Whitethroat

Whitethroat at members reserve on Wednesday.

Green Sandpiper at Lindley Wood Res

Grasshopper Warbler at Stocks Res 25.04.2010

More Wheatears

Some shots from the weekend taken near Oxenhope.

Green Hairstreak

Green Hairstreak... Oxenhope watchpoint (c) 2010

Hi Ian, same with me as well... yesterday was the first day here... see:

http://vismig.blogspot.com/

The one above was snapped this morning during a shady spell.

Dave

Grasshopper Warbler at Skipton

The male is singing, though not visible, for the first 9 seconds and then can be heard again at 22 seconds.

Green Hairstreak

My first Green Hairstreak of the year with one alongside the wall at Whetstone Gate and 20+ in a 50 metres area at Bradup.

Some recent images

Swift ( 20th April )

Wheatears Trough Lane

Three of 22 on the lane today

Holiday Snaps

Took a holiday last week in the New Forest area, managed to negotiate an agreement with my wife Lynne, to do a little birding. The birders in Hampshire really are spoilt, such a rich variety of habitats. The Dartford Warbler proved a bit elusive , managed to locate this bird on the last afternoon of our holiday . The Tit I believe is a Marsh Tit. Stephen

A bird with no tail

Chiff Chaff at members only site, and Redshank at Bradup, both today

Bullfinches at Riddlesden

Hope I'm not becoming a bore with "my" resident Bullfinches. Stephen

Treecreeper at St Ives

Herring Gulls in Bradford TC

BOG may already know of the 'possible' breeding in 2009
of Herring Gull on the roof at the City Hall in Bradford City centre so if
you do I apologise for my tale below!!!

Firstly I walk from Nelson Street and catch the bus opposite the City Hall
on Channing Way in the city centre about 5 days a week. And also I
sometimes patrol that area as part of my beat. Last year around April/May I
saw and heard a pair of Herring Gulls in that area.

Now Common gull are regular in the city centre but not Herring. I thought
the birds were just passing through but then a few days later I saw one gull
(about 3 times ) flying over the City Hall and gradually start to descend
and finally land on the building.

2009 was a busy year for me and the incident slipped my mind. However, on
Sunday 4th of April as I was approaching the site I heard and saw 2 Herrings
flying over the same location as last year. The birds appeared to be in
courtship.

When I worked for the Council I had a tour around the City Hall and the area
that faces Nelson street does have a small flat roof which is not visible
from the ground.

I will start to pay more attention to what is going on ' if anything at all
'.

MVPriestley

Redpoll today

Redpoll have started to visit the garden, niger seed obviously attracts them. It was around this time last year when they started to come to the garden. Stephen

Members Only site this morning

A nesting LTT and singing Dunnock were the best I could manage on a cold unpromising Good Friday morning. Stephen

Ringer's Challenge

I guess I could have submitted this picture as an ID quiz however to avoid any embarrassment this is one of the two Mute Swans that spent several weeks at Redcar Tarn. On the 14th March I noticed that one of the birds was ringed and so I tried to get a image that might enable the ring details to be read. Sadly this was the best I got and furthermore both birds had departed the following week when better light might have produced a better picture.

So here's the challenge, are there any ringers in the group that might be able to glean any info about the swan from the ring details shown above?

Colour Ringed BHG

The gull was photographed at Redcar Tarn on 14th March and a check at http://www.euring.org/ suggests that it was probably ringed by the Cotswold Water Park Ringing Group at an inland gull colony in Wiltshire or Gloucestershire. I have informed the co-ordinator and will let you know if I receive any further details.

Update: I have received a reply from the ringing co-ordinator and he has confirmed that the gull was ringed in Wiltshire on 28th June last year and this was the first reported sighting.
He also mentioned that generally most reports are of birds that head south and so this was particularly interesting. He also sent a brief report of the gull ringing study that they are carrying out and I am more than happy to forward it to anyone that might be interested. (ian.hargreaves9@btopenworld.com)

Siskin this morning

A windswept Siskin photographed through my bedroom window this morning