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Thursday, August 11, 2016

Northowram, AC territory.

With 1 hour to kill this afternoon and in an attempt to drop below the Queensbury fog and strong W>6-7 it was head downhill to Northowram to have a scout around for any signs of migrant movement.
The cricket pitch area was below the cloud base but very grey with dark clouds rolling over carried on the W>5 making it unlikely for any small migrants to be showing.
A single ad male Pied Wagtail was on one of the pitches but with a dog walker present there were no other birds there.
Several Swallows were over the long hedge field which held a few corvids along with 2 Blackbirds and a Mistle Thrush which I picked up on my way back.
                                                      A walk down the long hedge produced 2 Willow Warblers, 3 Dunnocks and a Robin but all were skulking well down in the thick hedge out of the wind.
An LBB and 6 BHGs headed >W overhead.
Good to meet up with the Northowram warden Andy Cockroft who put me wise to a few local hot spots as well as us having a good moan about what a poor birding year it has been so far.
On the way back I checked out a small wooded area mentioned by Andy and came up with another 3 Willow Warblers but dipped on his Spotted Flycatcher.

Meanwhile, where are all the weird birds coming from :-

          Oxenhope Lesser Black Backed Gull
         Oxenhope Common Scoter . Top bird, very pale drake
                          Ogden, pied Cormorant