Displaying Common Crossbill

I came across a small group of Common Crossbill locally today feeding in larches with a large group of Siskin. Several of the males were in song and one male gave a brief display flight with wings held open whilst it glided giving a typical, repeated 'glip' call.
Common Crossbill is a sporadic breeding bird in the area and they are very early nesters and could be feeding young already!

Common Crossbill - male

Common Crossbill - female

The Darley Yew

On a rather grey morning with intermittent drizzle I returned to St Helens Church. During the past week there have been around a dozen Hawfinch reported and it didn't take long to find the first birds sitting in the trees at the back of the churchyard. After half an hour, with birds coming and going, it looked like there were at least 10 Hawfinch still in the area.

Whilst in the churchyard I took another look at the Darley Yew which has been a source of food for the Hawfinches during their stay. With an estimated age of 2000 years it's impossible to comprehend such a span for any living thing but the small plaque gives some sense of the events it has witnessed. 

Whatever its age its certainly an impressive tree.

The Darley Yew

Death of a Roe Deer

The Roe Deer is much the rarest of the three deer species found locally and I have only seen it on four occasions. Two of these sightings were at the back end of last year in the Farley Woods area, on one occasion two Roe Deer came out of the wood and crossed Farley Lane near Sydnope Stand. Sadly this is the area where this animal was found on the roadside by Roger last Saturday morning (10th Feb).
I think there have been three or four Roe Deer resident in the Farley Woods/ Sydnope area for several months having spoken to some of the regular dog walkers who frequent the area and this is doubtless one of those animals.

Roe Deer (photo Roger Carrington)

Blackcap back in the garden

Saw the male Blackcap in the garden again today and managed a photo this time. I've only seen it twice now but it has presumably been in the area most of the winter.

Blackcap - male

Hawfinches still at St Helens

Although the Hawfinches have still being showing well at St Helens, mainly in the famous Darley Yew in front of the church, the numbers are declining with around six present most of this week. It was nice to watch them in sunshine today.

Hawfinch - males

Aside from the Hawfinch it's been quiet although a Blackcap feeding in my garden is the first of this winter but appears to be coming a feature. Several Crossbill on Flash Lane and over Beeley village but little else of note.

Raven display

With the first decent days sunshine of the year I witnessed plenty of display from both Raven, one of our earliest breeding birds, and Buzzard yesterday.
The Raven is unusual amongst British birds in that it will regularly do a complete roll whilst in flight and I just managed to catch this bird whilst it was upside-down and calling.

Raven - rolling

I also got a reasonable comparison shot of Raven and Buzzard flying together for size comparison, similar size with Raven just a bit longer in the wing.

Raven and Common Buzzard

New Year Hawfinches - St Helen's Church

I've been away over the New Year so today was my first chance to have a look at the Hawfinches at St Helen's Church. Whilst away it looks like the numbers have generally been around 20 but in the last few years there have been counts of up to 30. 
There feeding behaviour appears to have changed since December, they now look to be spending more time on the outside of the Yews making them a little easier to see and photograph. It looked to me as if they are now eating fresh shoots rather than the berries, which look to have largely disappeared, which might be an explanation for this.
The photos below are all males and show the strange spatulate tips to the inner 5 primaries.
Aside from the Hawfinches I think it's been fairly quiet for birds locally over Christmas/ New Year.

Hawfinch - males

More Hawfinch - St Helen's Church, Darley Dale

The number of Hawfinch at St Helen's Church increased slowly during the week to 12 by Friday but this morning there were at least 20 feeding in the Yew trees around the church or sitting in the surrounding trees. I saw groups of birds flying off towards Warren Carr and towards Darley Hillside and presumably Stancliffe Hall where there are also several large Yews so there could easily be more.
This is by far the largest flock I have seen in the area and it would be fantastic if they stayed and re-established breeding in the area.

