Upper Goyt Valley 23rd May 2017

I had been looking forward to the birding group visit to the Goyt Valley for a while now. It is always good for at least some good year ticks and is sometimes exceptionally good. This time it was exceptionally good though we did not get all out target species.

We started out at the car park at the end of Errwood Reservoir as usual and as soon as we got out of the car we could hear lots of Willow Warblers singing. As we walked down the road we got a pair of Redstart that appeared to have a nest in the wall not too far from the grid in the road. Walking further along soon got us Spotted Flycatcher and Blackcap. A litle while later we got a Tree Pipit and a Red Grouse up on the hills.

We took the path down to the river and – for once – found the Dipper sitting on a rock right in front of us looking absolutely huge in the sunshine. A walk back up the steps gave us Goldcrest and possibly Siskin but the latter was a bit uncertain and based really on sound rather than visuals. As we walked back down the road and then up to the stone dykes that run above the main road we continued to see more and more Tree Pipits. In fact I don’t think we have ever seed as many at this location before. Np Pied Flycatchers though which was disappointing. We got into a conversation with a couple of other birders who said that there was a pair of Pied Flycatchers breeding at Sunny Corner at Etherow Country Park but they had only seen one non singing male at this site and that was a week ago.

A final bird was a Great Spotted Woodpecker before we dropped down to the car park. We were already having a pretty good day with Spotted Flyvcatcher, Red Grouse, Dipper and Tree Pipit were already good year ticks but we wanted to try for another so we drove off to what I think is called Dane Bank Quarry (we did try the Cat and Fiddle for possible refreshments but it is still closed) where we hoped to add Ring Ouzel to our year list. It seemed at first that nobody we spoke to had had any luck with them this year. In fact, there seemed to be very few birds at all; normally the grassy slope is full of Wheatear but this time we only saw a couple.

A bit disappointed we walked on. We went on to the next quarry (the one with the small pool of water) but all we got was a couple of Stonechats. We had pretty much called it a day and decided to walk back to the car. As we did so we got to our original observation point and some other birders said that they had just seen a RIng Ouzel but that it had been flushed by a walker and had flown off somewhere.We decided to stay for a little longer and while we did so I saw a bird come down from the quarry and I followed it hoping that it would turn into an Ouzel but, in fact, it turned out to be a Hobby ! At the top of the hill above the quarry we also saw a couple of Buzzards and a flock of Ravens; presumably there was a dead sheep at the top that was attracting their interest.

Then, just as our patience was starting to prove a bit thin, a male RIng Ouzel ambled out of the long grass below us and started to show really well. By this time a couple of other members of our birding group had appeared so we were all pretty happy about the finishe to our day.

Five year ticks : Spotted Flyvcatcher, Red Grouse, Dipper, Tree Pipit  and Ring Ouzel

Bird Sightings : Upper Goyt Valley 23rd May 2017