Dave, Roger and I set off
early for a day’s birding in Derbyshire.
Our first site was Sunny Bank Wood near Wirksworth where Dave had
volunteered to carry out a survey for a friend.
The wood is set back from the road and as we walked across two fields to
reach several Lapwings were observed and were clearly annoyed by our
presence. On entering the wood the
firsts section was quite wet underfoot and we saw or heard very little, a
couple of Blackcaps and a single Willow Warbler being the best. The second section was much drier but was
more hilly and we actually got lost at one point. Again few birds were actually seen but there
were several Chiffchaff and Blackcaps singing.
When we found our way back to the entrance Dave and Roger went off to
complete the rest of the survey but I returned to the car. Just after I had left them I heard a Raven
call and on reaching a clearing saw five birds directly overhead before they
moved off to the east. I walked back to
the car and saw two Buzzards over the woods to the west. Dave and Roger were soon back and we set off
to out second planned stop at Padley Gorge.
We drove to the top of the
gorge and parked in an area overlooking some upland moorland. As we walked towards the footbridge to go to
the gorge I picked up a female Whinchat and then found a male but they both
disappeared and we were unable to relocate them. There were also a couple of Willow Warblers and
plenty of Meadow Pipit and a Cuckoo was also observed. As we walked into the gorge I found a single
Spotted Flycatcher and we found three more before we located our first and only
Pied Flycatcher, a male that performed well for a few minutes before disappearing. Dave had gone on and telephoned me to say he
thought he had a Redstart singing. Roger
and I soon joined him and agreed that it was a Redstart but it then took us at
least fifteen minutes to locate it. Roger
found singing at the top of a tall silver birch. We also found a single Tree Pipit on the edge
of the gorge and the moorland. We walked
back across the moor to the car and saw at least four Green Hairstreaks and had
potted two day flying moths. During
lunch we quickly identified one as Common Heath, although looking quite different
to those found at Ketton in Rutland. The
second proved more difficult but was clearly a Tortricidae and I eventually
identified as a Ancylis myrtillana, which was a new species for all of
us.
Meadow Pipit at Padley Gorge
Pied Flycatcher at Padley Gorge
Green Hairstreak at Padley Gorge
Ancylis
myrtillana at Padley Gorge
Whilst we were having lunch a
couple informed us of some Ring Ouzels that were fairly close so we decided to
go and have a look. There were plenty of
people with some climbing up the rocks close to where the Ring Ouzels were
supposed to be.
As we walked down the track we
were not too optimistic and as we walked further became more pessimistic. Roger
then said there one and it was right in front collecting insects on the short
grass. It remained several minutes and I
was able to get several photos of the bird before it flew back to the base of
the rock face and disappeared. We
eventually saw the female on several more occasions and also saw a single male
and fledgling. As we got back towards
the car we heard another calling and found quite close to the stream that ran
down the centre of the valley.
Female Ring Ouzel
Female Ring Ouzel
We drove around the local
moorland but failed to locate any Red Grouse and then continued on to
Hathersage, which was to be our last port of call for the day.
On arriving at Hathersage we
took a look over the road bridge and there was a female Goosander with a brood
of four that quickly swam away and hid under the overhanging trees. There was also two Grey Wagtail but there was
no sign of any Dipper, perhaps due to a fisherman fishing nearby. On the other side of the bridge there was a
female Mandarin with a brood of thirteen and a male was observed close by. With still no sign of a Dipper we walked east
alongside the river and surprisingly found a male Pied Flycatcher but there was
no sign of, or any evidence, of Dipper.
We walked back to the car and had another look over the bridge but the
fisherman was now closer and there was no Dipper. Disappointingly this was our first dip on
Dipper in seven visits to this site, although there were some good sightings,
particularly the broods of duck and the Pied Flycatcher.
No comments:
Post a Comment