Leeshaw a.m. was again below the cloud base giving reasonable visibility on a very light SW>2 increasing SW>4 by mid morning. The early drizzle soon increased turning to rain at 7 degrees.
On arrival 6 Red Legged Partridge were on the track before flying into the field. These were probably birds flushed to this site away from the guns at Oxenhope reservoir where birds are released for shoots!!!
Plenty small gulls present and moving around but just the one Herring gull through >W. No sign of the Greylags and Pinkie this morning with just 16 Canadas in the field and a few Mallard on the water. A single Teal flew in but dropped down into the conduit out of sight.
With still low cloud late afternoon I plumped for Ogden where the rain lashed down torrentially as I walked , or rather swam, a circuit of the water. The track was completely flooded in places and the 2 ponds were full to overflowing with water gushing into the reservoir. Luckily I didnt have the dogs with me.
The only passerines seen, other than Jay, was typical water birds with Grey Wagtail, Kingfisher and Dipper whilst a few small gulls were on the water as well as 2 LBBs.
A single female Goldeneye was actively diving at the north end with otherwise, just the usual Mallards. Interestingly NKs blog reports 2 Goldeneye at Mixenden so the Ogden bird is probably the third bird which was there yesterday.
On the way back a check of a well topped up Raggalds Flood produced Canadas, Lapwing and Mallard.
Leeshaw
6 Red Legged Partridge
1 Herring gull
1 Teal
c 200 small gulls
+ usual sp.
Ogden
1 f Goldeneye
1 Kingfisher
2 Dipper
1 Grey Wagtail
3 Jays
+ usual sp.
Raggalds Flood
8 Lapwing
12 BH gull
2 pr Mallard
5 Canadas.
BS