At last, a bright clear day with solid blue skies and sunshine start to finish on a light SW>4
A good omen when returning home from an after dinner shopping spree up Pellon Lane when around 6 Waxwings dropped out of trees into a yellow berried bush as we were waiting at the lights to get onto the Burdock Way roundabout. The bush is at the side of the Panto advertising bill boards by the slip road for Ovenden in front of the police HQ.
1430 hrs and after a report from AH this morning picking up Brambling calls at Ogden near the info centre I thought I,d better check it out despite knowing that it would be busy with the good weather, which it was.
Luckily a car pulled out of the full car park so I got parked up nicely. The top 2 car parks are usually quiet but you dare,nt park there unless you are a member of Autoglass.
The water was disappointing once again with around 50 small gulls and the usual Mallards whilst a walk around the perimeter only produced a few small passerines with no sign of Brambling or Chaffinch. Around 7 Goldcrests and the usual Robins, Wrens and Tits were present but again not a Long Tailed Tit in sight, whats happened to them ?
Strange calls from the gulls suddenly spelt out raptor as a Sparrowhawk appeared overhead harassed by a Common gull and then a Crow which moved it on out of sight over the plantation.
A last stop on the promenade for a couple of the now getting boring Kingfisher in the sluice gate area then head back to the car. As I passed the info centre a text from Top Man Peter Turner, my lookout near Shelf Moor, reporting Pinkies over Shelf.
I expected them to be moving the usual >NW at this time of year so a quick dash back to the prom where I was sure they had to be heading for me. 15 minutes to go before the car park gate was locked so I hoped they were flying flat out. Minutes later there they were in the distance heading NW towards the lodge house so just time to get the grapevine texts out before I started snapping.
A Skein of around 80 geese which kept splitting into 2 groups as they drew nearer. As they were starting to cross above the golf course they amazingly, for some unknown reason, suddenly turned to fly over the water and head off >NE.
Once again many thanks to Peter Turner , but for his text Id have been in the car and missed them by 5 minutes.
It was now 1555 hrs so a panic dash to get the car out before locked gates but it would have been worth paying the £60 release fee for and amazing hour at Ogden.
Great news on the daylight too as I was out still washing the car at 1700 hrs in daylight.
BS