Birding Group – Goyt Valley and Danebank Quarry 27th May 2021
The birding group reformed for its first outing since the Covid outbreak with a visit to the Upper Goyt Valley and Danebank Quarry. We had actually done this visit on our own on the 6th of May and had had some success with sightings of Redstart and lots of Pied Flycatchers. We saw neither of these birds this time, which was interesting in itself, but we did pick up some birds that we did not get on our earlier visit.
Spotted Flycatcher, in previous years easier to find that Pied Flycatchers, eluded us on previous visits but this time we managed to find a few among low trees on the other side of the river at the bottom of the valley. We also got a Dipper, a bird that has eluded us at this site for a few years, which was another great year tick. We also found a Goldcrest here which is a good spot for them; they ae often not much more than at head height as long as it is quiet.
Another good audio tick was a fairly distant Cuckoo that we could hear from various places around our route which, in an act of rebellion, we walked in reverse order to all previous visits!
The reservoir was really high so there were no waders to be seen. A pair of Treecreepers and a Song Thrush were nice additions but really it was quite quiet. We were happy that we had fitted in two visits this month so that we got all the usual birds we hope to find here in one.
We drove on to Danebank Quarry where we again failed to find Ring Ouzel but the promised warm weather had not appeared so perhaps they were not inclined to forage at the time we were there. Small numbers of Wheatear showed well and the usual Meadow Pipits were there.
A particularly interesting spectacle we saw as soon as we got out of the cat was in the sky on the other side of the road to the quarry; two Kestrels were fighting each other and a Buzzard was being seen off by an angry Curlew.
Bird Sightings : Upper Goyt Valley 27th May 2021
| Canada Goose | 2 |
| Mallard | 2 |
| Common Cuckoo | 1 |
| Eurasian Curlew | 1 |
| Great Cormorant | 1 |
| Common Buzzard | 1 |
| Coal Tit | 1 |
| Eurasian Blue Tit | 4 |
| Great Tit | 2 |
| Willow Warbler | 6 |
| Long-tailed Tit | 1 |
| Eurasian Blackcap | 1 |
| Goldcrest | 1 |
| Eurasian Treecreeper | 2 |
| White-throated Dipper | 1 |
| Song Thrush | 1 |
| Eurasian Blackbird | 1 |
| Spotted Flycatcher | 3 |
| European Robin | 1 |
| Common Chaffinch | 1 |
| European Goldfinch | 2 |
Bird Sightings : Danebank Quarry 27th May 2021
| Eurasian Curlew | 1 |
| Eurasian Kestrel | 2 |
| Northern Wheatear | 2 |
| Meadow Pipit | 4 |