Twelvety

So here's a rewind for January twenty twelve. Given the short days I figured I'd treat myself to a long weekend. Of course Sod's Law states all the action would be on Saturday and Monday would be hopeless. The truth wasn't far away but it was nice anyway. As per my last post the highlights were a Hooded Crow and a Bean Goose, with not a great deal else to get excited about.

Saturday 28th January

Harpham - Lowthorpe - Little Kelk : 20 Greylags, 8 Grey Partridge, 1 Heron, 3 Buzzard, 1 Kestrel, 300+ Woodpigeon, 4 Great Spotted Woodpecker, 1 Redwing, 1 Goldcrest, 1 Coat Tit, small flock of Siskin heard at Harpham and the Hooded Crow flying over as we were trying to locate them. Pretty much the last bird of the day was the Bean Goose heading over with a few Greylags just before dusk - picked up on call before flying overhead.

Sunday 29th January

Kelk - Kelk Beck : 4 Mute Swan, 7 Greylags, 2 Wigeon, 9 Teal, 14 Mallard, 4 Grey Partridge, 4 Heron, 1 Sparrowhawk, 3 Buzzard, 1 Kestrel, 6 Coot, 1 Snipe, 1 Kingfisher, 1 Meadow Pipit, 1 Grey Wagtail, 2 Redwing, 46 Yellowhammer (a very large local count!), 9 Reed Bunting.

Gembling - Foston : 2 Mute Swan, 17 Greylags, 1 Wigeon, 23 Teal, 54 Mallard, 2 Red-legged Partridge, 1 Cormorant, 1 Buzzard, 1 Kestrel, 1 Kingfisher, 43 Fieldfare. A herd of 27 Mute Swans (see pic below) were in a field toward Wansford.

Kelk Lake : 3 Pochard, 25 Tufted Duck, 1 Little Grebe, 6 Coot,

Monday 30th January

Little Kelk - Gransmoor - Harpham : 21 Greylags, 1 Gadwall, 8 Mallard, 2 Grey Partridge, 1 Cormorant, 12 Moorhen together near Kelk Beck, 35 Lapwing, 1 Woodcock flushed by a shooting party, 160+ Feral Pigeons, 1500+ Woodpigeon toward Burton Agnes, 20+ Collared Dove, 5 Great Spotted Woodpecker, 9 Fieldfare, 2 Goldcrest, 1 Coal Tit, 45+ Goldfinch, 1 male Bullfinch, 22+ Siskin at Harpham (same flock as Saturday).

A few photos, starting with a Wren, a species I've somehow managed not to get on film before.

Herd of swans at Wansford - Mutes not Whoopers!

Part of the local corvid pre-roost flock that must have been spooked by the farmer - suddenly the sky was filled with hundreds as they retreated to the safety of the trees.

A caterpillar. In January. A bit of a surprise. Not sure what the appeal of the mole hill was.

My January visit racked up 69 species for the new year list, a marginally better result than the previous two years which suffered snowy conditions.

Hug a Hoodie

2012 has got off to good start - with a new bird for the area!

A single HOODED CROW flew south-west over Harpham on Saturday. These are fairly scarce in Yorkshire with around 10 per year, mostly along the well watched coastal strip.

Following the Bean Goose flock in November last year, another one was seen on Saturday making a local flight with a small party of Greylags over Kelk.

Having said that it was actually a quiet weekend for birds the best of the rest being a Woodcock, a Grey Wagtail, 2 Kingfisher, and a flock of Siskin.

More later plus a few reassuringly rough pictures.

Cattle Egret relocated

So it seems the Cattle Egret has been hanging out at Hempholme near Tophill Low since it left Kelk - about 5 miles as the egret flies.

I hadn't realised that presumably the same one had been seen in November near Spurn. Maybe it was flushed from its favoured field at Hempholme and flew up to Kelk on 18th Dec, decided it wasn't as good and went straight back the following day.

2011 Summery

Looking out of the window at the miserable murk that passes for weather today I was reminded of a work email I received late last year which contained the timely typo "And so in summery..."

Anyway that's the title explained. I thought a review of 2011 might pass some time. First some numbers...

2011 year list - 116
Past 3 years - 117, 114, 115
Total last 5 years - 140 (-1 if I'm not allowed Ruddy Shelduck)
Since 1990 - 179 (at least 175 without dodgy wilfowl).

January to March

The first visit of the year was during the remnants of the hardest winter for a generation. And it showed. Most birds had cleared out of the woods and hedges, some into gardens, some out of the county, but no doubt many lacking the migratory instinct had perished.

A Little Egret was the fourth record for the area. Also in January were 91 Pink-footed Goose, a Water Rail, 2 Woodcock and 2 Green Sandpiper. February was positively Spring-like and there was a lot of water on the fields; 14 Wigeon and 140+ Teal were in the area. 3 Treecreepers together at Harpham made quite a sight. A herd of 15 Whooper Swan flew in from the south and spent an afternoon in Kelk in March. Other goodies in this month were 23 Wigeon on a flooded field, a Curlew and the first Chiffchaff.

April to June

Migrants were arriving early in April with several warblers breaking their own records and an unprecedented number of Yellow Wagtails joining them. There weren't many scarce birds to admire though a fine male Wheatear in Kelk was very welcome as were the pair of Little Ringed Plover in April and May. A Whimbrel heading east was probably the best of the bunch.

Good numbers of singing warblers were doing their thing, especially Blackcap and Whitethroat. Single Grasshopper Warbler and Garden Warbler were a joy to hear. The first sightings of Hobby and Marsh Harrier for the year did not hint at what might happen next.

July to September

The first surprise of the summer was an influx of Quail with birds noted calling at four sites. I even got a brief glimpse of a bird near Gransmoor Lane. This can only have been a sample of the birds present and surely many must have passed unnoticed.

