Danebower

Did a new part of the Peak District for us at the weekend, across most of Derbyshire, beyond Buxton and to the border with Cheshire, where it's bleak and the birds are few - but what birds they are!

After all the driving we eventually found a pull in around Danebower and a path down into the valley and the old quarry.
Best of the day was a late summer male Ring Ouzel quite close and quite apparently ticked off with us. This was a lifer so we were altogether happier about the encounter.

Other notables came when a Raven sailed by quite low and flushed up a couple of Red Grouse, the corvid even seemed to lunge for one of them. Better views of grouse came later but the girlfriend had used up her camera battery taking admittedly pleasant portraits of sheep.

Several Wheatears were a nice reminder of Scotland.

Earlier in the week we had a Tawny Owl when we went a short way to Norwood to find darker skies for viewing the Perseid meteor shower. Too cloudy to see many of them, the owl was a cracker though, drove right by it first but it was bold enough to let us reverse the car back to have a good look of it perched on a telegraph pole, headlights illuminating the whole bird. They look so big when you get that kind of view.

Willow Warbler in the garden today, our first since the spring.

Carsi

(Willow Warbler)

Was back at Carsington this week for the Tuesday ABB. Stunning weather, anybody who's been on holiday has got to have used up all their good luck for the year. 2 Great Northern Diver remain on the reservoir and look likely to tease us with mere hints of summer plumage before disappearing in the next week or so.
The best of the rest were a couple of pristine White Wagtails. You can spend hours checking every Pied Wagtail umming and ahhing over their identity but when you actually find a White one you really know it. Shelduck was a nice record for Carsington, Little Ringed Plovers are around, plus the regular waders and warblers. Mallard ducklings are already out and about.

The House Martins have begun work on nest cups up around the visitor centre and the RSPB volunteers will spend a bit more time this year featuring them on event days, which ought to be lots of fun. Like all hirundine they're fascinating birds.

Blackcap!

Happy surprise in the garden today, our first Blackcap, that's #32 on the garden bird list (since January when we moved in). You can tell the early ornithologists were all men, this being a female she clearly had a brown cap.
The bird has feasted all day on ivy berries, nice to see it bathing too. In the last week a Willow Warbler passed through, which is a nice early date anywhere never mind in my garden, and a Peregrine has gone over again. I'm in the middle of a busy Easter stretch at work, so god only knows what I'm missing when I'm away from the house.
Would have gone for some local Waxwings if I'd had the time, yes, they're still around!

Yum?

On the sightings pages I see Sandwich Tern, Cettis Warbler, Osprey in the county, birds like Redstart and Cuckoo arriving back too, it's getting bloody exciting out there. Had better find the time.

First Willow Warbler of the Year

Got down to the local nature reserve today to get in an hour's bird count so I could refresh the sightings board and give visitors an idea of what sort of birds to expect. The short time meant covering only about half of the park, nonetheless we got in 33 species, nice birds too like Linnet, Redpoll, Bullfinch and Yellowhammer, and one or two commoner birds like Moorhen and Kestrel refused to show for the hour.

Without doubt, bird of the day had to be a very confiding Willow Warbler. I half hoped for Chiffchaff, which didn't show, I hardly count myself as disappointed though.
There seem so many signs of an earlier Spring at the moment. Also, the Redwing seem to have all gone, probably about time they did.