I didn't do much yesterday but added some of the commoner birds like Bullfinch and Great Spotted Woodpecker plus another 2 drake Goosander close to Chatsworth which I saw again today.

Goosander - drakes

Today's highlight was a pair of Gadwall on Emperor Lake, I had a pair there last spring and wondered if they might be attempting to breed but never saw them after the spring but I'm guessing that this may be the same pair.

Gadwall - pair

There were at least 8 Teal and 4 Mandarin, the latter have now largely disappeared from the area now but will start to return to the rivers in the next couple of months.

I'm still missing a few common birds but have recorded 66 species on the first 3 days of the year, I made it to 80 in December so thats a reasonable target.

With ongoing travel issues associated with COVID and concern over the impact of travel on global warming there are more birdwatchers adopting local patches. This is the 8km (5 mile) radius from Darley Dale where I do most of my birdwatching.

But, I still do a few trips further afield, some of which I include on here and I made it to Carsington on the 31st December to see the Red-necked Grebe which is still there today.

Red-necked Grebe

Water Rail - Caudwells Mill

 In very murky conditions I had a look at Caudwells Mill this morning and was lucky to see a Water Rail. They are doing some repairs on the weir at the canal and have lowered the water level which has created a muddy edge where the Water Rail was feeding.

This winter I've also recorded Water Rail at Youlgrave and close to Bakewell. Due to their secretive behaviour it's difficult to know what numbers may occur in the area. There is an abundance of suitable habitat in the form of small ponds and the vegetated banks of the river Bradford, Lathkill and Wye so they are doubtless more common than my records suggest. I've also seen them on the pond in the Whitworth Park several times.

I've only recorded them between late October and March but they have bred as close as Wyver Lane, Belper so they could breed on occasion.

Water Rail

Another Little Egret

 Having said last week that Little Egrets have remained scarce locally I've seen two in two days this week. The first bird was still at Youlgrave yesterday, it flew over the village and landed in the cattle field by the road leading to Harthill Pond. 

Today I saw a bird in Matlock flying from Lumsdale heading towards the ponds at Tansley. I guess it could be just one bird but it seems unlikely.

A Barn Owl hunting by the river below Beeley village was an unusual sighting this morning.

I had a look for the Great Grey Shrike at Bonsall Moor last Friday without success but it was still there on Thursday (9th Dec) so is probably still in the area.

Little Egret

Caspian Gull - Elton Common

 I check the Elton Common area for gulls fairly regularly but, even when the gulls are about, it's very hit and miss whether you can find them as they move around a lot. This afternoon I was about to give up when a saw a small group of Common Gulls landing in a distant field. Fortunately I was able to drive a little closer and counted 28 Common, 3 Lesser Black-backs and a very white-headed bird that looked like an adult Caspian Gull.

I took some rather distant photos and was able to confirm the key features of Caspian, un-streaked white head (the head of Herring Gull is heavily streaked in winter), flat forehead, rather long narrow bill, small dark eye and slender body with protruding breast. 

They are also longer legged than Herring but this is difficult to see when walking in grass.

Single birds are recorded fairly regular in the autumn at both Ogston and Carsington and this bird will presumably roost at the latter but it's only the second I've seen in the Darley Dale area.

In the very strong wind the birds were constantly moving and quickly went out of view.

Caspian Gull - adult

Little Egret - Youlgrave

 Despite the dramatic increase in the number of Little Egrets recorded in the County it remains a scarce visitor to the Darley Dale area. So it was a pleasant surprise to find a bird this morning feeding in the field next to Harthill Pond in Youlgrave.

It was flushed by the cattle in the field and briefly fed on the river by the bridge before being disturbed by walkers and returning to the pond.

They are more or less resident during the summer at Carsington and Ogston and the first breeding was recorded at Drakelow in 2018 so we are likely to see more of them in the future.

Little Egret

Chatsworth in the snow

 With the snow and freezing temperatures over the last couple of days I didn't think it was a good idea to drive up on to the moor so I went to Chatsworth instead. I was hoping that with the freezing weather some waterfowl might have been forced on to the river but the only unexpected birds were two drake Tufted Duck but they were accompanied by the hybrid Tufted/ Pochard which is the first time I've seen it this winter. I first saw it in February 2014 so it's been wintering in the area for quite some time.

Tufted/ Pochard hybrid with two drake Tufted Duck

There were lots of Siskin feeding in the Alders along the river and they looked very festive in the snow laden trees.

Siskin

Evidence of birds being forced of the higher moors came in the form of two Common Snipe flushed from the river edge and a lone female Stonechat, both species are very scarce along the river.

Common Snipe

There were plenty of Redwing around and one or two Brambling but the scenery made up for any disappointment on the bird front.

