2003 Report

2004 Report

2006 Report

RED GROUSE Lagopus lagopus scoticus
Resident breeder.

Few records of this common species are submitted, even when birds are prolific, so it is unsurprising there were only 15 reports during a year when numbers of birds were well down as a result of disease and a poor breeding season. Nevertheless, there were reasonable counts of 53 birds on Barden Moor, and up to 30 in the Ovenden Moor and Warley Moor areas towards the end of the year.

An unusual record concerned a bird in the tiny patch of heather on the otherwise inhospitable Soil Hill, where it was presumably safe from the guns!

RED-LEGGED PARTRIDGE Alectoris rufa
Resident, possibly all from introduced stocks.

It is probable that all the birds now seen in the area result directly or indirectly from release programmes. Of the few records received, birds seen at Barden and Bradup almost certainly have this origin, and ten seen at Doe Park Reservoir may have. The remaining records were of a few birds at Luddenden Dean and Ovenden Moor, a single at nearby Soil Hill, and another at Lindley Wood Reservoir.

GREY PARTRIDGE Perdix perdix
Resident breeder.

Whilst 50 records compares reasonably well with other recent years, reports came from only 19 sites, and double-figure counts are fewer. The species is clearly becoming increasingly uncommon in the area.

The biggest parties comprised 10 at Baildon and Denton Moor, and 18 near Harden, somewhat down on other recent years. Of the other records, there were nine from the area north of Baildon Moor, 14 from Wharfedale (all but two of them from Otley Wetland), 11 from around Ogden and Soil Hill and six from the moorland fringes south-west of Denholme.

Other locations had only the odd report, including the Washburn Valley, where birds were relatively numerous a few years ago, but included one of the few breeding records, when young birds were seen in Silsden in September. An adult and three young were in the Sconce area of Baildon in July, and the same month had the remaining breeding record, of three young flushed in Burley. One of the Otley Wetland reports concerned nine birds in courtship display, but there was no subsequent evidence of breeding there.

Sconce Lane also produced the fairly unusual spectacle of two birds in a garden on 26th April.

COMMON PHEASANT Phasianus colchicus
Resident breeder.

Several records were submitted which apparently related to birds maintaining a population away from managed stocks. These came from Baildon, St. Ives, Otley Wetland, Doe Park and Barden, where an albino specimen was seen in September.

Natural breeding was reported from Addingham Golf Course, where a female was seen with eight young in July.

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