A late afternoon dog walk took me along Green Lane, down Shibden valley, over the cross becks and along to Scout Hall, or the house of 1000 windows as it used to be known as.
Not an easy walk in what I class as poor weather, hot sunshine and blue skies, this fella,s nuts I hear you say, but I,d be happy if the sun never came out again.
As expected, all was quiet with most of the Warblers dispersed now leaving just a few Willow Warblers behind.
Swifts were moving overhead, otherwise an uneventful trip but the dogs seemed to enjoy somewhere different.
Early evening and time to check the gulls at Ogden with a record number of LBBs ,42 and over 100 BHGs along with 5 Commons.
The adrenalin started pumping and I was ready to press the button to alert the troops when a light coloured big gull left the water showing yellow legs but on close inspection it was a Lesser,(graellsii) with a very pale mantle, oh well, maybe next time.
Some of the gulls today were very dark mantled ( intermedius ).
Back to work tomorrow and a busy week ahead but the work hard, play hard system seems to work ok and a pleasing weekends birding.
BS