Trip reports
Dunsop Bridge
Saturday, 25 April 2009
During the day we hoped to have sightings of two of the areas summer visitors. The ring ouzel or 'mountain blackbird' which can be difficult to locate partly because of its rather shy nervous behaviour keeping mainly in the lonely gullies and rock outcrops. The ring ouzel is similar in size to a blackbird but slimmer and longer winged. The male displaying a prominent whitish crescent on its breast.
The second, the wheatear, usually found in areas above 300 metres . An upright species mainly feeding on the ground, its most obvious feature in flight is its large white rump with black T shaped terminal band.
After leaving the car park we began to walk up the valley beside the Langden Brook. Among the birds seen were pied wagtail, oystercatcher, mallard, meadow pipit, willow warbler, stonechat (male) and a wren. Red grouse could be heard but not seen. Above us buzzards and gulls were spotted. Ring ouzels were seen flying but in general we were disappointed. By lunchtime our efforts had not been rewarded so we decided to picnic at the impressive sounding Langden Castle which in fact is a humble stone barn with gothic shaped windows and generally in need of repair. During lunch we were entertained by swallows and had views of red grouse. Then it rained. After putting on our waterproofs we decided to return taking the higher track. From here we had a more elevated viewpoint and with the weather improving so did our luck. At the first gate/stile we were rewarded with an excellent view of a wheatear on the track in front of us. This was followed by good sightings of raven and buzzard in the sky above.
At a gully to the side of the track in its perfect habitat we eventually found our ring ouzel and had good views of it perched and in flight.
By now the sun was shining and as we returned to the car park we added to our list curlew, peregrine falcon, black-headed gull, grey heron, meadow pipit and two common sandpiper.
As we passed the water treatment works we looked into a garden area to find robin, chaffinch, greenfinch, grey wagtail and to end our day on a high note a male redstart.
By Marlene Johnson