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.

Lesser Black-back Gulls at Elton Common

 I've been abroad in France for several weeks but before I left I checked several times on gull numbers around Elton Common/ Pike Hall and there were generally around 100 birds loafing around in early August. Checking there today I estimated around 2000 birds were present as the fields were ploughed at Elton Common today (a few days ago Simon counted 8.8k at Carsington so there must be plenty of other groups around)

Lesser Black-backed Gulls following the tractor

There are almost 400 birds in the photo above and there was a second tractor with a similar number of birds in attendance with large numbers sat in the neighbouring fields.

There were several darker backed 'intermedius' type birds along with a few Herring Gulls and several Black-headed Gulls plus at least one Common Gull.

Lesser Black-backed Gulls with a darker intermedius type (centre) and Herring (right)

Earlier I had a Ringed Plover fly over Beeley Triangle, calling and my first local Northern Wheatear of the autumn. 

There was an Osprey over the moor on Saturday, but too distant for photos, and what may be the same bird was seen again yesterday.

No sign of any Pink-footed Geese yet or winter thrushes but that will hopefully change before the month end.

Arctic Terns over Darley Dale

In the early hours of Sunday morning Simon recorded Arctic Terns calling as they flew over Darley Dale using his nocturnal audio recording set-up.

Although Arctic Terns are recorded regularly on spring passage at both Carsington and Ogston reservoirs they are rarely recorded away from these water bodies, although they must clearly pass over inland areas as they travel to and from the coast.

This is another example of continuous audio recording giving an insight in to nocturnal movements of birds which we would otherwise be unaware, like that of migrating common Scoter which has been noted previously.

You may need to turn your speaker up to hear what is clearly more than one individual calling (© Simon Roddis)

Black Stork - Beeley Moor

At around 11:30 this morning Ken picked up a large-winged bird flying towards him over Beeley Moor. His initial thoughts that this could be an Osprey were dispelled when the bird turned slightly showing the long extended neck of a Black Stork. 

It dropped slightly towards Wragg's Quarry but appears to have flown onwards in the Rowsley direction.

Amazingly, this is Ken's second Black Stork in the area having photographed one over Two Dales in June 2011! 

There was a report of a possible Black Stork seen at Chatsworth on 28th June. So it's just possible that there has been a bird in the area for some time.

I drove to Rowsley and spent some time scanning across the valley but without success.

This is probably only the fifth Black Stork recorded in Derbyshire.

Perhaps it will reappear, I hope so! 

It looks like the tip of the first primary on the left wing may be missing so it may be possible to confirm if this bird is seen again.

Black Stork © Ken Smith

Lesser Redpoll - a rare breeding bird locally

 The Lesser Redpoll can occur in decent numbers in the winter and I have seen flocks of several hundred on occasion and have had them visiting the garden feeder in the late winter. 

In the summer, however, it is much scarcer and breeds only in small numbers, favouring new growth birch woodland.

Today, whilst close to Beeley Triangle I heard a repeated unfamiliar call which was reminiscent of Yellowhammer but proved to be a recently fledged juvenile Lesser Redpoll. This is the first time I've managed to confirm breeding locally although it is doubtless a regular breeder in small numbers.

Lesser Redpoll - juvenile

Kingfisher and Goosander both scarce this summer

 I walked around Chatsworth yesterday and had decent views of both Kingfisher and Goosander both of which have been scarce this summer. The Goosander is a juvenile, so born this year, but is my first since the middle of May and I suspect they didn't breed on the local stretches of the Wye or Derwent this year.

Goosander - juvenile

Although I see the Kingfisher most months it's usually just a brief fly-by so it was nice to be able to watch this bird fishing in front of Chatsworth House.

Kingfisher - probably a juvenile with dark feet and dark breast band

The Oystercatcher are still about and a single Common Sandpiper was on the river but neither species has bred successfully here this year.

Seven Teal were on a pool by the upper lakes and hopefully these will remain now, they are almost certainly from the few breeding pairs that remain on East Moor/ Leash Fen.

Yellow-legged Gull and an unexpected Common Quail

 I went out early this morning to avoid the day-time high temperatures and headed for Elton Common to look for the gulls. James had said that around a hundred Lesser Black-backs were in a newly ploughed field at the Winster end of the Winster to Newhaven road yesterday. 

