Friday 30 December 2016

Waxwings and kingfishers

We passed the well reported flock of waxwings on Manchester Road on the way over the Snake Pass on Tuesday so the following day I joined other enthusiasts at Crosspool. A flock of 16 was feeding on rowan berries when I arrived. In the afternoon and the following day more joined them. Redwings were also feeding and a Mistle Thrush roosted.
 At Endcliffe Park the female Kingfisher fished and a male arrived.
Scooter, the resident elderly feline, sleeps in our room and when her food dish is empty, walks over us until the house slave fills it up (she has a thyroid condition and eats voraciously).


feasting on Rowan berries


Mistle Thrush, Turdus viscivorus


Redwing, Turdus iliacus

Black-headed Gull, Chroicocephalus ridibundus


Kingfisher ♀, Alcedo atthis



Kingfisher ♂

Scooter




Monday 26 December 2016

Dippers, kingfisher, redwing and bullfinches

Dipper, Cinclus cinclus
We arrived at Danuta and Ken's in Sheffield on Thursday afternoon for our annual migration north. I visited Endcliffe Park on Friday and immediately saw a female Kingfisher, probably the one I photographed as a juvenile a couple of years ago. I then followed the Porter Brook upstream and found a Dipper, This pattern was repeated on the next four days. Today I took Sue and we watched the kingfisher catch a fish. We also saw the Redwing that has been feeding on the holly berries. Yesterday I saw a pair of dippers again at the usual place.
  This morning we visited Sunnybank Park, managed by Sheffield Wildlife Trust. It has a nice little pond which should be teeming with life in the Spring. In the garden I photographed the bullfinches which visit the feeder.
Bullfinch ♂, Pyrrhula pyrrhula

Bullfinch ♀


Dipper, Cinclus cinclus












double dippers












Grey Heron, Ardea cinerea

Grey Squirrel, Sciurus carolinensis


Grey Wagtail, Motacilla cinerea

Kingfisher, Alcedo atthis

Porter Brook



Redwing, Turdus iliacus





Sunnybank park


Wren, Troglodytes troglodytes