A female Pochard was noted with young in June - the second such event in recent years. Later in the summer the Marsh Harriers had two young on the wing and Hobby looked to have been successful too. Our Buzzards keep being productive - 11 were seen on one day in September. How the Buzzard-free past seems a long time ago!

Scarcer birds were in fairly short supply, understandably, but a Spotted Flycatcher put in an appearance and a surprise flock of 12 Greenshank flew along Kelk Beck. Bizarre. It was left to gulls to provide the summer highlight - 2 Yellow-legged Gulls feeding behind a working tractor with a large number of other large gulls.

October to December

The latter months started to hot up with a Ring Ouzel, a Crossbill, a Redpoll and a Mediterranean Gull in October. There were plenty of common farmland birds too - flocks of 80 Tree Sparrow and 90 Goldfinch are significant local counts.

November tried to calm down a bit but a national influx of grey geese made sure it didn't - Kelk played host to 11 White-fronted and 25 Bean Goose. Truly remarkable stuff, it's just a shame they were only seen through thick fog. A healthy 'corvid' roost at this time held around 1000 Jackdaw and 2000 Rook.

Despite all the scarce birds this year - Little Egret, Quail, Yellow-legged Gull, Crossbill, Ring Ouzel, Bean Goose - there was one thing absent, a first for the Kelk area. So as if by magic a Cattle Egret apppeared in December, a first and the rarest bird I've ever seen locally.

December 2011

Quick write-up from last month - a couple of frosty days with a light but still biting breeze.

Saturday 17th December

Harpham/Lowthorpe: 2 Kestrel, 2 Buzzard, 2 Golden Plover, 1 Great Spotted Woodpecker, 3+ Skylark, 6+ Goldcrest, 2 Redwing, 1 Coal Tit, 1 Treecreeper at New Road (photo below). A squirrel was in the Church yard at Lowthorpe.

Green Lane / Kelk Lake: the CATTLE EGRET aside... 2 Mute Swan, 7 Tufted Duck, 3 Teal, 1 Gadwall, 1 Goldeneye, 1 Sparrowhawk, 1 Buzzard, 12 Lapwing, 700+ Woodpigeon, 3 Stock Dove, 6 Yellowhammer.

Sunday 18th December

Green Lane / Kelk Beck: the Egret was seen again over Little Kelk as it flew toward Foston. Otherwise the morning saw 1 Little Grebe, 1 Cormorant, 2 Grey Heron plus 15 over the heronry, 11 Greylag Goose, 5 Mallard, 6 Teal, 2 Buzzard, 1 Sparrowhawk, 2 Kestrel, 12 Grey Partridge, 2 Snipe, 1 Meadow Pipit (scarce in winter), 1 Grey Wagtail, 9 Redwing, 120+ Fieldfare, 40+ Chaffinch, 5 Reed Bunting. A group of 4 Roe Deer were feeding happily toward Millingdale.

Foston / Gembling: 13 Teal, 1 Buzzard, 1 Sparrowhawk, 1 Kestrel.

Tree Sparrow, Blue Tit and Starlings on feeders at Lowthorpe. There's a reasonable sized colony of Tree Sparrows here but they're a devil to see as they keep to the gardens and hedges.

A not quite in focus Redwing by Kelk Beck. This is the first one I've managed to get a picture of.

Starlings in the morning light. Noisy buggers.

Spot the Treecreeper competition!

And that was my final view of Kelk for 2011. Here's to 2012.

Cattle Egret

A CATTLE EGRET was in Kelk on 18th and 19th December. This is the rarest bird to have been recorded in the area by myself. Formely considered a national rarity it has become a more regular visitor to southern England over recent year. However it is still a rarity in Yorkshire with less than 20 ever recorded. Stunned was not the word when it appeared at the end of an otherwise mediocre day.

More about the rest of the weekend later but here's a little detail about the bird (sadly no photos).

We first saw the bird flying north toward the pastures in Little Kelk. It was obiously an egret (first though was, naturally, Little Egret) but the view from behind as it flew meant that was all I could say. Toward the end of the pasture the bird came down among the grazing cattle and started to feed with short dashes. Overall the bird looked more compact, with a shorter neck/legs and bigger head that a Little Egret would show - we were almost certainly looking at a Cattle Egret. A closer look to confirm the bill shape/colour and leg colour would have been nice.

After a couple of minutes the bird got up and flew on north but appeared to come down again somewhere near Kelk Lake or the farm. There was little option but to divert and head around to the lake. An hour or so later we had walked along the length of the road to the end of the lake and were heading back having had no sign of the bird. Suddenly the egret appeared about 20m in front of us flying north-east over the road. It went almost overhead at about 10m distance - at which it the short and relatively thick yellow bill was obvious, as were the shorter dark legs. Definitely a Cattle Egret. The bird carried on only to land in the grounds of Little Kelk Farm for a couple of minutes before heading off along Gransmoor Drain and out of sight. It was dusk by now and with the identification sorted it was time for home.

In the morning the obvious thing to do was to see if the bird had returned to the pasture field. No sign. However as we walked away toward Gransmoor Lane we picked up the bird in flight heading south from the pasture. Had it been there all along? Anyway it flew purposefully south and tracking it into the distance it was heading toward Foston before becoming a tiny dot.

The news was put out on Sunday but as far as I can tell it has not been relocated. A fuller account has been submitted to the county bird recorder and hopefully it will be accepted as part of the scientific record for rare birds in Yorkshire.

Whatever next, eh?

Beans Talk

A couple of pictures of the Bean Goose flock from November.... for what it's worth. Crikey, the fog really was dense.

An, er, close up. Can just about make out them out as Beans.

Most of the Bean flock together. Stay tuned for December's report!