After one of the best local birding days on record, today came the worst. With a howling SW >5 turning W>6-7 with lashing drizzle and misty visibility on the tops it made a birders life a very difficult one. Well done to HC who,s stood his ground at the Oxenhope watch point over the last few days of horrendous conditions in the wind and the rain and still got his reports out. Howard got the only 2 Pinkie sightings reported today with a 62 and a 22 moving towards Crimsworth Dene. Thanks for all your texts and calls Compo.
Yesterdays Pinkies kept moving into the night with a report from B.O.G.s Shaun Radcliffe with a skein heard at 2150 hrs over the BOG area.
With hopes this afternoon of picking up some of the remnants left behind from yesterday I battled the local reservoirs but found all grounded geese now gone and very little else to show for my efforts but at least the dogs got a good walk and shower combined.
Fly Flatts was unbelievable with a howling gale force W>7 gusting 8 and a mist of dense drizzle piling across the moor. The water was like the North Sea but less the birds with just a few Black Headed gulls on the water and half a dozen Mipits along the road side. DJSs Pinkies from yesterday had left the flat moor with no signs around the Rocking Stone area.
A scan of Cold Edge Dams produced nothing so on to Mixenden where the drizzle was still intense but slightly sheltered from the wind by Hunter Hill.
One female Goosander was on the water along with 5 Mallard and 1 Cormorant.
Ogden was again slightly more sheltered and I managed a half hour saunter around in near dry conditions until suddenly the largest drizzle cloud you,ve ever seen appeared blanking out the whole area. Bird wise it was unusually quiet with no gulls present other than 3 BHGs and 1 LBB on the water. Even the Mallards were sheltering on the west shoreline whilst the Cormorant was on the depth float. The Kingfisher darted from somewhere near the info centre into the Willows on the east banking. This jogged my memory that I forgot to blog an incident with the Kingfisher the other day. I was standing on the promenade looking across the water, again in the pouring rain, when the Kingfisher flew from the duck corner and landed by the waters edge on a log just 10ft below me. My camera was tucked under my coat due to the rain and in the few seconds it took me the grab it the bird was gone. What a shot that would have been, dream on!
On the way home a stop off at Raggalds Flood held 8 Canadas, 11 Lapwing and 6 Mallard. Its looking like this is going to be another year without any sort of Terns, if this weather doesnt bring them through nothing will.
Just 12 months on I,ve got an e mail to say my Ogden Northern Treecreeper is to be passed on to the BB rarity's committee . I hope I live long enough to see them reject it which is inevitable.
BS
WEST YORKSHIRE BIRDING. BRIAN SUMNER. I am based at Queensbury and bird a patch within a 10 mile range of home incorporating 16 stretches of water, several plantations, a belt of woodland, stretches of river and canal and good areas of moorland. I specialize in upland birds, reservoir and sky watching. My local patch is Fly Flatts reservoir. Any reports can be sent by text or call to 07771 705024 or see profile for e mail address. All images on this blog are copyright.(2024).