Hawfinch - there are at least 13 in this photo plus 1 Greenfinch

Hawfinch - distinctive in flight with large body, short tail & white primary bases seen from above and below

Bradford Dale

No sign of the Great White Egret mid-morning in Bradford Dale but it had been seen earlier. Unfortunately, as the valley is narrow where the pools are, the bird is disturbed by any walkers on the footpath. Apparently this is at least its third day in the area so it may return.
Nice views of Kingfisher and Dipper along the river but rather cold this morning.

Kingfisher - female, with extensive orange on lower mandible

Great White Egret - Bradford Dale

Exciting news from Doug Aston today of a Great White Egret in Bradford Dale. It was seen and photographed by Doug between Youlgrave and Middleton-by-Youlgrave.
This is the first record I can recall in the immediate Matlock/ Bakewell area but is not entirely unexpected as the numbers in the UK have increased dramatically during the past decade although there are still only around 10 recorded in Derbyshire each year.

Great White Egret (© Doug Aston)

Chatsworth in the sunshine

A beautiful sunny day today with no wind and I spent the morning walking around Chatsworth. I called in at St Helen's Church as I left Darley Dale and soon found two Hawfinch but couldn't locate any others, there were 9 there yesterday!
On the river I came across the hybrid male Tufted Duck x Pochard just below Chatsworth House. This is the first time I've seen it since January when it was at Bakewell. The Pink-footed Goose was still with the flock of around 50 Canada Geese.

Male Tufted Duck x Pochard hybrid

Not much else seen but a female Grey Wagtail showed well in the sunshine.

Grey Wagtail - female

Hawfinch and Crossbills

I was very surprised this morning to come across a lone male Hawfinch on Flash Lane. This is the first time I've seen one so close to the moor. Walking back along the lane crossbills could be heard calling but were hidden by the trees. It sounded like quite a few birds and this may have been the same flock I saw at the end of November in Farley which numbered at least 20 birds but again seen only in flight.

Common Crossbill - males

Walking through 70 Acre Plantation with Alan we found two males which we were able to confirm were both Common Crossbill. There have been several flocks of Parrot Crossbill seen in the country including one small group in Upper Derwentdale so it's worth checking any crossbills seen.
Back in Darley Dale I saw at least 4 Hawfinch at St Helen's Church but speaking to the couple of other birders present it sounded like all 8 may still be visiting the churchyard.

Hawfinch - that's an impressive bill!

Hawfinch Update

The female Hawfinch is still being seen most days in the Whitworth Park but can be difficult to locate, especially now that the snow has gone. 
On Tuesday Alan Stewardson had a group of 7 Hawfinch flying over the railway line towards the Whitworth from the St Helen's Church direction and today Simon Roddis had 8 birds around St Helen's Church. The birds were feeding in the Darley Dale Yew and adjacent yew trees and I managed to see 7 of them mid-afternoon.

Hawfinch - Whitworth Park, Darley Dale

My last record of Hawfinch in the Darley Dale area was in 2010, prior to then I had occasional sightings each year when they used to breed locally. 
This autumn there has been a huge influx of birds to the UK from the Continent, which must involve several thousand individuals. Locally there have been around 100 birds seen at Carsington and several dozen in the Ogston area but despite searching there had been none in the Darley Dale area until Simon Roddis found a female in the cemetery adjoining Whitworth Park on Saturday. 
I looked for it on Saturday and Sunday, during the persistent snowfall, without success but it was found again this morning by Alan Stewardson in the Whitworth Park. 
Fortunately I was nearby and saw it several times during the morning feeding with Redwing and Chaffinch below Yew and other conifers which were free of snow.
It will be interesting to see if these Continental immigrants stay to supplement the declining UK breeding population.

Hawfinch -female

Pink-footed Goose - Chatsworth

I always check the Canada Geese along the River Derwent in the hope of another stray goose joining them but without any luck until today when I found this first winter Pink-footed Goose with the flock in front of Chatsworth House. We have plenty of Pink-footed Geese flying over the area during autumn and winter, around 200 flew NW yesterday, so it's not too surprising that a stray bird would join the Canada's.

Pink-footed Goose