front centre 1st year Herring
1st winter Herring Sub ad Herring Common
Another manky, murky afternoon with thick fog at Queensbury and dense fog over Soil Hill.
Ogden was just on the edge of the cloud base with drizzle and dark skies and the fog coming and going throughout. Disappointing , apart from the weather, with an unusual high number of public there for a weekday and lots of disturbance with the quad bike flying round with more loads of Christmas trees.
A full circuit of the water unsurprisingly produced next to nothing other than 1 Robin, 1 Wren and the Kingfisher flying below the west bank heading to the north end of the reservoir.
Not to be deterred I set my stall up on the promenade and settled for gull watching with about 150 out on the water but well out in the centre. A few BH gulls were in the feeding corner on the cobbles but none with leg rings.
An eye straining job checking through them but managed to pick out 3 Herring gulls in amongst 70 % Common and 30% BHGs. Gulls were piling in from the direction of Mixenden with around 300 on the water before I left at last light. These birds will have moved on to Oxenhope before darkness.
The feeders by the info centre held several Blue, Great and Coal Tits but where are Ogdens Long Tailed Tits , they have been noticeably by their absence since autumn along with the Nuthatches which were always around the feeders.?
BS