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Daniel Branch @DanielBranch94

Yorkshire birder usually found on Soil Hill, also Spurn sometimes! Wannabe world lister, with big love for the Neotropics! FC Halifax Town fan! #ShaymenTilIDie

Joined May 2014
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930 Photos and videos
This morning delivered a true Soil Hill mega! Only the 4th record of Nuthatch for the Hill, and the first for five years! It did not linger for long before flying off over the fields heading north! #SoilHillBirding
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💥SOIL HILL PATCH TICK💥 💥NUMBER 134💥 💥QUAIL💥 🇬🇧 FULL FAT BRITISH TICK 🇬🇧 My days of British ticks on Soil Hill were long gone, or so I thought! Absolutely thrilled to hear (and briefly see) this Quail on the Hill today! Halifax MEGA! What a time to be alive! #SoilHillBirding
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I had a fantastic time in the US on my first BirdQuest tour! The undoubted highlight of two-and-a-half weeks around Arizona & California was this awesome female Spotted Owl that we visited! A real treat to see this rare species so close!
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So far it has been an excellent spring for Ring Ouzel on Soil Hill, with this very handsome male now continuing into his third day! However, he is a particularly elusive individual, and my sightings have been restricted to brief appearances! #SoilHillBirding
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I was beginning to wonder where the Soil Hill Wheatears were this spring... So it was a relief to find a fresh dumping of 10 this morning! Quite simply the finest bird in Britain! #SoilHillBirding
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An excellent morning birding on Soil Hill, in pleasant spring conditions! The undoubted highlight was my 7th Soil Hill Osprey heading distantly north! A very nice backup cast, including this rather conspicuous Jack Snipe not even requiring the thermal to spot! #SoilHillBirding
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Paraguay 2025 was an awesome trip, with 417 birds, 28 mammals and a host of other wildlife! We had such a blast that the trip report required 93 pages! I can absolutely recommend Paraguay as a fantastic birding destination! cloudbirders.com/be4/downloa… @NeoBirdCons
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I initially missed notifications about Common Scoters heading inland last night, so didn't start listening until 21:30! A flock heard over the house at 21:40 convinced me to head up to Soil Hill, but after an hour I only managed a single flock of 6 birds! #SoilHillBirding
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A glorious return to Soil Hill for the week! I hoped for some Whooper Swan action, and I got some with birds distantly on Mixenden Reservoir! But the show was very much stolen by this handsome male Ring Ouzel, my 1st March record here! The Hill never disappoints! #SoilHillBirding
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Nice to bump into a little flavour of the UK whilst out and about birding in Paris today! Enjoying the Parisian lawns alongside two White Wagtails!
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Lesser Spotted Woodpecker! Finally! After dipping in 6 (SIX!) different counties, in my seventh I was able to rectify my most obvious omission from my British list!
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💥SOIL HILL PATCH TICK💥 💥NUMBER 133💥 💥ICELAND GULL💥 I was not expecting much today, it being a blustery February morning! But Soil Hill always produces! Absolutely incredible scenes when this stunning white-winger flew past! #soilhillbirding
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Great Black-backed Gull!!! For just the second time in my 19 years watching Soil Hill! It's been a steady February on Soil Hill for my first visits of 2026, but I certainly enjoyed this brute heading north this morning! #SoilHillBirding
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Despite several visits to South America, before visiting Paraguay, I had never managed to see a Tapir! However, that was laid to rest in spectacular style, with nine encounters during a month of traveling the country, including six in one night!
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TAPACULO NUMBER 47!!! Arguably my most wanted bird from Paraguay was the Crested Gallito! Having heard but not seen this rather unconventional tapaculo in Argentina, I was keen to right this wrong in my quest to see all the Tapaculos! Mission accomplished in the Paraguayan Chaco!
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Not been in Calderdale that much in recent times, so it’s was nice that the local rarity waited two weeks for me to return! An understandably very rare bird in the Pennines, I can now say that I have had a Halifax Shag!
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In addition to Paraguay's excellent birds and mammals, we also had memorable reptile encounters! One snake is normally a good trip return, but Paraguay produced six, including three that could kill me; Painted Coralsnake, Painted Lancehead & Mato Grosso Lancehead!
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A wet spring had turned the Paraguayan Chaco into a wader paradise! A flock of 150 Stilt Sandpipers was the highlight, but double figures also of Wilson’s Phalarope and hundreds of commoner species! An awesome sight!
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When planning this 28 day trip to Paraguay I set myself a target of 400 species! This morning Spix’s Spinetail became the 400th species of the trip, with four days left to spare! 🍻🍺🍻🍺🍻🍺
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With no access to either site, it looked like the birding gods had decided we would not be seeing the Endangered White-winged Nightjar! But driving up to the gate and begging for entry got us a fantastic evening in Paraguayan Cerrado! Known from only 5 sites, it is a rare bird!
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