Its worth a visit


Today on my Local Patch

26/04/2011 12:49

It was much cooler this morning with mainly dense heavy grey cloud at least till 11:00 hours when small blue patches of sy began to appear.Wind was light to moderate and was blowing from the North East.

2 Mandarin Ducks were hanging around suspiciously on the river just off the Thornhill Wetlands Reserve(male and female)

Activity from Carrion Crows in this area is a major conceern as each of 6 known Mallard nests has a pair of Carrion crows sitting directly above it just waiting for the female duck to be flushed away from the nest.

There are 4 singing Blackaps on the reserve now as well as 2 Chiff Chaffs carrying nesting material at different locations.A Grasshopper Warbler is singing in Brambles) in the area of the large concrete block but owing to the cool conditions the song is as yet only in short bursts.There are now 5 singing male Whitethroats on the reserve.

There is much evidence of egg predation on the reserve with mainly  Pheasant eggs being the target (8 egg remains this morning)and to a lesser extent Mallard eggs(just 2 found so far).

The first significant sightings of House Martins this morning with 5 birds feeding with Swallows and Sand Martins over the filter beds on Dewsbury Sewage works.

The Sewage works itself is very quiet for small passerines with just 2 singing Whitethroats this morning.A single Meadow Pipit flew North West over the compost heaps at the Earlsheaton end of the works.

No sign of Little Ringed Plover today but 2 Common Snipe flushed on the central beds.There was at least 170 Black Headed Gulls on the filter beds on the works this morning with the vast majority being adult birds and around 10% being 1st Summer birds.

A single Sparrow Hawk appears to have taken up residence oppositte the sand martin colony and makes several attempts to catch the birds by gliding under the ledge were the main concentration of nesting holes are located.

A Little Owl was calling in the area North of Kerries Food Factory.This appears to be the only location in the immediate area wher the specis seems to be appearing.

It appears that Reed Buntings have disapeared from the Sewage Works at the moment.This is disapointing as there was 5 pairs of this species present last year in just about each calender month

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