Whooper Swans over Beeley Moor

My first local Whooper Swans of the year today, with six birds seen distantly from Beeley Moor crossing Whitesprings Plantation heading towards Matlock. They are not the first of the autumn though, as Alan saw 11 going east on the 4th November.

Whooper Swans

It was probably a family party but the birds were too distant to be certain of their age.

There was another reasonable easterly movement of Pink-footed Geese with 540 counted in 10 skeins this morning. Also several Common Crossbill and a flock of 30-40 Brambling on Flash Lane.

Footnote: A party of 6 Whooper Swans, 2 adults and 4 juveniles, were flushed from Broadstone Reservoir south of Huddersfield on the morning of 19th November and were seen in the afternoon at Shipley Lake 67km to the SE. I'm sure that must have been the same party which I saw over Beeley.

Red Grouse feeding on Cowberry

 The Cowberry (Vaccinium vitis-idaea), which is also known as Lingonberry, has a fairly restricted distribution locally with just a few patches around Beeley Moor and each year, in the late autumn, it attracts the Red Grouse to feed on its berries.

Red Grouse feeding on Cowberry

I think the bird above is probably a juvenile male as it is starting to show the white malar stripe at the base of the bill. There was also an adult male present.

Red Grouse adult male

Cowberry

Cowberry local records taken from the NBN Atlas

Autumn giving way to winter

 After the excitement of the Woodpigeon movements last week with a record count of just under 188k from Ramsley on the 4th it has been much quieter this week, the pigeon numbers are back to a few hundred a day. Although there are still the occasional skeins of Pink-footed Geese it feels like autumn is well and truly over. 

The only thing that stops it feeling like winter is the temperature which is still hitting the late teens during the day and staying above ten at night. 

For the past few years Red Kites have largely disappeared from the area by late September and don't start to be seen regularly again until February but this year I'm still seeing them more or less daily as we approach the middle of November. Not sure if this is weather related but I can only assume it's to do with food availability.

Red Kite carrying a food item

The river levels have risen to a more usual level and I'm starting to hear the song of the Dipper more regularly as they have established their winter territories. 

Dipper

There is still a chance of something interesting turning up and Red-flanked Bluetail on the Cromford just north of Ambergate on 4th November was a reminder of how unpredictable birdwatching can be. Sadly, it has not been seen since but could reappear.

Black-headed Gull 2T51 returns to Bakewell

 The Black-headed Gull bearing the blue colour ring 2T51 has returned to Bakewell for its third successive winter. 

It was rung in Grange-over-Sands in Cumbria in September 2019 and has returned each winter since visiting the river in Bakewell town centre,

Black-headed Gull - adult

Woodpigeons on the move

There have been some big movements of Common Woodpigeon in recent days. 

This morning Alan Stewardson and I counted 13,100 birds moving in a westerly or south-westerly direction over Harewood Moor but 29,000 birds were counted earlier in the week from the highpoint at Stone Edge behind the Red Lion.

Common Woodpigeon a flock of 119 birds

There were several hundred finches, mostly Chaffinch but with several flocks of Lesser Redpoll and Siskin.

A Ring Ouzel was still present in the Cathole area yesterday but the Black Redstart on Flash Lane hasn't been seen since last Thursday (24th Oct) but could still be in the area.

I had great views of a juvenile Peregrine Falcon yesterday, chasing Fieldfare on Flash Lane. It made several stoops at feeding birds but was unsuccessful.

Peregrine - juvenile