Little
Grebe |
Great
Crested Grebe |
Storm
Petrel |
LITTLE
GREBE Tachybaptus ruficollis
Fairly common resident breeder, winter and passage visitor
Around 100 records came from 21 locations, in line with last year, but there were few sightings in the summer months, with only five reports covering the whole of June and August, and nothing at all for May and July. Against this background it is unsurprising that there were just two breeding records: from Denton, where six young were seen, and John o’ Gaunt’s Reservoir, where a juvenile accompanied its parents in August.
There has been a scarcity of double-figure gatherings in recent years, and a count of seven birds at Tong Park Reservoir on 13th January was the best.
GREAT
CRESTED GREBE
Podiceps cristatus
Common resident breeder, and passage visitor.
Records came
from 15 relatively widespread locations, in line with several other recent
years, though the waters around Otley and the Washburn Valley continue
to produce the most sightings. However, it was good to see reports from
at least three sites where birds are generally scarce, Harold Park Lake
(Wibsey), Warley Moor Reservoir, and St. Ives, where two long-standing
observers there had their first records. After two years with double-figure
congregations in winter, there were none this year, though up to six
birds were noted regularly throughout, and there were locally good counts
of seven birds at Knotford Nook in September, and eight at Yeadon Tarn
and Lindley Wood Reservoir in November.
Breeding, or attempts, at five locations has become the average in recent years. This year, birds were successful at Otley Wetland Nature Reserve, where three young hatched but probably only two survived, at Knotford Nook (three juveniles), and, most notably, at Chelker Reservoir, where a rare breeding record produced two young. A bird was seen on a nest at John o’ Gaunt’s Reservoir, and nest-building noted at Lindley Wood, but the outcomes were probably unsuccessful.
STORM PETREL Hydrobates pelagicus
Scarce vagrant
The Group’s first, and altogether remarkable, record (accepted by the Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union) concerns a bird seen for several hours at very close range at Fewston Reservoir on 22nd June (PCu). This is, in itself, a most unusual date for a bird whose rare inland appearances are usually in spring or autumn.
GREAT
CORMORANT
Phalacrocorax carbo
Locally common resident, passage and winter visitor.
The
number of records submitted was about 15% down on the previous year,
and the numbers of birds seen in the Washburn Valley, the species’ stronghold
locally, are also reduced. On the other hand, birds were seen at as many
as 33 locations, including 21 away from Wharfedale and the Washburn,
from where most records originate.
Counts at the Lindley Wood Reservoir roost are certainly well down on those of five or six years ago, and the birds’ presence there is no longer perennial. The maximum numbers seen here were: January - 56, February - 21, March - 54, and 21 in April. After this, there was only one further record, of three birds in June.
Whilst records also came from a widespread range of other locations, there was nothing to suggest that birds had turned their attentions elsewhere in any numbers, as only two other double-figure counts were made: 14 at Chelker Reservoir in January, and 11 at Otley Wetland in November. These statistics will doubtless be of some comfort to anglers, but there is a blemish. A bird at Barden Scale on 5th July was seen well enough to be identified as a juvenile bird of the year, which had been raised in the preceding spring months, perhaps locally.
Individuals recorded at Otley Wetland on 7th January, and Barden Scale on 10th March showed some characteristics of the Continental race P.c.sinensis, and one seen at very close range on Lindley Wood Reservoir on the 23rd of that month was definitely this sub-species.
GREY
HERON
Ardea cinerea
Common resident and colonial breeder.
A species which holds
much interest for members, and, in consequence, continues to be very
well recorded. Reports came from a variety of 43 widespread locations,
although there were relatively few from south of Airedale, and included
an increasing number of sightings from the suburbs.
Up to nine birds were seen on a number of occasions, but, apart from breeding sites, double-figure counts were limited to seven records. Ten birds were in the fields by Milnerfield Farm, at the bottom of Shipley Glen, in January and up to 14 were here on several dates in October and November, and 11 were at Swinsty in October. Fourteen birds were also counted on the seasonal Silsden Floods in December, and earlier in the year there were 13 birds on the flooded Cononley Ings in March.
As anticipated in the 2005 Report, the former Dob Park breeding colony is now inactive, but 30 young were raised from 13 nests at a private woodland, and at Askwith up to 35 nests were occupied, though the outcome was not established. Offsetting to some extent the negative report on Dob Park was the discovery of at least three occupied nests at a new site in Harden.
It would seem that birds in lower Wharfedale are acquiring some degree of boldness, illustrated by reports of a bird which cautiously walked across a public road near Ben Rhydding, and another, a juvenile, which found the roof of a house in Burley a suitable perch.
WHITE
STORK
Circonia circonia
Possible rare vagrant, and annual escapee.
Early spring is
a typical time to see overshooting migrants; unfortunately, it is also
the time when the Harewood residents get the urge to wander. Any records
must, therefore, be subject to that caveat.
This year a bird was seen over Saltaire on 11th April, and a week later two passed Silsden. The only other report was of a single seen at Knotford Nook on 7th May.