Found throughout the area but most often located by the call during Spring, with April being the prime month. There were far too many sites to enumerate but frequently mentioned ones included Timble Ings, Lindley Wood and Beaverdyke Reservoirs and the Barden/Bolton Abbey area. Birds were also seen at Paul Clough and Kex Gill Quarry where juvenile birds seem to consistently turn up from September onwards.

The only breeding records came from Denton Hall Woods and St Ives.

Unobtrusive for much of the year, but “yaffling” in spring gives us a clearer idea of just how widespread this species is. Woodland areas right across the region can yield birds, with the Lindley Wood and Timble Ings areas being particularly favoured, as is the open ground on Sandwith Moor. Records of juveniles again came from Kex Gill Quarry in the late summer and autumn months, and juveniles were also seen at John o’Gaunt’s Reservoir and Brookhouse.

About 70 records came from a widespread range of locations, including moorland fringes as well as woodland, and this year over 50% of these came from the south of the recording area.

No more than two birds were seen at any one time, and, as is often the case, birds were heard as much as seen. The only indications of breeding success came away from the well-wooded areas to the north, when immature birds were seen in late summer at Doe Park Reservoir, Thornton Moor Reservoir and Paul Clough.

There was a notable increase in the records to 110 in all, and about 40 locations were involved, though as some of these are relatively adjacent there is every probability the same birds were involved at more than one of them. As last year, more records originated in the south of the area than the north, even though there are significantly more sites north of Airedale: 24 out of the total.

Baildon Bank appears to be the area’s most reliable spot, as up to three birds were seen there almost daily during May, August, October and November, and it is worth stressing the ‘seen’, as 35% of the records received from elsewhere were based on unseen calling birds. This location also produced one of the few proven breeding records, when a juvenile was seen with an adult on 27th July. Two of the sites where young birds were seen in 2005 produced records again this year: Thornton Moor Reservoir, with an adult and two juveniles at the beginning of July, and Paul Clough, where a youngster was noted feeding on ants a month later.

Garden records are a rarity for this species, so a bird heard calling from a garden in Baildon was noteworthy.

It is interesting that whilst the 85 records are well down on last year’s 105, about 15% more locations were involved, and 56% of the sites are in the south, reversing the split of 2006.

In general, only one bird was seen or, more often, heard, other than at breeding sites, of which there was only one: Goit Stock, where three fledged young were seen. Juvenile birds were, however, also noted at Baildon Bank and Paul Clough (both as last year), and at Buckley Green and Denholme Clough.