UKH

Having mentioned that I would like too see more brown hares, found somewhere few miles away where there are plenty and spent a while watching them.  Loads of warblers, never known as many whitethroats and blackcap.  Got this shot of a yellowhammer, not particularly good but they usually fly off before I get close enough.

A few weeks ago, my wife stumbled on a newly born faun in our garden, hiding amongst the daffodils which she was in the process of deadheading. Since then, we’ve been treated to the delightful sight of the mother and two fauns gaily gambolling on our lawn every afternoon before teatime. They’re not exactly tame, but they seem to tolerate our presence.

Live the sound of Yellowhammers. Not a bird we have in the Holme Valley. 

Saw a Merlin below Snailsden Pike on Thursday. It was flying low and fast over the heather. Most impressive.

Wow, that sounds amazing. 

Excellent. I’ve seen surprisingly few Merlin, but they are a class bird. My brother used to watch Merlin and hen harrier nests in Bowland, persecuted by game keepers. 

Saw a brown hare on my bike ride today. Also Greylags with goslings, Curlew, Peewits, Golden Plover, Skylark, Oystercatcher.

Golden Plover are beautiful birds in summer. Long time ago, doing my summer ML  at Glenmore L, we must have got close to a nest and an adult was doing that broken wing thing to distract us away. Must have been 15 ft away. 

I walked upstairs 20 mins ago and as I stepped onto the landing a bird hit the window in front of me. It recovered without losing much height and flew back down the reverse of its original flight path.

It seemed uniform brown or black with a large rectangle of bright white on the top back in front of its tail.

What was it ?  There are lots of jays and woodpeckers here.  Seemed smaller than a jay, small blackbird size.

Other than that our notable recent wildlife has been a plague of rats.  Hopefully sorted now.  Sadly someone resorted to poison, killing one of the owls.

Jays have a white rump. Much smaller, but bullfinches do.

Yes, why I mentioned them. But I thought this was something I'd not seen before.

Check out an image for female bullfinch. For a small bird they are quite chunky, and with ruffles feathers would look a bit bigger.  The female does look quite uniform brown. 

That’s awesome!

I've not been able to find any very good pictures.  But I think you are right.  Apart from the white square,  I got the impression it was like a small water vole, dark, velvet, and  rounded .  A hen bullfinch seems to look a bit like that.

driving home from Gap a couple of days ago I came round a bend to see someone by the side of the road with binoculars, started to wonder why, then spotted three griffon vultures some 50 m away. Stopped quickly & went to watch them myself for maybe 5 minutes until they decided to go elsewhere.

Today's 'spot' was maybe less impressive but good to see - a small flock of goldfinches feeding in the garden on some early flowers

Merlin at Irishman's wall, Dartmoor. Oddly enough,  I said only last night 'must keep an eye out for Merlins' and it was the first thing I saw. Cause and effect? If so, I'm going to keep an eye out for Golden Eagles 

Pair of Red Kites over the Roaches on Thursday.

I’ve heard Cuckoos on 4 occasions in the past week. Perhaps the warm weather in April has encouraged more birds to venture north. Anyone had similar?

Oh, and three hares in a field above Wildboarclough last Monday.

I heard cuckoos today also in the North Pennines 

Few poppys popping up. They don’t last long, but I like the ephemeral way of them, makes you enjoy them whilst they are out.