As I write the weather is in a southerly air flow with strong winds hardly conducive with migrants coming from the N & E. However, there has been some movement which have been noted from the watch point. Birds of interest were as follows:
22/10 4 Whooper Swans flew N/W also a Ring-necked Parakeet flew S and there was a good movement of Wood Pigeon noted S with 5,664 counted.
There has also been an influx of Cormorants mainly moving S/W with 3 on 26th, 10 on 25th , 3 on 23rd and 7 on the 22nd
In addition I have picked up a movement of Grey Wagtails some to the N/E and some S/W. A good count of 9 on 23rd, 7 on 24th, 8 on 25th and a further 8 on the 26th.
The weather on the 19/10/21 the day of the Fungi walk at Raw Nook Nr was ideal! It was warm and damp like the previous few days. So expectations and excitement was high.
The annual Fungi walk which has been running for the last 3 years was conducted by Kat Woolley of he YWT. Whose knowledge and enthusiasm is simply brilliant
And for me, to hear Kat (who does Fungi walks all over the region) say ” I love coming to Raw Nook NR …it’s one of my favourite places! ” Illustrates the excellent work we are all doing on this excellent local nature reserve.
Sadly though for me I could only stop for an hour but Kat kindly sent me the record list of species she had found.
A total of 31 species were found of which 16 were site firsts…
A Red Kite was circling over fields just off the A58 at Birkinshaw around 11am this morning which is not that far away from Low Moor…so keep at eye out.
Also yesterday a Cormorant came in from the S/E and landed at Toad Holes Beck!
First year Cormorant..
Today Pink footed geese were moving with 905 to the N/E and 252 to the S/W
An excellent day at the watchpoint today with the highlight been a Hawfinch that flew south directly over Caldene fields. Also a record count of 23 Bullfinches moving mainly to the N. It was also another excellent day for incoming Pink footed geese !https://www.trektellen.org/count/view/779/20211008
Today at the watchpoint Redwings started to come in from the east. So keep a lookout as they may swoop down to feed on berries in your garden. The excellent influx of Pink-footed geese carried on today but this time most birds were moving S/W.
A Migrant Hawker dragonfly was at Caldene fields late morning.
Today there has been a major influx of Pink footed geese into the UK. Thankfully at the watch point I managed to record 2,620 ( A new site record) at distance moving E/S/E. Over 9,000 were reported from a watch point at Bolton!
Whilst a good number of these geese were flying high it is good time to keep an eye out for lower flying PFG which are fairly common over our area during October. There is a good chance that you will hear them calling as they fly over.
On a different note, I called in at Raw Nook Nr to look for moth leaf mines.
I found a Ectoedemia albifasciella ( status common) mine on Oak with the larva which as I have said before constitutes a breeding record, which is excellent news for our urban nature reserve.
Female Kestrel has been at the watch point for the last few days.
A number of vis-mig (Bird visible migration) sites including my site at Low Moor are to date reporting a lack of numbers of migrating birds.
I am recording low number of common species like, Chaffinches, Greenfinches and Goldfinches as are Meadow Pipits for this time of the year .
The weather as we known pays a vital role in the migration of birds and at the moment the temperature is still relatively mild so finger crossed this may be a factor or is Global Warming a factor?
So yesterday over the watch point 3 Goosander and 2 Swallow flew south. A single party of 45 Siskin flew overhead also to the south.
I also flushed a Common Snipe which flew off high to the north.
This morning a single Swallow battled against the wind to the south and 2 Chiffchaffs and 2 Goldcrests here keeping me company at the watch point.
On my back home I called in at Raw Nook Nr to have a quick look for moth leaf mines.
It wasn’t long before I found a new species of micro moth larva for the reserve in an Oak leaf.
The larva is of the moth Tischeria ekebladella.
The good news about finding tenanted moth leaf mines is that I can prove the species is breeding at the site which is good news for the reserve.
We ordered sunshine and that arrived we were hoping the next generation would attend and they arrived too.
The day had been organised by Sarah Goldsmith & her excellent team from the Yorkshire wildlife Trust.
We, the Low Moor & Oakenshaw Conservation group were helping out mainly with the planting…or so we thought!
I was also keeping an eye out for any wildlife that wanted to attend the event…And it wasn’t long before a late..ish Chiffchaff was in song nearby with a party of Canada geese moving low overhead.
The event started with a Herb Walk presented by Heather from the YWT which was really interesting and informative.
We learnt about the medicinal purposes of plants like the humble Dandelion and the Goose Grass ( that horrible sticky grass ) that actually makes a nice cup of tea!
The children were busy collecting all the herbs as they were looking forward to making the …Potions
They collected Dandelions, Comfrey for making garden feed and Ribwort Plantain and Docks for treating nettle strings.
Excited children with their potions that they had mixed themselves (Below)
It was then onto the planting which all the adults were looking forward to doing….Well at least planting a few plants!! However, the next generation had other ideas…They thankfully needed no encouragement as little legs were running about with plants and watering cans.
Peter Gurney YWT had brought a good number of Bird’s foot trefoil plants to plant in the meadow to try and attract back the once common, Common Blue butterfly.
So the day ended with the next generation been tried, having dirty hands and asking can we do it again!
JUST HOW IT SHOULD BE..
MANY THANKS TO ALL SARAH’S TEAM AT YWT FOR MAKING AND ORGANISING THIS WONDERFUL EVENT…
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