A dark day at Ogden

A drive over to Leeshaw first light this morning found no access with plant vehicles everywhere getting ready to do some work on the reservoir so ended up back at Ogden where the sky was as black as night but sheltered from the moderate SW wind.
                                                           The usual small gulls were on the water as well as Mallards and 3 Canada geese with 3 Herring gull and a Lesser Black Backed dropping in briefly.
                                                           I soon caught up with the tit flock with Great, Coal and Blue but no Long Tailed among them. A group of 15 Siskin were high up at the top of the tree canopy which kept flying around before landing again with at least 5 Redpoll lower down busy feeding. A pair of Bullfinch and a single Goldcrest were in with the group.
                                                         Back on the promenade 2 Grey Wagtails were in the overflow whilst the Kingfisher was way down in the sluice gate area. A good morning for a variety of species but no chance of half decent photos in the bad lighting conditions.
                                                        By late afternoon the wind had increased to SW>5 with heavy drizzle so back to Ogden , mainly for a dog walk.
The west bank was out of bounds with the annual ritual of dumping Christmas trees around the track
with the 4x4 quad and trailer doing a good job of chewing up an already boggy perimeter path.
                                                         Nothing doing along the east bank as far as passerine alley so early up stumps and head for home.
With rain and strong SW winds for tomorrow increasing throughout the day  to reach gale force by late afternoon it doesnt sound like the best of birding days but as an optimistic lady said to me at Ogden today, " the weather is what it is and every day is a day nearer spring".  A good way of looking at it.
BS