29th April-2nd May 2019
A more memorable cuckoo shot...
...and other oddments!
April 29th - a trip to Carr Lane, South Kirkby for two quality birds, although the origins of one of them always raises some doubts. Smart looking ferruginous duck on Carr Lane pond [when I eventually found the right location as the pager's info sent me to a place about a mile away!] An optimistic birder announced: ''Well, it isn't ringed on one leg. Can't see the other one.''
Anyway, an obliging bird that didn't linger and was gone the next day.
Same pond also featured a calling cuckoo. Eventually it was spotted high up in the birch trees. I managed a photo of a cuckooing cuckoo!!
Remarkably, about 300 yards further down the road and then on foot under a railway bridge and in a clump of trees just the other side of the bridge an Iberian chiffchaff was singing heartily - and didn't sound at all like a chiffchaff.
May 1st - I walked from Fairburn Visitor Centre via the Coal Tips trail to Lin Dike and then back along the river. I saw very little other than distant egrets and spoonbills. No sign of the hoped-for green woodpecker, alas. I did snap this willow warbler up by the top lakes.
Tired, I was glad to take a break and drive to Blacktoft thinking the Monty's might show. She didn't but I did see my first hobby and reed warblers of the year. Here are some other birds: whitethroat and vermin, sorry, pheasant...
...plus some marsh harrier shots.
A short sequence of a marsh harrier turning and diving into the reeds...
May 2nd - black-crowned night heron reported Main Bay Fairburn. After doing the week's shopping I went to see. No sign but first kingfishers and swifts of the year so not a wasted trip. Rain drove me away but I came back later when the bird reappeared and saw it distantly but well. Only shot that day: a calling great crested grebe.
