forgot to post this last night Curlew seen at Rossendale/Hyndburn border on Grane at 7pm Saturday evening.
Holdenwood about 4pm - 8 mallar drakes, 1 pr canada geese on the res and 20 plus in the field. 2 moorhen - 1 seen and 1 heard. 20 plus lapwings on the fiels to the left and right and flying around. plenty of black headed gulls around and many settling on the water for a long period of time - over winter they would sit and go. 1 great crsted grebe.
climbed to the top of the hill - passed the farm - disturbed fairly long tailed bird which breeds in the clumps of grasses but sudenly flys of when your very near. sor tof a dull-ish coloured bird. had no idea what it was and no real way to id it. but definitely a bird i did nt recognise. 5 wheatears - on the slops and on tops. plenty of meadow pipits. not to forget at te foot of the slope a yellowhammer i believe - a bright yellow finchy type bird flew close past me - not a wagtail or a goldfinch. first time i have seen it.
for the first time i saw stonechats around holdenwood. i used to walk regularly around holden wood and climb the slope above it - never ever saw a stonechat here until today i saw 2/3 males - and about 2 females.
back at holden wood 7pm - about 15 mallards - drakes, 1 grey heron, and 2/3 oystercatchers i believe flying above the res. i could not see them clearly as the sun way i n the way - i thought they may be curlew but they have a different sound. they seemed concerned by another bird which had fairly long wings and was flying around at the far end - not sure if it was a gull or anything else.
also the sual wood pigeons, starlings, magpies, some house sparrows, barn swallows, carrion crows, maybe some ravens - but not confirmed. no bird of prey seen at all other than suspects at a distance
on top of that i noticed this bird - another one i had seen but never before. there was a pair of these here and they maybe the dullish birds i had described before.
the head seems an ashy grey, the the wings brown, the inner tail feathers black and outer white....
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sarfrazh/477504783/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sarfrazh/477504777/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sarfrazh/477504773/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sarfrazh/477504771/
seemed sparrow sized roughly......and might be a whitethroat possibly? would love your ideas about this!
I agree about Linnet - particularly the first of the 4 pics. If the yellow bird was a Yellowhammer that is interesting, worth keeping a look out for as we don't see many of them in Rossendale.
the yellowhammer was an absolute suprise for me too - i an awful at recognising small birds sparrow sized unless they are distinctly coloured. it was probably slightly out of habitat too.
i had seen reed buntings before around holden wood but never got a close enough look until someone on the forum mentionned they ahd seen them 2 weeks ago - and when i checked the rspb website - i realised it was the bird i was looking for.
