Its worth a visit


Wintering Chiff Chaffs appear on local site

13/01/2015 19:40

The fields below Pildacre(Chickenley seem to hold a fascinating feeding area for a wide variety of birds at the moment.Over the lastr 2 weeks there have been decent numbers of Meadow Pipits,Reed Buntings and Pied Wagtails but this morning I was surprised to find 3 Chiff Chaffs feeding along with both Reed Buntings and Meadow Pipits.

Part of the attraction must be that during periods of South westerly and Westerly winds good numbers of small insects are blown on to the metal fence bordering Dewsbury Sewage works from the nearby filter beds and this provides a small feast for many birds during their early morning feeding sessions.

There are still some 210 approx Pied Wagtails feeding on the filter beds of the Sewage works though the Meadow Pipit numbers have dropped to less than 20.There is also 5 Grey Wagtails on the filter beds at the moment.

On the circular tanks on the works today 340 Black Headed gulls with 1 adult Lesser Black Gacked Gull and on the nearby central lagoons 48 Common Snipe.

Duck numbers are still good with some 185 Common Teal and just 2 Shoveller.There are still 6 Goldeneye on our part of the river Calder and also 5 Goosander(2 males)The river calder is fairly high at the moment which allways reduces the number of waterfowl in the area but there are 2 regular Grey Herons on its banks with 18 Canada Geese around the saville Town stretch of the river and a Common Kestrel is hunting on the Sewage works  on a daily basis.

With the sudden drop in temperatures today the feeders on Kerries Foods reserve have been busy with 6 Robins,10 Blue Tits,6 Great Tits,4 Chaffinches,6 Goldfinches,3 Reed Buntings,4 Dunnocks and 3 Wrens.A Water Rail was calling constantly this morning from the central marshy part of the reserve.

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