Dove Stone Reservoir 10th – 11th June 2021
We planned to meet some friends at the Huntsman’s Inn near Holmfirth. They were travelling north and wanted a stopover site and it is only an hour from where we are so we arranged to stay the night there. We had most of the day to ourselves so we stopped off at RSPB Dove Stone where we had visited during a similar meet-up in July 2019. This time we took a different route round the reservoir covering only the part that has the memorial forest in. Here we had much better birding than we had had previously when we circumambulated the reservoir.
In the woodlands we heard Song Thrush and got several Mistle Thrushes which appeared to be collecting food for their young. We also got a year-tick Jay and good views of two Spotted Flycatchers, one of which was particularly accommodating showing well at all angles and fly catching from perches. In the fields were a few Lapwings chasing of some Jays and also a bothersome Peregrine. There were Meadow Pipits in the field as well.
It was quite warm so we were glad when we got back to the car which we had parked close to the ice cream van. We remembered the ice creams being particularly good. We also remembered the toilets being particularly disgusting!
We drove up from the main war park to the main road and then round in the direction of Holmfirth where we parked in the Binn Green (free) car park there. I had read on Birdguides that a Wood Warbler had been singing regularly around the bottom of the steps that lead down to the road that you cross to get down to the reservoir. I hoped we could hear it – if not see it. We got down to where the recumbent tree is, crossed the road to the other part of the woods but thought that we should go back a bit to the tree and sit and wait.
As soon as we got back to the recumbent tree, we started to hear the bird and, not long after, actually got really good views of it singing and moving from branch to branch, singing a bit more, and occasionally grabbing a fly in mid-flight – whilst still singing without interruption. It eventually flew off we started the ascent and got back to the car. We checked in a little early at the hotel, got cleaned up and then went to sit in the garden to await the arrival of our friends. Like the last time, there were nesting Lapwings in the fields but you only really saw them when they rose up from the long grass to repel any bird that dared to get too close to their nest.
There were Meadow Pipits and a number of Tits and Goldfinches buzzing about. Over that day and a few hours the next day we also got Swallows, Swifts and House Martins and on our return home we again stopped at the Binn Green car park where we followed the Wood Warbler, as it sang all the way down the steps to the recumbent tree again giving us equally good views. I put in my very first report to Birdguides about this bird but, in any case, it had been widely seen already. We added Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff and Pheasant to our list for the two days so we did quite well getting 28 species over just a couple of hours, with the Spotted Flycatcher and Wood Warbler as the best of the lot. I later found that an old acquaintance of mine who was a keen birder long before I was interested and who I have met out birding in recent years, had posted some video of this bird. See below.
Bird Sightings : Dove Stone Reservoir 10th June 2021
| Mallard | 20 |
| Common Wood Pigeon | 14 |
| Northern Lapwing | 6 |
| Black-headed Gull | 1 |
| Common Buzzard | 1 |
| Peregrine Falcon | 1 |
| Eurasian Jay | 1 |
| Eurasian Jackdaw | 20 |
| Carrion Crow | 4 |
| Coal Tit | 1 |
| Eurasian Blue Tit | 2 |
| Great Tit | 2 |
| Wood Warbler | 1 |
| Willow Warbler | 1 |
| Common Chiffchaff | 1 |
| Mistle Thrush | 3 |
| Song Thrush | 1 |
| Eurasian Blackbird | 1 |
| Spotted Flycatcher | 2 |
| European Robin | 1 |
| Meadow Pipit | 6 |
| Common Chaffinch | 1 |
| European Goldfinch | 2 |
Bird Sightings : Dove Stone Reservoir 11th June 2021
| Common Pheasant | 1 |
| Common Swift | 4 |
| Northern Lapwing | 6 |
| Barn Swallow | 8 |
| Common House Martin | 8 |
| Wood Warbler | 1 |
| Willow Warbler | 1 |
| Common Chiffchaff | 1 |
| Song Thrush | 1 |
| Eurasian Blackbird | 1 |
| Pied Wagtail | 1 |