I found about 80 gulls just beyond Pikehall and the flock contained at least one adult Yellow-legged but they weren't in a great position for looking at them, so I took a few photos of the Yellow-legged and went up to Elton where there is a better vantage point for the fields. I hadn't been stopped long when I heard what sounded like a single call from a Common Quail. I walked around for a while a heard it call a couple more times which confirmed its identity but I couldn't tell where the call was coming from. I decided to drive up to the traditional area of Elton Common where quail are recorded most years, but having tried several times for them in May and June I wasn't too hopeful. 

As soon as I got out of the car the Common Quail called several times, much closer, from the wheat field with the derelict barn. I heard it several more times over the next hour but could only hear a single bird. Hopefully they have been there a while and could therefore be breeding.

Yellow-legged Gull - adult

Last year I had at least 9 Yellow-legged Gulls appearing with the Lesser Black-backs and I'll be interested to see if there are similar numbers this summer.

The Coronet - a new moth for the area

Overnight Simon caught not one, but three examples of the Coronet in his garden in Darley Dale, a new moth for the area.

Coronet (© Simon Roddis)

Traditionally the Coronet has had a number of discrete populations in the UK and whilst the northerly populations have remained fairly static those from the south have been spreading north (red arrows on the map below).

So it's likely that we'll see more records in the future.

Coronet historical distribution from British Moths by Chris Manley

Current NBN Gateway distribution for the Coronet

My first Sedge Warbler for the Darley Dale area

 Not the first record for the area as there have been several other sightings over the years but this is the first I've seen. Given that it's a common breeding bird at both Carsington and Ogston it is surprising that there aren't more seen locally. 

The 'Birds of the Bakewell Area' which covers the 1990's documents just 15 records of which 11 were at Middleton Moor,  2 at Barbrook (which are both outside the area that I cover) and just 2 from the Wye Valley. Regarding the Wye valley records the report goes on to say;

'In the Wye valley a bird was seen near the Quaker ponds , Monsal Dale (no date given) and a bird was singing near Bakewell on 2 May 1997. The latter has been a traditional site for Sedge Warbler for many years but no specific data was available.'

Where the traditional site in Bakewell was I'm not sure but there is a reedy pool which looks suitable, by the A6 just south of Bakewell by the Haddon Park Farm entrance track that I have checked several times without success.

The bird today was both singing and doing the characteristic display flight in a patch of phragmites which borders the Peak Rail line on the edge of the Whitworth Park. 

Sedge Warbler (not the bird I saw today unfortunately)

The Sedge Warbler is the 160th species I've seen locally (in the Matlock/ Bakewell/ Youlgreave area) which is quite an impressive total for an area lacking any significant open water.

Grasshopper Warbler and another Osprey

 Parked on Beeley Triangle this morning I was very surprised when a Grasshopper Warbler landed on the dry stone wall next to me. At a first glance I thought it was going to be another Meadow Pipit, it's certainly very unusual to see a Grasshopper Warbler in the open other than when it's singing.

Grasshopper Warbler

The legs and feet are quite robust, developed for clambering around in the undergrowth.

Had some luck yesterday with an Osprey seen from the garden gliding down the valley followed by a Hobby circling high over head. During a brief visit to Clough Wood I counted at least 6 Marbled White butterflies which were my first this summer.

Tree Sparrow juveniles and the Small Argent and Sable

 I saw my first juvenile Tree Sparrows of the year today, these were at Stonedge. I've mentioned before that the only other place I've seen them locally is Uppertown but there must be other locations that have small populations and its hard to understand why it has such a restricted distribution in the area.

Tree Sparrow - juveniles

Whilst on the moor I came across a nice example of the small, day flying, moth the Small Argent and Sable. It's an attractive moth whose lave feed on the widespread Heath Bedstraw and consequently the moth can be seen right across the moors at this time of year.

Small Argent and Sable

Spotted Flycatcher - Rowsley

 I've noted three of pairs of Spotted Flycatcher at Chatsworth and at least one pair at Rowsley, where these photos were taken today. So it's looking like a similar number of pairs to last year in the Darley Dale area for me. 

Spotted Flycatcher