if you click to enlarge.
With Lynda having a non dog lover friend calling this afternoon I took the dogs out of the way and headed for Fly Flatts hoping for something on the water but not to be. Its as if there,s an invisible wall over the Nab stopping birds from passing with Oxenhope alive all the time and Fly Flatts 2 minutes over the hill this afternoon had empty sky and empty water. Luckily Wheatears kept me active with a count of 19 along the top road and down the north track to the ponds.
To make matters worse a phone call from Keith Moir reporting a Greenshank just over the Nab at Oxenhope reservoir but with no dogs allowed I,d to sit that one out but planned on going around 1800 hrs after Sainsbury duties. On the way home a text from KM reporting 2 Greenshank and a Ringed Plover now at Oxenhope so that was it, a dash home with the dogs and back to Oxenhope knowing that with the clear skies the waders would,nt hang about for long.
Not having time for locked gates I left the car outside and dashed along the track, scrambled across the conduit and scaled the banking to the reservoir wall to see around 800+ gulls, where do you start?
Luckily as I scoped the first lot of gulls half way along the shoreline 2 birds could just be seen behind the sea of gulls which at first I thought were Lapwing having their heads tucked in but as they started to move they were the target birds, Greenshank.
After 5 minutes trying to get some acceptable record shots, though well out of range, I scrolled through the pics I,d taken to see how they were and when I looked back for the birds they were gone.
The gulls were still present but the Greenshank had quietly slipped away, possible to the far end of the reservoir but a good scoping failed to re located them so it looks as though I got them with 5 minutes to spare.
Many thanks to KM for his call and well spotted amongst all the gulls, they could quite easily have been missed and gone through undetected.
A report from AC this afternoon of the Lapwing flock starting to return to Shelf Moor with 20 birds present. Hopefully a better year this year with a decline in numbers over the last few years.
2011....300+
2012....185
2013....278
2014....148
2015....125
BS