Soil Hill 1500hrs

                   Sun going down behind the teasels

            Dipsticks on buzzing nugget copters.

 These 3 decided to disrupt the Oxenhope gull roost
                        3 times.

   Gulls start to lift. Photos taken over 1 mile away

                                  Lift off

  up to 6000 gulls in the sky

  This line stretched from Fly Flatts to Long Causeway

                                 Swarms of big and small gulls

              Settled back on the water when the nuggets had gone

                                     Sun going down

    Amazing sight, all Soil Hill lit up.

                  Queensbury village from the hill

                                        Half zoomed in

                    Full zoomed in.

 You can,t beat seeing the sun rise in the morning
then going down again in the evening, magical.

               Taking the weekend and November away.

A last hour visit to Soil Hill with a slight and cool WNW>3.
Still no sign of Snow Bunts in the mild weather and several Meadow Pipits and Skylarks up there looking like over wintering. Good to see 2 Little Grebe on the NK pond skulking under the edges and once again a Heron on the main track. Checked the SEO area and the Snipe reeds but no signs of either.
Big gulls were pouring into the Oxenhope roost and an amazing sight to see the whole roost up in the air.
As I came away at 1600hrs the whole area was glowing in the sunset, some things money can,t buy.

9 Meadow Pipit
3 Skylark
1pr Pheasant
3 Grey Partridge
2 Little Grebe
1 Robin
+ usual corvids and gulls.
BS

Tour of the Oxenhope Reservoirs

                        Lower Laithe reservoir

             

                 1st light at Leeshaw

                                       Leeshaw Reservoir

       The springtime Twite feeding area, leeshaw

 This gravel sight has been used since the 1980s
                      Buddy checking it out.

                       From the Twite area

                Large flocks of Woodpigeons.

                                   Leeming reservoir

                        The old mill, now flats

                                 Not much to show

0715hrs-1000hrs.

At last the fog has gone but replaced with mild , calm sunshine not helping our job, wheres the cold weather.?
All the reservoirs were about the same with very little signs of wildfowl.

Lower Laithe
9 Mallard
1pr Teal
1pr Goosander
Sev small gulls

Leeshaw
1 Pink Footed Goose off the water first light and >W
3 Greylag geese >E
7 Mallard
4 Cormorant
Sev small gulls
140+ Woodpigeons, from roost
45 Fieldfare
4 Mistle Thrush
19 Redwing
1 Heron
+ usual sp.

Leeming
39 Mallard
sev small gulls

Raggalds Flood
Dried up
BS

Yes, you guessed, Queensbury fogged off again.

               Even Santa got lost in the fog looking for Keelham Farm shop.

Another full day of thick fog barely lifting at all and coming in thicker late p.m..
Did,nt get free until 1530hrs when it was half dark in the dense fog so no birding today.
Had a job to do at Shelf Moor where 15 Canadas came over in the dark very low and >SW, probably locals from Shelf Moor pond going to roost.
Still thick fog now at 2020hrs so looking sad for the morning when I need a good birding session before I start to get withdrawal symptoms.

If you ever want a birding weather forecast for the weekend, whatever you do, don,t listen to Bradshaw John.
BS

Decembers of the past

With December almost upon us these are a few pics from previous Decembers.

        Skies full of Snipe, Shelf Moor

      Fields full of Snipe, Shelf Moor

            Late Curlews at Leeshaw

   Pink Footed geese over Leeshaw

                                DJS searching Soil Hill

                       NK searching Shelf Moor

                        Snow Buntings on Soil Hill.

Another day of doom and gloom in Queensbury with yet more thick fog and heavy drizzle clearing for around 1 hour midday only to see it roll in again.
A dog walk at 1900hrs tonight found visibility down to around 20 yds and very heavy drizzle with not much sign of it clearing for tomorrow.
On the bright side its weekend once more and only 3 weeks now to the shortest day.Have a good weekend all.
BS

Fog day long

                       As clear as it got today

                   Ghostly figures in the fog

           A good count of Common gulls

                                  Walking home from work

Thick fog day long in Queensbury today clearing to mist for about 1 hour mid afternoon before rolling in again thicker than ever before dark.Surprisingly when I walked the dogs at 1930 hrs the fog had cleared completely. Apart from a good count of Common gulls in Foxhill at midday the rest of the day was a blank out.
Good to talk to Bradshaw John at the garage today and a report from Roy M. of 3 Woodcocks flushed in the same area down Queensbury station this afternoon, thanks for that Roy.
Hopefully the fog will have gone now for the weekend but I,m not holding my breath on that one.
BS