A welcome return from the tundra

On the North York Moors, one continues to be seen in Sleddale, while two were in Bransdale at the weekend.

One was seen from the raptor viewpoint at Gouthwaite reservoir, above Pateley Bridge, one at Great Kelk, in East Yorkshire,while one is still present over farmland near Hatfield Moor, in South Yorkshire.

There is at least one present in north Lincolnshire with a juvenile seen over farmland near South Ferriby.

An influx of rough-legged buzzards along the east coast began last monthand came after an excellent breeding season in Siberia, boosted by an abundance of voles.

When there is an abundance of voles, which continue to breed throughout the summer, the buzzards respond by laying more eggs – five to seven instead of two or three.

More young are successfully fledged and, as winter approaches, wander further south than normal.

Exceptional numbers were seen last month passing through the Falterbro migration watchpoint, in southern Sweden, with

1,202 seen on one day, October 13, compared with just 185 for the whole of the autumn in 2009.

Aninflux of rough-legged buzzards hereis long overdue.

The last big influx was in the winter of 1974-75 when more than 250 birds were reported in the autumn. About half overwintered here.

Young rough-legged buzzards can set up a winter territory over almost any stretch of open country where there is a plentiful food supply, switching from voles and lemmings to rabbits.

Identifying rough-legged buzzards can be tricky.

They get their name from the feathering which extends all down their legs to cope with the extreme cold of their usual habitat, but this feature is not easily seen in the field.

They are larger and have longer wings than common buzzards and fly with slower wingbeats. They also hover much more frequently than common buzzards.

Rough-legged buzzards are generally much paler than common buzzards and with a conspicuous while tail.

But there is a huge variation in the plumage of common buzzards and some of the paler ones can be wrongly identified as rough-legged.

The defining feature to identify a rough-legged buzzard are dark bands running along the edge of the white tail.

A juvenile has a single band, a female has two or three and an adult male three or four.

Yorkshire birders have been heading along the M62 to Hollingworth Lake Country Park, near Littleborough, Manchester, to see a pied-billed grebe, one of a number of vagrants from North America present in this country. Others include an American bittern, American robin and green heron.

Juvenile great northern divers were seen inland at Rother Valley Country Park and Angler's Country Park while one was seen in Scarborough Harbour.

At least four bearded tits were seen in the reedbed at Rother Valley Country Park.

The first redhead smew of the winter was seen at Seamer Carr, near Scarborough, while a second-winter Iceland gull was seen in the roost at Wintersett reservoir and ajuvenile at Swillington Ings, Leeds.

Flocks of lesser redpolls are being checked to see if there are any common, or mealy, redpolls among them. Six of these winter visitors from the Continent were caught and ringed at Wintersett.

[email protected]

CW 20/11/10