Beacon Hill

Little Owl: 2 juveniles

Blackstone Edge

Stonechat juvenile

Hebden Water

2 Dippers, 200m apart

Ringstone Edge

2 Continental Cormorants, P c sinensis. The rear edge of the yellow gular patch drops vertically from the gape.

This race is less bulky on average than British Cormorant, P c carbo. 

Cormorants seem to me to be much more common in Calderdale than they were 30 years ago. If this is a real increase, it is likely to be of sinensis, because they breed inland while carbo breed on the coast. It could be that most of the Cormorants we see now are P c sinensis. But we don't know this, because identifying Cormorants to race does not seem to interest many birders. (This does need a side-on photograph).

Ringstone Edge

Curlew: calling adult with juvenile.

Adult

Juvenile

Undisclosed location

Long-eared Owl

This is a different bird from the one photographed on 16 July. The belly streaks are thinner.  And where the upper face disc of the other bird is mainly orange, here it is mainly grey. Also, this bird was quite tame. It could be the young bird that was heard calling 5 days ago? It was only 100m from where the calls were heard, and no hunger calls were heard today.

Cold Edge

Tufted duck with 5 young

2 Scaup (14 July)

I've posted these photos because it is interesting to compare Tufted Duck and Scaup when plumage is no help telling them apart. Of the Scaup photos on 14 July, no. 5 is too distant to be useful, and nos. 1-3 are clear cut: no Tufted has a bill like those birds have. But the birds in photo no. 4 (reposted above) are more problematic:

- they have no tuft, but today's Tufted has none either (? moulted) - it does not even have a 'bump' on the nape;

- these Scaup's bills from the side are less massive than those in photos 1-3: they look similar to the Tufted's: they are probably broader but we cannot see that: (do female Scaup have smaller bills than males?);

- so (apart from their being with definite Scaups) it comes down to head profile: the highest point on the Tufted's crown is about half way along, and there is a slight bend at the nape - giving the head a squarish shape: in the Scaups the highest point on the crown is further forward - just behind the eye - and then the crown, nape, and hindneck curve smoothly downwards with no interruption - so the head does not look square.

Finally, a very useful thing I've noticed is that, when diving, Scaups tend to spend far longer under water than a Tufted Duck ever does.

Undisclosed location

Long-eared Owl adult. Repeated 'hunger calls' were heard, (first heard and identified by NK). Presumably the calls were from a hidden juvenile.

Cold Edge

Scaup: 4 juveniles