After reading ex Bradford birders report, Simon Johnson, on Trektellen last night with a mad move of wildfowl inc 227 Gadwall and 180 Tufted on his Bury, Gt Manchester reservoir plus Pochard, Teal
RC Pochard Wigeon, Scaup and Whoopers yesterday I knew the reservoirs around here had to prove good today.
With fog on the tops again I headed to Leeshaw reservoir which was sunny and blue sky with odd banks of mist moving over on a light SE>3 at 8 degrees until thick fog finally arrived as I was tackling up at 1000 hrs.
As soon as I got out of the car I could seen a small group of Wigeon on the water in the distance and as I was unpacking the camera a group of 7 Gadwall came in from the west then turned and headed off >NE, possibly some of the Manchester birds.
From then on it was chaos with more Wigeon arriving as well as Tufted and Teal whilst Teal,
Wigeon and Mallards flew overhead. A scope through the resident Mallards found a single Shoveler way across at the West end of the water.
Mid afternoon and a trip to check out Mixenden found it as expected rather quiet as any of the moving ducks would have been there in the morning. The only exception was 12 new in Mallards along with the single resident female which kept to itself. The 12 eventually flew high and >NE which was the general direction of most of this mornings wildfowl.
Otherwise just 2 Moorhen were on the water along with 12 LBB and 2 Herrings plus small gulls.
Next stop was Ogden to see if anything new had dropped in plus to see if NKs 10 Teal were still present. Unfortunately as I walked on the east bank the fog was rolling in thick giving very limited visibility but peering through the murk with the bins I managed to find the Teal and what seemed to be a record number of Herring and LBB gulls along with Commons and BHGs but impossible to do a count in the fog . These gulls will have been pre roost birds making their way to Oxenhope.
An e mail from reliable source NS reported the Crossbills near the Giants Tooth today along with several passerines. The Crossbills were in the Larch trees near the tooth and he also spotted them over the weekend in Larch trees near the bottom of Withins New Rd.
He also got a Mandarin with the Mallards and believes there were 3 Lesser Peckers near the Back Lane stile in a bare ash tree. Worth looking into if anyone passes that way. Thanks for the report Nick.
LEESHAW
9 Teal + 14 >W
11 Wigeon + 9 >NE
4 Tufted
1f Shoveler
9 Gadwall >NE
26 Mallard >NE
MIXENDEN
2 Moorhen
12 Mallard on water then >NE
12 LBB
2 Herring
Small gulls
OGDEN
10 Teal
Sev big and small gulls
Too foggy for count
BS