River Derwent at Chatsworth

Great Grey Shrike = Bonsall Moor

 Very surprised this morning to find a Great Grey Shrike on Bonsall Moor. It's in the same area on Leys Lane as the bird present last winter. It looks a little darker, especially over the eye and on the scapulars than last winters bird, but then it has had a complete moult.

There were hundreds of Fieldfare and Redwing feeding on the Hawthorn berries 

Great Grey Shrike

Fieldfare arrival - at last

 Finally, Fieldfare are arriving in numbers this morning. I saw my first Fieldfare of the autumn only on Tuesday, when 55 arrived in the Cathole valley but this morning as I walked by the river north of Darley Dale there were large groups crossing the valley heading west. I counted 1050 but there must have been many more moving high and west along with several hundred Redwing.

migrating Fieldfare

Whooper Swans over Beeley Moor

I've been lucky enough to see several decent movements of Pink-footed Geese this autumn, which is always something I luck forward to. In fact the only sight and sound that beats them is wild swans, and today I had a fantastic view of 16 Whooper Swans which came directly over my head against the blue sky. 

There were several parties seen elsewhere in the country so it was clearly a day that suited the swans for migration. No juveniles with this group but hopefully they have had a decent breeding season in Iceland and Scandinavia.

Whooper Swans

Redwing and Brambling arrival at Beeley Moor

 I had a message from a friend this morning that Redwings were arriving on the east coast. A little later another message from just south of York reported over 3000 birds heading west.

I went up on to Beeley Moor facing east and waited patiently whilst scanning the horizon. Just after 11:00 the first group of 70 birds crossed the moor followed by several flocks of 40 to 50 birds. By mid-day I had counted 480 birds arriving from the east. Whilst watching for the Redwing 4 Brambling landed in the trees close to where I was stood and at least 15 Lesser Redpoll followed the Redwings heading west.

Hopefully we'll see more in the coming days

Redwing crossing a grey sky

Brambling feeding briefly before continuing west

Big Goose Day!

 Most autumns we get one or two days with decent movements of Pink-footed Geese over Beeley Moor. This year I thought they might have missed us when on 24th September there was a large southerly movement down the east coast with over 12,000 counted passing Spurn Point but today we counted over 1,000 birds mainly heading east and most skeins crossing the moors north of Beeley. 

That this was part of a larger movement was confirmed with 3700 counted over Longdendale, in the north of the county, and over 7,000 counted heading east over Wintersett in West Yorkshire.

Pink-footed Geese, 9 in the top photo, 65 in the middle and 229 in the bottom

Traditionally birds passing over Beeley are coming from the NE (Southport area) and heading SE towards the Wash, but for the last couple of years they are more frequently heading east towards the Lincolnshire and perhaps the Humber as the West Yorkshire birds would be doing.

A satellite tagged bird nicely shows this route and why the passage was mainly to the north of us.

Route of a recent GPS tagged Pink-footed Goose

First Pink-footed Geese of the autumn over Beeley Moor

 I was pleased to see a small skein of 40 Pink-footed Geese crossing Beeley Moor this morning, I had thought they might have missed us this autumn with a large movement of birds down the east coast last weekend with 12,000 passing Spurn on Friday the 21st. Hopefully there are still more to come, and we may catch birds returning to the Lancashire coast before the end of the year if there are issues with the sugar beet crop in Norfolk like last year.

A female or immature Merlin give superb views through the telescope as it sat on one of the old stone shooting butts and if I'd known it was going to fly directly towards me I could have had a nice photo but by the time I'd got the camera it was flying away. There are hundreds of Meadow Pipits migrating over the moor at the moment so there's no shortage of food for it.

Merlin female/immature flying away

The old shooting butts also attracted a migrant Northern Wheatear, only the second I've seen this month.

Northern Wheatear

There have also been several Jay crossing the moor, with a group of 5 yesterday and several small parties of Common Snipe.

With the colder weather now it definitely feeling like autumn now.

First Wigeon of the autumn - Chatsworth

 Checking the Mallards along the river at Chatsworth I was rewarded with my first Eurasian Wigeon of the autumn plus a single immature female Goosander which are still in short supply.

Eurasian Wigeon - 1st winter male I think

A depleted Emperor Lake held 25 Teal which is the largest count I have had since Swiss Lake was drained.

An immature male Hen Harrier, perhaps one from the successful breeding this year in upper Derwent Dale, has been seen several times around Harland Edge and East Moor during the past week.

a very distant Hen Harrier probably a juvenile male messing with a Carrion Crow

Some positive news on Red Grouse with at least 4 seen on East Moor and a further 2 or 3 on Beeley Moor in the last few days, my largest count for several years.