Snow
Bunting |
Yellowhammer |
Reed
Bunting |
SNOW
BUNTING
Plectrophenax nivalis
Infrequent passage/winter visitor.
Three records is about average, but slightly down on some recent years.
What birds were seen didn’t stay around, as typified by the only first winter period record of eight flying east at Soil Hill on 14th January (KM). Two birds were at Whetstone Gate on 25th March, and one was nearby on Ilkley Moor on 22nd November (MKT).
YELLOWHAMMER
Emberiza citrinella
Uncommon resident breeder: moorland edges, farmland and scrub.
Last year’s Report described this bird’s presence in the area as tenuous, and there is nothing in the 2006 records to change this view. Indeed, numbers were down on the previous year, and birds were totally absent in January, March, November, and December, though there were several counts of up to three birds, including singing males, in June and July.
The highest count of four came from Sconce Lane on 14th February, but birds visited this well-established garden site on many days during the month. This was the source of the majority of the sightings, having birds almost daily in June, and most of the remaining reports came from nearby areas on the fringe of Baildon Moor : principally Shipley Glen and Glovershaw. The birds’ presence in Lindley seems rather more precarious, as borne out by only two records, of single birds in April and May, but two singing males near Leeds Bradford Airport in the latter month and one at nearby East Carlton in July might represent a more viable population.
Records of relocating birds are uncommon, so reports of individuals from Kex Gill on 12th September, and Denholme Clough on 21st October were particularly welcome. Once again, the presence of singing males didn’t lead to evidence of successful breeding.
REED
BUNTING
Emberiza schoeniclus
Resident breeder/passage visitor: a wide range of wetland habitats, scrub
and wasteland.
In contrast with 2005, nearly all the relatively small number of records in the period to the end of March came from Otley Wetland, where fluctuating numbers increased to nine on 29th March, with six at Knotford Nook on the same day, probably an indication of a small movement. No other locations raised more than one bird.
There were nearly 60 reports in the spring and summer months, with several counts of up to five birds, but six at Sconce Lane, seven on another part of Baildon Moor and at Otley Wetland, and eight at Soil Hill were easily the highest. Fourteen of the records in this period referred to singing birds, which, with the exception of a few reports from John o’ Gaunt’s Reservoir and Stockbridge, came entirely from Soil Hill and Glovershaw.
It was therefore not surprising that most of the breeding records came from these last two sites, and from the periphery of Baildon Moor in general. It was estimated that up to ten pairs had bred in the area to the north and south of Glovershaw, and there were several sightings of recently-fledged young, and adults carrying food. Two pairs probably bred on Soil Hill, and one juvenile was seen, and three pairs almost certainly bred at Otley Wetland, where a nest containing four eggs was noted, and birds were seen food-carrying.
The number of birds seen on autumn migration were almost identical with those of the previous year. Between the middle of August and end of October, about 100 birds were logged, the majority of them at Paul Clough (43) and Soil Hill (21), but the highest day count was eight birds at Warley Moor Reservoir on 1st October.
The second winter period, like the first, produced few sightings, and ones and twos predominated, though there were notable exceptions of six birds at Warley Moor and seven at Stockbridge, where an aberrant grey-plumaged bird was seen on 16th December. There were only two garden records, from Bingley and Sconce Lane.