Oooooh happy days! Hey up folks after the last two evenings watchin' Woodcock fly out of the gloom at Woodhead Pool i finally nailed not one, but two of 'em today at Staffordshires nationally famous Quarry, good old Utch!! Site Tick Pour Moi! The first flew out of a patch of nettles on the edge of the River Tean and then another "exploded " from the bottom of an Hawthorn hedge as i stalked the rapidly expandin' population of Pinkies as they fed in fields near to the River Dove.
Call me sad but nothin' beats a new bird on ya local patch, well nothin apart from birdin' abroad. Don't get me started on that one, how anyone can say shiverin' ya knackers off here in blighty lookin' through ducks and geese for the odd one out beats havin' the back of ya legs burnt as you study some cripplin' wobbler or even better a raptor, in some far flung destination leaves me baffled.
Anyway enough of that, back to Utch. Apart from the Woodcocks the only new bird was a lone female Goldeneye. The female Scaup that had been at Brookers yesterday was back among the Tufties and Pochard with Tufies up to 95. Teal had risen to 44.
Pinky 7, feedin' in fields near the Dove
Canada Goose c200
Greylag c50
Mute Swan 4
Goosander 8
Scaup 1, adult female
Goldeneye 1
Tufty 95
Pochard 19
Teal 44
Wigeon 135
Mallard 160
Common Gull 3
Lappy 140
Oystercatcher 2
WOODCOCK 2
Walkin' back to the car i couldn't believe my eyes. The two Mute Swans that had been feedin' on the pit by Cottonmill Fm had had their heads knocked clean off!!! How this happened i don't know but there was a lot of gunshots goin' off from the nearby shootin' range so i can only assume that a couple of bullets went astray at some point.
A quick tootle round Poxey with the hounds just before dark provided me with another addition to the Cheesedale yearlist in the form of a Willow Tit as i chucked the hounds back in the old punto.
Well after that i think a sherbet or two is called for don't you?
That's all folks.
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