Wednesday, April 01, 2009

White Stork 01/04/09

We all know what day it is but my eyes were not deceiving me at 16:40hrs this afternoon when 2 White Stork were circling about 50metres above Colnebridge Sewage Plant. I was in the car on the A62 at the time heading very slowly towards Cooper Bridge so I have no idea which direction they eventually flew but I had excellent views of both birds and having seen this species and Common Crane many times previously albeit primarily in Iberia I am 100% confident of the identification.

There have been quite a few sightings of White Stork recently notably one that turned up at Ossett last week which I trundled along to see, photographed it and then realised from my photo that it was ringed as vitually all of them are but to see 2 together, who knows?




Anyhow I bombed down to Colnebridge SP this evening and also carried out an extensive search of the Bradley Hall Farm area, not surprisingly no White Stork were around but it might cheer some Calderdale birders up to be informed that 3 Yellowhammer (2 male & 1 female) were seen.

It will be interesting to see if there are any other reports of 2 White Stork together in the next few days in nearby locations.

10 comments:

David Sutcliffe said...

Great stuff that Dave

Nick Carter said...

Colnebridge? is that in Calderdale?

David Pennington said...

Nick, it's the place with phragmites I once emailed you about. Dunno why it's called Colnebridge SP - Cooper Bridge would be more appropriate.

David Tattersley said...

I don't think it is in Calderdale but it is certainly in the Halifax Birdwatchers Recording Area.

Do you only want sightings of birds seen in Calderdale on this forum in the future as there are one or two sites I visit that overlap with the Huddersfield Birdwatchers Recording Area?

In this particular case I think it is highly likely that these birds flew over Calderdale at some stage of their journey whether it was before or after I saw them.

Nick Carter said...

Dave, I wasn't complaining you were posting non Calderdale sightings, I was curious to know if it was in our area as our recorder Nick D will be wanting the record if it was. I don't personally see any problem with posts about birds in the immediate areas around our border especially ones that are highly mobile and could easily stray in!

David Tattersley said...

Nick, I wasn't having a go at you either, I just wanted clarification on the issue, Nick D is aware of the site as I've submitted sightings to him previously for 2007 & 2008 so no doubt it will get the odd mention in future publications.

Steve Blacksmith said...

It's especially exciting because it's not a million miles away from where a pair attempted to build a nest at Horbury Sewage Farm, just down stream of Mirfield. (This happened season before last?)

David Tattersley said...

It was actaually April 2004 Steve, tempus fugit!

Nick Carter said...

What are probably the same two birds were seen low over Elland GP this morning (Friday) by Mike Henshaw

Jeff Cox said...

Just read a comment in the Weekly Birdguides news email.... "A couple of ringed (presumed escaped) WHITE STORKS were roaming West Yorkshire and Northumberland during the week, including two birds circling over Huddersfield on 1st."