As my two young kids were on a screaming meltdown I went and sat outside for a brief bit of peace and I was very glad I did as just before 7pm a Rock Pipit flew SW right over my house calling! A most unexpected garden tick and amazingly my 3rd pipit specie of the month!
After the success of the Hertfordshire garden list challenge the club have decided to do it again for September and October. A Chiffchaff seen and heard on 4 occasions was a good record for the garden but on the 13th I had 2 Tree Pipits fly south over the house. My 3rd and 4th record in 6 years!
A few years back a young Lammergeier (Bearded Vulture) was filmed by a man out for a walk on the welsh side of the Bristol Channel and was then relocated in Devon where it hung around albeit elusively for a few days. Unfortunately it was rejected and not submitted onto the British list as it was most likely from a re-introduction scheme in the Alps. It seems this bird is also from the same scheme so we will just have to wait and see what happens to it.
Fast forward to a few weeks ago and another young bird was seen just across the channel in Belgium and France the seen flying over Alderney on the Channel Islands. It was then seen again passing over the midlands and was amazingly and expertly found roosting in the Peak District by Dan Pointon. It stuck around at various sites for a few days at a time and at one such site at Crowden it seemed settled so Matt Moreton called me on the Saturday (my birthday!) to see if I wanted to go and see it.
An early start saw us heading up the M1 and just as we were about to turn off one of Matt's friends Dave Woodhouse rang to see if we could pick him up. This was handy as he'd been the previous day so there was no chance of us getting lost! As we drove through past the village of Hazelhead we spotted a handful of Red Grouse perched up at the side of the road which was a nice year tick. We eventually reached Crowden and parked up. The walk up only took about 25 minutes but showed me how unfit I am as I struggled to catch my breath! We socially distanced ourselves with a few others and got straight on the big one as she perched on a rock about 1/2 mile away. There I was watching an impressive LAMMERGEIER in England!Frustratingly on the few occasions it took flight it never came close enough to give us the proper scale and size of the bird but you could see some small bird (Pipits?) mobbing it an looking like specks of dust next to it!
Other noteworthy birds were 4 Bullfinch, 9+ Mistle Thrush, an untickable view of a Marsh/Willow Tit but best of the rest was a flock of 20 Ring Ouzel flitting between the Rowan trees on the walk back. This was almost as many as I've ever seen!
